Tuesday, July 30, 2013

'Hot Glass for Cool Kids' Tutorial Ebook for Beads of Courage

Have you heard? The Soda Lime Times has just finished publication of a new ebook filled with fun lampwork glass bead tutorials called Hot Glass for Cool Kids. The tutorials were all written with the kids from Beads of Courage in mind, and ALL money from purchases of the book go directly to Beads of Courage. By virtue of my last name, the tutorial I donated is the very first one in the book (thanks Dad!). I also had the honor of being able to name the book- a bunch of possible titles were submitted, and the one I came up with got the most votes- a fluke to be sure, but Diane Woodall generously sent me a bunch of wonderful prizes for being the winner.

The bead at the left is the one I donated a tut for- encased silver with a special technique for some cool organic designs that can be used in a lot of different ways. The bead at the right uses the same technique over an enameled background.
 
Get your copy right here, right now! There are 20, count 'em 20 wonderful new things for you to try out and make for Beads of Courage, your friends, family or yourself! Here's a photo of the cover showing all of the tutorial beads- pretty cool!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Catch the Sun- Focus on Life Week 30


Roiling water by the ford- you want us to drive through that???
The swimming hole after the storm.
Oh my, I've missed a few weeks- though Sally's prompts always influence what I'm paying attention to on any given week! I've been moving halfway across the country (again) and have landed in upstate New York (again). Anyway, this week I've been humming  'I'll Follow the Sun' for days on end. Sometimes I feel like that's what I'm doing. I was staying in a cabin in a state park and, because I am addicted to white noise, was quite surprised when I woke in the morning to see that there had been a deluge of some kind. One bridge was covered with water and pieces of the other had been taken out and floated down the stream. Though I was looking to get some nice photos of sun glinting off of all of the water action, I just mostly took a lot of photos of whatever I saw- lovely scenery! To see what everyone else has been up to, start at Sally's Blog!
No Diving! (No Kidding...)

Some Indian Pipe flowers reaching for the sun

A spot of sunlight!