Hey, it's Dalis!: Gotta Get to Work

All play and no work makes me a nutty girl. So to balance out the traveling and biking and kayaking and hooping and girl time, I had to get into the studio and make stuff. I have six shows this fall and I don't want to fall behind.

I had stashed away some new hand created glass beads that I bought from some artists on etsy, had acquired a multitude of beads and bobbles from my various travels (who can pass up a bead shop?!) and had thoughtfully organized them in pretty piles. So it was finally time to go up to my working space and put some of these materials to use. But because this summer has been sodamnhot, my upstairs studio has been around 110, yikes! I could work up there in the early morning hours but when the exertion of putting a bead on a wire would cause sweat to drip in rivulets down my back, it was time to get outta there.

I found this great jewelry book, 'Totally Twisted', and got caught up in the twisting gizmo and twisted all sorts of colored wire into coils.

I learned how to take silver wire, cut it, form it around a pub glass, make a loop and a hook on the ends and use up my beautiful glass beads. Yay!

The heat finally broke for a spell and I could spend hours up there, twisting, pounding, coiling, beading, fun!

I had these soft, cute flowers in my stash too. Makes a great summer bracelet.

My favorite components right now are these industrial chic parts. So fun and clever.

These beads are from an Israeli artist on etsy.

While I was up in the studio making jewelry I might as well fire up the kiln since I could keep an eye on it. I have spaced out before and come running up the steps to find my kiln at 2000 degrees and all the glass a melty gooey blob. I now have a timer and if I keep the timer with me (!) I'll know when it's time to turn the kiln down.