And a lot of that. That being mostly canes this week since beads are getting put into jewelry and the queue for the bead show. But some great sets of canes, which offer a real discount off buying them individually – one set of 6 for $16 ends up as a buy 4 1/2, get 1 1/2 canes free.
An inevitable part of making canes and beads – at least for me – is a heap of scraps. I actually keep at least one or two containers on my table just to catch them. Now and then I go through those containers and sort by colour, add pinches of black, white or something sparkly and then make them into swirlies or mirror image beads like these:
These are mostly tab shaped mirror image beads. Half the fun of these is finding the little ink-blot like pictures in the beads. That one on the lower right? It has penguins diving in a tropical paradise of course.
Something I never thought I would enjoy – right up there with selling – is teaching classes. It has been one of those rare pleasures finding out that I was wrong about something in a good way. Teaching is now up there with one of the more fun parts of making and selling arts and crafts.
I had my first class since my move this weekend and it was a bit of an introduction to polymer clay, caning and beadmaking all in one. I limited it to black and white so that I didn’t overwhelm everyone that first class (I’ll save that for next time) and we just stuck to how to make simple, fast canes.
The class was open to everyone from tweens on up – my line to the coordinator was: old enough not to eat clay or stab themselves with blades deliberately – and everyone cranked out beads, little covered tins and switchplates. Black and white jellyrolls, checkerboards, strips and flowers abounded. Some people made little hypnotized eyes.
Here’s a little of what the class made. I’m privileged to have worked with such a great group!
We’ll be running more classes – on colours and canes and small objects covered in clay – in June. If you’re interested, give Laurie a shout at the gallery.
I am guilty of not always being mindful of the time passing. Part of that is, probably, you go nuts if you sit and wait on the days going by. But there is a saying I first read in the Happiness Project: The days are long but the years are short.
So I do try to keep tabs on the big things. These are the first tulips up – I live in a fairly cold climate – in the front of the house. This is my first spring here so I knew there would be day lilies later having seen them last year but I didn’t realize there were tulips! Except for the few the deer scrabbled at during the winter.
I’ve been steadily ordering in jewelrymaking supplies for my big shows coming up and leading into the fall. Always nice to get in the mail. The only sad part is I couldn’t jump right into making because I had orders to finish first. This week though!
And of course, what’s on the table. One day, I swear, I am going to replace the blue material of that table with white or beige just to get nicer photographs for my blog! Talk about vanity 
The beads are mostly swirl pendants for keychains and necklaces and tab shaped Natasha (inside out) beads. I took about 5lbs of scrap canes, clay and other bits and ends, divided some by colour and chopped and tossed with judicious additions of pearls, white, and black. It makes good random beads.
A lot of last weeks productivity has made it’s way onto ArtFire with a ton of new canes:
I think I’m most partial to my little chrysanthemum style canes, myself. Though there were a few other sweet ones in this batch! And now onto the even better part, making BEADS!