Six... More... Weeks...

Okay, Phil's prediction is already seeming like an eternity! At least we get the rare treat of a snowfall in the desert to make things all pretty around here. Today is actually the second morning in a row we've awoken to snow covering the ground. Here's a photo from my backyard this morning, a prickly pear cactus covered in snow but still holding its red fruit:
And in the bead world... I pulled lots of nice beads out of the kiln this morning. Now off to clean and photograph them. Stay warm everyone!

Studio Time

I just found out that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday, predicting six more weeks of winter! Well there's actually about seven weeks until the Spring Equinox, so six weeks is really not that bad.

Since the beginning of this month I've been enjoying lots of time in the bead studio. I decided to take at least three days off from the computer. I've discovered that I spend a lot of time on the computer and online promoting my beads in various ways, leaving myself no actual time to make the beads! So I set blogging and Etsy-listing aside and I've just been making beads for about four days. It's been great.

I'll have photos of my new work soon, but in the meantime here's a photo of some beads I have up on Etsy:

Tibetans and Beads

While reading about dZi, I came across these two pictures of Tibetans wearing great beads. I bet the gigantic beads in this first photo are coral, but I've never seen beads that big made out of anything before!

Kyipup, an offical, in New Year dress.
Lhasa: The Holy City by F. Spencer Chapman, 1938

This man is wearing dZi beads. He's at the palace of the Dalai Lama, celebrating the Dalai Lama's birthday:

dZi Beads

I've been fascinated by dZi beads lately. Here is a picture of an old agate dZi bead with "dragon skin":

DZi beads are usually made of agate or fossilized palm wood and found in Tibet and India. There are many new dZi beads being comercially manufactured today, but the real dZi beads are hundreds or thousands of years old and they are dug up out of the ground. There is a lot of mystery surrounding who or what entities made the beads, and how. The beads have patterns of lines and circles that symbolize different things from the Buddhist tradition. They are considered amulets that protect the wearer.

DZi beads like the one pictured above get scales or "dragon skin" from burning in a ritual fire. Hundreds of years ago, monks would take part in a ritual of tossing a bead into a fire and chanting over it all night. When the bead was removed from the fire in the morning, it had the scales. These dragon skin dZi beads are considered very special.

I love the simple geometric patterns of the dZi, and I'm fascinated by their different meanings. I've made a few dZi-inspired beads with lampworked glass this past week. Here is one I've made into a pendant for my boyfriend Steve who is a massage therapist. It's a "healer's dZi," so called because of the pattern of 5 "eyes" (circles) connected in a cross with a lightning bolt on the other side. These photos show both sides of the bead:




More information about dZi beads:
http://www.dzi-beads.com

Psychedelic!

This bead was made using Terra glass and a little black, encased with clear. The Terra and black reacted with each other to make the patterns. I love the colors and the look of this bead! There's so much to see in it, too. One person saw an eye (I see several eyes!) and I also see ocean waves and a colorful star nebula. What it really reminds me of are the psychedelic oil and water designs that are projected on the walls at dance parties, if anyone knows what I'm talking about! This bead is in my Etsy shop right now:

Landscape Bead

This one reminds me of Sedona... the red rocks, sunset and starry sky. It's made with Terra, Terranova, and some odd-lot Vetrofond colors. It's in my Etsy shop right now:

Business Record-Keeping for Artists

Working at the business side of being an artist is oddly enough something I enjoy doing. For a long time now I've been trying to design an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my sales and expenses, but I don't know enough about Excel to get it to do what I want it to. Last year I tried using QuickBooks and became completely frustrated.

Finally I've found a place to purchase spreadsheets that have been specifically designed for artists, particularly artists that sell on Etsy:
http://jjmfinance.etsy.com
I've been using some of these spreadsheets and they're great. It's a huge relief to finally have a bookkeeping system that works, is easy to use and easy to understand.

So here's my little plug for this Etsy shop, JJMFinance! Here you can buy all kinds of spreadsheets that will help you stay organized if you sell on Etsy, eBay, at craft shows or anywhere. I got great customer service when I needed help using the worksheets, and the products are very reasonably priced, too.

Getting organized and smarter about my business is a great way to start the new year! Woo-hoo!