Suburban Girl Studio

My Booth Buddy

I thought I'd give you all a little peak at some wonderful glass focal beads my Bead Fest booth buddy Jan, has been working on lately...

A gorgeous heart pendant.

A large round focal with colors reminiscent of an oilslick.

Ocean-inspired pieces.

She's been taking advantage of the unusually warm January temperatures and has been spending many hours out in her studio.  In addition to making pieces for her Etsy shop she's been hard at work building her inventory for Bead Fest this summer AND we've been working on a special project we are hoping to have published.  

If you would like to keep up with Jan and all her creations, she has a blog you can find here and a facebook page you can "Like" here.

Bead Shop Preview!

Here is a little preview of what will be added to the Etsy bead shop today...

Bead sets

My favorite glaze, copper patina.

Porcelain heart pendants in several colors.

An assortment of flower pendants.

The update will begin this afternoon!

Bead Soup-Teaser

Here's a little teaser of what I'm sending my Bead Soup swap partner, Cheryl Brown: 

I sure hope she enjoys her ingredients!

Published: Bead Design Studio

So excited to share with you that I have a necklace tutorial and two pairs of earrings in the new issue of Bead Design Studio!  

The tutorial for my necklace can be found on pages 58 & 59.

Pairs 2 and 3 were designed by me and each feature my ceramic beads.  Pair 2 also features fantastic flower charms from My Elements by Yvonne.

I'm also happy to note that my Bead Fest booth buddy Jan, of Molten Mayhem has one of her lampwork beads featured on page 82.  This is Jan's first time being published.  Congrats Jan and thank you to Bead Design for another beautiful issue!

Fresh From The Kiln-Porcelain

I opened up the kiln this morning and experienced both joy and sadness as I found a new glaze I love but also had EPIC FAIL with most of my flower beads.  I used a larger gauge wire which ended up cracking the bead during firing...lesson learned.  

Regardless, here are some of the goodies from this firing...

Oooooooo!

Ahhhh!

Colorful bead sets!  

Swirly heart charms!  Several of these are destined for a special project but the rest will go on Etsy.

My new favorite glaze, copper patina!  

You'll find many of these beads in my Etsy shop sometime next week!

Goals for 2012...Already on my way!

Happy 2012!  

I have big things planned for this year!  The first thing was that I recently applied to be a vendor at Bead Fest Philly (August) with my friend Jan who makes beautiful glass beads.  Well, we got accepted!  That's going to be six months of cracked fingers to prepare and I'm looking forward to it!

My other goal for this year is to get more work published...check!  I will have a necklace tutorial and some earrings in the next issue of Bead Design Studio.  I am also working on several other projects to submit throughout the next few weeks.  What I'd really like is to land a cover of a magazine so I'm going to work hard towards that.

Another goal for this year is to create more of my own designs using random objects and carving my own texture plates.  I've started on that as well with some new designs that debuted last month in raku. If you look up at that photo, some of the pieces I glazed today were made using random items + my imagination.

So I'm on my way and look forward to what 2012 brings!

Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year to all my family and friends!  May 2012 be a wonderful year!

To celebrate, I'm offering 20% off in both my Etsy shops.  Enter coupon code NORESOLUTIONS12 at checkout and receive 20% off your purchase (does not include shipping).  This code will be good through late evening on 1/3/12.  

Enjoy!