The Glass Slipper

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T11:01:00Z

I might get wordier later on, but in the meantime, here are some photos I took in The Old City in Jerusalem. We took Melanie there on Saturday.

See you later.

SpacersbySarah.com

2010-03-02T23:00:00Z

Some of you may remember how I feel about spacers. But I had a feeling this day would come, and now it's here. I'm making spacers.

Surprisingly enough, I am finding it strangely addictive.

You know how it is - everything I do always has to be completely over the top. So if I'm going to be making spacers, I'm going to make more freaking spacers than anyone has ever made in their life. Hell, I'm going to make more freaking spacers than EVERYONE has ever made in their life. Hey, I am nothing if not fiercely competitive.

I seriously cannot believe I made so many spacers.

Spacers aren't all bad, really. I guess they can be quite useful if you make jewelry and stuff.

Making them is kind of challenging. I keep trying to fit more and more on each mandrel. I started out, a few days ago, being able to make just two or three, and now I'm up to six or seven. Yay me.

Besides, there is something rather satisfying about seeing my kiln full of mandrels and telling myself, hey, I made 200 beads today. I mean, when I make interesting focals and stuff, I end up with 5 or 6 mandrels peeking out of the kiln, at the most.

Having to clean the 200 beads the next day totally sucks, but c'est la vie. I'm getting used to spending a lot of time over the sink with my dremel.

Making spacers is a good way to use pretty colors that I don't have much of a use for in my real beads, like all those weird Vetrofond odd lots that seemed like a good idea to buy tons of at the time. Or Reichenbach 'Mystic' colors that look really gorgeous as spacers but seem to lose their pearly sparkle if you work them too long. And anyway, I have way too much glass lying around as it is, and when I go back to making interesting beads, I plan on focusing on Bullseye.

Spacers are cool. They're colorful. They're round. They're cheap. They have holes in them.

See, I'm thinking positive. Now please bid on my spacers. Thank you.

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Totally Cracked Me Up

From Sarah Moran's blog:

So, right after I read Kate’s journal, I checked Sarah Hornik’s blog, The Glass Slipper,

for the first time in a couple of weeks. I really should read it more often, because

whenever I read Sarah’s blog, I always feel perfectly okay to be me – my cynical, negative,

unapproachable self.

I found myself laughing out loud, and I knew she meant it in a good way, before I even read the rest of the paragraph.

I'm so glad I bring out the cynical side in people. Haha.

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BLUE SALE on Etsy!

2010-02-27T14:40:00Z

I'm having a BLUE SALE!

This weekend only, all beads and jewelry that have BLUE in them are 20% OFF!

To make things easier, I've tagged all sale items with the word BLUE, so you can find them by searching for "blue" in my shop, or by clicking this link:
http://www.etsy.com/search_results_shop.php?search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_85969&search_query=blue

To get the discount, add any items that have BLUE in them to your cart, checkout as usual, and put the words BLUE SALE in the Message to Seller box. I will send you a refund through Paypal once payment is received (please allow up to 12 hours for the refund, although it will probably be much sooner).

- To qualify for the discount, items MUST be paid for through Paypal before the end of the sale.

- Sale ends Sunday, February 28 at midnight, Israel time.

- E-books are not included in this sale.

Enjoy!

Inspired by Fashion (or lack thereof)

2010-02-24T00:00:00Z

These past few days, I've been keeping my eyes open for inspiring and colorful links and things to post on my TheColorista page. And I figured, if I'm going to be looking for potential inspiration for my followers, why not use some of it myself? We could all use some inspiration from time to time, right?

Here is Loud, a set that was inspired by this fantastic photo I stumbled across on Flickr. Purple, fuchsia, olive, magenta... yum. I've been playing around with some Bullseye odd lots lately, so I happened to have just the right colors sitting there on my table.

Okay, fine, I happen to have just about every color in the world sitting there on my table. I know. I need to clean and organize my workspace. I KNOW. I just really don't want to.

Anyway, I love how these particular colors look together.

This next set is called Project Runaway, because it was inspired by one of the outfits on the last episode of Project Runway - the one the judges absolutely hated. Okay, the style is kind of horrendous, but it kind of pissed me off when they were going on and on about how terrible the color combination was, because I thought it was kind of awesome. Besides, the fact that one of them said "I don't think blue and orange are complementary colors" made me lose a lot of faith in the show.

Anyway, on the most part, they seem to be allergic to color over there. It's like the winning designs are almost always black, grey or some other drab and boring color. I don't get it. They walk into the fabric store and everything looks so beautiful and colorful in there, and then all anyone can come up with is grey. Maybe this is how the fashion world is in general? Don't ask me; my fashion sense is limited to my jeans, hoodies, sneakers and crocs and I am perfectly happy with that.

And now I look down and realize that the hoodie I am wearing at the moment is actually grey. It is cool though. Sigh.

This final set, Spring Accents, was inspired by nothing in particular, besides some of those pretty colors sitting on my table.
(And the fact that spacers seem to be the only really popular thing on eBay these days?)

Mmmmmmmulticolor!

2010-02-22T00:15:00Z

Why have I never tried Reichenbach "Multicolor" before? This color is awesome. It keeps pleasantly surprising me when it comes out of the kiln.

Octopus's Garden, now on eBay:

Romance (Multicolor with Double Helix 'Ekho'), now on Etsy:

And Glyphs (with more Ekho), now on Etsy too:

Have you been following TheColorista?

You should, because I'm having a lot of fun with it, and besides, I'm kind of experimenting with the marketing potential of Twitter - you know, the one everyone keeps raving about. So I've decided to have weekly "retweet" giveaways on there, and the first one is on its way! Come on, you know you want to.

TheColorista

2010-02-20T00:41:00Z

You know how I keep saying I want to start a new blog about color and it never actually happens?

Let's face it, I don't really have time to write another blog. Not right now, anyway. It might still happen someday.

In the meantime, I've decided to start small. I've started a new Twitter account called TheColorista, and it's going to be all about color. I think it should be fun... and probably not too time-consuming (although knowing myself, I will probably figure out some way to make the 140 characters eat up all my time anyway).

TheColorista needs followers! Any takers?

Code for Technorati, please ignore F2NAM2JZUY26

OMG, Look! No Mandrel!

2010-02-19T23:14:00Z

Yeah, after 4,657,125 tries, I finally made some pendants I can show to the world!

These and more are now on Etsy:

I have posted some new eBay auctions as well - click here to check them out.

Have a great weekend!

Hi. I have not seen Avatar.

2010-02-18T00:33:00Z

This is a post where I rant about meaningless crap to take my mind off all the real crap. This week sucks. I'm recovering from a bad cold. My computer screen went all yellow and blurry and I need to get a new one, which I can't afford. The tax authorities are systematically torturing me. The elevator in my building stopped working yet again. And just when I thought nothing else could possibly go wrong, today I slipped on the stairs, fell on my ass and sprained my shoulder and it hurts. I need for something good to happen. Seriously.

I have not seen Avatar.

I have no intention of seeing Avatar.
I do not want to see Avatar.
No.
I don't.
I won't.
Leave me alone.

I've heard it all. This is the best movie ever made. There's like, 3-D animation and aliens and stuff - you wouldn't want to miss out on the 3-D animation and the aliens and stuff, would you? People have gone so far as to say that their life is now divided into two - life before Avatar and life after Avatar. Are you freaking kidding me?! Give me a break.

As a principle, I don't watch movies that become social phenomena. Why? Because they always suck. Yes. Always. I have fallen for the you-must-see-it-and-you-are-going-to-like-it way too many times, and I'm not falling for it again. The more people talk about Avatar, the less I want to see it. I have absolutely no interest in this movie

Many years ago, when I was a web designer working for Walla, we used to get free tickets to press screenings for all the really-cool-next-best-thing-hype movies. It seemed cool at the time; you get to watch the movie before everyone else, in a small theater with a bunch of local B-list celebrities. As a young designer, this makes you feel very important, even though you know that after the screening your job is going to be taking files off a CD provided by the distributor (hopefully) and replacing the English website text with Hebrew text provided by somebody else. But yeah, you really do need to see the movie in order to do that.

I fell asleep during The Matrix. I'm sorry if this offends you, but I did - not once, mind you, but three times. The first time was during the much-anticipated press screening. The last thing I remember is Keanu Reeves dancing around, doing Kung-Fu moves, dressed in a black raincoat and sunglasses. Seriously, how can a movie that has Keanu Reeves doing Kung-Fu in a black raincoat and sunglasses in it possibly be a good movie? Uh, is it over? Oops, I must have nodded off for a minute there. I'm sorry. It's been a really long day.

"How was the movie?!" everyone wanted to know, the next day.

"I don't know. There was Kung-Fu. And sunglasses. It was okay, I guess."

I got severely scolded by everyone around me for my lack of appreciation for The Matrix, the "best movie ever!" life-changing experience of the time. So I went to see it again, paying for my own ticket this time. I meant to give it a serious chance. Really.

I fell asleep again.

A couple of years later, it was on TV, so I thought I'd give it one more try, figuring that if everyone thinks this is such a brilliant movie, I must be missing something.

Yep. Nighty-night, Keanu Reeves. Please go away now.

I think at some point in time I may have fallen asleep during one of the sequels as well, but I don't really remember. Seriously, if there is anything worse than the current best movie ever, it's the best movie ever's sequel, especially when they play around with the title and add words like "reloaded" to make it sound super-uber-cool, not like a money-extracting machine or anything.

Lord of the Rings? I would have gladly fallen asleep during that, because the screening was at some surreal hour, like 9am or something. I couldn't sleep because the movie was making too much noise. It was really irritating. The fantasy genre SO does not do it for me. I'm sorry. It just doesn't. No, I haven't read the books.

Lost in Translation? Blech, bore, blech, bore, way too slow, bore, snore.

Harry Potter?

No. I have not seen Harry Potter.

Nope, none of them.
No, not even that one!

No, I haven't read the books.

No, I don't want to read the books.

I really don't care if you love the movie.

I don't care if you think the movie is fantastic and the books are even better.

Yeah, I get it, you think I should read the books.

No.

I'm not going to.

Ever.

No.

I don't want to.

No.

When I was a kid, I used to love the books of Diana Wynne Jones. I would read them over and over and I remember them as being endlessly fascinating and entertaining. As you've probably figured out by now, I have not read any of the Harry Potter books, but the concept always sounded strikingly similar to the wonderful Chrestomanci series. One of the many reasons why the crazy hype never made much sense to me.

There's Something About Mary? No, there really isn't. I can't believe I got talked into sitting through that one. Everyone thinks it's hilarious! Blech. I can't watch movies that have Cameron Diaz or Meg Ryan in them.

Kill Bill?

Ugh. While I loved Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs (besides the ear scene, I still have nightmares about that sometimes), Kill Bill has got to be the stupidest you-are-supposed-to-love-this movie ever. Actually, I think I feel the same way about every martial arts movie I've ever seen. I don't want to watch people dancing around with swords and gallons of blood being spattered purely for shock value. Ugh. Boring. BORING. I can't believe I had to sit through two of those. Ugh. Ugh.

Pirates of the Caribbean?

I'm pretty sure I saw one of them but I can't remember anything about it at all. Did it have martial arts in it?

Borat? Or the other one, what was his name?

No. Not funny. Not. No. Not going to watch it. No.

Twilight. Ugh, I am so sick of vampires.
I watched this movie out of pure boredom, on some flight from somewhere to somewhere else, and once again, found myself wondering what the hell all the hype was about. It might have been the watered-down airplane version, or the fact that they shut the screens off 10 minutes before the end because the plane was landing, or maybe this actually is a painfully boring movie, or maybe it's just me. WTF?

This could probably go on for a while, but I'll stop now because my shoulder hurts and staring at a fuzzy yellow computer screen is probably not good for my eyes. So, no, I'm not going to see Avatar and I don't care how much you like it. Next time you have a life-altering experience at a movie theater and you want to tell someone all about it, you should know that I'm probably not your best person for the job.

However, I haven't really enjoyed a movie in a really long time. If there's anything that is not Avatar that you think I should watch, I'm open to suggestions. I have no need for the special effects, the martial arts, the lowest-common-denominator humor, the pirates, the vampires or the Oscars. Give me characters that intrigue me or ones I can relate to. Give me witty and intelligent dialog. Give me a plot I can believe - because if I don't believe the plot I'm not going to enjoy the movie. Make me think. Surprise me. Give me one of those you-never-saw-that-coming endings, but not a dumb one. Don't make me read subtitles (sorry, I hate translations). Make it interesting. Don't put me to sleep. Make me actually care what happens next. Is that too much to ask?

Or just give me a good TV series - like the brilliant Breaking Bad, the thought-provoking Mad Men or the fantastic Big Love, because I seem to be enjoying those much more these past few years. Hey, I'll happily take even Project Runway or Survivor over whatever movie it is that I'm supposed to like because everyone else does.

Argh. My shoulder hurts. I hate this week.

G'night.

February is Short Attention Span Month

2010-02-13T18:12:00Z

Apparently.

All on Etsy!

Things I've been up to

2010-02-08T18:34:00Z

I scored 668,700 points on Bejeweled Blitz this week.

Well yes, I do think this achievement is important enough to be mentioned in bold on my blog. It's freaking 668,700 points. That's like, impossible. I rock.

I have a few more things to say about computer games - but first, let's talk about some other important stuff.

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Upcoming Classes in Australia and New Zealand

I am excited to be traveling back to the southern hemisphere this April. This time I'll be teaching both in Australia and New Zealand!

I am scheduled to teach two sessions of classes at Carole Griffiths' studio in Canberra, between April 22-25 and April 28 - May 1. For more information and registration, please contact Carole at carole@handmadeglassbeads.com.au.

After that I'll be heading to New Zealand, where I'll be teaching a session at Born To Bead in Auckland between May 13-16, then at Annie Rose in Whangarei between May 20-23. Please contact the studios through their websites for more information.

Hope to see you there!

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BEADS: Production Mode

After finishing the work on Making Mandala Beads, I needed a couple of days off to recharge myself (and score many points on Bejeweled Blitz).

Then, it was time to get back to work. I tried making some off-mandrel pendants. At first I was excited that I could actually make things without a mandrel - and, potentially, without having to clean out bead release, one of my most hated tasks. There's something about off-mandrel work that makes me feel like a "real" flameworker.

Sadly, the pendants came out of the kiln looking unbelievably crappy - not even photo-worthy. I did go through an interesting thought process though.

I have recently taken a marble making class and a Lucio class. They were both fun. I learned a lot. But I was - and still am, I guess - having some trouble figuring out what I am supposed to do with what I learned. It's that creative block thing, the stressful kind, the preachy inner voice that keeps nagging and asking you what's the point in taking classes if you're just going to keep on making the same things. Many ideas went through my mind... I could make little abstract sculptures, or I could try making marbles with soft glass, or I could practice sculpting the human figure, or something. Whatever.

But even if I could accomplish any of that successfully, what would I do with all that stuff? Who needs a bunch of useless glass knickknacks lying around?

Yes, I know, this sounds like a very weird way of looking at things.

I think I realized something important about myself and my work. It's not that I've been making beads all this time because I didn't know how to make anything else. Anything "more advanced", or whatever. It's not that I can "only make beads" because of my dependency on mandrels. I mean, yeah, I pretty much depend on mandrels at this point, but does this have to be a bad thing? I realized that I make beads because I like beads. I like making stuff that can be used for something. I like making stuff that people can wear. I am more attracted to making functional things than things that just sit on a shelf. Not that I don't appreciate the stuff that sits on shelves - I do, trust me - but I don't think it's what I want to make. Not at this point in time, in any case. When it's time for me to make other stuff, then I will.

So, anyway, after these profound realizations, I decided to put myself in "production mode" and just sit at the torch for a few days and make a big bunch of beads. Beads, just beads. So I did. I made LOTS of beads.

It was fun. And delightfully non-stressful. These are kind of all over the place as far as style is concerned, but I'm hoping there will be something for everyone. Or at least something for someone. Or anything for anyone? Check them out on my Etsy.

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Now, back to those computer games.

My incredible talent for swapping colored exploding jewels aside (uh, just so we're clear, this refers to the Bejeweled Blitz thing, not my latest mini-sets - they don't explode), I've been obsessing over a different kind of computer game lately. I think you may have heard of it. It's called Etsy.

A couple of months ago, in an effort to boost my sales, I decided to play the Etsy game. That is, do all the stuff you're supposed to do to boost your sales on Etsy. Improve your photos. Renew your items every day. Make treasuries. Get people to click on the treasuries. Join a team. Participate on the Etsy forums.

I did all this stuff. I changed all my photos to make them fit nicely into the annoying-not-quite-square Etsy shop format. I joined a team. I've been posting messages - most of them just pointless "here I am" messages - on the forums. Some of the discussions there are quite interesting, actually - yay, more time spent in front of the computer reading stuff - but I can't really get too involved; I have too many other forums and social networks to be overly involved with at this point. And I've been renewing stuff. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, "renewing" is when you pay $0.20 to relist an item, usually long before its expiration date. This pushes your item to the top of the search results for about a millisecond, thus supposedly boosting your sales. It seems unfair, doesn't it? Like, why should you have to keep paying and paying to relist the same items? I mean, if you do it once a day, you pay $6 a month - not a big deal. But I have learned that some people renew things 15-20 times a day. I've been doing it in moderation - 2 or 3 times a day, or so. I can confidently say that this does absolutely nothing for my sales and I am just pointlessly donating money to Etsy. I should really stop that. But don't take my word for it - some people say that renewing works wonders for them.

And then, there's the treasuries. Treasuries work in a weird way. You can open a new one when the number of treasuries drops below 333. Then, there is a 5-second time slot to "grab" it, and if you can do that, you get this sense of achievement. Yay, I GOT it! Once you become obsessed with making treasuries (who, me?), you can follow the Treasure Clock to check when they're scheduled to open up and the Treasure Hunt to see if anyone put any of your items in their treasuries. Then, at some point, you find your daily schedule revolving around the treasury. Uh, no, I can't sit at the torch right now, because the treasury is opening up in 3 hours and I don't want to miss it. Then you're supposed to promote the treasuries, because the more people click and comment on them, the more popular they get, and if they get really popular, there's a small chance they might appear on Etsy's front page, which is supposed to be really cool and stuff.

Seriously, Etsy somehow has its sellers donating time and money to them, working really hard for free and rarely complaining about it. It's kind of amazing. Someone should research this psychological phenomenon and figure out why the hell this is working for them.

Why am I doing all this stuff? It's not boosting my sales. The things that do boost my sales are my blog, my newsletter and occasionally Facebook. The Etsy games aren't really working for me. But they are fun to play. Making treasuries and/or appearing in them doesn't really do much for promotion. I kind of knew this already, long before this obsession started. I've always said that the only people browsing the treasuries are other sellers, not buyers, and I'm pretty sure this is true.

And yet, I am obsessed with the idea of making it to Etsy's front page. So my life must revolve around treasuries. It's like playing the same computer game over and over and over again. If you don't win, you just start over. Even if the prize isn't worth as much as you think it might be.

Hey, you probably have a better chance at scoring 668,700 points in Bejeweled Blitz.

Drawing Winners

2010-02-01T21:36:00Z

The three winners of the Making Mandala Beads pre-sale drawing are:

Elaine H.

Anne-Marij V.

Mari W.

Congratulations!

The winners will be notified by e-mail.

Many thanks to everyone who purchased the E-book so far.
Your support is much appreciated!

It's Ready!

2010-02-01T00:11:00Z

Yay! I made it in time!

http://www.glassbysarah.com/ebooks/mandala

All the pre-ordered copies have been sent out, and I will be announcing the winners of the drawing tomorrow!

If you have ordered a copy and you haven't received it yet, please check your junk mail folder - if it's not in there, e-mail me at sarah.hornik@gmail.com.

Progress Report

2010-01-28T20:37:00Z

Ugh. I'm becoming one of those people who uses their blog for nothing but shameless self-promotion. I hope I'm not losing your interest here. It's just that the constant obnoxious marketing has been necessary lately (bead, anyone?). Making ends meet has become a struggle, so I can't put as much time into thinking about humorous, infuriating or even remotely interesting non-marketing-related things to blog about - and I am pretty sure no one wants to read about my dark and twisted thoughts on the current economy again (bead? anyone?). I know we're all in the same boat here, so please forgive me? I promise to be interesting again, or at least make you laugh at my troubles, once I get my new E-book out on the virtual shelves.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you some more about Making Mandala Beads. I've been working like crazy all week, stressing myself out about possibly not meeting the deadline and stuff. But now, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing, and confident that I am going to have it finished in time. I still need to re-shoot a couple of the tutorials (thanks to Indi for being so patient with me and, as always, doing such a fantastic job on the tutorial photography), but aside from that, almost everything is ready. I'm up to 60 pages already, not including those two tutorials, so imagine how huge this one is going to be!

I am including tons of information, alongside the tutorial section. If you've never worked with Bullseye glass before, or if you've tried it once or twice and put it away, all frustrated and vowing never to use it again - like me at first - you're going to love this E-book. We've got pros and cons, tips and tricks galore, lots of 'ideas and inspiration' and 11 pages of suggested color combinations.

$18 is a great price for this E-book, if I do say so myself!
If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you should!
Don't forget: the price goes up to $24 on February 1st.

Okay, it's back to work now for me. See you soon!

A New E-book is Coming! SPECIAL PRE-ORDER SALE!

2010-01-23T18:41:00Z

I've been working like crazy all week, and my new E-book is almost ready!
This one is called Making Mandala Beads, and the ETA is February 1st, 2010!

In the meantime, I've decided to have a little pre-order sale:

Order your copy now, and receive a 25% discount!

If you buy your copy before February 1st, here's what you get:

Buy the E-book for a price of only $18.00, instead of $24.00!

Be the one of the first to receive a copy as soon as the E-book is ready - before everybody else!

And wait, there's more...

I will enter your name in a raffle for a free Mandala bead - there will be three lucky winners!

The winners will be announced on February 2nd.

But first, you would probably like some more information about the E-book. Right?

This E-book focuses on one of my latest favorite bead styles - Mandalas!

My Mandala beads incorporate different types of complex cane, and they are great for improving your heat control, dot placement, gravity control and other technical abilities, providing you with lots of new and exciting possibilities!

The E-book will include six full step-by-step tutorials - three different types of cane and three different Mandala-style focal disk beads:

1. Making wig-wag cane
2. Making spiral murrini
3. Making ribbon cane

4. Making a wig-wag mandala
5. Making a ribbon cane mandala
6. Making a spiral murrini mandala

These are examples of the beads we'll be making:
(The beads in the tutorials will be slightly different, but the techniques used are the same.)

I will be demonstrating the beads in this E-book using Bullseye glass. You can definitely accomplish the same techniques in COE-104 glass, but I find that working in Bullseye makes life a bit easier - and besides, the colors rock (as I may have mentioned once or twice).

Since Bullseye may be unfamiliar to some readers, the E-book will include lots of tips and tricks for working with this glass, ideas to spark your imagination and a collection of at least a dozen (possibly more, because the list keeps growing) of my favorite Bullseye color combinations, code numbers and all!

As usual, the E-book will be in PDF format. It is going to be at least 60 pages long (probably more!) and will contain lots and lots of high-quality photos!

If I have you convinced that this one is worth waiting for... I hope I have... you can pre-order your copy today, for only $18.00!
A download link will be sent to your e-mail address as soon as the E-book is ready, by February 1st.
(I will send it to your Paypal e-mail address by default - if you'd like it sent to a different e-mail, please specify so in the "instructions to seller" on Paypal).

And, as previously mentioned, you'll be entered in the drawing to win one of three free mandala beads!

This pre-order sale will run till February 1st! Once the sale is over, the price of the E-book will be $24.00.

(Once more, just so we're clear: as this is a pre-order sale, you will not be receiving your copy of the file immediately - it will be sent to you by February 1st, 2010.)

UPDATE: The sale has ended.
Thanks everyone!

You can now buy Making Mandala Beads at http://www.glassbysarah.com/ebooks/mandala.

Studies in Black and White

2010-01-17T16:50:00Z

And other colors...

Now on Etsy!

Check my eBay for a couple of square sets, ending today... and some revisiting butterflies!

And in other news...

Due to popular (I hope) demand, I'm working on a new E-book! Details to come soon.

If you're in Israel: The fabulous Melanie Moertel will be teaching a 2-day class at GilRaphal here in Tel Aviv this March. I can't wait to meet her! The dates of the class are Sun.-Mon., March 7-8, 10:00-18:00.
The class will include basic stringer work in different diameters and application of tiny lines. Besides that, Melanie will teach striped murrini and a few of her signature styles: Indian Elephant beads, penguins and fairies. This should be fun!
There is a limited number of spots left. For more info and registration, please contact GilRaphal at 03-5603113.

More New Stuff on Etsy

2010-01-15T00:13:00Z

I don't do black and white very often, but these past few days I've been kind of intrigued with how they contrast with other colors.

The focals in my 'Mystical' series are pretty cool - and in attempt to make more affordable stuff, they are just $22 a piece.

And, a new retro-ish mini-set called 'Wallflowers':

New Squares

2010-01-12T21:21:00Z

Now on Etsy:

New Obsession #395,781

2010-01-10T20:59:00Z

Squares!

Squares are cool.

I've been playing around with my tile press from Maria Louisa in The Netherlands... I actually got this from her the first time I taught there, many years ago, but never got around to using it till now. I like it a lot, as you can see - it's really easy to use. I will have to check out some more of her presses once the economy gets better (if I'm still into presses whenever that happens).

Anyway, squares - crazy stringer ones:

There were a couple more sets, but those sold pretty quickly, to my delight. And now would be a good time to thank my loyal buyers for their support - it means so much, especially in times like these. Thanks!

This is kind of a new style for me - strangely minimalistic, relatively speaking, but fun. I have some more in the kiln right now, so stay tuned.
Pink ones... there always have to be pink ones.
I'm so obsessed with squares that I even devoted a treasury to them! Your clicks are much appreciated.

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Oh, before I forget... I'm offering an E-book sale on Etsy right now: all three for a bundle price, $55.00 instead of $61.50.

Click here, or visit my shop - I'll list more bundles if they "sell out". I'm listing them one at a time for now, because that seems to be the way to do things on Etsy. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, sigh.

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In other news - all squares aside - I made a marble! It's almost round! Look!

These photos are crappy, I should take better ones.

But anyway, this is so cool... I've always wanted to make a marble. I'm not sure if I'll be making more though, because perfectly round stuff stresses me out, and besides, I'm too obsessed with squares at the moment. Maybe at some point in the future.

Well, actually, I'll probably be making another one on Friday... part two of a marble class I'm taking with Michal Menachem.

After that... well, we'll see.

Still Stringer-Obsessed

2010-01-07T11:02:00Z

New mini-sets, now on eBay:

(Each photo shows three beads, both sides.)

More coming soon!Also, check my Etsy for some new sets, mini-sets, focals and stuff...

Heading back to the torch, there's a pile of stringers waiting... see ya soon!

Goodbye 2009: Top Nine of Almost Everything

2010-01-01T13:16:00Z

Because Top Ten lists are so cliché.

(The lists are in no particular order, nor are the items on the lists.)

Top Nine Words
I use too much

really
just
actually
something
seriously
anything
nothing
things
stuff

Top Nine Bullseye Colors
that totally kick any COE-104 color’s ass.

Sunset Coral Transparent (1305)
Neo-Lavender Opalescent (0142)
Light Fuchsia Transparent (1232)
Gold Purple Transparent (1334)
Light Sky Blue Transparent (1414)
Neo-Lavender Shift Transparent (1442)
Aqua Blue Tint Transparent (1808)
Gold Purple Opalescent (0334)
Seaweed Aventurine Transparent (1812)

Top Nine Entertaining Websites
you should visit if you have a lot of time to kill

Oddee
xkcd
Photoshop Disasters
Mental Floss
PostSecret
Regretsy
Worth 1000
Fail Blog
Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages

My Top Nine Favorite Beads
I made in 2009

Top Nine Semi-Precious Gemstones
I am madly in love with

Tanzanite
Labradorite
Peridot
Aquamarine
Lepidolite
Onyx
Lapis Lazuli
Kyanite
Unakite
Fluorite

My Top Nine Favorite Blog Posts
I wrote in 2009

Single Girl goes Apartment Hunting in Tel Aviv
On Being a Torch Bug
Wonderglass
Skajateh Pajalsta, Gdyeh Tel-Aviv?
Unholy Cathedrals / Holey Uncathedrals
Almost Deja-Vu
Things that Piss Me Off
Alternate Universes
The Devil You Know

Top Nine Books that Made Me Think
over the last decade

The Elements of Color, Johannes Itten
Diet for a New America, John Robbins
Party of One, Anneli S. Rufus
Colour: Travels through the Painbox, Victoria Finlay (AKA Color: A Natural History of the Palette)
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
Synchronicity, Carl Jung
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
The Feline Mystique, Clea Simon
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Top Nine Places I have Never Visited
but would really like to

Hawaii
Hong Kong
Barcelona
Japan
San Francisco
Tristan Da Cunha
Florence
Antarctica
Ireland

Top Nine Things I Keep Saying I’m Going to Do
but then I don’t

Upgrade my torch
Move to a place with a bigger studio
Get a driver’s license
Get my dental work over with
Write a novel
Build a new website
Start a new blog about color
Vacuum the carpet in my bedroom
Go on blind dates

My Top Nine Favorite Photos
I took in 2009

My Top Nine Most Viewed Photos
on Flickr (seriously)

Top Nine Things I Would Like to Learn
how to do

Blow large-scale glass objects
Speak Italian
Speak Russian
Speak Dutch
Sew my own clothes
Silversmithing
Fix stuff around the house
Anatomical figure drawing
Fusing

Top Nine Things that Seemed Like a Good Idea to Buy at the Time
but I never really ended up using

A pile of frit blends
Cubic Zirconias
Shocking pink Adidas sneakers
A blender / smoothie maker
Hollow mandrels
Glittery pink eye shadow
Glitter glue
A pink frying pan
Blue nail polish

Top Nine Things People Assume about Me
that aren’t true

She’s really tall.
She’s really loud.
She’s much older.
She’s so patient.
She’s meticulously organized.
She always has a plan.
It is okay to call her before noon because she is awake.
She speaks English with an Israeli accent.
She is some kind of nutcase.

Top Nine Major Annoyances
that really freak me out

New Year’s Eve parties
Neighbors in general
Recessions
Airport security
Large insects
The slow and painful death of my computer
Dental work
People who bring small children to fancy restaurants
People who never put their cellphones down

Top Nine TV Shows
of the last decade (or at least the ones I will admit to liking)

Breaking Bad
Six Feet Under
Dexter
The Shield
Big Love
Survivor
United States of Tara
Coupling
Law and Order

Top Nine Things that Never Fail
to crack me up

Big Ben Clock Twitter account
Total Eclipse literal Video
Broccoli Camel
The Count Censored
Someone is wrong on the internet
Cats on a Treadmill
Best news blooper ever
Giant Microbes
Autocomplete Me

Top Nine Michael Jackson Songs
I secretly like

Human Nature
Stranger in Moscow
You are not Alone
Dirty Diana
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
The Way you Make Me Feel
Billie Jean
Earth Song
Smooth Criminal

Top Nine Random Facts
I kind of like knowing

The yellow color in Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (and many other famous paintings) is a paint called Indian Yellow, made of the urine of cows fed only mango leaves..

The word “electric” was derived from “electron”, the Greek word for “amber”. The discovery of amber’s electrostatic properties was humanity's earliest recorded experience with electricity (besides lightning).

If you bend a piece of dry spaghetti it will almost always break into three pieces.

There are opals on Mars.

Fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.

“www” is an acronym that is 3 times longer than what it stands for.

The words “purple” and “orange” do not have rhymes in the English language. (Or at least so I thought; but according to Wikipedia, the both have "obscure perfect rhymes".)

If you take a star sapphire and smash it and polish the pieces to make them round, there will be a star in each piece (or so I've read, but I can't find anything to back it up so don't try it at home).

This blog (minus this post) has a word count of 134,727 words.

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HAPPY 2010!

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I've decided to extend my Etsy Clearance Sale by one day - so today is the last day. Don't miss out on the 20% discount on all beads and jewelry!
And I've added a bunch of focal beads from my personal stash, and some new jewelry too.