Fire

It’s been almost a month since I’ve created anything. The children have been home on Christmas break and I just haven’t taken the time to sit down. The children started back on school Wednesday, for a day and half until school was closed for snow! So last night, I let the hubby have quality time with the children and I shut the studio door to create. It’s time to get the juices flowing to help warm me up! I am in Chattanooga, where the average temperature in January is 37.4 F, however, my little outdoor thermometer reads 18 F! The snow blankets the ground outside and is really quite lovely, however, my street has remained a sheet of ice most of the day. I thought I left this weather behind in Chicago.

I always start with turning on iTunes, for how can you be creative with out good music? My choice was Alicia Keys, her newest album. I’ve listened to it many times, but I just love her. I had no grand plan and I sat there for awhile and perused many pieces in front of me. I went through every bead drawer I had and just “shopped” for a while. Finally, I settled in and picked up some beautiful fire nugget lampworked beads from artist Michelle Lusk. I’ve had these on the table for a few months, but something just hit me last night and I decided to pick them up. With no final concept in mind, I just started by wrapping the little nuggets, and I wanted to run the shiny wire on the outside of the bead, rather than just through it. I like that detail and it felt right.

Once the seven nuggets were warmly wrapped, I arranged them as a cluster to serve as the focal of a necklace. I sat and contemplated this for some time. I debated about leaving them together and finishing off with a handmade chain. I played with a bit of wire, but I didn’t like it. I had some scrap silver tube like beads sitting there and contemplated those. I played around with the arrangement and made a few more silver beads. There it was, I was going to alternate the shiny silver with the fire orange. I liked it much better and it seemed more harmonious to me than keeping all the orange beads clustered. This had a nice flow. So, I continued to hand wrap the silver beads and almost had it finished before bed time. However, I was done and left the clasp until morning.

So, I woke up this morning to the second snow day! Even the hubby stayed home to work. I guess when you live on a mountain, you just don’t drive to work when the road is frozen over. I mean 2 out of the 3 roads we travel up and down are closed. It is quite possible to be stuck up here! So we are all home today trying to keep warm. I finished the clasp and showed it to my biggest fan of all, my daughter. I always love her response to my work! Even my son is intrigued by my designs! C’est fini. Woohoo!

I love to get photos up right away and share. I usually photograph outside…not today. However, I was fortunate enough to have some sun peeking through my window to give me enough warm light for some decent photographs.

I call her “FIRE” and she is available to purchase for $95. Simply, send me an email!