Merry Christmas

Lovely video:
> http://www.wimp.com/dubaifountain/

On the cruise 2010. (I'm hiding behind Joe)

I think the boat rocked when this photo was taken....a little shakey! We only had one day when the seas were rough, and weren't allowed to go into the Cayman Islands due to the weather...but at least it wasn't as bad as some of the ships that week! So glad I wasn't on that ship that nearly rolled over!

The eclipse!

Photo taken by Michael Weber

I've loaded up the website with some new focal beads.....yes finally!

I am heading out today for a seven day vacation with friends to Mexico! Another awesome deal on Royal Caribbean Cruises that we just couldn't pass up.

Its freezing here already....in the 30's at night...so its a good time to get out of town!

Oh, and yes, Mama dog and the pups are safely and happily being taken care of down the street. God bless this friendly neighbor!

This is a stray mama dog that appeared under our shed a few weeks ago to have her puppies.

Poor Mama was near starved to death, we just about could see every bone in her body. We of course started feeding her and she has finally put on a little weight... All but one of the puppies are also doing nicely...getting chubby and playful. One is so small compared to the others, she looks like a kitten. I've been bottle feeding her for the couple of weeks, as I realized that Mama only has two nipples working and the little one just wasn't able to push the big pups out of the way to have her turn.

Want a puppy? How about a very sweet and loving, but old and homely red nosed mixed pit bull mama? I'll get her fixed!

I can not keep her or the pups.....so next I've got to figure out some placement for all of them.

Honestly, I'm such a sucker for critters...especially those in such dire need. Any ideas would be appreciate. I've tried the ASPCA, the Humane Society and a number of no kill shelters in the area and none will take her. It seems that they are all overloaded with animals. Another crisis brewing due to the economy.

Labor Day:

It went from blazing hot to fall in a matter of hours around here. Don't you just love sweater weather?

A new Raku bead listed on the website

"Horizontal Purple Raku"

The photo on the top is of my latest rug hooking, this one made into a framed piece. The image is an adaptation of an original watercolor that our friend Michael Weber made. The frame Joe made out of some old weathered boards we gathered many years ago. They were part of an old shed...or as the neighbors say, out of an old circus wagon that was on our friend and neighbors land. Not sure if that story is correct about the circus wagon, but it does make it a colorfull story!

Hooking was made entirely of recycled wood (thrift shop clothes of 100% wood) and now the frame is even recycled. Now that is re-use and re-propose!

More Raku Fun and Pittsburgh Pa.

This weekend our long and lovely break from the art shows is ending and we are off to do the annual "Shadyside Art Festival" in Pittsburgh Pa. (Aug. 28-29) This has been a really good show for us for the past 5-6 years. This used to be a three day show, but now it is only Saturday and Sunday which all us artists appreciate allot. The hours are still too long...but ya can't have everything!

I've been playing with my raku glass again and having some fun with it.

Like I've said before, raku is tricky....sometimes its magic.....eh....sometimes it just isn't. I was having a "good raku day" so I did quite a few!

Added a few new beads to the website!

I know, I know....its about time!

Had to get a new laptop....and new photoshop software...so I was playing.

The Honeys birthday is today, so we are heading up one state into Michigan for a special dinner. The man likes his steak.
Just a couple of more shows of the season....next is in Pittsburgh and then Indianapolis and then lastly in Louisville.
I'm trying to catch up with my listing on the website....and will be adding more over the weekend.
Garden report: Tomato plants look awful, but they are cranking out the fruit anyway.
http://www.doodletart.com

Ahhhh.....I can't believe that I am cutting down my garden already.....where has the summer gone?!

Summer is slipping away....We've only got two and a half months left in our Indiana Paradise. Well....its paradise to me.

I finally have the time to play again at the torch with our biggest shows behind us now. Ann Arbor Art Show was again terrific. We had some bad weather one day, but it didn't seem to hurt our sales one bit.

Now...I have a month off to build up my inventory again with plenty of time to enjoy the late summer.

I've listed allot of new beads on the website. Some are strictly with fall in mind! Pumpkins! now, that's new for me!

Just finished up the "Covington Art Show" in Fort Wayne Indiana.

I want to rave about the shows staff...its so rare when an art festival director and staff really appreciate and understand what it takes to actually do a show.

This staff was over the top wonderful...from easy set up, and parking directly behind your booth!, an artists "oasis" where clean air conditioned rest rooms were, coffee and breakfast in the morning, sandwich stuff at lunch, veggie munchies and cold water. When bad weather started to threaten Sundays show...we were kindly told to pack up any time we felt our inventory or safety was in jeopardy. To put this last credit into light, I was once told by the Sugarloaf show staff in Virginia that "It is our policy that you need to set up regardless" This was said when all weather reports showed a HURRICANE baring down on us. Nice....really nice. I did not, by the way, set up my booth....I'm not completly crazy. Others did, and lost their tents if not inventory.

Anyway a big applause to the show staff of the Covington Art Festival. Thank you so much for caring about us.

Awhile ago I wrote a blog about being sick with a horrible cold and then still have to show up and do an art show. There were unfortunately less then good results, as I was not up to being too friendly or enthusiastic, and at least one "customer" went to the trouble to complain.

This weekend we were in South Bend Indiana at the "Leeper Park Art Festival"

I had a terrible tooth ache....my face looked like a chipmunk who filled one cheek with an overload of nuts. I was in miserable pain, as the antibiotics that the dentist prescribed wasn't doing a thing for me. Luckily Joe was there to help out and let me go whimper in solitude in the travel trailer allot of the day.

I tried very hard to smile...or half smile (only one side of my face was able to move) and be as cheerful as I could while I was in the booth. I changed my art show name tag to read:

"my name is Susan, not Alvin like the chipmunk, I have a toothache....ouch!" Hopefully anyone who didn't get my best salesmanship attitude, read my tag, and understood.

Most people realized by the size of my cheek, that something was wrong, giving me advise and hope that the upcoming root canal won't be another horror show.

Thanks to all that had kind words, thanks for all who excused my appearance and lack of bubbly enthusiasm.

As I said before....."the show must go on", sometimes its just harder then others.

This weekend we are in Fort Wayne Indiana for the "Covington Art Festival" This will be our first year at this show....and already I like it because its only a hour from home! What a joy that is not to have to drive 4-5 hours on Sunday night back home. I've heard through the artist grapevine that is a really good show besides!

Wowie Zowie!!

Cincinnati Summerfair was incredible! We lucked out on the weather, missing the hard rain and tornado threats...we sailed through the long hours of this show and sold out of allot of our inventory!
yippee!

Ooopps...I guess that means I've got to work even harder this week just to catch up again.

We had some friends over for dinner last night, our first porch feast of the season. I wish I'd taken a photo of the gathering to show you instead of our empty porch.

The photo at the top is of a hooked rug I made for the porch. I was visiting a bead enthusiast and friend last spring and was inspired to get back into old fashioned rug hooking after seeing her lovely rugs. My Grandmother made them, and my Mom did too....I guess you could say I come from a long line of hookers.

Back to work!

Cincinnati Summerfair Art Festival, garden and Indiana

Wow,


I've been away too long!


The Garden beckons me and keeps me from writting much lately.





We are in Angola Indiana now for the summer. We are so happy to be back "home".





This weekend is the "Cincinnati Summerfair" in ....Cincinnati, Ohio. This is a really fine show and we are so glad to be back in this year. I just hope the weather holds, its been mighty wet and windy around here lately.

The photo is of the lovely Smoke tree (purple leaves) which I am trying to keep small, with a white lily and nearly blooming Hollyhocks. I garden is growing like crazy...doesn't it seem like everything is coming up allot earlier this year?

We are back in Indiana for the summer! I can't tell you how happy I am to be back "home".
I have already been out shopping for plants at the local nursery's and bought the annuals for all my large containers. It did get near freezing last night, so they are safely tucked away for now in the studio where my seed flats of veggies are happily sitting under grow lights. I have to say the studio looks more like a greenhouse then a working studio at the moment.

As usual we had some trouble getting the house in order this year. There is always something that goes wrong....this years problems included some rather nasty customer relations issues. First the phone company didn't have "room" on there service for our DSL internet...so we had to go a different route for that. Then the gas company put a lock on the huge rusting hulk of a propane tank that sits in our backyard. Seems they, after 10 years of service, has decided that we are not using enough gas to make it worth while. You would think that when times are tough, the companies would bend a little to make their customers happy....nope.

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting back to the torch now. I've cleaned the house and raked the gardens and am ready to get to work again.

We are going to be at the Broad Ripple Art Festival in Indianapolis this weekend, so if you are in the area, stop by and introduce yourself!

Rough week for me but....oh what a difference a day makes.

Never think there is no hope....cause sometimes you just get lucky.

Life is good!

This beautiful choker was made by Candice Bennett from Cold Lake, Alberta Canada

Nice job don't you think? Purity and innocence, feminine and sexy all at the same time.

You can reach Candice at: stevecan@telus.net

http://terrisfp1.com/holidays/chick.swf

Happy Easter!

Summer Schedule of Art Shows

Just a quick note to let you know that I have an tentative summer schedule up on the website.
Go to http://www.doodletart.com and click on the Events tab at the top of the page.

All but two are locked in with acceptances...but I am still waiting to hear from the last couple. I will let you know when I do!

Just finished up a show in Jupiter/Juno Florida. A long line, almost a mile of artists set up along the road next to the beach. It had rained for two days prior to the show, but thankfully cleared up for the 2 glorious days of the show.

Unfortunately, I was miserably sick the whole time. I'm not sure if it was the common cold or allergies....is there a way to tell which? Either way, no medications helped the running nose, sneezing and clogged head and exhaustion that I felt. Yuck.

It is a regrettable part of the Art show world....you do the show, sick or not.

I muddled through though, letting Joe do most of the talking.

We have off the next weekend, so I will have plenty of time to recoup in time for the next show in Jacksonville Florida. I plan to sleep allot!

The better side of Art Shows

I has occured to me that most of my blogs concerning Art Shows are rather negative. Its the crazy people I meet that are more fun to write about, however, there are allot of good things about doing shows that I rarely mention.
Last weekend we were visited, in our booth, by lots of previous customers and bead pals. It is so very nice to see and visit with them. I adore it when someone comes by to tell me how much they are enjoying their purchase.
I sell orphan beads on the side at shows, and this weekend quite a few of my customers came by to show me what they'd made with their beads. Fun! they all did such a good job too. I can deal with the crazies as long as the majority, no the vast majority of people are friendly, kind and enthusiastic.
At that last show there were 7 other lampworkers. That doesn't help any of us with sales, but it was a great opportunity to catch up and visit. Its a treat to see such superb work by other glass workers and be around such happy, fun loving, creative people.

Art Festivals: Be carefull what you wish for...

The Good the Bad and the Crazy Art Festivals

I have been in the business of Art Shows and Art Festivals for a lifetime, and I've participated in ones that were fantastic to ones that were awful and everything in between.
This past weekend was a new experience. Off and on during my tenure of shows I have applied for and been rejected from one peticular show, an old established, high income producing spectacular that most art show artists covet. The jury fee is a high $35.oo just to have the privilege of having our slides reviewed by a group of jurors. You can imagine how much money I have already spent on this show without ever doing it!
This year we were surprised and delighted to have been accepted into the show at long last.
Well, the much anticipated show was last weekend and I can relax now knowing that I can stop praying for the acceptance letter for this show. I doubt I will ever bother to apply again. I'm $35.00 richer each year for this revelation!
The show, perhaps because of the economy, was only average in sales....it was actually pretty good, but after all the anticipation....it was a let down. Obviously my expecations were a tad lofty.
I was really surprised and amazed at the lack of organization. The set up was an nightmare, organized by amatures. Specific set up times were given and most artists that were in the park area of the show waited 2-3-4 hours in their vans for the space to unload. We waited in that line too for an hour before we realized that we were in the wrong line. Okay, maybe that was our fault...but the whole thing was so confusing.
It was one stupid thing after another....with so many foo-pas that it became quite funny. I could go on and on about the little annoyances but I will spare you my warping about having no coffee available at the artists breakfast and cold hard bagels without butter or cream cheese. I say Do it right, or just don't. Most shows don't even give breakfast to us....so perhaps I shouldn't complain.

The most unusual thing that happened to us was when we were instructed to park our little travel trailer and van in a city lot. All was fine, lots of space for artists RV's and trailers. We woke the following morning and turned off the noisy fan, (it drowns out all street noise so we can sleep) We heard voices.....lots of voices...right outside our window! We peeked out to find the Saturday morning breakfast soup kitchen for the homeless setting up for the day...There were at least 100 people milling around. This event happens every Saturday in the same spot....you'd have thought the art festival committe would have informed us to park at the other end of the lot. Our trailer was in the middle of the breakfast, obviously in the way, in the middle of a prayer meeting and the middle of the staging area for the band that was setting up.
It was rather awkward to step out of our trailer all dressed up, when most of the people had relatively nothing.
They waved good morning, we waved back before heading down to the show four blocks away. I am sure they would have offered us coffee........

Break down at any show is always awful even in the best of run shows. This one looked to be an even worse nightmare. We wheeled everything out by hand rather then deal with the comming chaos and got out of there in good time. I felt so sorry for the ones who couldn't....

So....Be carefull for what you wish for.....you might just get it.

Jewlery made by Michelle at pugpockets.com

New at

pugpockets.com

Check out this cute website with accessories for little pooches!

Dog collars, bedding and fun goodies for our furry friends.

Be sure to view the adorable screen saver near the bottom of the page....too funny!

I love Raku.....this focal bead was made on a creamy yellow base and the reactions with the raku cane are yummy!

What do you think about lampwork presses?

I have bought 7or 8 lampwork presses over the years. I'd been tempted by the beautiful beads produced with them and the lovely and consistent shapes.
I use only one on a very irregular basis....it is lovely and perfect and a shape I couldn't hope to produce without this perfection making devise.
I ran across an interesting new press type tool recently that makes with ease absolutely perfect, absolutely identical spacer beads. I was intrigued, but frankly disheartened by this new doodad. Why bother I wondered....if you need perfection, why not just buy machine made beads.
Once in my art festival booth a customer was humming and hawing about a pair of earrings...when Joe finally asked what the problem was, she said that the tiny squiggles of stringer work on these tiny earrings didn't exactly match... I was flabbergasted and outraged but luckily Joe is much more patient then I am and handled it with grace. I wondered why such a customer would even bother looking at handmade art jewelry. Isn't the joy of art knowing that it was made by a real person, a person who put their heart and soul into the piece for you enjoyment?
So, you lampworkers out there, you designers and artists....what are your thoughts about this? Now I know some people need that consistency to be happy, but do we really want to strive for a machine made look?

Teaching Advanced/Intermediate Lampwork Class

Well its official!
I will be teaching my first lampwork class in raised floral designs in Indianapolis Indiana. This class will be held October 2011. Its a long way off, but if you are interested you can contact the Indiana Society of Lampwork and Glass Artists or islaga.org for more information.

New beads for spring on my website!

It hasn't exactly gotten spring like here yet, but I am hopeful that it is just around the corner now....aren't you?!