Procrastination is NOT my friend!

I wish I didn’t procrastinate on things. There, I said it. I procrastinate. Why put off for tomorrow what can be put off for at least another two or three days? This is NOT a good thing!! And I have NO idea how to stop doing it. Weird huh? Yes, I’m busy. I’m always busy. Sometimes I’m busy doing nothing – but no one believes that because I fake it well! There are times when I spend a great deal of energy and time avoiding doing something – when it would make much more sense to just do the something in the first place! So if anyone has any good tips for taking this procrastination bull by the horns and fixing it, let me know please! And no, just telling me not to do it won’t work – tried that, but I put that off too. Figured I could start doing it tomorrow, and it just never happened. Bad me!!

On a totally unrelated note – here’s a pic of the copper bangles I’m helping Lise design for the Riveted Bangles class she’s teaching at the Spring Bead Show – we wanted something chunky and fun, so I made the bases for her to embellish. So I think I get kudos for working in copper at least – anyone who knows me knows it’s NOT my favorite metal. But these turned out okay, can’t wait to see what they look like all finished (these aren’t even polished!).

Now, I’m going to get off this computer and force myself into the studio. I must make something – anything today. Maybe that will help kick the procrastination to the curb. We shall see! Cheers!

A first for me!

I did it!! I made a spinner ring!! I’ve seen these in all kinds of different places (stores, Etsy, etc) and have always been intrigued by them. Brendalee Astells is going to teach how to make a spinner ring at the upcoming bead show in March. Lise, my class coordinator, said she wanted to make one too. So I thought I better jump on the bandwagon and give it a shot myself! So yesterday while working on a couple of custom pieces (yes, shocking but true, I was working in my studio! Hallelujah!), I grabbed a piece of metal and made a spinner ring. Yay!! It was fun and easy, and I’m actually wearing it on my pinky finger and LOVE it. It tinkles and jingles when you move, and you can spin the little center bands around. Too cool!! Wanna see?

I think I’m going to make more, it was fun! But I’ll take better pictures – that one was taken very hurriedly on my laptop with no proper lighting or anything. Note to self, need batteries for the camera! LOL

I’m working on the class registration information for the bead show. It should go live later today – fingers crossed!! Hope to see you there! Cheers!!

A slow start!

Well, obviously, I’ve had a slow start to this year. Unfortunately! My husband (who really doesn’t get enough credit for being such an awesome guy – he spoils me rotten most days, and provides me with endless hours of comic relief!), has been laid off since December 18. We are NOT used to spending every waking hour together. I have discovered that I am set in my ways. I like things to be done a certain way and when he’s at work all day, I can do that. But when he’s home all day, it’s a delicate balance of sharing and compromise – okay, who am I kidding, he doesn’t share anything. But he does compromise. He likes my undivided attention (although he’ll deny that vehemently!), and when I ignore him, he is less than happy. But in all fairness, having him home has been great – we really do get along well most days. BUT it’s not terribly productive for either of us. So, he went back to work today, so things will hopefully get back to normal around here. Well, as normal as anything gets around this place!!

I’m supposed to be learning how to work with resin making bangle bracelets on Wednesday – I’m super excited about that!! Its going to be one of the classes at the bead show, so I’m the guinea pig for the instructor. FUN!!! I have a special package to mail out to a friend tomorrow, so will put the finishing touches on that tonight, otherwise, I think I’m going to hit the studio tomorrow and not come out until things are created!! I need to focus on rings. Someone remind me of that when I get sidetracked with ’stuff’!!

Have a great week, hope to have some pics to share soon! Cheers!

Happy New Years To All!

I just wanted to take a few minutes as 2009 winds down to a close and wish everyone of my friends, students, online buddies, and all a very happy New Year, and best wishes for a creative and prosperous 2010. I’m not big on resolutions (why set myself up for failure? LOL) but I would like to try to be a little more dedicated to my blog and my website – both sadly neglected lately, and I should cut that out. Hopefully 2010 will allow me to spend more time in my studio creating – I have so many ideas and just need to take the time to put them into practice. I would also like the thank everyone for their support – I really appreciate each and every one of you!

Cheers my friends!! Hope your evening is a good one, and tomorrow is a bright new day!

More Jewelry – bad pics & all!!

Well, I totally suck at keeping up here, don’t I? I’m thinking I need to smarten up! Sorry!! I have a couple of pictures to show you of jewelry I finished the other day. These pieces are now happily hanging out at the gallery, hopefully they’ll find new owners soon!

The first is a dichroic glass and rainbow moonstone pendant – it’s quite big, about 3 inches long in total. The back is decorated with my ‘Pathways’ motif (and yes, I know the pic sucks, but I was in a hurry, it was dark, and the light in my kitchen sucks! LOL!

The next one is a revisit of an old style I’ve done for many years. Joye (the gallery owner) specifically requested some of these two-stone rings, so here’s the first – smokey quartz and pink tourmaline.

This one is a honking huge blue lace agate ring with an asymmetrical setting that was inspired by Janice, the fearless leader of the Jewelry Artists Network forum. I am decidedly not happy with the corners of the square wire frame, but I chose to let it go anyway – deep breath!! lol I’ll probably regret that decision at some point!

Side view of the same ring

And finally, my favorite one – titanium drusy ring with a type of ‘Sticks & Stones’ setting. This is another huge ring, but it sure commands attention – I’ll bet it finds a home fast! LOL

and a side view of this one….

I still haven’t uploaded my wedding pics to my Flickr site yet but will try soon. I haven’t gotten any professional pics yet (other than the two we got a while back), might be time to start nagging the newlyweds! LOL

Well, i am not even close to being ready for Christmas, but I’m sure it will come together with much less stress than last year. If you’ll recall (well you will if you lived near me at the time) we were socked in with more snow than should be legal. Fortunately we only have rain, glorious rain!! no complaints from me!

Btw, if you want to keep up with me these days, I have been bitten by the Facebook bug – find me there anytime, and friend me!!! I’m trying to beat my son’s girlfriend’s number of friends, but she has a couple of years ahead of me so it might be hard to catch up. But I’m willing to try! LOL

Hope you’re getting yourself all ready for Christmas – I’m sure I’ll have Christmas pictures soon too!! Happy Holidays!!

So much to say!!

Wow! It’s been ages since I blogged! Sorry to leave you all hanging! Let’s see, where did I leave off?! Oh yeah, the Christmas party. It was a raging success, everyone had a blast, especially Susan (thank you SO much for everything Sue!! You’re the BEST!) and I. Can’t wait to do it again – we’re thinking something in the spring this time. It was awesome to see our current as well as past students and catch up a little with everyone. Oh yes, I met my son’s future Mother In Law (*wave* Laura!). She asked me to make her some jewelry for the wedding and the only stipulation was that it should go well with the red dress she was going to wear. So I ended up with two sets for her to choose from – and she couldnt’ decide so took both! Here’s what I came up with

Red dichroic glass with freshwater pearl on reticulated sterling silver. The bail on the pendant is a small loop on the back.

Textured sterling silver with garnet

Laura wore the red dichroic & pearl set to the wedding – looked pretty darn good if I do say so myself!!

Anyway, I will update on the actual wedding tomorrow. I have to head to bed – I have a long day ahead tomorrow (so what else is new lately! LOL!). Cheers!!

Christmas Party!!

Tomorrow!! Our Christmas party is tomorrow!! I can’t wait to see everyone! I’m busily scrounging through my studio for stuff to rehome (not that it’s the main reason for the get together, but everyone keeps asking me to do this, so there ya go!). We have door prizes!! We have goodies to munch!! We’re going to do some demos (gotta break in Sue’s new rolling mill!). Bring your show & tell – we love seeing what you guys have done! But I better get back to work!! If you didn’t get the email invite, send me a note and I’ll send you the directions and details!! bedwards @ aebc dot com. Hope to see you there!! Cheers!

Time flies!!

Well, look at that! It’s already nearly the end of November! Where has all the time gone?! I have been very lax on my blog, and I apologize for that. I’ve been teaching A LOT!! Plus, surprise! I’m organizing a spring bead show.I secured the venue last Friday, and now comes the fun part of putting the applications together, sending them out, waiting not so patiently for everyone to reply, etc. Gotta get the posters and flyers done, need to get on the advertising bandwagon. I’m pretty excited! And if that’s not enough fun for one person, my oldest son announced a couple of weeks ago that he & his g/f are getting married on Dec 6. Should be tons of fun I think. Her mom & I hit it off via email right away. We’re meeting on Saturday so she can pick up a necklace/earring set she commissioned me to make for her. I’m looking forward to meeting her in real life! Turns out we both graduated from the same high school in St. Albert, Alberta – me in 1980, she in 1982. small world, huh??
Anyway, jewelry is now starting to be created – I have lots of jewelry on the way, now that students are finally working more on their own. Makes it a little easier for me to create. I will have a couple of rings for show & tell in the next day or two – so stay tuned!!
Don’t forget my Christmas get together!! Sue’s place in Chilliwack on Saturday from noon til 3pm, there’s still room for anyone who wants to join us. Email me at bedwards @ aebc dot com (you know how to fix that one! ). Cheers!!

You’re Invited!

So, what are you doing on November 28? It’s a Saturday and Susan (my teaching assistant) and I are hosting the first annual Christmas Meet & Greet at her place in Chilliwack from Noon to 3pm!! There will be coffee, tea, a few goodies and snacks (feel free to bring a treat if you want to share!). We’re hoping people will bring some show and tell (what have you made lately? any new tools? Whatever!!). I’ll have some used magazines, books, and general ’stuff’ from my studio cleanout that I’m hoping to re-home as well as a few tools for sale. I’ll also have my gemstones available for sale for those that are not currently taking one of my classes but want to shop. Matt of Just Screwing Around will probably be joining us with his texturing hammers, bracelet bending pliers, etc (we’re going to demonstrate how to make a hammered cuff in less than 15 minutes!!). I’m going to show everyone how to use Sue’s brand new rolling mill. I’ll have a few texture samples to share so students can have an idea of what’s possible. We’re also hoping Melanie Rowe will join us with her dichroic glass cabochons for sale (she makes AMAZING cast glass faces as well). And anyone else that would like to have a little space to sell stuff should contact me so we can set something up!! Mostly though, we’re hoping to get together with former students, jewelry designers and others interested in what we’re doing for a great time and to network, share and have FUN!! Wanna come?? Send me an email at bedwards at aebc dot com (you know how to fix that!) and I’ll sign you up!! A fun time is in store for everyone!! Hey, I think we could even come up with some door prizes!! I have a couple of ideas!! YAY! It will be wonderful to see all of you – and for those of you who can’t make it because flying in from across the planet is a bit far, we’ll make sure we take pics and share with you too!

No new jewelry – yet!!

Nope, I guess I’m still recuperating from the show. Turns out I have a million classes right now, so that’s not helping the creative juices flow. Okay, maybe not a million, but there’s my Tuesday night beginner’s class in Chilliwack, my home beginner’s class on Wednesday afternoons, and my Wednesday night drop in class. Can’t forget the upcoming Surface Textures class (full details on my website! That’s coming up on November 1 & 8th (two Sundays). There’s still room for one or two more people, so sign up now if you’re interested! And of course there’s my Beginner’s Saturday intensive coming up November 14 &21, only one space left in that one. And a special announcement coming soon. I’m also working on setting up a regular newsletter for my jewelry friends. Kind of a way to let people that might be interested know about upcoming classes, sales, deals, etc. I figure I always know about this stuff, might as well pass it on!

Hopefully next week, I’ll have some jewelry to show you – it’s been altogether too long since I’ve spent any quality time in my studio!! I miss it! Cheers!