I'M HAVING AN AFFAIR...

...with Opal Yellow & Rubino.



Is this allowed??? :o)

I'm completely in love w/ these colors & they're basically all I work w/ these days... except for some black bases & dots of copper green. I try to do as much black base as I can since OY & Rubino are premium colors. I use ALOT of them both.

I look at the beautiful beads that are being posted in the LE Gallery & they're so colorful...lots of transparents & silver glasses... pretty & shiny. Mine are the complete opposite. First of all they're big, but secondly, they're solid & I think fairly masculine. People love them, which is awesome for me, LOL, but why haven't I gotten into the transparents?? There's nothing cooler than being able to look "inside" a glass piece... see the depth & the details of what's going on in there.

I think I'm just better at "surface" decoration than what's underneath.

I guess I need to think about those glass artists that are known more for their surface designs...Larry Brickman, Christina Logan, Larry Scott, Brad Pearson, Dustin Tabor & other artists like them. They're making it big w/ solid surface decoration, I shouldn't worry what other people are doing so much, should I?? :o) People say I have a distinctive style...I think this is a good thing. Right??? :o)

As far as SIZE goes... since my pieces seem to be fairly large, for the most part...when I was looking @ Larry Brickman's pieces @ the Gathering, I was just blown away at their size... they're HUGE & he gets a pretty penny for them, too. He told me [something like] "think about all of the glass artists out there making it big... are they making tiny insignificant pieces??? Nope, they're making big, memorable pieces." This is true, so I'm natually on the right track. :o)

CREATIVITY...how I got here...

If you want to know a little bit about where the creative side of me came from, read on...

I'm second youngest of 5...4 girls & 1 boy (right smack in the middle! Poor guy!) My 2 older sisters were very creative & I always followed closely behind them, shadowing their every move. They taught me how to color in the lines... I was shading my crayola creations by the time I was 5 or 6!

My oldest sister, Jeri, used to take me to bead shops. My first car accident was on her 17th birthday on our way to the bead store!! A car ran a red light & broadsided us. Totaled our car. Jeri was fine. My brother ended up under the dash, bruised but okay. My first ambulance ride, too. I ended up w/ a gash in my forehead (we never figured out by what!) that needed stitches. We never made it to the bead store. :o(

We're all creative in our own way...
My dad is a retired Air Force pilot & aeronautical engineer... I remember him sketching things out for us. He's probably why I like technical drafting. We all get our problem solving skills from him, too.

My mom always encouraged us to create. She would say she's not very creative, but she is. She's creative w/ food & is probably why I care about food presentation. I remember she used to make us the funnest cakes for our birthdays! She also loves to paint ceramics... yeah, she's creative.

Jeri was the art major. She now makes jewelry...is just starting up her silversmithing studio. She's the one who got me interested in stained glass. I inherited her stained glass set-up. Her studio table is now covered in stainless steel & is my lampworking station table. PERFECT. Thank you, Jeri! :o)

Lisa loves to woodwork & makes really creative original items, like nativity sets. She likes to work w/ her hands... she's a heating/air conditioning mechanic & absolutely loves it! She loves to garden & does all of the heavy duty landscaping stuff... building fences, walls, etc. She has too much energy! :o)

Scott is a woodworker, too. He used to teach woodworking classes & now teaches a gazillion Haefele hardware employees worldwide how their products are installed & used, so he's still very hands-on w/ woodworking. He's a funny funny, sweet guy. We were once fooled to believe that he was "discovered" by someone from "Tool Time" when he was filmed doing his "Gallagher" bit, turning fruit (watermellon, etc) on a lathe. We completely fell for it because it's just like him. He should be a comedian. I'd say I get my quick whit from him... we look alike, too. :o)

Jill, my baby sister, would say that she's not creative, either... but she's a hair dresser, THAT takes creative skill. She also loves to garden. She creates children, too. LOL. She's a mother of four... & a good mommy @ that!

So...here I am. I like to CREATE, period. You'll learn more about ME & my creativity as time goes on.