The Building of a Website

First off, I'm packing, really I am, see.....

It's just not quite urgent enough yet, so in between I'm working on the new website. I'm fortunate that husband Mark is a big assist in this area. I maintain my current site and know my way around Dreamweaver a bit, but he's the real brains. However look and feel, that's my department and yesterday I discovered Kuler!

Kuler, I am assuming pronounced, Color is an Adobe product. It suggests pallettes but will also create them from a picture. Once you upload your picture the program will create a pallette based on the picture. Options are Colorful, Bright, Muted, Deep, Dark or Custom. In custom you drag circles around the picture until you have selected 5 colors.

But the fun doesn't stop there. You name and save your pallette then click on an icon to display the HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB or Hex values of the colors in your pallette.

But wait! You can also select a rule to change the pallette to analogous, monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound or shades. This has potential for interferring with the packing schedule.

Can you tell I'm excited?

The Charlotte Queen City Crown

Another temporary goodbye....Last summer the Charlotte Bead girls invited me to a gallery opening. They wanted me to meet bead artist Eleanor Wirth, who was having a gallery reception that evening. Before we met, I saw this beautiful piece!

and immediately knew Eleanor and I would connect, and we did. She is absolutely delightful and a huge talent. Her fabulous work can be viewed and purchased at the Red Sky Gallery. Yesterday I spent an inspired day in her studio sharing beady ideas. And we have plans, I know we will continue to see one another and the goodbye will be only temporary.

From yesterday's post I bring you my urchin

and one of the elements in Dallas's Parisian Pendant

I love Dallas's work. I admire his innovation, love the combination seeds and wire, and delight in the form of his pieces. There is some possibility it could even tempt me into doing wire....

And now, the packing really begins, really, time is running out, very little room left for procrastination, we leave on Thursday. Yikes!

Cross medium inspiration

The bead and button show catalog has been shipped and 'A Chorus of Urchins' is on the cover. This was a collaborative piece I did with the Dallas Bead Society last year. It was entered and accepted into last years beaddreams and then was selected for the cover! I get to return to Dallas this year and look forward to a new collaboration. Ideas are starting to percolate....

The bead was originally inspired by a glass bead from Gail Crosman Moore, whose work I've loved and collected for years. Then while teaching with Dallas Lovett last year he said he had a wire piece inspired by urchin. I love cross-medium inspiration!

Waking up with a huge headache without virtue of wine or gin is entirely not fair. Here is the reason, a huge dip in barometric pressure. It seems whenever I wake up with an 'unexplained' headache vs. the explained kind, I can trace it to a change in barometric pressure. Apparently this is a known Phenomenon.... How to handle the dreaded barometric pressure headache! This did not fit into my packing plans for yesterday. These headaches tend not to respond to aspirin, execdrin, tylenol or all the usual remedies. They make me sick to my stomach and generally require some time in bed. Good thing for me I work best under pressure!

Miss Maya

As I get ready for this busy year Maya is registering her protest. This is her actually in my suitcase as if to say please don't go without me!

She is the most darling little girl, a rescue dog, part chihuahua part daschund and pure happiness. Life is a party for Maya and she reminds me to live with exuberance.

Last night I beaded with the Charlotte girls. A group I was fortunate to meet at last years Bead and Button and who included me in their beaded get togethers. It may have been farewell, but I know that many I will see again at various future bead events.

Today I will begin packing for the drive back to California. We did a 'volume check' yesterday (I'm married to an engineer) and determined tha we can fit 5 suitcases, 6 boxes, 2 adults and 1 dog into my Saturn SUV. I will need to pack from most important to least....let's see, first there are the beads, well then there are some more beads....I guess I will have to ship the clothes.

I look forward to being in my own home, most especially in my own studio and among old friends.

Color Influences

I love pretty tools and these new Gingher Scissors caught my eye while visiting my in-laws in White Bear Lake over Thanksgiving.

This is my new Abrege bracelet....do you think I may be easily influenced?

I can't stop playing with these ellipse and diamond shapes. There are so many possibilities here. In the abrege bracelet two bands are interlaced through one another making a complex design with lots of texture.

In the Portico bracelet, two bands are stitched together with a crystal edge and in the Portico pendant an edging of beads and surface embellishment adds yet another design element.

Look for Porticos at the Bead and Button Show An Abrege pendant (I told you I couldn't stop) will be featured in the Feb/March issue of Beadwork magazine.

Happy Colors

I have alwyas loved Heather Trimlett's beads from way back......199?, well from ever ago. And now she's my neighbor, well not literally, but in the next town, close enough for the occassional hello in her studio. A recent visit yielded this colorful stash which inspired the beaded ringlets. It's a departure for me, I tend to work in dark bronzy metallics and luminous pearlescent colors. I love these bright fun colors so much I've neglected to pick up the beaded remants from the coffee table. Who knows another project might spring forth from that tray.

Today it will go in the mail to Alaska Bead Company for my April visit there. Hard to believe, but I've never been to Alaska. Dear husband has rather tropical tastes in travel and somehow Alaska just never made the list, so I am super excited to be going.

I must go savor some more of this quiet rainy morning before I launch into the business of beads today. I love early morning with the darling little Miss Maya Princess Angelina DeCoster nestled at my side while I knit just one more row.

de allerbeste wensen voor het nieuwe jaar

Best Wishes for the New Year! We had a fabulous holiday season in Holland. The lovely Gabriella who I met last year at Beadazzles was kind enough to offer us the use of her home in Amsterdam. It was right on a canal and was the perfect venue to explore the city and then come back and relax. Inviting and comfortable. I spent many hours beading while enjoying the beautiful canal view.








I also saw this which struck me as funny, It's not so obvious, but below the Vodka Museum sign is one that says souvenirs. This one's for you Swellknits

On New Years we stayed in the Stempels hotel in Haarlem which is the town we lived in when we lived in Holland in 2004.








It was great to return to all our favorite places.We also visited with my former colleague Stephanie, her husband and two beautiful children. We stayed with them at their stylish new home in Frijsland in the North of Holland. A first for me was rum in hot chocolate and I highly recommend it, thanks Nico! The perfect antidote to a coooolllld day watching the little ones play on the frozen canals.




I am now in the planning stages of managing a very busy year! I have lots of travel to exotic bead locations around the country and world planned. I will shop in Tucson, teach at bead and button, Beadfest in Pa (with my bead pal Rachel!) and Bead Unique's fall Tahoe retreat.


But first I must get home. We begin the long drive from Charlotte NC to Lemon Grove CA next week (and here I sit making a new blog, there's packing to be done!) And I best get to it!