Nothing more than...

Fall colors have finally started to show up around here. I thought we'd go straight to leaves dropping, but luckily there are some great colors to be seen this year; particularly in the Oak Creek Canyon area. Perhaps we'll get over that way with the camera before winter.

Sorry about not posting in the past few weeks. We're trying to get ready for the holidays and the house isn't going along with our plans. Mike took a bit of a tumble and bruised up his wrist and I've been a little ill lately. Not great things when you want nothing more than to play with new ideas at the torch! :0)

The new setup for the torch is working out and it's much, much better than our old setup. I can work whenever I get the urge now without having to go outside or put on 5 layers of clothes. There was nothing I hated more than winter when the studio was outside in the shed and the snow would begin to fall.

We're putting aside much more time lately for bead making so don't forget to check out our eBay auctions!

Kat

Another Year

Mike has finally gotten the studio quasi-setup, at least enough to work in comfort. I celebrated my birthday playing at the torch. :0) YEAH! We've gotten some of the new CIM glass in pinks in that I still can't wait to try out. I'm hoping that they're fabulous, but pink is such a tricky color that you can never tell what it'll do once you flame it.

My little experiment with my auction didn't quite go the way I'd planned. I remembered working in the fashion industry having to work a season or two ahead and thought, perhaps jewelry designers would appreciate the spring set I put up this last week. Maybe I got a little carried away and should go back to the winter colors. :0)

I'm hoping that Mike's up coming days off from his "regular" job afford him time to torch. I think I'll just have to push him into the studio and lock the door until he gets a few sets done. ;0)

Kat

Beads being listed on eBay

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop a quick line here about some bead sets that managed to get packed away during the move. I've got them set to start on Tues., October 17th at 6pm eBay time. Previews can be had on the gallery site and here's a little sample for those interested...

Kat

All's well

There really isn't much going on in the Blue Spider Arts world at the moment. I'm itching to get at my glass and torch, but there are other things that need to come first at the moment.

We've gotten one room finished in the new house, but I can't show pictures. It's the room where I've got my big commission and I agreed that I wouldn't show any part of the progress until after it's been delivered. Which should be sometime in Feb... Artist Susan Holt will be painting a mural in my new room. To see more of her work take a trip over to www.saholtstudios.com.

Mike and I are working on the North studio today. Nothing like taking one room at a time to drive me nuts. I'm itching to get everything into a place of it's own so I can find what I need! My looms are wanting to play, also....

I wonder if I'll ever manage to weave glass someday.... :0)

Kat

Not much going on

Well, the past month has been very busy, but not much to talk about. The north studio is coming along and I picked up some lighting that will be fabulous for it today. The glass works is being transfered to the garage area. The solarium is something we want to be able to use as a room, so out to the garage we go to work. :0)

Mike's been very busy painting one of the bedrooms and hasn't had alot of time to do much else. I've listed a few aceo's on Esty for anyone interested in taking a look. You can search from the front page search box by typing in "BSA". I only sell the original's on the aceo', so you're getting a great deal on collectable original art. I should have a few more up before to much longer, but I hesitate to say exactly when I'll get around to listing it! :0) I've also got a few "art squared" pieces that I should list, but time seems at a premium these days.

With that I need to get back to work...
Kat

Fallen Lampworkers Rise from the Dead

Well, here we are again. It's only been four months or so since I've posted to the blog and I'm a bad, bad girl. There have been so many things going on that lampwork, art and anything else has had to take a backseat to getting our booties in gear. How sad that we've had to take care of all those nasty mundanities that sometimes rise up, grab you by the throat and try to choke you to death.

We're finished with the renovations on the house, so it's time to say goodbye to it. We've purchased another fixer upper because we absolutely must be gluttons for punishment. Actually, it was the south facing sunroom that sold us on it. It's just begging to become the new lampwork studio! And with 5 bedrooms one will magically transform itself into the textile and painting studio! I finally get my dream of having north and south facing studios! YEAH!!! Life is sweet!

I'm working on a pretty important commission right now. Mike's trying to help out when he can. I'm glad that my deadline isn't until Feb 10th. Unfortunately, I can't show you any of it until after it's finished. I can say without a doubt that it will be the most important work I've ever accomplished and I'm excited to be able to show off the finished work. This is something I never thought I'd be able to do.

So, now it's time for me to sign off. But I promise that I'll be back way before another four months is up! Look for photos of the new studios as we get them set up!

Kat

Stunning Rusty!

We've made up some lost time on the bead end of things, but we're still a little behind. Our little studio is getting ready for it's makeover and I forsee a lot of confussion in the weeks ahead. Of course all this will be going on during the remodel of the kitchen!

I'm more and more interested in the photographs that Rusty's been making available to the studio lately. This is just fantastic work! Rusty grabs the essence of the desert and caputres for all time the harsh cruelty and fantastic beauty that seeps through the pores of the desert floor and it's abundant wildlife.

I really need to get something up on the site for these photographs! Prints will be made available on the site soon, I promise!

Kat

Beads soon!

Things have been a little hectic around here of late. I'm wishing we could go back on vacation! But it looks to start calming down by this weekend and perhaps we'll get some beads made!

I'd like to let y'all know that we've grabbed up a new artist for the studio! Welcome Rusty Kimmel! You're going to be a fabulous addition to our little group here!

Rusty's been an artist for over 35 years, only recently choosing to go public with art. Rusty's photographs are wonderful and we're proud to offer them to the public at long last. Rusty has also worked recently in mosaic's and paints creating one of a kind masterpieces that will (unforunately) stay in the artist's collection.

The deal we've made with Rusty is that all photography will be run in extremely limited editions. The only exception will be the limited edition series books that we're still debating edition size on.

If there's something that really grabs you, grab it fast before it disappears forever!

Kat

We're Back!!!!

We had a lovely time of it! It rained buckets and I loved every minute of it. I really fell in love with the area and Mike and I are considering purchasing some land there. I managed to get some interesting photo's while I was there. I'll have some of them up on next months "revolving" front page of the website.

Our hosts were the very best and the trip was a fabulous success. We enjoyed every minute we were there. Everything went fab and I've had a few more requests to teach while we were away. Sadly, we had to turn some down. We like making beads and teaching eats at our bead making time.

Tahoe was a no go this trip as we've both had our fill of snow for the year. We detoured instead to Laughlin, Nv. and had a ball throwing money at the one armed bandits. We even managed to walk away with some! :0)

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter!

Kat

We're off!

So, this will be the last post here until we return from our trip. We've gotten some fab colors in and we'll be playing with them on our return... Luckily for us we don't need to bring any of our own equipment with us on this trip. I am taking along my ACEO workings to play with, though!

If you've purchased beads/art from us, but haven't paid by midnight tonight, your beads or art will ship on our return. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and a fab Spring break!

Kat

Coined for Summer

Here's a set that I did this week just in time for summer... The "coins" are hand shaped and rather different from my norm. I was swept away with the need to do something different. I've also been working on getting a set of "blocks" together.

I have a lentil press, but I find that hand shaped beads have more character and are more fun to make than squishing glass in a press. Then there's also the problem that most presses are not made to fit the 1mm mandrels I usually use, so hand shaping is the only way most of the time! :0)

I've been having some more problems with my hands. The CT has been acting up, I'm hoping because of the weather. (Lovely spring rains instead of snow, thank all that's holy!) I'm looking at possibly getting surgery done so I can work for longer than 15 minutes at a stretch. You have no idea how long it takes to make a set of beads working in 10-15 min. blocks! :0)

I should find out sometime in April about surgery, so I'll post here when I do. It's possible that you'll be seeing more of Mike's work than mine up for awhile. Both hands need it, but I might be able to hold off on having my right hand done until the left heals. For the life of me I can't figure out why my left is so much worse than my right... I am a "righty" after all! :0)

Kat

It's all about the glass!

So, I finally figured out a cool way to make the tie-dyed beads I've been wanting to do for some time now... And it was a complete accident! Providence riding to the rescue, I suppose! ;0) I can tell I'm going to have fun with this process and experimenting...

I'm playing around with some new combinations that I hope you like. It's nothing fancy, but I'm having fun and that's all that matters to me. Mike's taken to using alot of his loopy styles lately, but I persuaded him to make some lovely sets with "matchers" in them for you jewelry designers out there...

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat awaiting my glass order! I can't wait to get the new colors! I know that I'll be off and ordering again before to much longer... I'm addicted to glass shopping! I can't stand to place an order and not get everything my greedy eyes desire. Bad beadmaker! Bad! :0)

Kat

Glass Ordered...

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in a color request! I ordered more glass today and I think you'll all be very pleased with some of what I've chosen. Some of the handpulled Italian cane really caught my attention and it comprised most of the order. Oh, some of these colors are just fabulous! I can't wait to get them to the torch! Of course, most of the handpulled glasses are 3 times the cost of the "regular" glass that's available... But very, very worth it!

I use 3/64" mandrels for most of my beads... That comes out to about 1 mm. As you can probably imagine they get bent alot easier than Mike's 3/32" or my 1/16" mandrels. So, I've got more of those on the way as well! I don't use the 1/16" as often as I used to... I can make the mini beads on either, but my smallest beads are usually made on the 3/64" and I dearly love to make beads as small as I can! There's no challenge to making huge detailed beads with all that room to work on... And to my way of thinking, anything over 12 mm is huge! (Shhhhh... Don't tell Mike I said that!!!)

We're gearing up for our foray in to the wilds of Northern California... We've managed to sell out our class already! Yeah! Students are still trickling in for our Az. classes, but I'm thinking that if I'm not careful I won't leave any torch time for us! We're really excited about hitting Tahoe on the way back. I love to travel and have been lucky enough to live in some facinating places, but Tahoe was never one of them! So it will be something new, at least.

Kat

Spring is in the air!

Well, after the snow yesterday (yes, again!) we're blessed with a bright sunny day! Yeah! I've already spent some time at the torch today and Mike expects to get a few sets made today also. I've gotten my new glass and I love it. Perhaps I'll put up a few sets on eBay soon...

We're looking at ordering some more glass soon, so color requests are very welcome right now! There's a link to our email address in the links section on the right side of the page.

We did lose all of our lovely flowers, but I cannot deny that we need the water. We can replant the flowers... I just wish it wouldn't get so cold... It's supposed to be spring! :0)

Kat

Glass inbound!

I've ordered some new glass I can't wait to get. It should be here sometime today. Apparently it's a much softer glass than the Italian and German glasses we usually use. I've already gotten the annealing program entered into the kiln for it and it's annealing point is about 100 degrees less than our Italian/German beads!

I've also got an order of our Italian glass coming. I've gotten enough requests to place an order for these colors... Definately not our norm, but now I'm excited for them to get here so I can play. If I know Mike though, he'll hide it from me so he can have all to himself... I guess it's a good thing I do the unpacking! :0) (I've always got a secret glass stash that Mike doesn't know about! If I didn't I wouldn't get to use the cool colors!)

The weather's taken a turn for the worse again... We're socked in by clouds and it's supposed to snow again... It was 65 and sunny two days ago. We can always use the water, but does it have to come as snow? :0)

Kat

Beads, beads, beads

Well, I'm sorry I didn't get back to this before now. We've been really busy. I've got some more beads available on our site, so feel free to check them out.

In the middle of all this remodeling we've decided to do the studio also... We're picking out cabinets for that this week and I'm hoping that it won't take to long to get it done. Should look fabulous and be more practical. All good to my way of thinking.

Kat

Warmer weather!

Well, the snow has melted away and the days are getting warmer! We've been busy picking out new cabinets for the kitchen.... I'm so tired of remodling!

I've gotten more calls about classes! I'm very happy about that! There seem to be a few people spreading the word around Phoenix about me and I couldn't be happier! It is well worth the time I spend and it keeps us in all the glass we could ever want. Not to mention the new tools I get to buy now! :0)

I'll be hitting the torch hard tomorrow, so look for new beads on our website!

Kat

Snow Day!

Well, we've gotten some pretty strange weather around here before, but this really takes the cake! We started out the week with temps in the high 70's... Now, it's 34 degrees outside and snowing! We can't see the mountian behind the house or the red rocks of Sedona for all the clouds and snow!

I'm just laughing away right now! This is the first snowfall of the season for us and that it happened just when all our beautiful landscaping was starting to bud! We've probably lost the lilacs and the daffodils, but we need the water more than the flowers.

It's still looking to be a very dry summer with wildfires galore here, but hopefully it won't be as bad as it was a few years ago. I wish the USFS would realize that proscribed burns in summer in Arizona are a no no! They fill up our valley with smoke and haze, not to mention making it harder to breathe!

Kat

Not much today...

Nothing much going on today... It was too cold to work outside on the painting that needs to get done. But the good news is we've gotten the majority of the new dual pane windows installed! That will be a boon come summer around here and should make a diference come next winter.

It's also a bit dreary out today! We finally got some much needed rain and there's more in the forecast for the weekend... I'm so happy to see clouds! When you live in the desert, sunshine can become very depressing! ;0)

I'll probably be playing with the torch tomorrow, so I'll post pics!

Kat

A Pint, A Glass or a Cup?

Here's the beads I was telling you about in my last post... I couldn't resist!

I'm not much of a beer drinker (not much of a drinker at all, really). I couldn't help thinking that on some of those very hot summer days, nothing sounds better than a nice cold beer. I added three bar flies just for giggles... :0)

These are available on our gallery site or you can bid away on ebay, as I just posted them today.

Kat