I had such high hopes for getting the photo tutorial out.  First tax season hit early; tax preparation is my “real” job, so I’ve been straight out since the middle of January.  Then, I felt lousy all Wednesday night after dinner, and finally early in the morning I suspected it was my appendix giving me troubles.  Sometimes it’s lousy being right….

So it’s out, and I’m recuperating.  My bead soup project will probably have to wait till I can “belly up” to the work table.  I’ll be in touch soon!

My Ice Skates pendant made it into this Etsy Maine Team Treasury.  Brrr!!!

And no, I haven’t forgotten the tips I promised for taking product photos.  We’ve been suffering from a lack of sunny days lately–the one sunny day we had, I wasn’t home.  I have a draft in progress, but I need to take some pictures.  Soon….

Just a few of the pieces that came out of the kiln on Sunday.  The first time I fired this load I underfired it, and the stuff looked, well, crusty and nasty.  Much better this time.  I’ve been loading many of these new pieces into my shop, so stop by and take a peek.

Isn’t that focal beautiful?  These came from Eileen at Dorset Hill Beads. Don’t they make you wish you were somewhere tropical?  Now I have to decide what to do with them….such possibilities!

These are the pieces I sent to Eileen.  Sorry about the photo quality–I grabbed these pieces out of the kiln late in the afternoon and packed them for shipping that night, so there was no natural light.  The toggle is a new design that I’m excited about; rather than add wire to the toggle bar I’ve just left a hole in it so that the designer can choose what color metal to use.  I have another one coming up in blue in the next kiln load.

The wavy squares in the lower right hand corner are vintage German glass from The Beadin’ Path. The opaque pink beads are rose quartz, then there are crystals and silver glass seed beads.

I spent this morning adding a number of pieces to my shop for Valentine’s Day.  Quite frankly, I’m all “hearted” out.

If these pieces aren’t in the shop already, they’ll be there before the end of the day.  We’re having a very snowy day today, so I won’t be getting any more pictures taken till the sun makes an appearance (if it ever does again). In the meantime I’ll just get some more glazing done and maybe play in the clay a little bit.  Hope it’s sunny where you are!

While browsing through my Analytics, I discovered that this ornament was featured on Weddingbee. Quite a treat reading all the kind comments about it.  This pattern and color combination will be making an appearance soon in an Etsy shop near you.

Here are some greenware hearts that I made last night.  I still need to prep the edges. For the larger hearts I used some plastic cookie cutters from Wilton; the upside is that the shape is symmetrical, the downside being that the cut isn’t as clean as it would be with a metal cutter.   I’ll be making more pieces this afternoon.  I need to make some of my “X’s and O’s” pendants, along with some more charms.  I also had a brainstorm this morning about some new pieces for people who aren’t  fans of hearts. They will still scream “Love,”  though!

I’m heading down to North Berwick tomorrow, weather permitting (the weather has been biting me in the backside, lately).  The kiln is down there, so my firing schedule will depend on which days my mother can take Isaac. Soon I’ll be down there six days a week doing taxes, so if I have the stamina I’ll be getting lots of firings in.  So much nicer loading the kiln in 68 degrees, rather than 20.  I can’t wear gloves or a bulky coat loading the little kiln, so the garage was getting a bit unpleasant to work in.

Lori Anderson picked out swap partners for her Bead Soup party, and I’ll be swapping with Eileen Snyder of Dorset Hill Beads.  She makes amazing lampwork beads–be sure to check her work out!

The clear tackle boxes were no longer working–every time I had an order to pack I’d have to go through them three or four times,.  I got this idea from Lisa Peter’s Flickr photostream.  There are also pockets on the backside of this piece, and I think I’ll probably store terracotta pieces on one side and earthenware on the other.   A vast improvement.

I still have a number of pieces to put in there, and judging by all the bisque I have to glaze, I’ll probably have to order another one shortly.

Is it any wonder I can’t get much done?

Remember how yesterday I told you I was off to Explore?  Well, I thought I’d start the year on the right foot by participating in Lori Anderson’s Bead Soup Party. Each participant will send a focal bead, some coordinating beads, and a lovely clasp to their swap partner.  If you would like to participate you still have time to sign up–deadline is this Sunday.

And speaking of Lori–just before Christmas I was the lucky winner of her $25 Artbeads.com gift certificate drawing at her Pretty Things blog.  Sweet!   Of course, I’ve already blown through it, but I was well behaved and only spent a little extra.  Thanks Lori!

Off to glaze!