What's new?

I'm so excited.  I can't wait for everyone to see my new dichroic fused glass watches that I'm working on.   I'm still in the process of cutting and grinding the glass.  I hope to fuse them this weekend so I can then shape them into the watch pieces next week.  The colors are amazing.  I'll have reds, blues, greens, purples, pinks, silver, gold, and so many combinations.  When I went to Las Vegas in April, I purchased so many beautiful colors of the dishroic glass.  I think I'll have a good variety of watches for people to choose from.  I'll be posting pictures here on my blog and to my two websites when I have them finished.  Here are the links to my sites.  Chem back late June to see my watches   http://www.artfire.com/users/addicted2glassfusion#   http://www.etsy.com/shop/addicted2glassfusion

May update and announcement of who won a pendant of their choice

Congratulations to TheresaJane from Etsy who won my May pendant give away. She picked a beautiful fused glass channel pendant with burgundy glass and dichroic fuschia, pink, silver, turquoise and a tiny bit of salmon. It is really beautiful. Hopefully she'll receive it before Mother's Day.

She was looking for pendants with purple in them and I realized I didn't have too many for her to choose from, so I'm going to go through my new beautiful dichroic glass I purchased from my Vegas trip to the glass craft and bead expo where I purchased some more beautiful new dichroic glass and see what I can come up with next.

I have been putting all my energy into school and can't wait to get back into my studio and start creating again. Starting late May when my classes are done, I will get into my studio and put stuff away from my Vegas trip. I have to do some re-arranging because I purchased a second kiln and I have to move my saws and grinders into a new location so I can put my baby kiln next to my big daddy kiln. While I was in Vegas, I purchased a small kiln specifically to do test pieces, bracelets, watches, and pendants with ashes in them so people can keep their beloved pet close to them in a beautiful pendant. I’m working with my local vet to start making pendants for their customers.

After I get my workspace organized, I plan on getting to work making new jewelry. Check my websites in June or here on my blog for first glance of my new glass work. My two websites are http://www.artfire.com/users/addicted2glassfusion#  and  http://www.etsy.com/shop/addicted2glassfusion

Thank you for stopping by.

My Vegas Trip was exceptional!

Well, I have recovered from my Vegas trip to the Glass Craft and Bead Expo.  What an amazing expo this was.  I can't believe all the classes offered at one venue.  Jayne Persico's class on fused glass bracelets and watches was the highlight of my entire trip.  She is an outstanding teacher and she's very approachable.  She was a delight to take this class from.  I would definitely take another class from her in the future.  I was able to bring in some of my questionable items (which I call flopps) and she spent the time with the class and told us what went wrong and what I should try next time.  If you are a fused glass artist and have an opportunity to take a class from Jayne, I highly recommend it.  I was shocked to find that I already owned one of her books but was too nervous to try anything in it.  I have since ordered a 2nd book from her.  Here's her website if you want to check out who she is http://www.jpglassworks.com/ 

I took a class on how to make bubbles in glass from Joseph2bears.  He was a great teacher.  His wife also assisted in the class. His ratios in making the bubble mixture were very different than I've used to make bubbles.  He gave me some great ideas that I can't wait to try.  I would recommend this class if you want to learn a few new things from another really great teacher.  Here's his website http://www.joseph2bears.com/

I could have passed on my third class given by Ann Sanborn.  I felt it was a complete utter waste of time and money.  I feel that the Glass Expo is doing a terrible service to people by continuing to offer this class, but I think it's political because she's on the board or something like that.  All of my neighboring classmates were also completely frustrated with the class and were ready to leave before the class was 1/2 over.  In a 7 hour class we got about 45 minutes of instruction.  She was completely scattered the entire day which was very frustrating.  She would start to tell us something that was in the class description and then she would start talking about something else.  It was hard to get information from her, from start to finish.  We got bits and pieces of information and had to fill in the blanks throughout the day or ask her to go back to previous discussions to clarify what she was saying.  A lot of what she talked about seemed like a sales pitch.  She told us how much she charges for her services and add on's if she's going to do a website for you.   Every web site she used as examples was not completely finished, including her own website.  She told us her website is a work in progress and she's still working on it.  She told us what some of her customers had done wrong, but she never showed us what a fabulous website looks like so we can get an idea of the direction we should go.  I see her name on a lot of magazine articles, so maybe she has some concepts that are useful.  I'm not really sure.  I'm going to read some of her articles and if I learn something from them.  I don't want to dis her too bad if she was just having an off day, but I wish it hadn't been on my time or with my money. 

Even with one bad class, this expo was still the highlight of my year.  I met a lot of great people, exchanged ideas and bought a lot of glass and supplies.  I can't wait to try out some of my new techniques.

I hope to have some pictures of my items posted on here in the next few weeks when I have time, so check back.

Vegas baby!

I can't wait for April.  I'll be jetting off to Vegas to take some glass classes.  I can't wait to get out of here, it's been so cold and cloudy. 

One of the classes I'll be taking will be, how to make bracelets and watch bands from glass.  Mother's Day is coming and I hope to be able to make my mom a special watch.  It takes some wire wrapping skills which I'm not very good at, but I can't wait to give it a try.  I've heard that making bracelets takes special talent to get just the right size.  We'll see how it works out.  I hope to make one for my grandma and my step mother for mother's day. 

My second class will be learning how to make bubbles in and on top of the glass.  I've figured out how to make bubbles in the glass, but the bubbles on the glass has been something I've searched everywhere to figure it out.

My third class will be a marketing class, which I really need.  I can't wait to see what else I can do better. 

So, April will be a great month of learning.  Hopefully I'll find some time to sit at the pool and enjoy the sunshine in between classes.  I'm not sure how warm Vegas is during April, but I hope warmer than here.

You may not see any new glass until June because I'm in school until mid May and then my friend Cora and I will be celebrating our 40th birthday's in Arizona.  I'll post my pictures of any items I make during my classes here on my blog.

Meanwhile you can always check out both of my websites and let me know what items you like.  What would you like to see more of?  addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com and addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com.

I've also started tweeting.  I can't believe it, but it's starting to take shape.  You can find me at http://twitter.com/addicted2glass. 

Just posted a few new items on my addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com

I did a few new postings this weekend.  To see my newest listings, check out my etsy site and increase your chance at winning my March pendant give away addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com.

You can also see my other listings at addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com.

For all you bead lovers, I have the place for you

I used to bead A LOT and I have a favorite place to buy my beads and other finding.  They've just announced they are closing their shop.  It's a sad day because I remember driving on several occasions to Sacramento, CA with my friend Rebecca to shop for beads.  We would make road trips to beadbabe and a few others and make a weekend out of it.  Then we'd pour all the beads out in our hotel room that night and laugh in happiness at all the great new beads we just bought.  We would say, I hope we don't get in an accident and our beads spill all over the street, because we would make sure the traffic stopped until we picked them all up.

So, if you love beads and you're looking for some good deals, you won't be disappointed in their quality, especially their crystals.  I comparison shopped their crystals with firemountaingems.com and they are quite a bit cheaper.  Some items are not cheaper even with their sale so you may want to do your own comparison shopping on your items before you hit the purchase button, to make sure you're getting the best deal you can.

Win a fused glass pendant of your choice May 1, 2010

I have given away my first pendant.  She has already chosen her free pendant which will be mailed to her shortly.  Congratulations to seventhdream on etsy.com. 

Now it's time to start my next drawing for May 1st.  I'll keep all the rules the same to make it easier on everyone.  Every online purchase except necklace wires gets you into the May drawing for a fused glass pendant of your choice up to $17.00 value.  The more you purchase, the better your chances are at winning.   So check out my websites addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com and addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com and increase your chances at winning.  Good luck to everyone.

Congratulations Seventhdream you have won a free pendant for March

Thank you to everyone that entered my free fused glass penant drawing that ended today March 1, 2010.  The winner is http://www.etsy.com/people/seventhdream.  Amanda, you can go to either of my two sites addicted2glassfusion.artfire.com or addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com and pick a pendant of your choice up to $17.00 value.  I've also sent you an email letting you know you've won.  Congratulations.