Ribbons and Bows

Something new that you will find on my table at craft shows is hair accessories. My girls have been helping me create cute headbands and hair clips. Here are a few we have made.

They are a lot of fun to make. I enjoy making them because the are instant as compared to my beads. I can pull out my ribbons and glue gun and within moments I can have a simple hair bow completed. By comparison, my beads have to sit over night just to cool down. There are many more steps between that and any finished product. Quite time consuming.

I also like to make them because I can get my girls to help. My youngest has had a couple mishaps with the glue gun but other than that they enjoy creating the bows as much as I do. They definitely have different creative ideas than I do, which is great. Who would want everything to be the same or just one style? This lets them have fun as well as make a little extra money.








One day they will be working on the torch too. Until then, this will have to do.

Cathedral Village Arts Festival 2013

On Wednesday I found that I will indeed be a part of this year's Cathedral Village Arts Festival. They opened an entire extra block this year due to increased demand. Imagine all the extra vendors they will have this year!

My sister has finally decided to set up a booth there as well. Check out her mylittlepaintings on facebook and on etsy. Like me, it seems a lot of her best work doesn't make it online so be sure to look for her at the festival if you get there.

I have recently thought up something new using drawer pulls I made years ago. Hopefully I can get some made for that show or at least one made to show you here what I am talking about. Until then I will say no more about it.

I am very happy to be going back to the Cathedral Arts Festival this year. I believe it will be my 6th or 7th year there. I absolutely love this show. There is so much to see. The only drawback is the time of year. Of course there has been sunny days (one or two) but the weather is not always cooperative. It has been so windy, I once saw someone's gazebo/sunshade lift up and knock them to the ground. That was the worst. It has also been bitterly cold. I think that was last year. But despite the crazy weather, people still show up. And I am glad they do. Without people, there would be no show.

The festival runs from May 20-25. The street faire is on May 25 and this is what I will be participating in.

The Cathedral Village Arts Festival will be held on May 25, 2013 in Regina, Saskatchewan on 13th Avenue from Angus Street to Montague Street. It runs from 10 am to 5 pm.

I hope to see you there!.

Etching Some Beads

I made some beads to etch recently. Like I usually do, I couldn't bring myself to etch some of them because I liked them the way they look now. So I made myself etch only some of the beads.

Here is my makeshift setup. Newspaper, rubber gloves, a cup of water with baking soda to neutralize the beads, beads, and acid for etching. (I like to use paper towel too but only had kleenex.)

The beads are strung on fishing line with plastic E-beads between to prevent large, unetched areas on the ends.

Here are the beads before etching - shiny. The one thing I really do like with etching is how certain transparent colors show up decorations that you otherwise couldn't see.

Putting the beads into the acid. Yes, I am too lazy to actually put the acid in something else so I just thread them into the bottle. Actually I do it this way to avoid more mess, spills, wreaking my glassware, etc.

I don't usually leave the beads in the acid long. The longer they are left, the more matte the finish becomes.

I let the beads sit in the water a minute or two. The water and baking soda neutralizes the acid and stops the etching process.

Once the beads are taken out, I let them dry for awhile. Then I cut the fishing line off and let the beads fully dry until I am ready to use them in my projects. These ones are all for earrings.

The last picture shows the beads after they sat for about half an hour. The white spots are baking soda that I need to wash off but you can see how the beads have changed from their shiny beginning. The purple half and half beads and the half green - half purple beads show up more once they are etched.

One more thing to mention is that you need good ventilation to use liquid acid. Make sure to read all of the precautions on the bottle before using it.

I would etch more beads, because I love the look, but like I said above, I have a hard time bringing myself to do it sometimes.

Thanks for reading!

My Space- Where I Make My Beads

Here is my work area. Nothing pretty or fancy but it works.

Here is my torch, a midrange with a spotter on top. In the background is my kiln. It looks small but I can get quite a few beads in it when I need to. And it is perfect if I ever do get into sculptural work-which I would like to do. Assorted tools to help shape some beads are at the right front side of the table. Glasses of glass are at the back (since been moved) - full of stringers and specialty glass.

Here is a shelf with a lot of my glass rods. It is much fuller now since I cleaned out my "glass" drawer and put all my full rods into this wooden rack. I sorted my pieces of rod by color and have several boxes of those as well. Lately I've been trying to use the pieces instead of new full rods. I had been wasting so much.

Here is another angle of my work station. You can see the fan directly over the desk. It is a good fan and takes the fumes out of the space quickly.

I think the walls might need a bit of paint or at least a little washing! I am not there often enough to notice or care. I stare at what I am working on, not the walls surrounding me. I never even realized how bad they were until I took these pictures.

Next time I will show you how I etch my beads.

Hmmm...

I was planning on going to the sale in Davidson tomorrow and Saturday, however, the roads are terrible.  Here in town they are ok, but the sleet, snow, rain combo from earlier today and the colder weather this evening will likely make it near impossible for me to get there.  Combine this with the fact that I am scared to drive on crappy roads and I don't think I will be able to make the trip.

I was looking so forward to going to the sale.  I guess I will spend the day loading a bunch of stuff onto Etsy instead.

Who knows, some miracle may happen and everything will be fine by the morning.  But I won't be holding my breath to find out.

New Products

Here are some new items I have been making lately. 

First are my cake testers.  I made a glass bead on the end of a stainless steel rod.  Use these instead of toothpicks to check your cakes, cupcakes, brownies, etc.  One nice aspect of these is that they are much longer than a toothpick so they can be used in deeper cakes.  These make great gifts.

Hair stick are another new item I have.  A pretty silver hair stick is embellished with my glass beads.  Here are two of the ones I have made so far.

I also have stick pins.  I had broach pins before, but these are more simple.  Here are a few I have made.

I also have made a couple of magnets.  They are cute and I am sure I can have some fun with the beads I make for them.

The last thing I have that is new are these scoops.  If you can think of what these could be used for, please let me know.  I am not exactly sure how to promote them quite yet.  They are cute though.  And they are small, not much bigger than my jelly spoons.

If you are wanting any of these items, come on down to the Davidson Trade and Hobby Show April 12 & 13, 2013 or send me a message.  If they don't sell right away, I may be able to get some of these things on Etsy.

Davidson Trade and Hobby Show

Ok, so far as I can figure out I am going to be attending the Hobby and Craft show in Davidson next weekend.  No one has gotten back to me from the show but I had a newspaper/flyer contact me about adding an ad for the show, so I guess I must have been accepted.

I was unable to put an ad in the flyer because I didn't get back to her in time.  So I will put my little discount here and see if anyone uses it.

 Mention this blog post and where you saw it and you will receive 10% discount on your total purchase from me.

I am not sure how many people that view my blog even live around here, but for those who do, feel free to share this post so others who may benefit from it can see it as well.

The sale is April 12-13, 2013 in Davidson, Saskatchewan.  It is located at the Davidson Communiplex and runs 12 noon-8 pm on Friday, and 10am-4pm on Saturday.

I have made a bunch of new items.  Come on out and take a look.

Hope to see you there!