Chatterbox

Webbing Techniques Tutorial

2012-01-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Gosh, it's been forever since I've posted here and I didn't even realize it had been so long. I've been testing all of the Double Helix glass colors since mid August for my new webbing tutorial. I'm almost done testing and I should have the tutorial available by the end of February. It will include instructions on each of my six webbing techniques and a glass color guide showing all of the techniques that work on each Double Helix glass color. I'm expecting it to be around 25 pages long. Here are some examples...

Tarantula

2011-10-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

We've lived here for 7 years now and this is the first tarantula we've seen on our property. He's HUGE! About the size of my hand. Our outside kitty Jaimie found him for us and we relocated him so Jaimie wouldn't find him again but not before I took a few pictures.

Clio Revisted

2011-08-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Everyone has been talking about the tricks to get Clio a hot pink. It usually involves multiple layers of glass. Using orange as a layer requires a coat of clear before and after the orange to prevent cracking and to stop the orange from turning brown from the silver in Clio. Far too many layers and too much fussing around for me. Those of you that have done that, why not give Kalypso a try as a base layer? I'd love to know how it compares. This bead was made with a thin layer of Kalypso, struck and then encased with Clio. I then used silver foil, gave it a fairly good reduction and encased with Zephyr. Less reduction would have reduced the lavender luster and made it more pink.

Beeswax 16 Year Anniversary Sale!

2011-08-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

We're having a big sale for our 16 year anniversary. Orders of $50 or more get 20% off and orders over $125 get 25% off. The shopping cart is all set up to automatically discount your order and the sale runs through Friday August 26th. Please pass the word around to all of your stamping friends! I'd appreciate it. :)

We also have a Facebook page for Beeswax and you can find us here:

Beeswax on FB

Perfect Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

2011-07-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

I've been tweaking different recipes and I think I've put together the perfect vanilla bean ice cream recipe. It's rich and creamy and comes out perfect every time. You can use the batter as a base for other flavors as well by just omitting the vanilla bean. I'm still tweaking chocolate and strawberry but for now I do have a coffee variation. Warning: After trying this you won't be able to eat ice cream like Breyers or Dreyer's ever again.

I use the Cuisinart 2 quart ice cream maker (Williams-Sonoma is having a great sale right now). You need an actual vanilla bean to make this...don't omit it! The vanilla bean adds a ton of exotic vanilla flavor. Your best bet is to buy them from a site like Penzey's (thanks squid!). If you buy them at the grocery store you'll pay two or three times what you will buying online in bulk.

Perfect Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 2/3 cups milk
one vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
3 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine sugars and milk in a medium saucepan. Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Use a blunt knife to scrape out the seeds and stir them and the vanilla bean into the milk/sugar mixture. Bring the mixture to a slow boil over medium heat, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the vanilla bean.

Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Gradually stir in about one cup of the hot liquid to temper the egg yolk and then slowly add the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat stirring constantly until thickened and the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Do not let it come to a boil or else you'll have scrambled eggs. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool a bit. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Mix in the heavy whipping cream and the vanilla extract. Pour the batter into your ice cream machine and leave it mixing for about 30 minutes. Transfer the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.

Coffee Ice Cream Variation

Omit the vanilla bean. Mix the sugars and milk over medium heat with 6 tablespoons of instant espresso coffee, I use Medaglia D'oro that I found at the grocery store. 6 tablespoons will make a very strong coffee flavor so if you're not sure you'll like that you may want to try 4 tablespoons instead.

AKDesigns Facebook Fan Page

2011-07-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

It's been too incredibly hot here to do much of anything. So I thought it would be a good time to sit in our air conditioned office and get some work done. I've set up a FB fan page for AKDesigns which you can "like" here:

AKDesigns on Facebook

It will be a good way to keep up on my Etsy store listings. I'll probably put up some other glassy type things but nothing I don't already post here. Right now I have a couple of bead albums with work from 2011 and I have a couple more to put up.

For my rubber folks I'll be working on a fan page for Beeswax in the near future too.

Western Scenic Tutorial

2011-06-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

I was recently featured on the Gingersnap Creations blog as their May Muse. For the feature they asked me to do a western themed scenic tutorial. I'll get it up on the website at some point but for now you can see it here:

Western Scene Tutorial

Helios

2011-05-19T21:19:00.001-07:00

I wasn't the biggest fan of Helios when it first came out but that can be pretty typical for me when it comes to a new glass color. I often have to play with it and then set it aside for a month or two and then come back to it. After that I usually like it. That's exactly what happened with Helios. This is only my first bead with it since I picked it up again. It's heavily stormed Helios topped with unreduced Helios and topped with Aether. It's a gorgeous streaky yellow gold. I'll have to experiment topping the heavily stormed Helios with other colors to see what else I can come up with.

Newest Glass Obsession

2011-05-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

My latest obsession is webbing with Terra2. Each bead comes out completely different from the last so it's never boring. Of course that means I can't reproduce a bead either but that's pretty much how it goes with silver glass anyway.

Gingersnap Creations

2011-05-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

I'm the May Muse at Gingersnap Creations. How cool is that? They are featuring me and Beeswax and they even included a couple of pictures of my beads in the write up too.

Gingersnap Creations

New Images!

2011-03-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've just finished putting up the 48 new images and you can find them here:

New Stamps

My apologies to those trying to shop on our website yesterday. Our shopping cart was down all day which is entirely out of my control. I've been using this shopping cart service for around 8 or 9 years now and it's the first time that's happened. The good news is that the company did a streamline version of the checkout system a month or so ago and I've just upgraded our cart to the new system this morning so it's supposed to make checkout even faster.

Update

2011-03-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd give everyone an update, especially for those waiting on the new images. I have the engravings and the matrix boards now so we are starting to make the molds. The biggest delay was the surgery I had last week. I don't usually share much in the way of my personal life here, at least not the serious stuff, but now that's it's all over (and all is ok) I will. I've had a thyroid mass for years and years and every biopsy had been negative in the past. This last biopsy came back with abnormal cells. Four different doctors told me it really had to come out so I caved in and let someone cut open my neck last Wednesday. The surgeon came highly recommended and he did a very good job. The final pathology report came back benign so all is good. I'm just waiting to see if the part of my thyroid I got to keep can do the job on it's own. Now that I'm back on track we can get the new images out. I'll probably have them up early next week.

Delays Ahead

2011-02-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

Well there has been a delay in the release of our new images for 2011. I know, I know....there always is but this time it's not my fault. I emailed the new images to my engraver (which I've been doing for many, many years) over two weeks ago. I usually wait a week and a half and if I don't have them delivered yet then I call and check in. Just about the time I'm expecting my engravings to arrive, I hear that the engraver has gone out of business. Huh? So I pick up the phone and call them. Sure enough, they are in the process of discontinuing their engraving portion of their business and FAILED TO CONTACT ME. No email, no phone call. Fabulous. So I've contacted a new engraver and I'm going to email them the images. This will change the timing of the release. I'll keep you posted but I'm expecting to release them mid March now.

Halstead Website Feature

2011-02-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

Halstead Beads has now added a Glass Artisan Portal page to their site with a link to my website...how freakin' cool is that?

http://www.halsteadbead.com/Glass-Artisan/

Halstead Catalog Feature

2011-02-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

Last summer Halstead Beads asked for lampwork entries for a feature in their 2011 catalog. I'm very honored to have been chosen along with one other lampwork artist. These are the beads I sent them and below that is the catalog page. They wanted me to leave the beads uncored because they wanted to glue in their own silver rivets to market those as well. I'm not sure why they changed their mind but just so everyone knows, I use a tool to permanently core all of my European Charm Beads with sterling silver. To order the new 2011 Halstead catalog you can go to their website here:

Halstead Beads

Stormed TNT

2011-01-10T11:23:00.001-08:00

I don't think I've written about storming Terranova2 before here. You can get some really great color by doing heavy storming and also utilizing layering. The double row dot bead is just heavily stormed TNT topped with clear. The cream dots are heavily stormed Olympia Rain. The single row green bead is heavily stormed TNT topped with lightly stormed Golden Emerald light (TAG) and then clear. The Sea Pod bead is heavily stormed TNT topped with lightly stormed Olympia Rain and then clear. For a deeper blue try layering with Taxco light or Elektra light.

Beeswax * New Images Coming

2010-11-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of working on some new images. This girl will be in the new release which will probably come out in January of 2011. I'm not sure what to call her so if you have any suggestions let me know. Naming stamps is one of the hardest things...it's worse than naming my beads and that's hard enough.

Just a heads up for my Beeswax customers, we will no longer be offering mounting supplies. I've come to this decision for various reasons but the main reason is that it will streamline shipping for me. As soon as my current supply of cling foam is gone...it's gone. If you want to order I'd suggest doing it NOW. I can ship 34 sheets in a medium flat rate box which makes life easier for me.

Our Bobcat in the Daylight

2010-11-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

One more video of our bobcat but this one was taken during the morning.

Bobcat Video

Meow

2010-10-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was out in our yard and I saw a mountain lion running on the empty lot next to us. It ran through the back fence and into the large lot behind us. Hoping to catch him on video, Wally put the night camera back there. Well he didn't get the mountain lion but he got another cute little kitty....the bobcat. I'm not sure if it's the same one from last month but I'd guess it is. I think he liked his camera time.

Bobcat Video

The Many Faces of TNT

2010-09-20T18:47:00.001-07:00

I'm going to do some write-ups on my latest glass obsession Terranova 2.0. This is not about Terra 2 which is a different Double Helix glass and it's not about Terranova 2.1 which has a formula change from 2.0 that I do not like. This is just on Terranova 2.0 or TNT. If you have the 2.1 version then you may get similar results from the regular or the dark version...and you may not. What I get from 2.1 is a muted color with god awful white splotches that ruin my bead.

What I'll try to do is explain how to get different colors from this glass and do so fairly consistently. We'll start with this post on blues and teals which are by far the easiest colors to achieve.

Start by melting your glass fairly hot to wrap it around your mandrel. You don't have to work it screaming hot. Once you have the right amount of glass and it's shaped, just pull it out of the flame a bit to cool. The next step is what I like to call "surface cooking". You're going to put your bead under the flame and just let the surface of the bead in the flame. The goal is to see white striations appear on the surface. Keep cooking and these striations will break apart and mottle or curdle. As you're surface cooking you can take your bead out of the flame if it starts getting too hot and let it cool a bit and then start again. I also like to tilt my bead to work the area by one side, let it cool a little, then put it back in the flame to work on the other side. Once you're happy with the pattern, pull your bead out of the flame and start melting the end of your clear rod for encasing. If you need to, you can quickly flash your bead in the back of the flame to keep it hot. Don't worry about striking it. Your bead may turn brown while you're melting your clear and it may not. As soon as your clear is ready, encase your bead fairly thickly. I like to do two wraps around the bead. The trick here is to keep your bead pretty cool for the rest of this process so you don't overheat it and lose your patterns. A thick encasement helps to insulate the bead and keep it cool. I usually don't worry about encasing all the way to the bead hole either, again this is done to keep the base bead cool to keep the pattern and colors. Try to melt in your clear working the bead fairly cool. As you start to encase you'll probably see your bead turn from brown to blue and then as you melt the encasement in you should see your patterns popping out. You should end up with teal and blue or blue with dark blue. You may even get some creams and lavenders. If you over heat your bead as you melt in the encasing you may lose all your colors and wind up with a translucent peridot. I'll talk about what to do with that to get different colors in another post.

More From The Night Camera

2010-08-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

Wally put the night camera on our peach tree to see what was eating all the peaches. When he put it on our apricot tree a few weeks ago it was a raccoon...about 22 videos of this raccoon stuffing his face all night long. But the peach thief is a deer. What's the coolest is that the camera also caught a bobcat! He's only on the screen for a few seconds of the video but I did upload it to YouTube so if you want to see him you can go HERE.

Bobcat Video

Huge Moth

2010-08-17T09:59:00.001-07:00

This has to be the biggest moth we've ever seen.

Lazy Days of Summer

2010-08-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

This is a new squirrel that has taken up residence on our property. She's pretty happy here and really isn't very afraid of us at all. We call her "Dirty Mouth". Her mouth is always covered with dirt from digging and eating whatever she finds in the ground.

Official bunny count is now eleven.

The White Deer

2010-07-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

My friend took this picture of a white deer that hangs out in her backyard. Isn't it magical?

Thief

2010-07-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

This squirrel spent day after day in our apricot tree chowing down. As Wally was picking apricots to dehydrate, the squirrel was in the same branch picking her own. Now the tree is bare but the rabbits have been finding old dried apricots in the grass. BTW, the official bunny count is now at seven.

Caught in the Act

2010-06-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

This bunny is so busted. Wally caught him eating his beans. Too bad, the bunnies can eat whatever they want. They usually just eat the weeds but I think these leaves just looked too tasty to pass up. These are the string beans that Wally built the special climbing tower for.

We have three bunnies and I think two of them are the same ones from last year. As long as we talk to them as we approach them and keep our distance they won't run. I'm so happy they're back.

More Butterflies

2010-06-20T15:15:00.001-07:00

These guys were not very cooperative, plus it was windy. I did manage to get a few good pictures before they took off though.

(notice no snakes?)

Butterflies Drinking

2010-06-08T13:39:00.001-07:00

We went over to the river today and spotted a bunch of butterflies drinking water. I did a little research and found out that they were "puddling".

Butterflies often congregate on wet sand and mud to partake in "puddling," drinking water and extracting minerals from damp puddles.

They were pretty fun to watch.

The latest addition to the garden

2010-06-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

A string bean....thingie. At first I thought it was gonna be a hangman's gallows.

Beeswax June POTM

2010-06-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

The June Project of the Month is up. I made a Father's Day card and inside are coupons for Dad. You can make them for whatever you like, such as a "car wash". All stamps used in the project are offered at a discount during the month of June and you can find everything here:

June Project of the Month

Corn Fields

2010-05-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

Wally has gone crazy with the corn this year. He's planted over 200 plants. There are three separate beds of corn, the last one is way in the back of the picture by the black wheelbarrow. Every day he's out there planting something else.

Pretty Snake

2010-05-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

I love the colors of these guys. This is a Sharp-tailed snake. This guy did NOT want to be photographed. I love the pretty light gray, dark gray and mauve/pink colors. I remember the first time we saw one of these. I had to go to the torch and make a set of beads in these colors. :)

Good Snakes, Bad Snakes.

2010-05-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

I know that there are snake people out there that think all snakes are good snakes. So if you're one of those folks, you may just want to look at the nice picture of the huge gopher snake (a good snake) and then stop there...

This is going to be a bad year for rattlesnakes (bad snakes). We've already had two encounters this year and one was a very close call for me. I'm still shocked I didn't get bit but the snake was pretty lethargic. It had probably just come out of hibernation. Lucky me, not so lucky for the snake. Last week a child was bitten by a rattlesnake at Lake Pardee. We found out that he was taken to the local hospital and then airlifted to UC Davis. Hopefully he'll be ok. Our local hospital treats an average of six people a year for rattlesnake bites. That's a lot more than I expected and I bet they get twice that this year.

Our Cat's Little Trick

2010-05-06T09:51:00.001-07:00

One day, about seven or eight years ago, I came home from work and I was alone in the house. Wally was out doing something....probably away at a rubber stamp show. I'm changing my clothes in the bedroom and I hear someone peeing in the bathroom. I was pretty freaked out but I managed to tip toe and peek through the open doorway...to see our cat peeing in the toilet! When I told Wally about it he didn't believe me at all. How does a cat teach himself to pee in the toilet? I guess it's not as uncommon as I thought. Wally got a video the other day and when I went to upload it on YouTube...there were almost 600 other videos of cats peeing in toilets. In most cases the cats have been trained but I did see some that were self taught like ours. Just what you wanted to watch today:

Our Cat Peeing in the Toilet

More Hummingbirds

2010-04-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

This time in color with audio.

Hummingbirds Video

Hummingbird Feeding Frenzy

2010-04-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've shown you pictures of our crazy hummingbirds before but now we have a video. Pretend it's 1960 because it's in black and white.

Hummingbird Feeding Frenzy

Mail Art

2010-04-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

I just have the best customers ever. Whether it's beads or rubber stamps, I truly appreciate my customers. This fabulous scene is by Mary Passe. It's so serene and I just love how she used our hummingbird and trumpet vines stamps together. I'll be updating the gallery on our website in a few weeks so if you have any art with Beeswax stamps, send it my way! Emailing artwork is just fine too.

The April POTM is up. You can find it here:

Beeswax April POTM

Skunk Video!

2010-03-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

We got a good video last night of our little skunk. She is just so adorable! She's also a little camera shy. We'll leave her be now. Ignore the date on the video, Wally didn't set it after putting in new batteries.

SKUNK VIDEO

Skunk Butt

2010-03-30T10:12:00.001-07:00

Wally found a large hole on our property with a big mound of dirt next to it. He didn't want to put the camera there because he assumed it was just a ground squirrel home. So what? I love all of the critters so I insisted he put the camera out by the hole. Turns out it's the home of a skunk. She's adorable....isn't she? Just not the end of the skunk you want pointing towards you. I hope she sticks around. I love going out at dusk during the summer looking for skunks roaming around and hunting for bugs. They're so much fun to watch. Many years ago Wally and I were on a hike and along came a momma skunk with a bunch of little babies lined up behind her. We stopped dead in our tracks and they just walked on by, a foot or two away from our feet. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Taking Webbing a Step Further

2010-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

First, one more layered Clio bead that I webbed. Clio was layered over a striking glass that turned blue. I'm thinking that reduced Triton would look very similar.

I've gotten a little fancy now and I've added silver foil into the mix. The next bead is Clio over Hades. I did a couple of layers of silver foil on the Clio, then did my webbing technique and encased.

The last bead is my favorite. It's just Clio, two layers of silver foil, webbed, lightly reduced and encased.

Clio over Ekho

2010-03-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

I still have a lot of layered Clio beads to photographed but I think these may be my favorite. Both are Clio over Ekho. Depending on what Ekho decides to do, determines the color of the bead. You know how silver glass tends to have a mind of it's own. In many cases it ends up being a good thing. The first bead is multicolored with green, pink and lavender. The second bead is more deep amber, burgundy and purple. I just put down some Ekho, struck and reduced it and covered it with Clio. Then I did my webbing technique, did a light reduction and encased. I can't seem to put the Clio down! Very cool glass.

Clio

2010-03-16T18:49:00.001-07:00

I've been playing a lot lately with Clio. The pink bead is from the first torch session with Clio. I had no problem striking the glass at all to get a nice deep pink. Since then I've had no luck recreating that gorgeous fuchsia. The second bead is what I've been getting instead. A pretty amber that has an incredible inner glow. So I've decided to capitalize on it and layer Clio over anything within arms reach. It's been a bit addicting. I'll post some layered Clio beads in a few days.

Dot Placement Helper

2010-03-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for some time but I had intended on cleaning my workbench first. It really is organized chaos. I know what every rod and stringer is. It sure looks messy though. LOL!

When I first started lampworking I was immediately attracted to dots. However, I felt the need to rest my hand on something, anything. I tried a drinking glass turned upside down and Wally saw me struggling. He found this piece of metal in the garage that was actually part of the packing material when he purchased a bumper for his truck. It's perfect. In the bottom picture you can see the piece of metal and how it's about the same height as my torch face. The other pictures show how I can rest my right hand on it and also the end of the mandrel as I'm placing my dots. This means that everything is steady. The top picture shows that I only have to move about an inch to the right of the flame. I can't imagine ever having to work without it.

New images are up!

2010-03-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

The new images are up now, hope you like them!
New Stamps

Beeswax March POTM

2010-03-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

The March Project of the Month is up on the website. I did a spring pond scene. I give step by step instructions along with some tricks which make scenic stamping easier and less intimidating. I used four of our unmounted sheets for this scene and they are offered at a discount during the month of March. You can find everything here:
March POTM

Peg Stamps for PMC

2010-02-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

Quite a few people are making their own bead caps with PMC and there's been some talk about where to get rubber stamps that would work well. My friend Steve of Meer Image has a line of tiny peg stamps that I thought would work perfectly. They are a great size, have a nice long "handle" and they're really affordable. The peg measures 3" long and is 1/2" in diameter and the actual image is about 3/8". He has a large selection that you can see here:

Meer Image Tiny Peg Stamps

Stormed and Webbed

2010-02-20T15:49:00.001-08:00

This bead was made with stormed Psyche and stormed Psyche Light. I just wound a couple of stormed stringers on the mandrel. Then I put it through the webbing technique a few times, reduced and encased. I think the effect is cool. However, it can easily get overdone with too much webbing that you can't burn off. The best way to solve that little problem is to put some more stormed stringer on the bead to kind of start over. Double Helix has told me that they will have Psyche Light available again in the near future.

Spring?

2010-02-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

Yep, Spring is trying to start here. The daffodils are already blooming and the weather has been fabulous.

New Images Update

2010-02-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to wrap up the new images so I can get them off to the engraver. I only have around 20 images right now but I try to go for quality over quantity. This release will be mostly scene builders. Driftwood Beach shown here is one of the new ones that I really like.

Mushroom

2010-02-07T10:15:00.001-08:00

We have a bunch of oak trees on the front of our property. Walking down our long driveway I spotted these cool looking mushrooms growing out of the base of one of the trees.

February Project of the Month

2010-02-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Are these not totally adorable? These are Valentine's cupcake toppers made from shrink plastic. All the stamps used are offered at a discount during the month of February and you can find everything here:
February POTM

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

2010-01-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Mein Tutorial ist jetzt auch auf Deutsch erhältlich! Sofort verfügbar auf meiner Homepage:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/lampworkbeads.htm

(My tutorial is now available in German!)

Night Camera Fun

2010-01-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

Just for fun we bought a infrared night camera. Wally found a large hole in the ground that looked like some kind of animal den so he pointed it on that and mounted it on a tree. It's a skunk home. I adore skunks! This picture is actually from the very beginning of a 15 second video. I just played it and then did a screen shot to capture a still frame. We'll move the camera around and see what we get. There's been sightings of a black panther in the area and last summer Wally and I saw a mountain lion at dusk on the property next to us. Hopefully we can get some cool pictures.

Rainbow

2010-01-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

Wally took this picture today during a break in the rain. We've had a pretty crazy few days here with torrential down pours and 50 mph winds. I love the rain but I could really do without the wind. Add into the mix our moody electricity, and I'm really taking my chances working on new images on the computer or making beads.

Done!

2010-01-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

I'm finally done with the Gallery remodel. Whoohooo! I'm really pleased with it but so very sick of working on it. You can see it all here:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/artgallery.htm

Time to take a break from the never ending website work and on to new images. I'm hoping to release them near the end of February. This Resting Damselfly will be one of the new stamps.

TE-320

2010-01-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

I thought that these beads were a good example of how webbing and storming can take your beads to a new level of visual interest. All these are made with the new test lot from Double Helix, TE-320. The teal bead is made exactly how you're told to work striking glass. Super heat, let it cool and encase. This glass also reduces and introducing it back into the flame and getting a reduction haze and then encasing gave me more greens. For the dot bead I used stormed stringers of TE-320 and topped with clear. The next green, blue and gold bead I did my webbing technique before encasing. The last bead is my favorite. First I did my webbing technique, then applied stormed stringer to the surface in a haphazard pattern and melted it in. Then I reduced and encased it.

I'm Coring Beads

2010-01-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

What a pain coring is. I don't get that some people say they love to do it. It's tedious and my wrist wasn't very happy after three hours of doing it. I'm sure it won't be so bad once I get faster at it. My beads sure are pretty cored though!

January Project of the Month

2010-01-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

The January POTM is up. I did a Valentines card with a corner bookmark. This would make a great gift for a friend especially if you include a book to tie it all in. All stamps used are offered at a discount during the month of January. You can find the project here:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/potmjan2010.html

New Year, New Gallery

2009-12-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

I decided to start the year out by switching over to the new gallery format. It's so much nicer and it makes it easy to shop from and find images. Frankly I got sick of looking at the old format. I still have seven galleries left to remodel but the majority are done. You can see the main gallery page here:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/artgallery.htm

The top three rows are completed. The bottom two rows (except for the Anne Sagor Gallery) still need to be worked on. I hope to be finished in the next couple of weeks. Most of the remodeled galleries now have new artwork in them as well. I can't believe the number of cards I found on my computer. I know I lost quite a few when our hard drive died a few years back. Which reminds me that I need to do a back up...

Upside Down Hummingbirds

2009-12-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what the benefit is but we have some hummingbirds that like to hang upside down or kinda sideways instead of leaving the feeder. Somewhat dangerous for the ones right above them feeding...

Pecan Pie Torte

2009-12-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

I'm not a fan of pecan pie at all because of all the gooeyness. I can't even watch anyone eat a piece. However, this recipe sounded so good and non-gooey that I had to try it. You can find it here:
Pecan Pie Torte
It was REALLY good. My only problem was that the filling came up to the very edge of the pan which caused it to leak between the pan and the crust. That made it extremely hard to get it out of the pan. I'll be making it again for Christmas so I think I'll decrease the light corn syrup to a 1/2 cup and make sure I only fill the pan up to about 1/3" from the top.

ATC Gallery

2009-12-04T12:16:00.000-08:00

I've spent a couple of days working on the Beeswax Gallery and I've finished the ATC Gallery. It's a huge amount of work but really worth it in the long run. The new ATC Gallery isn't officially part of the website yet but you can go to it and check it out:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/atcgallery.html

All the image names and numbers are bookmarked to the online catalog. Clicking on the image name will take you directly to that stamp. This will make shopping from the gallery so much easier! One gallery down and only nineteen more to do....

Beeswax December POTM

2009-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

The December POTM is up and it's some polymer clay ornaments. This is a fun project to do yourself, with a group of stampers (think party and cocktails) or with your kids or grandchildren. They make great gifts or you can use them as stocking stuffers or as the decoration for the top of a gift. You can also use the heart shape for Valentines Day too.

I can't believe it's been a year since I redesigned the website so I guess my little break is over. I'm going to start working on remodeling the galleries. I'm going to make it so that the stamp names and numbers under each card will at least link to the page that stamp is sold on. Should make it much easier to shop from the gallery.

Hummingbird Closeups

2009-11-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures that Wally took of the hummingbirds. We have so many here, even in the winter, that they often share a "flower".

Beeswax Sketch Challenge

2009-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Beeswax is hosting the November Sketch Challenge over at RSC. Here's the sample card that I did for the challenge. There are two prizes that will be picked by random drawing. The grand prize is a $30 gift certificate to Beeswax and the first prize is a $20 gift certificate. If any of the two winners use only Beeswax stamps in their card then I'll add another $10 on to their certificate. You can see the original sketch and all the details here:
November Sketch Challenge. Entries must be posted in that thread on RSC.

Winter Tomatoes?

2009-11-02T11:29:00.001-08:00

Well we're giving it a try. We have one cherry tomato plant in a tub that's in our glass enclosed front porch. It stays pretty warm in there in the winter and we also have a grow light on it. If this does well I'm filling the entire porch up with plants next winter. LOL!

RSC Virtual Convention!

2009-10-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Virtual Convention just started over at RSC. We already have 26 rubber stamp companies participating with specials and sales. We also have a ton of prizes to give away. There's a Scavenger Hunt, a room to tell ghost stories and a room to share Halloween decorations and costumes. All for PRIZES! Come on over, don't miss out! Our convention runs through Monday.

Skink

2009-10-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Nature gives us so much color inspiration for art. I just love the markings and color combination of the skinks here. Yes, I like critters. We have a lot of them here too, unlike where we used to live. I guess that's why we're so taken with all the different creatures here. There's always something interesting if you just look around a little. Unfortunately most everything moves too fast to get a picture of.

New Olympia Rain

2009-10-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are storming, I thought you might like to see what the new version of Olympia Rain can also do. The new version of OR tends to start turning translucent when worked in the flame for a period of time. It can also go opaque when worked longer. You can stop this from happening by covering it with clear like I do in the Taking Reduction Glass by Storm Tutorial. The layer of clear acts as an insulater. But you can also take that little quirk and use it to your advantage. These two sets use lightly stormed OR and they were not topped with clear. I left the OR slightly raised. The top set is lightly stormed OR over ASK Silver Cinnamon and the bottom set is lightly stormed OR over reduced Nyx. The time it takes to add the Dark Ivory accent dots is just enough time to let the OR turn translucent. And the beads were worked in a neutral flame the entire time....except of course when I reduced the Nyx. The OR also color shifts and has a shimmery sheen to it which doesn't show well in photos. These dots have a very opalesque look to them that I really love. Of course there is no storm showing, but lightly storming the OR just helps to start the shift to translucency.

Violent Sex or "Bug Porn"

2009-10-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wally got this picture yesterday and he's pretty proud of it. I hesitated in posting it because there's just something wrong about putting a picture up of anything "headless". I'm not sure what else to say...

Big Fat Frog

2009-10-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wally found this guy while he was out fishing at night. Big fat frog pretty much sums it up.

(I had to edit my post because I called this poor frog a toad. Is that an insult to the frog? Thanks for the correction Steve.)

King Snake Rescue

2009-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this little guy will be ok. Wally had to rescue it from Sissy and you can see he has a couple of small gashes on him. This is the only king snake we saw all year. I just love the patterns on their body and head.

Halloween Tag Book

2009-10-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is the fantastic tag book that Linn of AK sent me. She was inspired by the Beeswax September POTM. I was only going to show a couple of pages but it's just too cool not to show the entire thing! I don't have stamp credits but I did want to point out that only the sun used is a Beeswax stamp. I didn't want people running over to our site trying to find all of these stamps. LOL!

October POTM

2009-10-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Beeswax Project of the Month is up for October. I did a pretty simple holiday window card. Only four stamps and minimal coloring in which makes this an easy but very nice project to do. You can find it here:
http://beeswaxrubberstamps.com/potmoct2009.html

Remember that all the stamps are offered at a discount during October.

Speaking of the POTM, I got the coolest thing in the mail today! It's something that was inspired by last month's POTM. I'll take some pictures of it and post it in a day or two.

Project Trellis

2009-09-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of the many projects Wally has been working on. It's a very cool trellis with an interesting architectural element. He picked up these columns almost 10 years ago when he traveled across the US doing rubber stamp shows. He finally figured out a use for them and I think it really gives this a lot more visual interest. Once he's done I'd like to get some trumpet vine to grow up and over the trellis.

Storm Technique Tutorial

2009-09-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well it's done! I think I need a Valium or something. I swear I've been dreaming about this tutorial every night since I started and it was kinda driving me crazy....LOL! Maybe I can get some sleep now. You can find all the details HERE.

Creepy Crawlies

2009-09-10T12:16:00.001-07:00

Wally spotted this tarantula when he was out at the lake fishing. I'm a bit jealous because I've been wanting to see one since we moved here. I think they're super cool.

Except for a couple of rattlesnake encounters, we haven't really seen very many snakes this year. This is a little gopher snake that kindly posed for me.

September POTM

2009-09-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Beeswax Project of the Month is up and it's a Thought of the Day Tag Journal by Susan Quinn. All stamps used in the project are offered at a discount through the month of September and you can find it here.

Trevor vs Praying Mantis

2009-09-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Trevor had a blast trying to get this huge praying mantis on the other side of the window. It kinda drove him crazy. Oh...and the windows were just washed a week ago but the hummingbird feeders are directly above. You figure out what's on the windows...

Storm Technique Tutorial Coming!

2009-08-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

After over a year of debating with myself and going back and forth, I've decided to finally do a tutorial on my storm technique. I have over 30 sample beads to make for it because it's going to include a layering color chart as well. I've only got half the beads made so far so I foresee this being ready in two or three weeks.

More Chalcedony

2009-08-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here's another focal made with Chalcedony called Byzantium. This time I made a barrel with the glass and heated and shaped it. Then I blobbed on dots and squiggles and lines of more glass, super heated it by sections and gravity swirled the additional glass into the bead. This gave me a more mottled and striated look. I've found that it's pretty easy to get color out of this glass by super heating in sections an inch away from the cones and then marvering. Sometimes it takes a few cycles for the color to come out but the time spent on this glass is well worth the outcome.

Some Customer Appreciation

2009-08-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

I feel very fortunate to have such wonderful customers. I get fabulous feedback on Etsy and eBay from my bead customers. I get really nice thank you emails from my rubber stamp customers. I just wanted to take a moment to say "Thank you" myself. I'm usually not able to respond to each and every email but this post is to let all of you know that I truly appreciate your business and your kind words.

Which brings me to the Thank You card I received from Evelyn in Germany. Sometimes customers do a little something extra special. Evelyn sent me this fabulous card with a very nice note inside....thank you Evelyn! I just loved how she combined our stamps in this scene. She used our Bridge Scene 1188R, Ducks 437J, Oak Branch 1279M and the Hanging Lamp 1337K. She stamped everything on glossy card stock and it looks like it was colored in with markers. This also reminds me that I still have to work on the galleries on our website.....ick.

August POTM

2009-08-02T09:48:00.001-07:00

The August Project of the Month is up on our website and you can find it here:
Beeswax POTM

On a different note, have you ever run out of coffee? It's not a pretty site...

Chalcedony

2009-07-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is a bead made with the new glass Chalcedony. It's like Raku so I thought it would hate me too... :). Actually, I think it kinda likes me. To make this bead I did side by side spacer/donut beads on a mandrel. Then I did a strip of glass right down the middle of all the spacers in the center. Then I melted them in together using heat and gravity. After that I added strips of glass inbetween the lines and down the center of the wider lines. My goal was to get a really stripy bead. I then shaped it with a graphite marver, added a bit more glass down the area I wanted wider and then super heated the surface. I'm pretty happy with the colors I got. I really do like the reds Chalcedony gives. It's much prettier than that muddy red/brown that you get with Raku. This bead is named Mesopotamia and it's currently up on eBay.

Beating the Heat

2009-07-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's hot here. It's been around 103 degrees for days and days. Baby birds are struggling to stay cool and failing....poor things. The bunny has it down though. He digs a bit in the cool dirt in the shade and relaxes. The bunny is fairing better than I am. I'm getting a little sick of this.

More Bird Babies

2009-07-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

We have baby birds all over the place here. These have been identified from a photo of mom as Phoebes, also known as Flycatchers. The nest is on the top of a rolled up bamboo awning propped up against the house. Mom and Dad are both taking care of the babies and the flying back and forth is driving the 'dorables absolutely crazy. Now one of the parents has been landing on the nearby hummingbird feeder and driving the poor hummingbirds crazy as well.

Dots

2009-07-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of obsessed with making intricate dot beads lately. Unfortunately it's made me admit that my vision has drastically changed lately. I'm going to give the stick on magnifiers a try first because it seems that I'm only having a problem with close work. It pretty much sucks.

This set Sea Baubles is up on eBay right now. The dots are just Olympia Rain over Triton...no clear topping. I love how Triton heavily fumes dark ivory and then the addition of Olympia Rain even takes it a step further so the ivory dot bases are a deep brown. I'm just not sure how well dot beads are sought after by jewelry artists no matter how cool I think they are.

Turkey Babies

2009-07-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a Wild Turkey mama with her babies. I'm usually able to get some photographs when the babies are younger, but not this year. We didn't have as many turkeys hanging around either. We do seem to have a lot of skunks this year and I think some are living on our property. I've been going on skunk stake out at dusk trying to get a picture but haven't had any luck. They're just so darn cute. I love watching them.

Alligator Shoes

2009-06-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

This is my current set of beads on eBay called Alligator Shoes. This set was made with Terranova 2.1. After complaining that I wasn't thrilled with this new version of Terranova, I came to really like it while making this set. I got a much wider range of colors so even though it's darker for me than 2.0, I'm liking all the different colors going on.

Gold Dragonfly

2009-06-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

We get a lot of Dragonflies during the summer but they are usually blue. We get the occasional red one too and all of them are really BIG. This guy was different from the norm. A pretty gold or Silver Rattan color. (I just finished a set of Silver Rattan beads...can you tell? LOL!) While I was taking his picture there was a fly flying around the camera and this critter's eyes were following the fly all around. It was really cool to watch through the viewfinder.

Bunny Nest

2009-06-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

This bunny is building a little nest smack dab in the middle of our tomato plants. I was able to get fairly close while it was gathering dried grass to pad the nest. You can see her mouth full of grass in one picture. Such a little cutie but that's not a good spot for a nest silly bunny!

Home Grown Garlic

2009-06-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh.....garlic! I just love it. I go through garlic like crazy. This is some home grown garlic from our neighbor's garden. Isn't this baby HUGE? Should last me a week...lol! If you've never had fresh garlic, and I mean fresh from a garden, you are really missing out. It's fabulous. Totally worth adding it to your garden. Wally has planted some that the neighbor gave us but I think it's has a few more months to go before it's ready. Dinner tonight is BBQ'd salmon, home grown zuchinni with lots of garlic and risotto with mushrooms and garlic. No, you can't come over for dinner. :)

More Aurae Photography

2009-06-14T11:09:00.001-07:00

This set Modern Metallics, gave me such a headache! I tried photographing it in my usual studio lighting and the beads just looked icky. I tried outdoor lighting in the shade....yuck. I then tried natural daylight but indoors. I went from room to room in our house photographing these beads and facing all different directions and I was ready to just drop it all together. Then I tried photographing them in the bathroom and...success! I think the diffuse lighting coming from the frosted privacy windows did the trick. The photograph looks just like the beads look in person. Only took me a couple hours...

Photographing Aurae

2009-06-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

Jeez Louise. Aurae is so hard to photograph it's frustrating. I've tried studio lighting, natural indoor lighting and direct sunlight. Sunlight is too harsh. Studio lighting shows the colors the best but you can't see the luster at all. Natural lighting shows the luster but the colors are muted. Wally suggested I try using a black background instead of the gradient background so I tried that last night with my studio lighting. It's actually MUCH better (he's right once in a great while) and the luster even shows up a little too. Anyway, these are my Punk Rock Diva nuggets on eBay right now. There's also a set of chunky discs that match, Rivers of Gold.

Praying Mantis Baby

2009-06-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

Wally is always finding all kinds of critters in the yard. Today he brought me this teeny, tiny praying mantis. Yes, that's his wedding ring in the picture.

Olympia Rain

2009-06-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

These Firefly beads up on eBay were made with a new version of Olympia Rain. I did a lot of comparison beads for Jed using the original OR and this new version and I like the new version encased better. The nuggets are lightly reduced and encased and the discs are heavily reduced and encased.

June POTM

2009-06-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

The Beeswax June project of the month is up on our website here. It's an easy pop-up garden party invitation. You can also take the stamps in the project and make a birthday card or get well card instead.

Encased Aurae

2009-05-25T10:06:00.001-07:00

I've been having a blast encasing Aurae lately. So much so that I have five matching auctions of encased Aurae up on eBay right now. I named them all "Ethereal" because of the dreamy, mystic look this glass has when it's encased. There's a lot of luster and iridescence that just doesn't show in the photographs though. I must have photographed each bead set three different times. I haven't seen anyone else get the gold webbing from Aurae either.....and I'm not telling how I did it!

Arizona

2009-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Here's another fabulous piece of art from Diana of AZ. She used our Large Desert Road 555m and the Back of Stagecoach 1073I. Both of those can be found on our Desert & Southwest page. If I remember correctly, she said the building were from Stamp Out.

Simple Trick

2009-05-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a simple trick I use to get similar sizing when I'm making a bead set. This is my Zoozii Chunky Crystal Duo press. I made a bead that would just fit into the smaller cavity, then did my scroll work. That way my set will be beads that are matching nicely in size. Simple! I do the same with barrels but for those I use my Zoozii Kalera press. For chunky discs I use my Zoozii Nugget. You get the idea!