Honey I'm Hoooommmmmeeee

So this is amazing. Almost one year later and I'm gong to do a brief update on this here blog. Alternate working title: I Don't Have Time to Blog. I'm still going to get back to what are lampwork beads and why should I care but for the moment, back to the Blog. It sounds so swampy. The word Blog. I'm thinking of Bog which is also perfect because we get bogged down with things and STILL don't have time to blog. There is a Dr. Seuss rhyme in there somewhere but it's late and I really need to go to bed. So you, dear reader (and it probably is singular), will have to make your own rhyme.

So what have I been doing? Uh, mostly working. I do have a day job. I transferred from catalog design to email/web page design and have many, many, many things to learn. So that took up a lot of my time. Alternately I just got done with my holiday show season. I did 4 weekends of shows and was really hoping to ratchet up my sales for this year (by doing more shows) when the economy did a swan dive from 50,000 feet. Guess it wasn't a good year for hopes and dreams.

So that brings me to today. It's 2009 I just got done doing paperwork for sales tax for 2 cities and the state. Ow my head hurts and wow did that take a long time and I'm IMing my friend who keeps telling me I need to twitter on top of blogging. I don't have time to blog, so how should I fit in twittering? So I'm looking at site trying to figure out how to use it. Thank god for my friend because she had the LINK to my blog and I was fortunate enough to remember my log in and password. It's a miracle. Which brings me to my other point. Which I'm really just making now. She sells products for men. Which is a great niche because other than meat and sporting goods, nobody really caters to men. Especially with skin and hair care. So she makes this wonderful stache wax so where does she hang out? Sites/twitters/blogs that cater to men's beards. I hate her. Please tell me the site for well to do chicks (or dudes who buy for their chicks) who like handcrafted beaded jewelry? I need that site.

Hi, my name is Michele and… I'm a beadaholic.

Ok the title of this probably gave away the plot, but I am completely obsessed with BEADS.

Many years ago a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to a "bead store". I thought she was insane and did not understand that an entire store could be devoted to beads. I had always loved semi-precious gemstones and used to buy those little boxes of tumbled polished stones. But there wasn't much I could do with them other than poke them or let them sit around gathering dust. My aha moment occurred when all those pretty tumbled rocks turned into BEADS, at the BEAD STORE. It was then that I began to design and sell jewelry made of these gemstones and other materials. So it's really my friends fault I'm like this now. Completely and totally.

I took a hiatus from jewelry design when I moved to Arizona in 1994. Around 2002, I rediscovered my need to create in this medium. About this time I also discovered artisan made lampwork beads, which set off a parallel, yet new obsession with these intriguing glass beads. It took some time to find a teacher and to get into classes but I began my journey of learning to make my own glass beads in 2003. Since then I have been working on craftsmanship and technique to create my own glass beads to use in my jewelry designs. I have to make beads. I always am thinking of new techniques or materials I want to incorporate with the glass. At least most of the time. Some nights I sit there after I get all my stuff out and I stare at the torch like now what. But, most of the time I don't turn it off. The obsession. I can't.

I work with Italian soda lime (soft) glass and have a variety of tools besides the glass itself to poke, prod and move the glass where I’d prefer it to go. Sometimes it doesn’t “cooperate” and I have to see what new direction the glass takes me. It took me a long time to except this.

I also enjoy knowing that I am carrying on a tradition that dates back thousands of years. Techniques taught today are the same techniques used long ago when glass beads were first made in the ancient east. I am honored to carry on these traditions today.

Stay tuned for What is Lampworking Anyways and Why Should I Care?

My first blog ever...

So as the title suggests, this is my first blog ever. I'm actually learning how to set this bad boy up and what all the features are. I just discovered they have drag and drop. Niiiiice.

So if I build a blog, will they come? Can I blog about blogging or would that be redundant?

Coming soon Hi , My name is Michele and... I'm a beadaholic.