Ramblings.....

Again it is far too long since I have written here...  Did I tell you my mother passed?   It is hard, very hard, even now almost 6 months later to write those words.   She was my bead partner, my art critic and my friend.  And so much more...  and thus being the 'responsible daughter' and the only child living within a thousand miles, it fell to me to dispose of her belongings.  The remains of a very creative and absolutely fascinating life.  
I was ruthless at first, the furniture, the clothing, and paraphernalia of the end of life went quickly.  I was fortunate that the Art Institute of Chicago had started a group, the Chicago's Bauhaus Legacy and they accepted all of Mom and Dad's artwork for archiving.  Not that I don't have plenty left.  My house is full of their influence.
And then there are the photographs, slides, negatives of not only a lifetime but of other lifetimes..  I seem to have inherited the collective photographic history of our family.  All in total chaos and disarray.
My goal is to digitize everything.   Catalog it, and create albums of the originals to be dispersed to the younger members of the family so they may be preserved.   Not all in one location and at the mercy of a fire or flood.  Along with each album to be a digitized copy of all the pictures.  So....
, they may never be looked at, never be appreciated, but at least I will have done my duty to the family heritage or some such nonsense.

But maybe, just maybe, someday, someone will look at one of these albums and say "Thank goodness Mia did this, I am so glad to see these photos."
So that is my goal, my mission, my task, my tribute to my parents.  To see the collective photographic history of our family preserved.   I hope they are pleased. 

OH Thank Goodness!  Fall is in the air!  The first few days of September roared in like August!  I thought to myself, "Is this summer ever going to end?"  But finally yesterday, you could tell.  Don't get me wrong, it is still warm, mid 80's and wearing shorts.  But the air has a different quality to it, dryer, friendlier.  Not the blasting humidity of summer in the South!

I spent the day outdoors,  mulching around the new trees we planted to replace the ones that died in the drought of the last two summers. These are Japanese Maples that have languished way too long in pots.   They seem happy in their new home. 

For those of you not familiar with Japanese Maples, they are, in my opinion the perfect 'yard' tree.  Easy to care for, not trashy or prone to dumping TONS of leaves on your lawn, they don't get very big and in the Fall, Oh in the Fall they turn a glorious Red!

But I digress, I dug all the daylilies out of a bed that DH has decided is to become part of the lawn.  He likes grass... 28 pots of daylilies later.   Oh my, and that is just ONE bed. There are 4 more he wants taken out!  My aching back!  And where to put all the pots?

Mediocrity

An online dictionary defines Mediocre as Moderate to inferior in quality; ordinary.  From the French médiocre, from Latin mediocris : medius, middle.

So I am having doubts,  about myself and my work.  My interests are so varied, beads, rocks, lapidary, jewelry, knives, and now purses made from Navajo rugs.

I ask myself, "Am I spreading myself too thin?  Does having many different interests lead to mediocrity?"  And should I be concentrating on just one idea or field?  But how can I?  One thing leads to another and another.  I have spoken before of my Muse, she who must be obeyed!  Hah!  She gets into my head and insists I create new and different designs and items.   I must think about this more....

Thoughts about the West

How many things are there about the West that you just love?  Horses, mountains, deserts, cactus, turquoise, red rock canyons?

The Navajo set up along the roadside selling crafts, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Scottsdale, Arizona!   Hatch Chile's, roasted hatch chile's, roadside chile' roasters, eating a chile fresh out of the roaster with some salt.....oooohhhh heaven.  New Mexico food, green chile not red.

The mountains, the smell of the pine forests, a quick glimpse of a Mule deer or an Elk hightailing it away into the woods.  Columbines in the summer at high altitude.   Making snowballs in July in the brilliant sunshine of a mountain pass.  Pinecones, watching Blue Jays scavenge scraps at a roadside table.  The stillness, the quiet, peacefulness shattered by the scream of a hunting hawk that is only a tiny dot above you.  

 
Roaring muddy rivers cutting canyons thru time.  The pictographs left  by ancient ones on those canyon walls.   Floating silently down thru those canyons on a raft and marveling at it all.   Tiny streams and waterfalls only created by melting snow.  Ancient cabins of homesteaders long dead and forgotten.

National Forests, National Parks and Monuments..  The dark brown paint used on every sign, post and building.  Fading warnings from Smokey the Bear.  Cattle guards, cow pies in the road.  Dirt roads that wander thru ranches to large that you cannot imagine their scope.  Mountain lakes so clear and still you can see the clouds and sky reflected in their surface.  And wildflowers you never saw before or will again, so fleeting is their existence.

Dust devils.  The hazy quivering mirage created by heat and distance that tricks the eye in the blasting heat.   Saguaro, Joshua trees, Pinyons and my favorite the Ponderosa Pine.   Sage brush.... everywhere, grab a handful and crush it, stick you nose in it and breath the scent...   The smell of a thunderstorm.  When the wind is just right and you see the storm in the distance you can smell the rain on the sage.  Smell it coming, this is my favorite smell of all.....

 

Name My New Bead Mix Contest

It has been a Really long time since I had a "Name my bead Mix Contest" And a long time since a name for a new mix did not just pop into my head, so I thought I would do another contest!

Here is a super dusty pink coppery mix for you to enjoy. Send me your name suggestions, via convo or email, to miaoreo [at] yahoo.com. I will choose a winner from the entries and send you a free 50 gram package of these new beads! No Purchase Necessary!

My only rule is leave out the obvious, .... cant use a trademarked name ya know....
And I already have a Vintage Rose, Victorian Rose, Pink Ribbon and Raspberry Cheesecake.

So lets have fun and Name these Beads! Enter as many names as you like.

Oh if you want to buy them, you can do that too.... LOL

see them here;
https://www.etsy.com/listing/128924244/name-my-new-bead-mix-contest-win-a?ref=shop_home_active

Wednesday Update:

Well the Names are coming in Fast and Furious!  And even though no one name has caught my fancy yet, you are all on a good track.  The most common seem to run towards FRUIT, which really surprised me.  Other popular themes run to ocean/beach and dawn or sunrise.  Here is what has been submitted so far, with no particular order, just in case you need some inspiration.  Keep those names coming!
Mia

NAMES ENTERED
 Rainbow sorbet
Pink Grapefruit
 “Sassy Rose”,
'Copper and Cream'
Peach Orchard
"strawberries and cream"
Copper Parfait.
Pink Champagne bubbles
Pre dawn
Beachy Keen
1.  A Rose for Amiee
2. Flesh all a Mesh
3.  Apricot Mousse
4.  Totally Taup-ular
Neapolitan Dream
My Sweetheart's Delight
Tickled Pink?
Sweet Seduction
Rose Quartz
Pink Sands
Conch Shell
Shrimp Cocktail
Strawberry Cream
Strawberry Dream
Strawberry Smoothie
Patch of Pink
Cotton Candy Swirl

I have a muse, you know, that creative voice in your head that tells you what to do sometimes.
My muse is tricky, like well, Tinker Bell.  Do you remember the movie "Hook"?  Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffmann and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell.

At the end of the movie when Peter (Robin Williams) returns home and is lying in the snow, Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) comes to him and says.."You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? ... that's where I will be waiting."

Well, that is mostly where my muse finds me....  half asleep, still remembering a dream and this muse pops into my head and I see an idea, a name, a mix of colors or something I just Have to create. And it wont let me rest until I do...  it whirs around in my head like a zooming fairy until I get up and go create it.

This morning, she popped in to tell me I had named a bead mix wrong, yup, wrong.  Yesterday I made an interesting green mix and named it Emerald Isle,  wrong!  My muse woke me up to tell me that mix should be Irish Spring,  and I needed to make a new darker green mix and call it Emerald Isle.   Can you believe the nerve of that cheeky little muse?

Well there you go, now I am off to make the new bead mix, just thought I would share with you.

Now what is this?  It's a Skull bracelet.  Made from a carved magnescite bead.

 

I have also made Skull earrings, other skull bracelets, skull wine bottle stoppers (very popular) and skull bottle openers and coffee scoops!

 

 

Call them Halloween or Dia de Muertos decorations.... they sell all year long.   Why are skulls so popular?  What is our fascination with skulls?  Or is it a fascination with death itself?

Wikipedia says; "
Humans can often recognize the buried fragments of an only partially revealed cranium even when other bones may look like shards of stone. The human brain has a specific region for recognizing faces, and is so attuned to finding them that it can see faces in a few dots and lines or punctuation marks; the human brain cannot separate the image of the human skull from the familiar human face. Because of this, both the death and the now past life of the skull are symbolized.
Moreover, a human skull with its large eye sockets displays a degree of neoteny, which humans often find visually appealing—yet a skull is also obviously dead. As such, human skulls often have a greater visual appeal than the other bones of the human skeleton, and can fascinate even as they repel. Our present society predominantly associates skulls with death and evil. However, to some ancient societies it is believed to have had the opposite association, where objects like crystal skulls represent "life": the honoring of humanity in the flesh and the embodiment of consciousness."

Either way.... makes me say "hmmmmmmm".

Turquoise in it's many forms

I was doing a little research tonight on a shopping site, and I did a search for Turquoise beads.

2290 items.... well that's too many. So I put in 'Natural Turquoise beads not Howlite', 2160 items returned. Sigh, so as I shuffled through the listings I noticed, Orange, Pink, White, Yellow, Purple, Bright Blue, Lime Green... awful ugly beads, crosses, skulls. Nothing like what I was looking for, which was natural, real turquoise beads in traditional turquoise color. I flagged a few, then realized that was fruitless, there were just too many.

Do people buy this stuff? Now I will be the first one to admit, I have purchased some dyed howlite or magnesite beads. But I knew what they were. And I certainly didn't try to pass them off as "real turquoise" to anyone. I bought a few of the carved skulls, in black and white, these wild orange, yellow and hot pink skulls are awful.

But what really yanks my chain are the listings for beads that look like turquoise, almost. You know they are not, but the seller merrily describes them as Turquoise, they don't say where it's from or what mine. How can they? They came from China.

to be continued....

Rum Raisin?

So...... I thought Rum Raisin would be a good name for a Bead Mix I thought up... A nice dark red mix sprinkled with black. Huh? How did I think that up? Bead mix colors often just come to me when my muse strikes, ( or hits me over the head with a rock). So I googled "Rum Raisin", and what did I get? Ice Cream! and Cake! Not RED at all.... I like confirmation that my name choice is appropriate for the colors.

Then I tried "Red Rum Raisin"..... Well that was a little better, I got Red lipsticks, a reddish brown horse, various food stuffs (none of which reminded me of rum raisin, and a brown goat! And this guy >>>>>

Although what he has to do with "Rum Raisin" I have yet to figure out! But he is kinda "wickedly handsome" isn't he?

I will post a picture of my Red Rum Raisin mix shortly and hope ya'll like it enough to buy some. I have been in a really creative mood lately with my bead mixes... several new ones have come to life as well as re-creating some of my old ones in the tiny size 11/0. Here are a few.....

Witch's Brew

Azurite-Malachite mix

how about Firey Sunset?

You can see them all at either of my online stores;

http://spiritbearbeads.etsy.com

or

http://Spiritbearbeads.artfire.com

Thanks for coming by!

Of Tools and Rocks...

Not Cabbages and Kings... I'm afraid.













So continuing from my last delinquent posting. Why did I build a 2 car garage and dub it the Flying Pig ?





I have acquired, besides a considerably quantity of BEADS, a CONSIDERABLE amount of tools, jewelry and lapidary tools, and I needed someplace to put them. The tack shed was a temporary site, but it did not begin to provide the space needed. Then I considered the old shed where we keep lawnmowers, tires and the ATV's, but then where would they live? Aside from the fact that it has a dirt floor, all the windows are broken and it is full of bugs and other nasty critters. Quite as 'sheds' often do....





So I decided to build a new one. Just for my and my beads and my tools and my growing collection of ROCKS. "Rocks?" you say? "Why do you have rocks?" Well, you use the tools to make Big rocks into little rocks. Pretty little polished rocks that you put into jewelry and other things.





Taa Daa!

OH Dear.... I am a bad bad blogger. It has been almost a year since I posted here.

Soooo busy. I have built a studio, it is called the Flying Pig Studio at Devils Den. Now isn't that pretentious. But there is a reason.... I kept saying it would be built, 'when pigs fly'. Then for Christmas my Brother and Sis sent me a metal pig, with wings! So it is, the Flying Pig Studio.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Lewis Carroll

Holidays

Why am I writing about holidays in the middle of June? No holidays here. Oh! But the 4th of July is just around the corner. Now why would I write about that? It's one of my favorite holidays. REALLY? Oh yeah. WHY? Because it and Halloween (my other favorite holiday) are much less stressful than the more traditional, end of the year, holidays. Thanksgiving is terrible, Turkey or Ham? One son likes turkey the other ham, if I have only one, the other complains, or DH complains, where is the _______? ( insert missing meat here). And who is going to go pickup Grandma, and will she make it up the stairs this year? Who will take her home? And then there is the menu planning, everyone gets in on that, this daughter will bring this, this daughter will bring that, Grandma will bring _____ but, it's not ready, just stop what you are doing and help her. Sigh... to much stress and way too much food. The leftovers wont even fit in the fridge.... see what I mean? And let's not even get started on Christmas!

So back the the 4th of July. Wanna shoot off some fireworks and grill a burger? Fine. Wanna sit by the pool and veg? Fine. Somebody is always having a block party. They don't mind if you crash, just byob and don't be obnoxious. And unless you are a total recluse, someone you know is always having a big feast, with all the kids running around with sparklers and the Mom's fussing over the potato salad. Wrangle yourself an invite, bring some imported beer, (be sure to offer your host one), your own lawn chair, and there ya go. Stress free holiday.

This year I have to work...........

Long Time no Blog

OH I cannot believe how long it has been since I wrote in this blog. And then last night I watched "Julie and Julia", you know, the movie where the young woman cooks and blogs her way thru Julia Child's cookbook. And eats all that BUTTER and doesn't gain a pound! Becomes famous and lives happily ever after.... Not that I can't cook, I can and do cook, but those recipies! My husband wouldn't eat half of that stuff, much less attack the lobster pot.
No, I would much rather create jewelry, or design new colors of bead mixes than cook or blog. Hence my absence from the blog page. As a matter of fact, short of sitting out on the patio with a glass of wine by a nice fire, watching the sunset, I would rather be creating than almost anything. Hmmmmm
To the right of this post is a picture of my first real custom order, from a customer, not a family memeber. Where a patron came to me and said, "make me a ......" I am so pleased how it turned out, I could hardly send it to her. But the motto must be "Everything is for sale" so I let it go. Let me know what you think.

Taking the Plunge

Here is my favorite quote;
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

I first saw this in Moab, Utah. We were there in August, the temperature was 100 degrees plus, and we were going Jeeping. That is we rented a jeep and drove it out into the red rocks. Anyway the quote was emblazoned over the doorway of the outdoor recreation center where we rented the jeep. They also rented all sorts of outdoorsy equipment for the adventurous tourists who came to Moab.

But it stuck in my mind and I have carried it with me now for several years. Because, that is the person I wish to be. Not some safe placid grandma who takes care of everyone and bakes cookies. Not that there is anything wrong with baking cookies! You know what I mean. I want to be adventurous, unafraid, and maybe not shocking, but surprising.

Well what does this have to do with beads, you ask? Indirectly one could chose the wild and extreme beads and baubles to create unconventional jewlery works, but my pieces don't seem to lean that far to the left. For me it is reaching just beyond the conventional, to where one would say "hmmmm, look at that!" or "that's different". Of course that may not be what sells the most, but it isn't always about selling.

So now my reaching has lead to silver and turquoise . The pieces are not, in themselves unconventional, but I am trying to choose stones that are. Not your normal turquoise, but those with character and interest. Set in a frame of plain silver the picture in the stone is the design. Let me know what you think. Thanks

More on selling beads...

Ohhhh I can't stand it. I have to write about it. I am searching Etsy, for I remembered someone selling the same seed beads I sell. Now I sell the strung beads in a 65 gram pkg, that's 6 strands. (which btw I saw at a bead show for $3 a strand!) anyhoo , I sell these for $5.99. And the loose beads for $4.99 for 50 grams. And I make a fair profit and I don't think my prices are out of line at all. But I find these people selling the same beads.... ok that's fine. But get ready for this...

First one seller calls them Japanese beads, NO they are Czech, and she is selling "as many as fit in this 1.5" metal tin" and "You will receive these in a little plastic ziploc. I haven't counted them, but my guess is 150 beads at least!" You GUESS? And for this you will pay $1.95 and $1.55 shipping. Gosh! How much are you paying for her beads?

OR you can buy 200 beads from another seller for $2.99 plus $2 shipping... ok thats about 22 grams for $3, well over twice what I charge.

Then there is "a 2x2 inch bag full of beads...this is about a heaping tablespoon worth." for $2.75 plus $2 shipping.

But here is the one I like the best, "You will receive 150 seed beads.A dime in one photo is used to illustrate size only. One photo shows what 150 beads looks like in a 2" x 2" baggie. " The photo shows about, and I know what these beads look like, 10 grams of beads in a zip bag. FOR ONLY $2.00 plus $2.50 shipping!

Last but not least is this great description, I like it right up to the last line....

5 Gram pkgs. of Czech Opaque Beads Rocailles
6/0
Approx. 4mm in size
Also Known as "E" Beads
Average of 7 beads per inch
Approx. 230 beads per package

simple and to the point, but WRONG, 5 grams is NOT 230 beads. Size 6/0 beads have 13000 beads per kilo, that equals about 13 beads per gram, do the math. You are either getting 65 beads in 5 grams or something else. Oh and BTW, that is $9.90 for 50 grams @ .99 per pkg.

OK I am done, for now anyway, buy my beads, great customer service, fast shipping accurate descriptions, and fair prices... thanks for listening to my rant.

Life is going by sooo fast

Wow, it has been 2 months since I posted here. Not good, I know. But it seems that life and time are just flying by! I have been to Colorado and spent time with my family there, back home and back to work. No, have not won the lottery yet. And now yet another stupendous black hole of time has appeared to suck my precious moments. Facebook!

Does anyone understand Facebook? Where are the instructions? Where is "Facebook for Dummies"? No, I am not a dummy really, I have been prowling around the Internet since Prodigy was a child. But this thing confuses me. It is like a huge rabbit warren of Internet pages where posts and pictures, links and pages, games and gifts appear with the speed and purpose-less-ness of a stick bobbing down a stream. That is to say, totally without any sense of order. Maybe that is my problem. I like order, I like things in their boxes, or at least placed so I know where to find them. Not this random rolling, moving "wall" of information that doesn't stay in place for more than a few minutes.

Then there is my 'inbox'. It now overflows with invites and friend requests. Persons unknown to me, connected electronically by some mutual 'friend'. Acquaintances mostly, not what I would call a 'friend' in most cases. And the games, oh my, who has time for all these games? Gangsters and farms, scrabble and I know not what else. Then ,there are the causes..... who can refuse to fight cancer, autism, world hunger and the like? All my friends seem to be doing it. Does joining a cause on FB actually fight world hunger? Does my clicking the 'join' button feed a starving child in some third world country? I think not. Not that the sentiment is not loyal, but would the time not be better spent writing a check, sealing the envelope and posting it off to say... Feed the Children or The Red Cross or some truly active charity? I don't know, am I wrong?

OK, I will end this rant, for that is what it is. And sadly go back to my FB page and try yet again to decipher it's mysteries. For after all, last month, a dear friend whom I had lost touch with, from my childhood has found me, on Facebook, and we are now in contact again.

Thank you Facebook.

Thoughts on buying beads

Shoppers, browsers and buyers please read!..... When I purchase new beads for my store I try to do some research. Before posting and pricing I check other stores to see what they are selling similar beads at. Something has come to my attention that I hope you savvy shopper recognize also. The price point for a similar item may be much lower at another store, BUT compare not only the shipping cost per item, but the Quantity. Are you getting the same amount of product for your money?

When I got these NEW beads in I had a price point in mind, but when I went to check other stores the price was MUCH lower. Hmmmm I thought, how can they sell them at that price, I know what they paid for them. THEN I realized they were selling HALF as MANY beads... Even though the picture was of a full 8 inch strand, they were only going to send you half that amount. This is a common practice in advertising and done in every type of sales not just beads. So just bear this (pun haha) in mind and read the fine print. Thanks for listening and happy shopping.

Selling

I have given up on the Ebay monster. Just too cut throat/politcal/and oh everything else.. just plain Unfriendly. I have both Etsy and ArtFire stores. And even tho Art Fire is just getting started, the fee structure is the best for new artists/suppliers. They are both very easy to use, accept payments via paypal, then print your shipping labels directly from paypal. I buy big boxes of bubble mailers from Uline, scrounge bubble wrap and peanuts from everywhere. I did purchase a digital postage scale on ebay, A scale is a must.

As for photography. Well, honestly, it's hard. do you have a good digital camera? If not you need one. Then all I can say is read everything you can find, take a class, and practice, experiment with lighting and backgrounds...maybe a light tent... selling is expensive LOL... but not frightening, I actually enjoy the selling part. I guess you could say I get a sense of satisfaction packaging up my wares and sending them off.



My DH is puzzled by all this, he cannot fathom my enjoyment of the selling process. He looks, asks a question and walks away.

So I begin....

Is life not a journey? Are the choices we make not the turns in our path? And is it the height of arrogance to think that anyone else we encounter on that path is at all interested in our journey? All that said, I will answer my own questions. As evidenced by the popularity of blogs and blogging the answer must be yes. So I will join the party and blog away, thoughts, ramblings, beads and beading, jewelry making, life in general, trips and more.... begin.

No I'm not from the south, but I have lived here so long sometimes I feel like I am southern born. In reality my heart is in the West. I grew up and went to high school in Colorado and still have family living there and in Arizona and Nevada. So I guess you could say I have Western roots. And thus evolved my love of Native American art, jewelry and BEADS.
As a child I had a fear of bears, mostly from reading sporting and hunting magazines, but as I grew older I felt an affinity to Bear and adopted him as my personal totem. Now I have a collection of Spirit Bear totems and beads. I started beading as a hobby and now am turning to it as a business. I hope you like my work, my bears and my beads. Please feel free to check out my Picture Trail site, lots more of my work there, http://www.picturetrail.com/homePage/spiritbearbeads
Or my Flickr photo albumn,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiritbearbeads/
and my two online bead stores
http://spiritbearbeads.etsy.com
http://Spiritbearbeads.artfire.com

busy aren't I?