Still Loving Sea Shells

I love making seashells in glass.  I think most artists have their "go-to" pieces.  Whether it's just to relax for a few minutes or something that isn't so frustrating and always makes them smile.  Well shells fit that bill for me.

Here is one of my favorites.  I have etched it so it has the well worn, velvety feel, as if it has washed up on the beach recently. And I can assure you that there is no living organism inside. ;)

See you tomorrow!

Early Morning

Water, like glass, has a gorgeous reflective quality especially in the early morning hours.  I wanted to share this photo from last weekend.  It was taken with my iPad, during a rare few minutes that the sun shone through the clouds  It was low tide and folks were running, walking and exercising their dogs.  I love the scale of the human figures in this shot.

My StudioMarcy Etsy Shop Is Being Re-Stocked

I am starting to restock my Etsy shop! Hooray.  I will be starting with some of my favorite beads which are in stock and then as I finish up some of my show deadlines, I'll be adding more new ones.  Here is Serena the Seahorse.  You can find her if you go to www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com (and see my other beads too!

Meet Charlie...My Beach Friend

Meet Charlie, my beach buddy from last weekend. I found him upside down in the shallow water. Not a good sign, so I picked him up and his legs moved.

I'm well acquainted with Horseshoe Crabs. We could find them among the rocks when I was a kid in Connecticut. I remember trying to race them too, once we got over that we were a little scared of them.

Well, there's kind of a sad ending to this story. Upon checking out Charlie a little more thoroughly, he had already gone on to Horseshoe Crab Heaven. Big bummer...mostly for Charlie though. I placed his shell back in the shallow water, hopefully to be taken out with the tide. Perhaps his shell will provide some protection or a habitat for another sea creature.

And scroll down this page to see what artist Takeshi Yamada does with the old shells. Pretty cool.

They Ought To Know Better

Looking kind of crabby, if you ask me.

I'm just amazed the photographer caught two at the beach. I thought smoking was off limits there too. Luckily, he didn't catch their empty beer bottles in the shots too. That could be really embarrassing. See you tomorrow!

Lights, Camera, Action-

This past weekend a group of friends and I went to a nice beach resort for an end of summer get together. Of course it had the delicious food, beautiful beach and the other qualities that resorts normally require.

But as usual, I tend to look for the details of a place. What is interesting to me? What might relate into the glass world? Lighting often does. And I was busy snapping photos of their lovely ceiling lights that were metal over glass.

The top photo is of one that I spied in their spa building. The combination of geometric with swirls intrigued me.

The center section reminds
me of blossoms with leaves in a very graphic design way. It fit its surrounding.

I found the second fixture in a more social setting. It too was in a hallway, but near their upscale restaurant. The leafy pattern swagging the side along with the swirly design that has a hint of floral again caught my attention. How would one interpret this pattern? It's much more intricate and less easy to replicate. (not that I'd want the exact one anyhow).

So next time you go out, don't forget to look up.
You might be surprised at what you see. It could be the inspiration for your next bead design.

See you tomorrow for my next blog post on http://www.StudioMarcy.blogspot.com. I have some glass comments that I think you'll enjoy.

Inspired by the Sea

I think you know that anything ocean and beach related really appeals to me. I'm sure growing up on the Connecticut coast and swimming in the ocean had a lot to do with it. (Remind me to tell you my jellyfish story sometime. Sometimes I was a little bit naughty as a child.)

So you can imagine my happiness at being included in the lovely treasury, "Inspired by the Sea" by Luv2Have on Etsy. (She makes wonderful fused glass pendants!

My lampwork bead is in the upper left corner. I made it using a stainless steel hollow tube and two colors of glass. I'm still working on improving them, but have some listed in various colors in my Studio Marcy etsy shop.

And of course I'd like one of each of everything else too. I just recently bought a bunch of sea urchins. I've been making them out of glass for quite a while in a stylized manner, but would like to make a few that are more realistic too. (mine are a bit "pungent" right now. They're outside.

Don't forget that these treasuries are ephemeral. This one will just be up through 6/1/09. Feel free to take a copy of this photo, if you want it for inspiration.

So now you know that one of my loves is the ocean and beach. Do you have a category that you adore also? What is it? I'd love to know.

Officially Mermaid Season

It's official, it's mermaid season.

I love mermaids. I like making them in all shapes, styles and hair colors. And I've learned that brunette mermaids sell better than other colors. I'd like to note that all my blonde mermaids are natural, except for the ones who are out in the sun a lot and have highlights, but that's natural too.

This is Ali the mermaid. She's currently in my Etsy shop, but I'm hoping that she'll find a new home soon.

I make her using a 1/16 th mandrel, so her neck can be small enough. Sometimes using a 3/32 mandrel doesn't give enough room for curvy body definition. It's all in the proportions, isn't it?

And most of my mermaids have a wreath of some sort around their heads, instead of just a single flower. I can't help it. I was around in the 60's (dang, I'm old), and I've always loved the look.

Ali and the other Studio Marcy mermaids live in a category in my Etsy shop called, "Fish/Shells/Beach". They co-habitate with starfish, anenome, sea glass and everything related to "all things beach-y". If anyone can think of a better category name that is under 23 characters, I'd welcome your ideas. Please post them in the comments.

Meanwhile, it's mermaid season. People are thinking about summer vacations, swimming and those wonderful days at the beach. Hope you have your vacation lined up. I'll be going to Miami in July for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers' International Conference, where I'll be teaching whimsical sculptural glass. (sounds rather "toasty", but I know there's plenty of air conditioning). I'm hoping that some of my readers have signed up for that class, as it's not only a really good one, but we have lots of fun too. I'll write a little more about it some other time.

Seashells

Do you love seashells as much as I do? I not only collect them, but enjoy making my shells out of glass- both realistic and very unrealistic ones.

I think my passion for shells has to do with growing up with the ocean a block away from my house. Collecting shells was just one of my past times, but the beach seeped into my soul and still is important to me, even if I don't go very often.

Yesterday, I was able to snag an Etsy Treasury. Usually I happily construct them with members of my Street Teams, but this morning, I guess the seashells were calling to me.

I did an Etsy tag search to see what was out there and then picked some of the pieces that were interesting to me. It might have been that they had a great design element, or their use of certain shells, or perhaps it was they just plain ol' amused me. (I bet you can guess which one). So here is photo of the Treasury I made, and if you click here, it might still be available on Etsy's website.

Perhaps they were on my mind, because last weekend I showed someone how to make a shell and then I came home and made a handful more of them. Also, I've been asked to teach a special class on shells and sculptural beach/ocean related items. I need to mull over what could be good items that will teach my students certain skills as well as the technique for the bead itself.

So what do you think? If you were taking an ocean/beach bead related class, what would you like to learn? Help me out here and give me your opinion. Out of the comments in this post, I'll be randomly choosing someone to receive a seashell from me. (International comments welcomed too, don't forget- I ship everywhere)

Size Does Matter

Yesterday I received a convo, (that's Etsy talk for conversation or private email), from a customer who had seen this bracelet in Bead Dreams Magazine January 2009 issue and wanted to make her own version of it.

Could I make her a mermaid and a seahorse that are .5" tall? That's just under 13mm. I measured the mermaids on this bracelet and they are about .7" or 18mm and remembered how hard it was to make the wee complicated beads.

She explained that she wanted a more delicate bracelet and the smaller charms would better fit into her design.
Needless to say, the seashells, sea glass and other less detailed and rounder beads would be so much easier to reduce and she did choose a starfish and palm tree in the diminutive size too. So today, part of my studio schedule includes attempting a half inch mermaid.

Charm sized beads are a great way to use up stringer and other little bits that are hanging around your bench. I love making sculptural miniatures which make great charms, earrings or dangles. I keep a small section, (ha, ha) in my Etsy shop.

If anyone else wants to join me in trying this, I'd love to see your efforts. The colors of her hair and tail have been left up to me. I'm smiling thinking that yellow could be interesting. That way I could make her wearing an itsy bitsy teensy weensy yellow polka dot bikini, that she wore for the first time today. (Please note, the last line is only amusing if you are about my age and know this song. But if you do, it will probably be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. My apologies.)

Key West Vacation and Inspiration

I had made this bead quite a while ago and named it, "Vacation Wishes". As I was going through my vacation photos, I realized that this bead must have been lucky, because mine had come true.

My friend's husband had won a house for a week in Key West with with a $25 raffle ticket and they generously invited us and another couple to join them in their bounty.

The weather was gorgeous, the tropical plants were plentiful and you couldn't beat all the fresh fish right from the day's catch. I can see why people go down there and return often. There were a lot of characters living down there and they seemed to pride themselves in it.


We stayed in Jimmy Buffet's previous home and the most recent guest had just been Hulk Hogan. That sure made us laugh.

It was a very nice, but definitely not over the top place with three bedrooms and two baths, but the best part, was that it was right on the canal, so a boat could motor right up to the back. I spent a lot of my time on that back dock near the water. A resident blue crab, lots of little brown and white jelly fish and other fish seemed to be the major inhabitants among the coral. I really enjoyed watching them, checking out how the current was and that red kayak that you see in the photo got plenty of use too. We'd kayak around the neighborhood and get a great view of what houses and boats were nearby.

For those of you familiar with Key West, it's not all lazy days. The nightlife is quite active too. We did our share, but tended to gravitate to the outdoor local hangouts in the harbors where people and sunset watching is at its best. There are plenty of characters down there for sure. We did a bit of the tourist stuff and I noticed they could use a few lampworkers down there. The cruise ships come in and the town is packed.

But for me, I'm okay returning home. Yes, my friends continued sending me photos of their fun filled days as they stayed for the entire week and I was sorry to miss the rest of the explorations. But I'm anxious now to incorporate some of my photos and sketches that I made down there into some tropical beads. Our International Society of Glass Beadmakers' annual Gathering will be in Miami this summer, so I'd like to have a small line of beads that are in tune with the locale. This short vacation was perfect for the inspiration and photos to get me started.

Summer Is Over

I know Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer. Local swimming pools close, kids are back in school and for beadmakers, if they aren't already making them, the start of Halloween beadmaking time.

Although I've had requests already for them, I'm still holding on to summer just a bit. I love it. The sounds of the cicadas, the lightning bugs, and the best part- children's voices carrying through the neighborhood.

So hats off to summer...and onward. New seasons, more change and by the way, who says we have to give up seashells and mermaids when autumn begins, anyhow?