Featured Artist: Lampwork Diva

This weeks Featured Artist is my good friend Cindy Gimbrone Her Blog site is LAMPWORK DIVA!

To the right is a representation of some of her gorgeous lampworked pieces. I've included a part of her artists statement below, it fully symbolizes the art she creates!

"I’m inspired by medium and imagination. The medium of glass is a liquid that we experience as a solid –only in the flame can it be returned to its liquid state. Working glass at a torch in its natural state, I can form the glass into what you will experience as a solid bead. What a fascinating concept – a solid liquid - and is one that inspires my imagination. "

Thank you Cindy for sharing your enormous talent and beautiful soul with us, through your art!

_________________________________________________

Happy Hannukah all, to celebrate this festive season, I created a beautiful bracelet for my boss. I want to share it with everyone, so that you, too can feel the joy of the Holidays!

Shalom!

Lynnie

The Poop on Bead Poop!

An excellent Blog article on Bead poop by ShebaMakeda ... Read it!

All you ever wanted to know about POOP, and were afraid to ASK!
LOL
Hugs
Lynnie

Sleek Beads Featured Artist

Jo from Sleekbeads makes some absolutely BREATHTAKING lickable beads! Here are a couple of my favorites of her beads, along with a quote from her site!

"My obsession with glass began about 3 years ago. I was designing jewelry back then and purchasing lampwork beads from friends and online. After a while I just wasn't finding what I wanted. So, motivated as I am, I purchased a small lampworking kit and began melting softglass. After a while, I decided to upgrade my torch for more heat. Soon after that I was becoming fascinated with the world of borosilicate glass."

Visit Jo's blog and site! They're great!

Hugs

Lynnie

Thanksgiving and Prayers

Ok, so I am not big on prayers, but it's been a ROUGH month. Hubby just came out of the hospital after a nasty bout with pneumonia, pancreatitis and gallbladder disease. So, if you have some extra white light thoughts or prayers to send along, they'll be appreciated, he's still not out of the woods yet.


I've decided to start producing some more of my Deep Sea and Caribbean beads, so if anyone wants custom orders, please feel free to email me. Thanks everyone, and have a Safe & Happy Thanksgiving.
Hugs
Lynnie

Drowning in the Southeast & Beautiful Art!

Hi Everyone!

Hey we're still wallowing in the water here in Jax! What's with that? Most of the rest of the country is in severe drought.... yet, we have SO much rain here, our septics are backing up and our homes are leaking. Hey God, I know you're listening... heads up, we need ya to move the clouds please? ASAP would be good! LOL

I am gearing up for the coming Holiday season, so I am making lots of kewl watches, bracelets and beads! Check out this excellentPin watch! Clicking on it brings you to the auction.

If you're into florals, I am doing a series of these lovely watery looking floral beads... I also am making matching Turtle beads too!

Again, if you click the picture it will take you right to my ETSY where loads of my beautiful work is up for sale. Enjoy looking and shopping!

I have a good friend, her name is Mary Poineal, and she creates GORGEOUS Sterling Silver and Copper findings for Jewelry and Bead artisans to highlight their work. Check out her website here McDuck Creations . To the right is an example of just one of her kewl beadable creations. If you click on the pendant picture, you'll see more of her beautiful goodies. I use lots of her toggles in my bracelets too (Look at the Matera bracelet below for an example).

Check her out sometime! See you all soon!

Hugs

Lynnie

Featured Artist & Save the Planet!

Morning friends,
I've decided to share some of the Best of the Best lampworkers with you as often as I can.

This week I am featuring Suz From Oz! As her name indicated she's from Australia, and has some beautiful beads! Here's a sample:

To see more of her lovely work and read her Blog, check it out here: http://suzanne-catching-up.blogspot.com/

BTW Suzanne's blog mentions that today is Blog Action Day. I am all over taking care of our environment. I am not really sure that some of the solutions offered (and opinions about how the problems are occurring) are accurate, but I am SURE that we need to start taking care of our children's legacy, before thay HAVE no planet!

My concerns are mostly with housing & commercial developments proliferating so fast and far, that they are displacing so many species of wildlife dependent upon the land and forests to survive. I had White Tailed Deer and some species of Wild Cat, as well as River Otters & Raccoons visiting my backyard and pond with little frequency 5 years ago. Now, they've become regulars and are obviously skinny and hungry as deforestation and increased building occurs around our little acre of rural land.

At this point, I am aware, (from discussions with neighbors & observation) that the problem has become an epidemic. Racoons are even venturing out during earlier daytime hours to eat, very skinny deer are standing at the edges of the undergrowth surrounding our land, just waiting for us to put out over-ripe fruit so they can eat. It's ripping at my heart and I don't think there is a darn thing I can do about it.

We put out salt licks every fall & winter, seeds and nuts for the birds and other animals who like them, as well as the fruit I mentioned earlier, but that's only helping a few very hungry, and most likely doomed animals. The Racoons & Otters seem to find good eating in the mud on our pond bottom, and Herons, Egrets, Hawks & Wood Ducks keep hanging in there, but I expect this winter I won't see a single deer, as the ones I last saw this spring were so skinny, I really didn't think they'd survive another winter.

Anyway, please let me know about YOUR solutions to this devastating problem. Maybe together, we CAN do something.
Hugs,
Lynnie

Monday Morning Blues & News

Hi everyone, I had a lovely birthday weekend, and am going into this new week full of ideas for some amazing new beads and glass items.

I have posted a link to my ETSY with some thumbnails of beauties I have up currently, but I'm working on other ideas as well. Feel free to email me if you have any thoughts of glass art you'd like to see here.

Was surfing YouTube this weekend, and saw a few GREAT torching videos I'll share here... I NEVER get tired of learning new techniques and seeing the awesome ideas others come up with.

The first one is by GlassRoger, how to create a Hummingbird bead
This next one is a basic bead making tut from TheOnlyDuda She's using a bethlehem torch like mine, and I think I have MORE glass rods than her, but her frit collection FAR outshines mine LOL. Finally, Kerry of KABSConcepts makes a Disc bead .

Here is a picture of a new bead concept I am working on. Other have used keys for round beads... I am making Hearts on Antique Keys Let me know what you think, ok?
Just wanted to add we've had an AWFUL week here in Switzerland, FL. In TWO DAYS we have over 14 inches of rain. I think the entire week totalled over 19 inches. Here is a picture of my back yard & pond. What a mess......... almost lost the tractor in the pond.

Anyway, Have a GREAT Monday morning, I'll be back soon.
Hugs,
Lynnie