The Witch and the Pirate

The Witch and the Pirate. Sounds like a good name for some fairy tale doesn't it? Here are today's installment of the faces in the window. I hope you all like them. Ya gotta tell me which ones are your favorites and why. I like to know these things. I think this witch has a lovely sneer on her face. And the squinty eye makes her look nice and mean. I had so much fun doing these.

The pirate. He has a gold tooth you know. Though he needed one. His ears are pierced as well as his nose so he'll end up with some gold rings here and there as well as the gold tooth. After I finished him up I looked at him and said I think he looks like Gomez from the original Addams family TV series. What do you think? Do you agree?

Funny Faces part 2

Well I've finally finished my income taxes and got them filed for 2007. Nothing like waiting 'till the last minute. I've now gotten my funny faces all painted and they are on their way to Christi for the silver. I'm really anxious to see them with the silver roofs and doors. I think these will be a fun product. I'd really like to hear from you folks how you like them, what you think and any related things that you can think of. Its always fun to brainstorm and this is how I come up with new products so please comment.

I managed to complete 11 different faces. I'll post a few every day until I get them all posted up here so be sure to check back and let me know which ones are your favorites. Today I've put up the ones that I teased you with when I started this project. The Kilroy and the Kissy Face elf. Tomorrow perhaps a witch or the pirate.

New Goodies

Hello Everyone I'm back from my show and I've updated my website. I've put all the new things on you can find them in the Bead Shop New Category I've done some new whimsical animal beads, and several new focals. Also the Porcelain canvass pieces that I discussed in the previous post are all done now and are also in the shop. You can find them with this link Porcelain Canvass

New Photo

Ok as promised here is a shot of some of the little porcelain canvass' I've been working on. These are sitting ready to be fired after being painted. I would love to hear from some of you that do PMC if you agree with me that these would be great framed with PMC. I have a bunch more of these to complete before my show including more oriental designs. There are about 3 or 4 oriental ladies in kimonos standing in various poses and maybe another oriental floral still. Also more fairies. It would also be good to hear from you which designs you folks like best. I always like to hear what people are looking for and what they like the best. Oh the photo is not the best it is a phone photo. I'll put up good photos of them once they are all done.

What's New

With a show coming up in less than two weeks I'm madly working to get some new things ready for the show. One thing I'm doing are some 'porcelain canvass' paintings. Porcelain canvass are very thin, very white industrial strength porcelain. Although these are now somewhat difficult to find they used to be easy to get at china painting shows. They come in a variety of sizes and are sold for painting portraits and scenes on for framing as they are much thinner than a tile. They are very translucent and lovely to paint on. I have managed to cut some down to sizes that will be suitable for pendants and I'm painting some oriental designs an some fairies on some. I think these will be wonderful for pendants with PMC frames made around them. I should have some of the paintings finished in a day or two and will post some photos then.

So I'll be in Tucson September 5,6,7 at the Fall Best Bead Show. I will have the paintings available for sale at the show so stop by and see me. I'll be in booth 69 just across from the registration table.

Christmas is coming

Hello everyone. I know that summer has just barely arrived and that people rarely think about Christmas before thanksgiving but here we go. I've been madly pouring snowbabies and a few of some little Christmas charms and it occurred to me that I should let people know. I've been having a flurry of inquiries about these things by those fore-thinking people that are nothing like me and they have spurred me into action. Thus the pouring. Since I am a glutton for punishment and I figure its only fair that everyone have a chance at these guys I figured I'd put it on the blog.

Since its just me, one artist, doing all the work the quantities of them is very very limited. I've poured around 200 snowbabies and significantly less of the little charms and I'm about at the limit of what I can accomplish by fall. (I also have orders for other things that I need to work on at the same time) So here's the scoop. Around half of the snowbabies are already spoken for and its looking more and more like I'm not likely to have any left to put on the website. So if you want snowbabies this year you need to contact me asap and get on the list. Same goes for the little Christmas charms.

Snowbabies are $15 each and as long as I have all the poses available retail buyers can choose individual snowbabies. You can see all the poses here: Snow Baby beads Photo Also four posts down on this page. The christmas charms I will be selling in sets there are five in each set as can be seen in the photo to the right. The cost of the set is $40. These charms are tiny so the detail on them is very fine they are less than 1/2 inch tall, so in the photo they are greatly enlarged. I will be starting a list for them on a first come first served basis as well. There will also be available 'snowballs' These are just round beads that match the snowbabies. They are available in 12,14,16,18,20, and 22mm. They are $2 each for 12&14mm, $4 each for 16&18mm, and $5 each for 20 or 22mm.

Thanks to everyone for all their interest in my work. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Apothecary in Miniature - the finished product

Well the Apothecary Jars are finished. The photo here shows three of the finished jars which you may recognize from the previous post photos. To see all of the jars, some of which are still available visit my miniature shop
I also did some of these designs on small vessel pendants you can see a couple of those at the Ceramic Bead Artist site

Apothecary in miniature

Over the last week I've been working on miniature apothecary jars. The first picture shows how I lay out the design with pencil on the little unfired pots. (Click the pictures to see larger ones) The other two photos show the pots that I have finished so far. These are all painted with underglazes and they haven't been fired yet so the colors will be a bit more intense once they have been fired. These pots have been done for several people that have asked me to make some. I'm not sure how many they will want so there may be some extras.

Check the website in the apothecary category for available jars.

Potpourri Heart

This is my most recently completed pendant. This is a new idea I had. I call it a potpourri heart. You will notice all the small holes around the edge. This pendant is hollow and there is a relatively large hole near the top at the back. The idea is to fill the pendant with cotton and then put a few drops of essential oil on the cotton through the large hole in the back. When the pendant is worn the fragrance will diffuse out of the small holes in the front. This will enable people that experience skin irritations from the contact with the oil to wear fragrances as the oil will not be in contact with the skin. Also people that find that certain fragrances that they like smell awful on them because of their body chemistry can now wear those fragrances.


For those of you that are interested in the process I have included a photo of the pendant after four of the five firings. There is one additional firing between the third and final photo. I forgot to take the fourth photo but this should give you an idea of how the design is built and how it progresses with china paint.

This pendant is porcelain hand painted with china paints.

Butterfly Pendant

Another new pendant in the works. This one I painted up for a fall challenge. It is another of the new shapes I'm working on. Just got some more out of the kiln today so will be painting more soon. Again I welcome any comments.

Pendant: Hand painted porcelain.

New Pendant

Been working hard through July and August on orders but I did manage to complete this new pendant. This is a new style that I hope to have several of available soon with different sorts of flowers on. Would love to hear your comments.

Just to quell any confusion this pendant is made from Porcelain which has been fired to approximately 1200 degrees centigrade (about 2300 degrees Farenheit) It has been glazed and fired again. Then the design was added using china paint. This required an additional 3 firings to about 800C. Then the palladium accents were added requiring 2 additional firings of around 750C.