Bringing the New Year Into Focus

These started out on a sparkly rust/orange base which apparently reacted with the Double Helix Kronos stringer changing it to this creamy color.

I smashed these quite flat in my Zoozii's Kalera press.

This is about as geometric as my designs ever get!

I don't usually make parallelogram beads but this one insisted.

"Go with the flow" I say

Desert  or Underwater?

Side B~ Desert or Underwater?

Destined to be earrings in the near future.

 A couple of days ago I got out a drawer full of my collage papers with the idea of making some ATC's
I've had so much fun with those and it's been awhile. I like to do them in batches, that's just the way I seem to work with any of my projects. I had the whole bed in the guest room covered in stuff now that our stream of visitors has abated temporarily. 


 What ended up happening was that I went into sorting mode instead. That's what I do when I'm gearing up for inspiration. Images will juxtapose in front of me and if there is suitable irony forming I will build my piece from that.


  I ended up with several ziploc bags of paper that were sorted in categories of text, images and backgrounds. I cut out a few images for later use, gathered them up and it all back in the drawer for later use. I guess it wasn't time for collage-ing after all.


Then I went into the glass studio where I seem to so much more easily get focus. Just turn on the torch and dive in for a session. Beads are micro projects. I can go on to another bead easily if I sense that one isn't working out quite right. The area is much easier to keep clean, I only have to brush up bits of glass that sometimes explode off of the end of a cold glass rod as it's introduced to the torch.


It takes a kind of focus that pulls me in rather than scatters me with the possibilities as collage and mixed media do. And that's good for someone like me who very much in my younger years would flit  hither & thither (or would that be flirt?)
 I'm still flirting with mixed media for sure and for the sake of grounding in this new year I am letting the lampwork claim me back for a spell and get some of my inventory up for the next summer season.


The Tucson Gem Show is just around the corner (almost quite literally in this case!) and this also is giving me a better idea of supplies I may need to replenish. I'm on a silent moratorium on supply buying at the moment. Last year's moratorium proved to be short-lived. I've made it through a jaunt to the hardware store and thrift shop without buying ANYTHING so far! Yay for me!