Raku

I have been having fun with raku again now that it has gotten cold in the garage. Here are some from yesterday.

End of Year Jewelry Sale

I am listing lots of jewerly on ebay starting tonight and adding a few pieces daily for the next two weeks. The gallery that I have been with for 4 years is going out of business this month, so I am reducing my inventory through ebay at huge savings.

Have been having the usual dilema, to make jewelry or make lampwork beads to sell on ebay. Today I decided to spend awhile making beads, and worked with only one selection of colors, black and raku with clear. Can't wait to open the kiln and see what I have.

Here is a photo of a bracelet listed on ebay.

Tropical Madness

Today I put my banana trees to bed for the winter. They are really a blight on the yard, wrapped in silver insulation with black garbage bags over their heads, but hopefully it will save them for further glory next summer.

When I moved to Seattle after gardening in the Rocky Mountains for my whole life I was blown away by the variety and beauty of the plants that would grow and thrive here. Somewhere along the line I got sidetracked by Tropicals which are all the craze. Well they do grow here, but not without a lot of TLC which seems sort of foolish considering the plants that are available and love this climate.

After wasting lots of money on plants that had one season on beauty and bit the dust somewhere around Jan 1, I have only the bananas left that need extra care. I really love how they look in mid summer, and they are listed as hardy to zone 8, but that means they need to come back from the root every year and never get very big.

Vetrofond Odd Lots "River Rock"

Sometimes you are just living right. Last spring when the Vetrofond odd lots first hit the forums I bought a few to try. The Avocado 931 was really cool so I ordered a bunch, remembering what Kim Affleck said in class, "If you love an odd lot buy all you can afford, because you most likely will never see it again." I have been using is in a few sets. Lately I have been hearing about "River Rock" which everyone is trying to get,, and low and behold it is Avocado 931!!!

The other one that I like a lot is Sweet Lime 993, it isn't lime at all but a rich neutral with a rosy blush. Great with copper green and rubino.

This is my favorite set with Avocado.

This focal has sweet lime on the bottom.

Latest Garden photos

Since I have changed web hosting companies I no longer will have a dedicated site to my garden so will post current photos here. I was getting very lazy about keeping it up to date .

Blah, Blah, Blah

Whenever my Grandson sees the section at the beginning or end of a movie with all the writing he says, "Here comes the Blah, Blah, Blah."

I haven't posted anything all summer, it has been a busy time as well as a busy fall. I trained for and completed the Danskin triathlon on August 19th. It was so much fun, I worked very hard training and losing weight leading up to it, and took a series of open water swim clinics with Mary Meyer Fitness. She is great as a motivator. The clinics were held on Lake Washington, and we didn't have a warm summer. Starting at 7pm they were rather cool, and every night the wind was horrendous. Once I had to sit out for awhile because I was getting sea sick from the waves. Anyhow it was good prep as the morning of August 19th was 58degrees and raining. I was scared stiff the night before, but felt very calm that day. It went well, I had fun and finished in 2hrs 04min.

I have changed website hosting companies so you may have noticed my site looks different. So far I am happy with the change.

Etsy Shop

I have opened a shop at Etsy to sell my jewelry. It seems like a better idea than trying to keep my website current with new items, and manage the pay pal shopping cart. So far I've made one sale , I'll just have to wait & see how it goes. Here is the link to my jewelry shop.

http://www.etsy.com/search_results_seller.php?search_type=seller_usernames&search_query=ColganDesigns

My website has been revised and updated, check it out, and let me know what you think.

Starting a blog

Well it is really the current thing to do, but I'm not sure the world really needs another person babbling on about themselves in cyberspace. Does anyone read most of the blogs? Is anyone interested in what I do making glass beads? Anyhow I decided to do this for my own entertainment if nothing else.

There is a Gaffer glass store right down the hill from my house, so I finally got down there about a month ago and purchased a few rods to play with. The girl at the desk was so friendly and helpful, let me buy one of each and rang up my small sale with a smile. They also have frit in 2oz packages which is great for trial. So far I love this glass, it melts fast, isn't shocky and the colors are clear and intense. My favorites are Lt Tobacco (beautiful glass in spite of the name), Copper Ruby, Gold Ruby & Apricot. They also have veiled cane which as transparent with streaks of darker color through it.

I listed a bunch of things on Justbeads.com this week and sales have been good. I started there back in January , then we went on vacation and I didn't get back to listing.