♪♫ Corina, Corina ♫♪ and ♪♫Heather Trimlett Too♫♪

To learn more about Corina Tettinger click here.

So I finally broke down and bought Passing The Flame, by Corina Tettinger.  It's been around forever and I think she's done at least 4 editions.  I'd put it off because a) it's pricey, and b) I thought I knew it all.  Well, I actually found it on Amazon used at about 25% off, and then I found out I DIDN'T know it all!  I'm so glad I have it now.  Corina has a new fan too!

Her book was so inspiring because she gave instructions on how to make every bead she pictures in the book.  She writes from the heart so you can almost hear her voice when you read it.

I learned some tips and tricks that I thought I knew how to do, but she showed me a better way to do them........if that makes any sense to you.

One day I'm going to take a class from her while I'm down in Florida where she teaches almost every year.  I'd really just love to meet her.

She sells her beads on her website (click above) and they go just as fast as she posts them.  Her signature bead has a little green frog perched on the side.  A friend of mine has one of her bracelets and it's gorgeous!


Heather Trimlett is another beadmaker who has inspired me.  She is the "Queen of the Twistie!"     To the left are a pair of earrings I bought from her last year at "The Gathering" along with her Twistie Tutorial and the really cool tools that come with it. 

Click here to go to Heather Trimletts website.

Right below are some beads that the "Queen" herself made.  I hope she doesn't mind me showing this picture in my blog.....it's free advertisement! 

One day while reading over Heather's web site I saw her "40 Bead Challenge."  It was a challenge to us beadmakers to stretch our imagination and develop more eye hand muscle coordination.  The deal was to use only 2 colors of glass, a dipped mandrel, fire, and gravity.  No tools allowed, no raised bumps, and all the beads should be round and as close to the same size as possible. Well, this seemed like a pretty good way to stretch my eye hand muscles and see what my imagination could come up with.

I chose CIM Freeman and CIM Tuxedo.  I started out simple and got progressively more complex.  Well, after a while, I did get very bored with just black and blue, and I wanted soooo badly to do some raised dots, but I stuck by the rules.  There was one bonus, there was a reaction between the Tuxedo and Freeman rendering a silver halo effect around the blue, very interesting!  I tried some designs that just came into my brain, I tried the "tried and true" and I ended up with a set of matching beads that I believe I can sell.  These little suckers took me 4 days to make, averaging 10 or so beads a day.  The time consuming part was SLOWLY melting in the dots so as not to distort them.  You can probably spot a few in there where patience escaped me.  And NO, I didn't cheat, I did not make any other types of beads until all 40 were done.  Next time I'm going to use 3 colors and I'm doing raised bumps too. 

Be sure and check out Corina and Heather's websites, there are so many beautiful things to see there and so much to learn......and of course buy!

A Community of Hearts

Ever since I started making glass beads way back in 1995, I have met some of the nicest people and made some very good friends who share my interest in lampwork and jewelry.

Something about the people I've met, and some I only know via the Internet, are special in a unique way.  Most of the folks are bead makers who I have admired and aspired to be as skilled as they are.  Some of the people I've come across are jewelry artists who buy my beads to create their special works of art.  I've never met a soul who hasn't given me pleasure to know and share with.

Around 2000 I started teaching lampworking on a HotHead torch at "Stone and Paper Art Studio" in Mandeville, LA.  Mary Elaine Bernard was my boss and she has become one the dearest friends I have.  I made tons of friends who were interested in learning this new medium, and we had a ball doing it.  A couple of my students went on to become very accomplished bead makers!  The point is, having the experience to work with Mary Elaine and all the students I taught was a blessing.  By the way, Mary Elaines son Eddie Bernard is a well known glass blower in New Orleans!  I admired his work for years and through his mother he has also befriended me....but that's another story!

I sort of fell out of the habit of making beads during a troubling time in my life, but when I picked it back up in 2005, I sought out people of like minds to learn from.  Of course that brought me more new friends!  

I started searching out beadmkers in my area.  I found Shirley Groser in Jensen Beach, FL and she and I have become buddies ever since.  She showed me how she does boro and let me give it a try...I found that I was just going to stick to soft glass!  She and I attended out first Gathering together in Louisville, KY.  There I made even more friends, people I've run across on eBay, Etsy, and Artfire.  The Gathering has turned out to be a turning point for me in "gathering" more friends ever since.  I've decided to volunteer to work with the ISGB on one of their committees and I'm going to volunteer 8 hours at the next Gathering in Seattle.  I can't wait!  I'm going with another great friend, Marie Woelfing who I mentioned in my previous blog.

Another big venue I've found for making friends is Beads and More classifieds on Yahoo where I've sold lots of my beads and have found outstanding bargains on jewelry findings, books, tutorials and more.  Today I got a message there that Lori Anderson of "Bead Soup" is giving away some wonderful DVD's! Check out her blog here.......http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/. I plan on participating in her next Bead Soup project.  BaM classifies has been a great place to find friends who share my joy of creation!

All in all, I love to collect friends!  They are better than beads, aren't expensive, and don't break!