Thank you!

Thank you to all of my customers, both previous and new, who stopped by my booth at the Bead Blast 2010 this past weekend in Overland Park. I appreciated all of the wonderful comments and had a great weekend at the show. There is nothing that motivates and inspires me more to keep creating my handmade lampwork beads.

I am looking so forward to taking my tiny pieces of art to the Bead Renaissance Show in Dallas later in the month.

Until next time - smiles, Debbi

Bead Challenge Results

The results are in for the Fire Divas April Bead Challenge. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The Fire Divas quarterly Jewelry Challenge is currently underway, so make sure you go vote for your favorite there, too!

Studio time! - until next time, smiles - Debbi

Spring Showers Bead

This is the bead I made for the April Showers bead challenge for the Fire Divas group.

The other set I listed is the one below that I gave a sneak peek of in my blog the other day, made with Double Helix Kronos, one of my favorite silver glasses.

Trying to keep up with photographing and listing a few new items on Etsy while frantically working on making beads for my shows coming up in May. I probably won't be listing many more until after the shows are over.

BTW, Tuxie, our cocker spaniel who had knee surgery is healing well. She still can't go for walks yet, but is starting to get onry again so we know she's feeling better!



I will be at the Bead Blast in Kansas City the first weekend in May, then a jewelry show in Belton, MO the next weekend, and headed to Dallas the last weekend in May.

I will get all of this up on my calendar by the end of the week.

Have a great week and until next time -
smiles, Debbi

New on Etsy and Sneek Peek!

Just listed a few new sets of beads on Etsy, but one of them sold so fast I didn't even get to the blog fast enough! Here's the one that sold:

And here's a link to one other that I just listed and here's a sneek peek of something I'm working on like the top pic, a design on the inside and the outside:


Gotta go, but until later - smiles, Debbi

Fire Divas April Bead Challenge

I entered the Fire Divas bead challenge for this month! Can you guess which one is mine? If you do, you'll receive a 15% discount on your next set of beads or jewelry purchased from me on either my Etsy or ArtFire shop. The winner is announced in a week. I will be posting some new beads on Etsy and ArtFire tonight!

This month's Fire Divas Bead Challenge theme is April Showers! Take a close look below at the entries, and when you've finally decided on your favorite, vote for it on the right side of the Fire Divas' Blog. Polls will be open for a week, and then the winner will be announced!

Entry 1:

Entry 2:

Entry 3:

Entry 4:

Entry 5:

Entry 6:


Entry 7:

Entry 8:

Thanks for voting, and thanks to all the Divas who entered the April Showers Monthly Bead Challenge!

Have a great week!
Until next time - smiles - Debbi

Focus, focus, focus

I have struggled most of the week with my focus on making beads. I have the time, the tools, but I can't sit for long before I start to lose focus and go all directions and finally give up after an hour at the torch. So today I actually looked up on the web "foods to eat for focus" - didn't help. I've heard it all before and I don't have avocados, don't like blueberries and don't like fish! Better start, I guess.

Then, since I didn't want to spend the time to go to the store and knowing it would take a long time for any food to help right away I thought surely there are some brain games out there to help train my brain to focus better. I found this really cool site with a lot of brain games for training your brain to focus, work on your memory and many other things.

I have to tell you, after working on some of the games for about 30 minutes, my brain actually hurts and feels like it's been exercising. I think it would help to get a little more physical exercise, too...

No new beads to show until I get my focus back! Yikes, I have 2 bead shows in May!

Until next time - smiles, Debbi

Another rainy spring day here but it's sunshine in my bead world! A wonderful new customer and friend came to my studio Saturday and couldn't resist several of my sets listed on Etsy, as well as some of my focals! She will be a wonderful addition to the jewelry designer world, as she already makes some fantastic pieces. It really helps inspire and motivate me to have such wonderful customers and friends.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful sunny and wonderful day with shared with family.

Now that I'm inspired again, I am heading to the torch as my day will be cut short with another visit to the vet this afternoon with our youngest cocker spaniel, Tuxedo. She had knee surgery about 5 weeks ago, but seems to have had a setback, so wish us luck this afternoon! I think she was just feeling too confident and overdid it. The positive things about her recovery is that she lost an extra 8 pounds she was carrying and she doesn't push Oreo around!

So no new beads to show today, but check back tomorrow for an update on Tuxedo and new beads I'm working on.

Just a quick post

Just a quick post to update everybody with my new bead sets I mentioned I would be listing today on my Etsy Shop. Here are a few pics:


Enjoy! Until next time - smiles, Debbi

Fortunate and thankful

Something that I realized today as I was making beads at the torch is that I am really fortunate to have so many people I can turn to for answers to questions that may come up while running my business. Even though I have been a homebased business owner for the last 17 years almost, I will always have questions and need help with some aspects. In my realm there are people with expertise in marketing research, marketing, sales, shipping/logistics, design, art, photography, nursing and my background in administrative services doesn't hurt. Most of these people are in the immediate family or close friends so they aren't far away for any questions I might have. So even though I wear all of the hats in my business, I am very thankful and appreciative for any and all support, guidance and whatever else I might receive from them. For instance I got a little tidbit of marketing info this morning that was gladly accepted. Enough on that...

Here is a glimpse of some of what I will be listing on Etsy tomorrow!

















Enjoy the day and until next time, smiles - Debbi

New Beads on Etsy today!

Just when I think I have things figured out, I find out Firefox doesn't like me to load and look at pictures on my blog, so until I fix that problem I go back to IE to try it and voila! It works like a charm. Guess I'll be using both for different things for awhile. In the meantime...

I had a hard time deciding what this spacer color was, other than light brown in this new set I listed this morning on my Etsy shop. The glass color only had a number on it and was one I had in my wall of glass that looked like it would blend well with the pink, like some of the items I have seen for this spring's fashions.

Another one I listed this morning is more animal prints, of which there can never be too many.


Check out my other beads available on Etsy when you have a chance!

'Til later - smiles, Debbi

Starting all over

I feel like I'm starting all over again with my new torch I got last week! Well, not quite but almost! I had a nice little Firebird torch from Wale Apparatus which started giving me problems. So I purchased a new Bobcat from GTT. Now I'm learning to melt glass all over again albeit faster and hotter! Hopefully by the end of the day today I'll get the hang of it, find the sweet spot and have that "aha" moment. Maybe I'll have pics of new work I did yesterday by the end of the day.


I also joined a great group of other lampworkers on Facebook, Fire Divas. Check out the blog with the link on the right. So I'm also trying to learn more about posting in Facebook, ArtFire, blogs, etc. So bear with me as I do more learning. Never too old, right?


Till later - have a great one, smiles - Debbi

Ok, now back to Etsy...

Well, as I mentioned in July, I went back to eBay, for awhile anyway...found out there that I really have to accept a lower price for my beads than I was willing to accept. Then I got busy with shows, life, etc. and didn't keep up.

So now I'm going back to Etsy for selling my beads, and Artfire for selling some of my jewelry. I've learned that consistency is the key, but we'll see how consistent I can be now. At my age I've found it takes a lot of time and effort to train myself to be consistent in anything!

Does anybody else ever wonder like I do why a person can feel so much busier and incapable of completing tasks now than when there were children at home, working full-time, and accomplished more?

Until another day-hopefully before 6 months pass this time...Keep it fun - Debbi