Slowly but surely, the box is filling up!

A 4-Flower Bunch!! One of those personal challenges, that I pulled off successfully, and now I’m in love with it. 2 inches in length, and cute as a posie, this pendant might be a keeper (meaning I might keep it; I don’t keep my own work very often.)

A treble staff bead; inspired by my recent musical endeavors. I really do love my accordion, and I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate music into beads. If only it could play for you

A painted Aztec bead, this time on clear. I love how the colors bounce around on the inside; rather mystical, isn’t it?

And a few pink polka-dotted rings. These make really fun earrings; nice and light-weight!

As I promised I would, I made lots of beads this weekend. This sentence (the keeping a promise part) just reminded me of a poem by Shell Silverstein, that I used to read as a child, and I always thing of it when I talk about making promises. I think I may have shared it with you here before, but what the heck, I’ll share it again:

“Melinda Mae”
Have you heard the story
of the tiny little Melinda Mae
who ate a monstrous whale?
She thought she could,
she said she would,
so she started right in at the tail.

And everyone said,”You’re much too small,”
But that didn’t bother Melinda at all,
She took little bites and she chewed very slow,
Just like a little girl should…

…and in eighty-nine years, she ate that whale
Because she said she would!!!

Promises are important: kept or broken, to yourself or someone else, they mean a lot. So back to the point I was making: I promised that I was going to make lots of beads this weekend, and I did. Not much time to write today, so I’ll let the best fruits of my labor shine for themselves. All I really need to say here is that I have some good new tunes to rock to (if you like dub/reggae, try Dubmatix album Renegade Rockers; it will rock your socks off) it was nice and cool yesterday, and the creative juices are flowing (so is the sweet tea…in fact, I really do think it fuels my creativity!)
Now I’m off to do some paperwork. The bookkeeping desk is piling up rather high….gggrrr. Rather get it done today and start fresh tomorrow. I plan to make more beads tonight. Here’s a sneak peak of part of what I hope to share tomorrow:

“Mama Mia, here I go again…”
Go see it! I went yesterday and laughed, cried, sang along, and felt on top of the world when I left. Those of you who know me know I’m not a movie buff. Usually it’s just a matter of not being able to stay away due to boredom. But this movie is such a feel-good happy movie, I think I could watch it every day. And I just downloaded the soundtrack to listen to while I make beads. There’s something about the musicals that just makes me feel so happy inside.

On another feel-good note, I’ve recently been invited to be a member of the Beadbloggers, which is a highly creative group of beaders, who also keep creatively-fueled bead-related blogs. Once a week they each make a blog post with links to all of the group-members’ blogs, so that all of you in blog land can see what fun things they’re all up to. It’s a fun way to see what other people in the bead world are up to, and to keep up with the beading times! I love perusing the links, and was quite honored to receieve the invitation, so of course I accepted.

So without further ado, I present to you this week’s dose of Beadbloggers Linky Love. Peruse, click away, get lost in the wonderful world of beading blogging goodness. Enjoy!
About.com Jewelry Making
Jewelry De-Stash Options - When and if you go through your jewelry making supplies, what options do you have for possibly reselling them? And should you?

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene Editor Cindy Gimbrone shows her true colors.

Barbe Saint John
Forever trying to take better photos, check out the online Video tutorials I found to help.

Bead Style Magazine
Cathy reviews books a plenty from the BeadStyle magazine library

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
Carter offers a sneak peek of her Tropical Breeze necklace featured in Creative Jewelry magazine, and ponders the yummy goodness of sweet tea.

Jewelry & Beading
The new book, 1000 Jewelry Inspirations, hits the mark!

Katie’s Beading Blog
Katie dishes on all the new beady stuff she saw at the Craft & Hobby Association tradeshow last weekend. New geometric links, new resin components, new beads, oh my!

Strands of Beads
Melissa’s making more memento mori (alliterative, eh?) in the studio this week.

And now I’m off to the torch again. Of course I should have gotten up early and made beads when it was nice and cool. But because I do things the hard way, I’ve waited for the sun to come out and warm things up nicely, and now I’m sitting down at the torch!
But I think there’s some icecream in my near future, which should help break the heat. Finn’s birthday is Tuesday, and I’m planning on making Blueberry Icecream cake this afternoon for the party…all homemade. There’s a link to the icecream part of the recipe for you, if it looks good to you too! Look at that color

With blueberry icecream, Finn can have some too (no chocolate, and he loves fruit- takes after his mother, I guess!) And no, I’m not kidding. Homemade icream cake for the dog’s birthday is a completely normal occurance around here. If you believe in reincarnation, you should consider coming back as a dog in the Seibels family….we treat ‘em pretty good around here!
Happy Sunday-
Carter

Looking for something fun to do this weekend?

Flowers are in full bloom around here! I am having so much fun with these. I have a kiln full of more flowers that are just waiting to be added to beads.

Here’s one more hollow donut bead, and a painted bead. These are big babies! Look at the picture below for size reference:

I’ve saved the best sharing for last. I’m so excited about these little 3-D trees I can hardly stand it. What do you think?

I think someone put my clock on fast-forward. Can anyone tell me how it got to be July 23? It seems virtually impossible, but me thinks its best not to waste any more time pondering this mystery. There is work to be done around here!

I have been busy like a bee making focal beads for my two upcoming bead shows. And it’s a good thing I’ve been keeping busy; for though I don’t have near enough beads to fill my table yet, now I have jewelry orders coming out of my ears too. All of this is good. I am very very thankful and fortunate that these things are happening to me. I’m just not sure how I’ll get it all done! I also have to submit jewelry to be photographed for a book that I’m going to be in next year. So that means spectacular, never-before-published designs need to be made. And that takes some creative energy, not just cranking things out at the torch.I’ve just switched my multi-vitamin, and it seems to be giving me great bursts of energy. I like this! I just feel awake all day, and ready to sleep when I hit the bed at night. (Is it funny to you that when I try to type the word “bed,” the word “bead” comes out?!) So I’m glad to have this working in my favor.

And I’ve been very careful to eat right and keep up my exercise routine, for I know that these things are important. Those of you who read about my fasting experience will remember that my metabolism operates somewhere near the rate of a hummingbird’s. And I’m vegetarian too. So when I eat crap, I feel like crap. I know this about my self. And the older I get, the easier it is to resist the pizza and go for the salad, because I see food not just as a good taste you put in your mouth, but as nourishment for the body.

I got a very exciting e-mail recently confirming my inclusion in the Fall 2008 UncommonGoods Print Catalog!!! They have been selling three of my necklaces online to test market them; and the response has apparently been good. They’ve re-ordered and are putting my work in print, and this is great cause for celebration as far as I’m concerned! I am so very excited and so honored to be a part of such a cool catalog. So if you’re on my Christmas list (or birthday list or if you ever get a present from me), you can bet it will be from UncommonGoods. I am a firm believer in giving back what you receive (assuming it’s positive; I also adhere to the “eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” school of thought. In short, I support those who support me. So UncommonGoods is on my list!

Anywhoozle, I’ve got to go do some bookkeeping before I can get to the torch today. And I have an accordion lesson at 1:00. How do I find time to learn the accordion? I’m not sure. But I do know that called my grandfather on Saturday to serenade him with my newly learned rendition of Brahm’s Lullaby (yes, on the accordion; don’t know how lullaby-ish it is, but it’s easy enough and fun to play). I played it and he was tickled, and then he told me a story that I never knew, and it went something like this: “When he was a boy (living in Tennessee), my grandmother got a bee in her bonnet because she wanted to learn to play the Squeezebox. She bought herself one, and she would sit on that porch and play that thing, and when you walked to town, you could hear her playing that thing all the way to town and back.” So maybe it’s in my genes. This story is reason enough for me to find time to keep playing. I’ve said it before here and I’ll say it again: “Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.” -Emerson

“If you have but two loaves of bread, sell one and buy flowers for the soul.” -Persian proverb

I have given myself lots of flowers this week.

“In the midst of the chaos when the wind is howling, I hear the ancient song of the ones who went before and I know that peace will come.” - Anonymous

The post over on LampworkEtc. has been deleted.

“This too shall pass.”

It’s been a rough day.

It’s a beautiful day for me. It’s a day of growth, commitment, excitement, and color. For about 6 years I have been wanting to get little bags made to hold the precious ornaments that I create. Not just any old bags. I wanted special bags, custom-made bags, in the colors of my choosing, marked with the title that I have poured my heart and soul into: Divali Glass Jewelry. I have literally spent years searching, saving, striving, to find the right bags, and save enough money to pay for them.

I hear you asking: Why is a little bag so important?

Special things come in special bags. You know the Tiffany blue pouch? You know the Bloomingdales Brown bags? You know the Godiva Gold bag? You know what I mean. It’s not just the magic inside, but the presentation counts for a lot. So I present to you (…insert drumroll, accordion fanfare, flashing lights, baton twirlers…) the new Divali Glass Jewelry Jewelry pouches:

Each one is made out of shimmering Tafetta, and is embroidered on the inside with my name and logo. Now these are special packages, aren’t they? I am so excited I could pop. This is a big deal to me; I feel like I have joined the ranks of real jewelry designers. Don’t ask me what I thought I was before Just join me in my excitement!

I haven’t quite figured out all of the details of how I will offer these. There are large pouches (green) and smaller ones (pink/purple), for (obviously) my larger pieces and smaller ones. There are lots of you out there who have quite a collection of my work, and of course, I want to get one of these pouches to all of you. But quite honestly, I can’t afford all of that shipping and handling right now (I just finished paying for the pouches!)
All large necklaces that I ship out from now on will arrive in one of these special packages. And I plan to offer them for a reasonable price on my website as well, for those of you who are looking for the perfect pouch for your jewels.

This is a big step for me. Because it’s a dream come true, and because I now have 700 of these shimmering little bags to disperse around the world. This is a real commitment to the future of Divali Glass Jewelry. So on that note, I’m off to the torch to make some beads!

Let’s start this post by saying that there are good times to be had ’round these parts.