Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen

Here's a video that I hope you'll take the 5 minutes to watch. It's advice written by Mary Schmich in 1999, who was a writer for the Chicago Tribune.

She described it as the commencement address she'd give, if she were asked.

I love this Baz Luhrmann version. It's common sense, humor and advice all rolled into one. Really listen to it.

"Dance, remember compliments you receive, forget the insults. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements." And so much more.

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen... Enjoy!

And thanks to Jen Geldard for posting this on Facebook. After viewing it, I wanted to share it with all of you.

Teaching Glass, Woohoo! Here's the Blog Scoop...

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be back to blogging on Monday. If you want the fascinating details, click to play. (If I sound really quiet and reserved in it. My son was sleeping in the next room.) Please note, I am saving my extrovert hula hoop tap dancing routine while singing karaoke for another video.

Later gator,

Marcy

Follow Up From Music Video Beadmaking

I wanted to show you my little girl from the Blind Melon video, "No Rain" , which I posted about on October 30th.

She was a little harder to make than I had guessed and this is my second attempt.  

When working in sculptural glass, it's always important to choose the order of sculpting and adding glass to manipulate it.  The most delicate usually goes last, so there's less chance of it cracking.

As you can see, the  bee antennae are pretty delicate and would chill easily.  Then there are the ruffles that will get cool , because they're kind of thin.

But the part that I hadn't thought as clearly about were her glasses, which are so important to the bead.  In the video, the glasses are as much a focus as her costume.

These I premade out of copper wire.  And the ends needed to be tucked under her hair.  So they went on pretty early.  And as my beadmaking readers know, copper melts pretty easily.   On my first bead,  a few flakes of the copper glasses came off on her face and the glasses had a small piece that was melted out of them.  

I had to add her eyeballs after the glasses  and of course her face needed to be warm enough to receive the tiny stringer I was using.  Good lessons learned and now I have my original Bee Girl in my bead box without glasses, with a clean face and so very cute. (A little facial surgery as well as Laskik was performed.)   Still deciding what to do with her next.  I'm rather fond of her.  For more views of this custom order, visit her in my Etsy shop.

ps...and her photo background was one of my experiments gone bad.  Do NOT use white paper towels thinking they'll add a nice "texture" to the photo!

Glass Tidbits, Crazy Stuff & SALE, Because I've Been Tagged Again!

Blind Melon Video "No Rain" 1991

You read it in the title. I've been tagged again. This time by Chatelaine Jewellery who is just the nicest person. I love her tiaras too!

Hang on just a minute and the connection to this music video will show up in my 7 facts about me. I'm trying to keep them glass related, because I bet you're tired of hearing my personal life info. Please post and let me know whether you want more glass related or Marcy related tagging facts, when I get tagged.

Here are the rules of tagging
1. Link to tagger and display these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some WEIRD.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 Random and Somewhat Weird Facts About Me and My Glass

1. I just set up a 20% SALE section in my Studio Marcy Etsy shop this morning. Read the shop announcements for the code. It's just being advertised here. Feel free to spread the word, as it's a quick one through Sunday night. Click on the right hand side of the page's SALE section .

2. This morning I received a request to make a bead that looks like the bee girl in this Blind Melon video. I can't wait to try her. She's adorable and her glasses will be quite a challenge.

3. Last night I received another request from a different customer to make a bee that is like a peppermint pink and white one. (I think that will be really fun and very cute) I am wondering whether this flying request phenomenon could be called "The Secret Life of Glass Bees" (saw the real movie and loved it.)

4. I have an International group of blog visitors who stop by regularly- USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Italy, etc. But yesterday ...within one hour, I had folks from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, Argentina and Poland visit. Curious. Anyone have any ideas what might have happened?

5. I'm currently working on a line of greyhound dogs as a custom order for a greyhound related shop. They're pretty hard to do, because they're such slim, elegant animals. I'll be blogging about them when I get the beads just the way my buyer wants.

6. I submitted my miniature bobblehead bead "Trick or Treat" entry for FlameTreeGlass's Halloween Bead Contest. You can go to their site and download photos all of the entries in two pdf.s. Mine are in the bead section. Cross your fingers for me. There are some wonderful entries.

7. And non glass related... I received a fun telephone call this week. It was one of my neighborhood and school buddies 4-7th grade from Stamford, Connecticut. They've been searching for friends and started a yahoo group. I grew up on a penninsula called Shippan Avenue and the ocean was in many of their backyards. You'll often see beach and ocean related items in my shop, and now know that they're there from my much loved childhood roots. And by the way, I moved away after 7th grade, so I haven't been in contact with them for ages!

Here are some of my EtsyBEAD Street Team members, who I've tagged. Enjoy their blogs!
http://www.hammijammijewelry.blogspot.com/
http://jewelrygenie.blogspot.com/
http://livngoodjewelry.blogspot.com/
http://juliesjewels.wordpress.com/
http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/
http://grandiaroad.blogspot.com/
http://buttonmakersball.blogspot.com/

What's Up With This Tool? Post & Win a Prize

In my constant effort to make technology my friend, I decided to mix it up a bit and experiment with my computer's video capabilities. This is called a "vlog" - video blog.

Watch the very short video and put your name in the hat to win a free bead from me.
1. Answer the question posed on my vlog- funny or serious response
2. Add your name, where you live, and if you'd like, post your website and/or blog .
(It's free advertising for you!)
3. If you have a problem viewing the video, please let me know too. That's part of the reason why I'm trying it out.
4. Next Wednesday, I'll have a friend pick a number and the person who was that number posting, will win one of my beads. I'll ship it to anywhere- including internationally. And the winner's blog, etsy shop or whatever will be featured in this blog at a later date.

Just click on the lower left arrow to listen. And then respond. I look forward to hearing from you.

And by the way, I made a bead using this tool and I'll show it next week when I announce the winner.

And if you have a free minute, stop by my etsy shop, http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com . I'll be adding more beads a little later today.