Bead Soup For One -- Beading with Barbara Bechtel of Floridity

Please hop on over to Pretty Things and see what I made with Barbara Bechtel of Floridity's beads! I decided to challenge myself each month with my own personal Bead Soup Challenge (have you participated in one of my challenges?) and Floridity is the first Artisan of the Month.

Are you a bead maker -- ceramic, polymer clay, glass -- and would like to be a featured artisan? Email me and let's talk!


Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things. She lives on the eastern shore of Maryland.

I'm Trying

I really am trying to make jewelry that's new and cool and different.


But it's hard to make jewelry when iCarly is on TV or MySims is on the Wii. Ah, life with a seven-year old. Love him dearly, but he rules the TV.


So this weekend Rick and Zack headed to the farm in PA so I could have a day and a half of quiet to bead. And of course, I had a headache, but I was bound and determined to make things.


I don't have photos yet, but I did manage to make some new things with Floridity's beads I bought for this month's Personal Bead Soup challenge I set for myself, and a couple of them were totally new designs to me.



But because of the headache, I found that I just had to make what I know -- the tried and true and (sigh) trite. OK, not trite. That's being to harsh on myself.


This morning, though, I looked through what I made and realized, someone's going to love those things. If I change my style too much, and have too many new designs, I'll lose my valuable customer base. The new designs will hopefully gain me new customers, but I can't forget the people who got me to where I am -- able to make this a full-time job.



The point of this post? I'm trying. And that's fine. I think I'll be "trying" all my life. I'll never be "there" because if I decide, "I'm done, there's nothing left to learn", I'm doing myself such a disservice.


So maybe this weekend was a pretty good weekend for beading after all.




Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things. She lives in Maryland.

Jewelry Inspired by Nature and Life

When I was 11, my parents and I took a mission trip over the summer to Colombia, South America. We lived a good 100 miles from the civilization of Bogota, living in a house on a missionary compound called Lomalinda -- smack in the middle of the jungle.


There were two ways in or out. On our way in, we rode in a shoebox-looking double prop airplane that at times sported a wooden wheel, had no pressurization, and no seats. We sat on the floor, along with the cargo, strapped to the walls -- oh and don't forget the slide locks holding the door shut.)



To leave, we took a looooong taxi trip up and over the Andes mountains. We couldn't take the double-prop plane because it was missing a part, and the single prop plane couldn't physically make it over the Andes. That taxi ride was a trip I'll never forget -- four of us squashed in a cab with a very kindly gentleman who spoke only Spanish, and I was the only one in the car that knew even the remotest bit of the language.


Another interesting tidbit about this taxi trip -- there were guerilla check-points along the way, and they carefully examined all our luggage and Dad's rolls of film. I don't think they knew what to do with us other than to wave us on. But they did keep our cinnamon rolls that we were given by the missionaries before we left! Smart guerillas.


It was an inspiring trip for an impressionable 11-year old. My love of travel was spurred by this trip, and my willingness to learn about other cultures as well. Why visit a country if I didn't know at least something about its history?


All that to say, nature and life spawned this piece of jewelry.


The color is spot-on for the green of the jungle. We lived in Lomalinda during the wet season, so we got rains three times a day -- you could almost set your watch by them. The darker spots remind me of the walk to class in the mornings. We traveled through a denser part of the compound, overgrown with trees and vegetation (and ants -- lots of leaf cutter ants). Some trees were so tall all you could see was the bark unless you cocked your neck waaaaay back, and some trees were like Banyan trees, with their dark, hard roots high above the ground.



I added a leaf to commemorate the jungle -- it's not a banana leaf, but ah well -- I can pretend. And the one silver bead is for this single journey into a land so foreign and wild and dangerous that had we known then what we know now, we may never have gone.


But I'm glad we did.




Lori Anderson makes jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things.

Win a Book!

Head over to Art Bead Scene and you might win this book!


Click here~!

Collaboration with Floridity

On my other blog, Pretty Things, I've run two Bead Soup Blog Parties, and they were really successful. They pushed other bead artists to design outside their box, really made them think in different ways.


To that end, I've decided to pay a bead artist once a month to send me, sight unseen, a set of beads so I could push myself again. Since the next Bead Soup party isn't until January, I felt the need to continually kick start my motor.


Please head over to this post at Pretty Things and take a look at what Barbara Bechtel of Floridity sent me!

Metal, metal, metal

Hi everyone. If you read my other blog, Pretty Things, then you'll know that I've been hit really hard by the death of my cat, a pet I've had for half my life. It's knocked the creative wind out of my sails, and I promise, I DO have a nice collaborative project coming up, but right now -- just not the time.


So I thought I'd share with you the rest of the metal pendants I made at Tracy Stanley's class at BeadFest back in, what was it, April? Yes, I finally got around to taking pictures of them! That's how slowly my life has been moving. So enjoy -- and I'll be back with more soon, I promise.





This one is called "Misty River and is made with brass and copper that I dapped, textured, riveted, and linked and then added the lampwork bead to. I constantly have a bowl of orphan beads on hand for projects just like this.




This one is "Stonybrook", and I did the same thing -- lots of texturing, dapping, and riveting, but this time I added a river rock to the bottom. Like it?


See you soon,


Lori



Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things. She lives in Maryland.

The Very Good Thing About Lampwork

Come on over to Watch Me Create and read my latest article, "The Very Good Thing About Lampwork".


Click away!

Photographing jewelry with natural light

Photographing with natural light is not something that comes easily to me. There seems to be too narrow a window of opportunity for me, and since I have SO much to photograph for my new web site (read that to be -- every. single. piece.) it's also a daunting task.


But today I got a bit done, and wanted to share the results. I'm getting there. It's just a slow process. I'm going a little cross-eyed uploading things to the new (and still un-launched) web site, but I'm hurrying as fast as I can with a child moping around saying he wants to DOOOOOOO something yet has absolutely NO idea what he wants to DO.










Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes for the blog Pretty Things. She lives in Maryland.

Art Bead Scene Design Challenge

I was recently approached by Heather Powers of Art Bead Scene, asking if I'd like to participate in a design challenge. Heather is an amazing polymer clay artist working under the name Humblebeads.


She sent out the same set of beads to several jewelry designers, we all made something with them, and then she posted the results.



The challenge for me was I normally don't work in this color palette. I let the beads sit on my bench for awhile, and then something clicked. Here is what I made...


I used a unique chain that was full of fringy flowers, to mimic the flowers in the pendant, and a combination of carnelian and kyanite to pick up a bit of the muted colors of the pendant. I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out, and am enjoying these challenges, as they've really done a lot for me, forcing me to think outside the box.


To view what the other REALLY talented artists created, just click here.




Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs, and also writes the blog Pretty Things.

Lampwork beads are better than flowers

Lori Anderson makes jewelry for www.lorianderson.net and also writes the blog Pretty Things.

Broken Torch and Smashing a Wall

Oopsie doodle.


I was cranking along just fine, torching my little heart out, making beads, even starting to add dots, learning new things (yay me!) when


CRACK!


Glass flew everywhere and a big chunk flew directly at the torch and MELTED over the part where the flame comes out. Right. On. The. Front. Where the gas and the oxygen comes out. Which, if you've never lampworked before, is, um, kind of stinking crucial.



I managed to flick off the biggest glob, but of course, as luck would have it, bits of glass got into the tiniest of the holes and there was no getting it out. So the torch is on its way to Bethlehem Burners to be fixed.


I'm bummed because I just bought a ton of glass and was really getting into a groove and was trying to fill up my Etsy store with spacers and had decided to take a deep breath and get brave and start exploring.


Not sure when I'll get the torch back (2 weeks? More?) which is NOT a long time, but I hate when momentum gets stalled. It's like running like hell and then turning your head to look behind you to see where you've been and then WHAM hitting a wall. Looking back, it's funny, but when it happens, not so much.



I tried to make some jewelry today but it's just not happening. So I'm giving myself permission to relax with reruns of "The Office", a bag of M&Ms, open windows, and the cats. Rick and Zack are at the farm, so the house is chaos-free. The Bead Soup Blog Party started today, so I'm visiting a bunch of blogs, too.


There's a slight bit of guilt inside that whispers, "Hey, you should be working," but thanks to so many of your wonderful comments over the past weeks, I'm finding it easier to just... let it be.


Thanks.

Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things.

Open Studio Friday

Jennifer Cameron interviewed me for her Open Studio Friday, so if you'd like to take a look, click here to see what it's all about!

New Post on Watch Me Create

Take a wander over to Watch Me Create and take a look at what I've FINALLY made with my own beads!

More Spacers in the Etsy Store!

I added a few more sets of my own (!) lampwork spacer beads in my Etsy store, Lori2, today -- not expensive at all, either! I hope you'll take a look!

www.lori2.com

This isn't quite going as planned.

OK, Dear Readers. This isn't going quite as planned.

I'd planned by now, nearly halfway through the year, to have made enormous leaps and bounds and huge artistic strides to great new designs and innovative coolness.

This, however, hasn't happened. Let's see what's going on, shall we?


* I started out with an Inspirational Journal. I am no longer using it. It's buried under papers.

* I started out with a stack of books so I could learn new techniques. So far they're still in a stack, although I've flipped through a few and read one.

* I've spent an inordinate amount of time in bed, reading a heck of a lot of novels, fighting a heck of a lot of migraines. I know I can't help that, but it still has been a huge time suck.

* I haven't even made all that much jewelry at all.

So I've got the "Time Off" part down pretty well!


But that wasn't The Plan.

So what have I done?

Well, I started lampworking, although all I can do is make spacers, and I did take two cold connections classes, but I haven't used the techniques since. I haven't updated my web site daily, like I'd planned, but then I have contracted for a NEW web site to be built.

So I guess it's not a total loss yet.

One thing I HAVE done my level best to do is stop looking at what everyone else is doing so as not to compare their progress with mine. It's crushing to feel like the world is passing me by, so while I still visit blogs, there are certain ones that I bypass (not that they ever comment anyway!) and focus instead on relaxing and getting well and rejuvenating.


I'm afraid I'm disappointing everyone, and I so don't want to do that. But there comes a point where I have to realize I'm just not able to do it all in a certain amount of time given my health and other obligations. I'm not giving up -- far from it. What I'm doing is regrouping, taking a deep breath, and remembering what this was supposed to be all about.


Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs. She also writes for the blog Pretty Things.

New Web Site Logo

One of the many things on my list of changes to make this year was a face lift to my web site. Earlier this year my current web site got panned on an "it's stuck in the dark ages" web site and while they weren't too horrible about it (they liked the jewelry, just hated the site design), I had to sit back and take stock and ultimately agree.

I started out by making my own web site with Microsoft FrontPage in 2001. Back then, I was wholesaling handmade greeting cards that I made with vintage papers, fabrics, and buttons. Then in 2004, jewelry took over my life and I reworked the web site (still in FrontPage).

Advance a year and I traded several hundred dollars of beads to a fellow beader to design my current web site. I picked the colors and the idea of stripes and you have what you see now.

I don't know if it was the rude web site or the stripes starting to give me a headache or my loss of love for the Harrington font, but this year, I decided for a total and complete face lift. We're talking a TOTAL face lift, a face lift that both excites me and scares me. It is SO different from what I have now that I can't even decide if I like it. It's completely, totally unlike ANYTHING I've ever seen - unique to be sure. But will it work? Will it translate? Is it too much change?

The web site is due to launch later this summer, but I do have a brand new logo. I kept the colors, but toned them down. Here it is:

The one person I've shown the entire web site to loved it. I'm living with it for a while and trying to get used to the new font, the Chinese lanterns (which I may translate to my trade show booth) and just the newness of it. Is it ok to be scared of change?


Lori Anderson designs jewelry at her web site, www.lorianderson.net. She also writes the blog Pretty Things.

My Etsy Bead Store is Now Open!

I finally uploaded a few small sets of my own handmade lampwork spacers. They're my humble beginnings, but maybe you'll like some of them! The shop is www.lori2.com, and as I learn more and more, the beads will become more intricate and varied.


Thanks for looking!

I'm in my first Etsy Treasury

I just got notified today that I'm in my first every Etsy Treasury, with the beads that I JUST posted last night in my new store, Lori2....

So someone must like these humble little beads!

Just a little something new

It's been raining, I've been under the weather, taking some REAL time off to read and knit and be a mommy, but I do have a little to show.


This one uses some new (new to me) wire techniques. I'm inspired quite a lot by Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio and she's been very encouraging.


I learned chain maille back when I first started beading but this is a new style for me. It's very delicate, with cultured pearls. Not the best photo, but it's eluding me and the camera.



So those are a couple of new things, using my old styles and mixing it just a bit with new styles.


I've been giving a lot of thought to how my customers would take a huge departure from my current style to a totally different style, the style I see in my head when I imagine jewelry, and I've decided that too big a leap, too soon, would be too jarring. I'd certainly lose a huge portion of my customer base, alienate them, as they are used to seeing a certain thing. Adding bits and pieces, such as in these two bracelets, is more apt to garner interest, and I can add bit by bit a few "wow" pieces, because you never know who will see them and fall in love. But if I want to stay in business, I can't just jump ship and change boats and start sailing for a totally different port of call.


That doesn't mean I'm not going to continue experimenting. It means I'm going to hone my current skills, and pick and choose skills that work well with my existing style. It means I may back-burner some of the elaborate things I've been imagining. I keep thinking I have to do it ALL this year, and that thought has just been completely overwhelming me.


What do you think?

Book Review -- Living the Creative Life

I just finished reading the book "Living the Creative Life" by Rice Freeman-Zachery.



When I first opened the book, I felt immediately intimidated by the artists featured. THESE are ARTISTS, I thought. What the heck am I?


First, their art is fantabulous. Exquisite, unique, and ground-breaking. Second, their studios are divine. Beautiful fabulous places that are portals to creative energy.


Then I started reading. In addition to information about the specific artists and what make them tick, the book offers little vignettes of wisdom that can actually be used -- things like immersing yourself in color by picking up paint samples of every color at the hardware store, or making a list for a day of all the things you saw, smelled, or heard.

(An abandoned bee hive I found... what will it trigger?)

This is the sort of book that you can pick up and put down as needed just as easily as you can read it cover to cover. It's a great book for any artist to have on hand to refer back to when they're having a stagnant time (that would be me right now!), and the visuals are just excellent.


Highly recommended! Click here to buy it on Amazon.com.