My leg, my leg, my leg is on fire!!

We don't need no water, let the mutha fu...

Well, that's not really how the song goes, but it definitely describes my morning. What happened, ask ye? Being the Artiste Ingénieux that I can sometimes be, I had the bright idea of trying to make an off mandrel wine stopper topper, James Tinker style. His way of doing it is way cool, but the creative genius in me decided to make it a fish. Sounds simple enough, eh? Well, I got it a little too hot and it melted off the punty right into my lap! It burned through my shirt, and into my pants and got stuck in the leg, which promptly caught fire. OMFG!!!! You should have seen me jumping around, doing a discombobulated rendition of the Running Man. (Don't act like you don't know what that is). Anyway, I torch in front of a rather large window, so I'm pretty sure my neighbors are now convinced that I am the only no rhythm having sistah in the hood...

Now on to the gore. (Not really gory, but definitely not pretty)
Immediately after:

Inside lower left leg.
<--Mmmm, fried Nette leg. Note the crispyness.



East of Eden.
(stop tryin' to peek at my nani!!)

6 hours later:
<---Ick. If my modeling career wasn't over before, it definitely is now.



<--Whew! That was close!
Sheesh! A couple of inches to the right and I could have canceled my appointment for the Brazilian!

So, what have we learned from this? Torch naked! It's safer. And use a tripod for those awkward shots. (Just kidding, folks! Except for the part about the tripod)

Well, I need to go put more aloe on my wounds. See Ya!

Pi? Not Pi, Messy 96!!

Remember Pi Glass (96COE)? Probably not. It seems like that were out of business before they got started, but they had some really nice colors and the glass wasn't very expensive. Well, it was recently announced that CIM will be supplying some of the colors from the old Pi line, since their 104COE glass is made at the same factory. Great news for all the Pi fans out there. The Messy 96 will be carried by Frantz and Phoenix Art Supplies. Phoenix also carries some divine vintage 96 glass. LOVE it! The black is great, the cobalt is beautiful, the lavender doesn't get all devitty or reducey... Yeah, I made those words up, but you know what I'm talkin' about! Plus, she always has some sort of awesome special going on. I believe she's giving away free glass with purchases right now. You should all go buy stuff. Now. ;)

So, anyway, yesterday was the annual Christmas party for the Florida Glass Dragons. This year it was held at R4 Glass Studio and was a total blast, as usual. I didn't get any pictures of the party, but I did catch Mr. Tyler, Bead Snatcher Extraordinaire having a good time in the fountain:

Sayonara!!

Whooty whooooo!!

<----See that? That's me doing a happy dance. Why, you ask? Because I'm finally done with that damned bulk buy!! Well mostly. There are still some items missing, but at least the main part is done. The rest is just clean up. Never again, I say. Never again! Now maybe I'll have a little more time to actually get some torching in. Yayyyyy!!! I get to make pretties (or not so pretties, depending on taste). So anyway, that's about all I have to jab about today. I have a lot of orders to get shipped and I'm a couple of days behind. Here's some eye candy, though:

That's all, folks!!!

Torch time, baby!!

Woo hoo!! I finally decided to have some torch time, no matter what. So, despite being sick as a dog, courtesy of Mr. Tyler, I made beads this weekend. It was AWESOME!! I finally got to play with my new stash of Uroboros and I think I'm in love. The black is heavenly!! No reduction and no pitting at all!! And I have a tendency to cook the snot of black when I make godesses. Take a gander:

Isn't she lovely? I even added backfat and cellulite! I call her Big Mama II. Mr. Tyler smashed the original Big Mama and I was crushed! :( I still tear up a little thinking about her... Anyway, I digress. So I've decided that I really like Uroboros. It's a lot stiffer than Effetre, so that took a little getting used to, but I have a nice size torch (GTT Cheetah). I just needed to crank it up a little. I love the colors and even though the color palette is limited (only 39 colors), it's compatible with the furnace canes so I have hundreds of colors to choose from. Not a good thing for a glass ho like me who has to have every color out there. I guess it's a good thing I'm poor...

So anyway, I'm just about finished with my nightmare of a bulk buy and I must say I will NEVER EVER have anything made in India again. I apologize if any of you reading this are Indian and are offended, but you have your fellow countryman, Imran Khan of New Designs, Inc. to thank. What a freakin' crook!!! I still don't have my entire order, so I had to find a local company pick up his slack, so now I'm paying double. I know a lot of people are bitter about things made in China, but hey, at least the businesses are honest and reliable there. This is just my opinion gathered after working with Chinese companies for years.

Once I finish getting everyone's items out to them, I will be adding the rest to my store. Here is a letter opener that I made this weekend, also:

The beads are Uroboros Cherry Red Semi-Opal with R58 Old Gold Aventurine frit and some fine silver wire. I haven't played with silver wire in ages. I'd forgotten how cool it is.

Well, it's time for me to skedaddle. Maybe I'll go make that ice pick, now...

Didja miss me?

It's been ages since I posted any news, so I figure it's time to get back in the swing. I've had a helluva time these last few months, but I won't go into detail. Let's just say it's been rough and leave it at that.

I just revamped the site and I finally finished my store! Aren't you proud of me? Well, even if you're not, my arm is in a sling because I strained my shoulder from patting myself on the back. I'm pretty happy with the new look and the way it integrates with the rest of the site. Stroll on over to The Goodie Shop and take a look-see for yourself. I've added a bunch of new items and I've got some great stuff that will be coming soon. Beadable serving sets, canape knives and other goodies. Here are a couple of photos of the beadable swizzle sticks (aka drink stirrers):

These are pretty cool and I can't wait to get them added to the store and yes, I know the beads are crappy. I didn't make them, so there! Now, If I could just find some time to play with my new torch and glass I wouldn't have to use crappy import beads in my pics. I bought a GTT Cheetah a couple of months ago and I've only made 3 beads on it. Ack!! I also switched to Uroboros and BE. I haven't used any of the BE I bought. I really need more hours in my day... Oh well. So life goes.

Well, that's about all the updates I have time for right now. I'm swamped and I really should be working, but I'm slacking. I guess I'd better crack my own whip.


See y'all later!!

Bead hoein' and color sharin'

Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July holiday. I most certainly did. Tyler, my little one, is afraid of loud noises so we stayed in. Poor kid doesn't know what he's missing. Oh well. At least I got some much needed torch time. I signed up to do a twistie exchange on LE, so I decided to make a bunch of those. Well, I used some really cool combinations and I liked them so much that I ended up using them all, lol. I'm such a knucklehead, sometimes. The focal over there <----, which is called Dreamscape, by the way, is made with a couple of them. Actually 3, I think. And some Light Iris Gold stringer on a Vetrofond Dark Ivory base with Vetrofond 927 Sea Green ends and accent beads. Yeah, I know. You didn't ask, but so what. I feel like sharing today. I also made another great set using Effetre Light Brown and Vetrofond Fish Pink. Everyone hates the Fish Pink, but I love it. I think it's one of the most underappreciated color in the Vetrofond palette. Take a gander:




Now, the set on the left (Caramel Delight because it reminds me of dark carmel, which I absolutely LOVE. I'd sacrifice a tooth to caramel any day!) is made with Effetre Light Brown and drizzled with Vetrofond Fish Pink. I think it looks really nice and I like the slight reaction between the 2 glasses. The bead on the left is a base of Fish Pink rolled in silver powder. Silver turns it brown, but I like the effect. The bead was supposed to be a peacock feather, but it reminds me more of a blue comet.

The Vetrofond ODD pinks are also underappreciated. The Dark Pink is awesome, but people don't really take the time to figure it out because the rods are a pale lavender color. Well guess what? It works up to a nice pink. Pink Pink. Not Purple Pink. I made this set a while ago:





At one point it was a quite lovely set. And then one day I, being the genius that I am, decided to etch it. What's wrong with etching, you ask? Nothing. Just don't be a dumbass like I was and forget about your beads. I left them in the solution for 2 days! Now they're all rough and yuckala to the touch. They still look nice but they feel like ick. Ick, I say!

So anyway, that's about all I have to say today. Did I mention that I don't even like pink? I am starting to enjoy working with it, though. So everybody run out and buy some Vetrofond Dark Pink 956. Bill (islandglass!!!) has some in his eBay store (Moretti & More) for $16lb.

Oh, and don't forget to check out my auctions on Justbeads.com. You could be the first to ever purchase one of my beads! (heheheheh. More pimpin'! )

See ya!!

Pimpin' my wares!

So, after much hemming and hawing, I've finally bitten the bullet and listed a "set" of beads for sale. Yeah, I know it's only 3 beads, but hey, the focal is gorgeous. It's prettier in person. Can you tell I'm proud? I'm like a mom on her baby's first day of kindergarten. Happy, yet sad at the same time. I've been hearing how I really need to sell my beads for quite a while, but I've never really felt like I was ready. Or maybe it was just laziness. Probably the latter... So anyway, here's my my auction (<---click and bid) listed at www.justbeads.com. My seller id is glassgoodies.

I finally got around to taking pictures of more of my beads and since it's obvious that I've been too busy (read "lazy") to add a gallery to my site (http://www.glassgoodies.com, I put up a gallery at a cool little site called beadartists.org. It's a great site to look at lots and lots of bead porn! there are a lot of talented artists there. I'm so jealous. I really wish I could torch for hours at a time, but I guess I should be happy with the time that I have and make the best of it. And I do. I really do. I just like to bitch and moan sometimes. Doesn't it feel good to whine sometimes? (Pass the cheese, please.)

Oh. And major vent time:

A few weeks ago I did a little write up on a really nice pink that came out, Light Pink 260-BP aka Bubblegum Pink. I really liked this color because it's actually PINK and it isn't 40 damned $$ a pound, which is a totally ridiculous price for pink anyway because it is almost always washed out and barely discernible from white.

So anyway, I mentioned how a couple of sellers were selling the new Light Pink Bubblegum version as Dark Pink (scroll down to see the original post in May). The BP is actually a lot darker than the DP, but it's $25 cheaper so they were majorly ripping people off. Well, I recently found tha a big supplier, and when I say big I mean a major playor in the glass industry, is doing the exact same thing. He has flip-flopped the 2 pinks and is selling what was previously BP as the new DP and selling the new DP as BP. Now how effin shady is that? Ugh!! I am totally disgusted! At the time I noticed this, I was about to place a $400 order with said distributor. I know that's chickenfeed to some of you, but to me, that's a lot of money. Well, that's $400 that I will be spending elsewhere. I'll never do business with someone so unscrupulous as to blatantly rip off their customers and act like it's no big deal. Kind of makes me wonder how many other times it's been done...

I know that what I think doesn't matter to a lot of people and this post will probably piss several of you off, but hey, you've been warned of the goings on (twice now) so if you get taken it's your own damned fault. We make our own choices as to who we deal with and what kind of bullshit (yes bullshit) we'll put up with. If we keep taking it, they'll keep dealing it. He is a major player, but not the only one, so I for one will no longer be on his list of customers. If enough people say "I'm not going to stand for this," maybe things will change. At least a little, but until then, it's going to be the same ol' same ol'.

Ok, I'm coming down off my soapbox now. Here's some new eyecandy (Bead Porn alert):



This was my first attempt at a mask, but my "vision" turned into a Tiki about halfway through. I swear I have the attention span of a goldfish. And you wonder why I don't do sets...

I'm out folks! Don't forget to bid on my auctions! (Just a little last minute bead pimping )

So much to say, so little space

Hi y'all! (No, I'm not a Southerner, but yes I do say "y'all"). Don't try to act like y'all don't. It just rolls off the tongue so nice and smooth. Y'all. How y'all doin'? You know you love it!

Anyway, I recently took a FANTASTIC class with Jeff Barber, Mr. Satake. It was sooo freakin' AWESOME!! I can now make perfect ribbon cane and lattucino! (is that even spelled right?) I made this on my 1st attempt:
I'm sooo psyched! Now, if I could just use it on a bead without it melting all to hell, I'll be a really happy camper. So anyway, the class was top notch and I'd advise everyone to jump on the opportunity if he's ever teaching in your area. I learned so many cool techniques and they can be applied to all types of glass. Not just Satake, which is awesome glass, by the way. Perfect for all you Hothead users out there. If anyone is interested, there is going to be a Satake buy on LE towards the end of the month, so make sure you keep an eye out if you want to get some for $15.50/lb. It's normally $22/lb.

I'm also psyched about the fact that I gave my very first Lampwork lesson on Saturday. It was tons of fun and Mary is a total natural. I hate her. Not really. She's a sweetheart and so is her hubby Jack. They make beautiful jewelry (see it here) and she's always had an interest in lampwork. Lucky her stumbled across my website looking for fan pulls. Now I've suckered her into making her own beads. Poor Jack. Someone should really tell him that a glass addiction is comparable to crack. Really. Just try to make me stop. Get back, I'll cutcha!!!! Take a gander at one of her first beads:



Isn't it gorgeous? Just wait until she knows what she's doing!

Well, that's about it for now. I actually have a lot more to jabber about, but i'm tired and need a nap before I go to work. I'll just leave you all (y'all) with this: Bead Porn Alert




Toodles!!!

Somebody shoot me, PLEASE!!!

There was/is a short discussion on LE regarding children's television shows. Yes, I watch them! You gotta problem with that? Jack's Big Music Show and The Backyardigans rock! Really, they do! I love it when Pablo does his James Brown moves. And Jack's just has good music. So anyway, back to why I want, no, need to be shot. Someone mentioned the show "Johnny and the Sprites", which I can't stand, by the way. Well now, the stupid friggin' theme song has been STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR 2 DAYS!!!! (Thanks a lot, Kendra!) Ugh! Help me, please. I can't take it any more...

Ok. On to the good stuff! Have you tried the new Pineapple Sparkle (Vet 941) yet? OMG! This glass is sooooo beautiful! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! I need more of it! (Hey, I'm a poet and didn't know it!) I made this fish just to see how the color looked with Lt. Sky and White and I was just floored. I'm a decent photographer. Not professional, but I can take some pretty decent shots, but try as I might, I cannot capture the sparkle of this glass; Which I purchased from Galaxy Glass on Ebay, by the way. Deonne is such an enabler. She often carries a lot of difficult/impossible to find colors (like DoubleHelix Olympia Rain and Kronos). When I was dying for more Slate Blue, where did I find it? Galaxy Glass. I bought 8lbs of it. She's also got some of the yum yum yummy Intense Tangerine (Vet. 939). Here is a test bead I made with Tangerine and Periwinkle. Yes, I know that it isn't technically perfect, but so what. It's just a color test. I wanted to see how the Tangerine looked with my favorite glass color, Periwinkle. I am in love with Periwinkle. It goes beautifully with everything and I always have at lest 2-3 lbs of it on hand. Probably more like 4 or 5lbs, lol. It's good stuff. You should try it some time. It's wayyy awesome with Lapis (any of them). I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't love periwinkle in real life. Just in the glass world. I don't think you'll ever see me in anything Periwinkle. It's totally not my color. Hmm. What is my color?

Anyway, back to the subject at hand: Pineapple Sparkle and Intense Tangerine. Love 'em! You need to get some! And if any of you have any tips on capturing the sparkle, please clue me in. You can email me at shawnette@glassgoodies.com, but I would prefer that you post here so that everyone can share the knowledge. Plus, it will save me posting time. I'm lazy.

One more thing. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I sell lots of Lampwork goodies (accessories, beadables, all that jazz). Anyway, one of my customers (Janelle Zorko) emailed pics of some of the pulls she's been making with my changeable bead fan pulls. (Insert product pimping link here) They are absolutely gorgeous! Here is my favorite of the bunch:



If anyone else would like to submit images of items that they have made with some of my goodies, feel free. I will be setting up a customer gallery and will provide a link back to the artist's webpage. I'm all about promoting others. (And myself, of course!)

Well, that's it for today! I'm out!

X-Men: The Last Stand

Oh My God! If you haven't seen this movie yet, what the hell are you waiting for?! I'm thinking it might be the best of the trio. I should watch the other 2 again, just to make sure, but I'm pretty positive it's the best. And apparently, I'm not the only Stan Lee fan out there because X3 took in nearly $45 million on Friday (Friday!) to become the 2nd largest movie opening, just behind Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (damned Star Wars geeks!). I just went today and the theatre was PACKED. I had to sit in the FRONT ROW! Ugh! Don't you friggin' hate that?! Good thing it was a damned good movie. I might even buy the dvd. I never buy dvds, so that should give you a hint as to how excellent this movie really is. So get your butts in gear and go see it!! Oh, and don't leave until after the credits. There's a surprise! (No I'm not telling, but it's worth the wait!)

Oh yeah. Bead Porn Alert:

I made this little beauty for the purple heart exchange. Hopefully Bruna has her by now, but I have no idea how long mail takes to get to Mexico.

Ouch, Ouchie, Effin' Ouch!!!!

Dammit, dammit, dammit!!! I just burned the shiznat out of the index and middle finger on my right hand. Roast Digit, anyone? Like the big dummy I can sometimes be, I stuck my hand directly in the flame! How'd that happen? Ugh! I walked away from the torch and left it running. I never do that. Well, maybe to step across the kitchen to get a drink, but I never just leave the torch running and go piddle around elsewhere. That's just stupid. And dangerous. Ok, so back to how I burned myself. When I came back to the torch, I noticed the flowmeter on my oxycons were reading low, so I stuck my hand in front of the torch jets to see if the air was flowing. Normally, this would be just fine. Air poses no danger, but when you're a dinklemeyer who left the torch burning... Well lets just say Barbeque Phalanges... But you know, today must be "Let's do dumb sh*t" day. I'm not even going to go into the other bonehead crap that I did. Let's just say it involved pop (soda to you non-midwesterners) and a 1-year-old.

Ok, so anyway, I just got 4lbs of the "New" Light Pink, Effetre 260. Man, this stuff is wayyy darker than the Dark Pink (256). I feel like such a sucker! I paid 40 bucks for 1 stinkin' pound of the Dark Pink. Not only was it not dark pink, it was nearly identical to my Light Pink, which was only aroun $12/lb. Ugh! And I don't even like pink. I'm just a glass whore. (FYI, I am not a girly girl. I just play one in the movies.)

So anyway, I'd like to say thank you to Jon at LBSupplys (Ebay) for his super fast shipping and excellent packaging, as always. Also, I just want to mention that I did notice that at least one seller is selling the new Light Pink 260 as Dark Pink 256 and not selling the "new" light pink batch at all. I'm not going to mention any names, but just beware. Look closely at the pictures before you order (the new 260 has a slight lavenderish tint. Dark Pink 256 does not). Jon still has some listed, so I suggest you click the link ^up there^ and buy it from him at the regular price. Not the jacked up "Odd Lot" or fake "Dark Pink" price.

Toodles for now!

Effetre Seeded Glass 40% off

I've just added Effetre seeded glass to my store inventory and for now, it's on sale for 40% off. This stuf is absolutely gorgeous and can be made into incredibly beautiful pieces. My skills are a bit lacking, but I've made a few beads and vessels that I really like. I need to practice making hollow beads. Here's a vessel that I made using the Amethyst seeded. I believe I used it with Effetre or Vetrofond Dk. Purple Transparent. I don't seperate them since they're basically the same and I never write down what I use.

Note to self: Start keeping track of the colors/brands used!!! (Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.)

Anyway, here's my vessel:


It's not a Tink, but we can't all be creative geniuses. Who is this "Tink," you ask? Her seeded creations are what made me fall in love with seeded glass. Bead Porn Alert! Feast your eyes: http://blackswampglassworks.com/seeded.htm and http://blackswampglassworks.com/vesselgallery.htm. Her vessels are blown. Mine is not. Mind you, I do know how to create blown vessels, as I was an honored participant in one of Tink's Hollow Vessels classes back in January. I'm just lazy and core formed vessels are easy. There. I said it. Perhaps one day I'll post some of my inspirationally wop-sided hollow creations for your viewing pleasure. (Ha!)

Got Goodies?

I know. Everyone has a blog. So here I am jumping on the bandwagon. I figure since I've been slacking at getting my website finished, I could at least put up a blog so that people can see that yes, I do indeed melt the occasional glass rod. Though it seems as if i prefer to just spend money and hoard...

This is my Aqua swirl goddess vessel that I made for a fundraising auction. It took 2 weeks to get her off the mandrel, and i know people are sick of hearing about it, but so what!!! I'm sooo proud of her. If you saw my first attempt, you'd understand why. Bless her heart. So anyway, I'm extra proud of this one. And she sold for $50!! My first ever lampwork sell! (Not that I got any of the proceeds). Did I mention how proud I am?

Oh yeah. I almost forgot the important stuff! Actually, I did forget and came back to edit.


Hi! My name is Shawnette. I live in Central Florida and I love lampworking. I'm a single mother of 2 boys. Arent they cute?
They are almost exactly 14 years apart (13 years, 360 days). so anyway, that's my intro. Check out my site (the one that I'm slacking on. It will be finished one day...) http://www.glassgoodies.com/goodies/. Oh, and if you're a guy looking for eyecandy, I got some of that, too. www.shawnette.com and www.myspace.com/ggbeads.

See ya!!