I'm A Little Tea Pot

I'm not a huge hot tea drinker, but I think I could convert if it means getting this Personal Teapot from Etsy artist Hodaka Hasebe.  I love the shape, the colors and sweet details.  What a great find!

Laura Zeiner- Amazing Artist

WOW!!!

My Bead Soup Partner, Laura Zeiner of Stick Lizard Designs,  knocked it out of the park as far as I'm concerned.  After a few emails discussing "likes and dislikes" and checking out her etsy shop, I came to the conclusion that her love of nature, neutral colors and specifically the beach would be a great jumping off point for my bead gift to her.  We needed to provide a focal, clasp and plenty of goodies in between.

I couldn't help tossing in some "etched beach glass" and some other turquoise rings for a pop of color, just in case she wanted it.  If not, I knew it might go into something else later.  In fact, I sent what I thought was enough for a couple of pieces and was amazed to see almost every last piece incorporated into her gorgeous necklace.

But if you want to see the best photo of all, you'll need to visit her blog.  It's at the bottom of her post and I love it.  I'll give you a hint...a non human is wearing the necklace and looking very happy doing so.

Black Cats & Winged Hearts

I was playing around with surface design the other day and decided to try a little black cat on a bead.

Making a base bead was easy and I added a little color to what seemed rather bland standing alone. So aqua swirls joined the periwinkle base. I had considered using frit, but I preferred less contrast.

After the base bead was made and flattened, I started adding the black kitty. I wanted to mostly melt in the design, keeping part of it raised. The funny thing for me, is working with a black animal. I find I want to add either dimension, or details to bring out the features.
A bright orchid color collar helps in this instance. as well as the eyes and ears to help bring out her face.

I almost always make a small heart on the back side of my beads, if there's a place. On this one, I added some wings to not only add interest, but fill in a little space. I'm going to make more winged hearts on my beads. What is it about them, that makes them appealing?

In all, it makes a sweet little bead. Decorative and fun, it's sure to make someone smile. And that's what is important.

New Mini Website!

This past weekend was busy for me. I was working with Rose Wilson of http://www.webdazynz.com to build a mini website for me.

Wow, what a sweetie to work with. She told me that she's been doing this since 1999. Here's an excerpt from something that she told me, that really hits home. "My tagline is 'Simply Cool Websites' because I still adhere to the same principle that a website should be simple and clean by design, uncluttered, and easy to navigate. I am a firm believer in the fact that if a site is too hard to focus on, that people will click off your website pretty quick and be on to the next one."

Yep, couldn't agree more. And one of the first comments I received on it was that they liked that it looked "organized" with my diverse style of beads.

I saw Rose's ad on www.lampworketc.com and knew the time was right. I already have a mini one with my business name, "Studio Marcy", but thought adding another one that leads to my etsy shop as well, under my own name, Marcy Lamberson, would help potential customers find me in the google search system. Rose took care of securing the url and that kind of stuff too. She'll just send me the bill to renew each year.

And the whole process was easy. Rose communicated with me so fluidly, that I knew I would get what I wanted, even if I wasn't sure at the start. For some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted the color red to star in my new site. Now I've never really had a lot of red before, but thought this was the time to test it out. (go ahead, roll your eyes here.) Some of the journey was finding a color I love that I wanted with the red. As you can see, Rose helped me find a way to use aqua, my favorite color.

She is a corporate website administrator by day and does this and lampwork at night. Someone who understands us! (and heaven knows, I sure tested that.)

So stop by and see my new mini website http://www.MarcyLamberson.com and Rose's website http://www.webdazynz.com And if you decide to try her out, please tell her I sent you.

See you tomorrow right here!

Experimenting With Photography Backgrounds

As much as I love very plain light backgrounds for photographing my glass pieces, once in a while I try something new for a little variety.

Here is blue enamel on a hanging aqua heart lampwork pendant, which is one of my pieces photographed yesterday.  Check out this background.

So here is my latest experiment.  I used the cardboard aluminum foil lid of my take-out food container.   

Some of the things I like-

1. It reflects light and made the darker day natural light shooting a little brighter.

2. It shows up as mostly "gray",  which works well as a very neutral background.

3. (Don't laugh at this one) It will not get wrecked if there are a few drops of water on it.  I'd better explain this one.  I clean my beads first thing in the morning and then I photo them almost immediately afterwards.  Sometimes they haven't dried all the way, and a drop or two of water comes out.  It can wreck the paper I use as the background, due to the water spots.

4. And depending on the item photographed, sometimes it reflects some of the work and adds a little artistic flair to the image.

I'll have more items in my Etsy shop later today and through the week, which use this background so you can compare them.

Do you have any photographic backgrounds that are a little different and you like?  Please comment and share them with us.

Meet Marabelle the Seahorse

Meet Marabelle the Seahorse.  She's a feminine seahorse who has all her curves and maybe a few extra details.

Brad Pearson taught seashorses in his class last week.  His was quite different, and of course, each time we learn something, we need to change it and make it our own. 

So his "boy" seahorse example, which had a black body with white enamel over the stomach and red details, morphed into my girly one with two toned transparent fins and pink lips & cheeks by me.  She also is a bit curvier and was built differently  on the mandrel.  I made her go straight up with the hole going through her head.

What is interesting to me, is that each one fits with each of our personal beadmaking styles.  I would have loved to see his include a little of his masking technique that is so beautifully done.

For another view of her, visit Marabelle and her other friends in my Etsy shop .