It's Spring, and I Love Green!

Wonderful group of folks from Etsy have created a Twitter mutual admiration team - check out the lovelies in lampwork and seaglass from this week's featured member: Renee Suich. I absolutely love the way she has combined found sea glass (well, Lake Erie glass) and her beautiful lampwork in the piece pictured (click on the pic to take you straight there). A perfect piece for a spring day, don't ya think?

It's a Beadiful Day!

There are oodles of jewelry artisans on Etsy, providing limitless opportunities for personal adornment. Most often (like me) they create standard jewelry items of earrings, bracelets, necklaces, yadayadayada.... how mundane! Whilst perusing the artisan creations of C Serpent Designs and all the beautiful jewelry to be found there, I was drawn instead to her wonderful and whimsical "whole lot more". She uses her eye for color and fabulous beadery to create pieces to add the delight of beads to items in your life besides your ears, necks, and wrists. Like phone charms, barrettes, brooches, bookmarks, letter openers....the list goes on.


Susan, the artist behind C Serpent, was nicknamed "Sea Serpent" by her husband following a scuba trip, and has been making jewelry for friends and family as well as selling in a gallery in La Jolla, CA, for four years. She is inspired by all the gorgeous lampwork glass beads she has found on Etsy and other sites, and also works in semi-precious gemstones.

Her enjoyment and excitement in the creative process shows in the beauty and balance of her work, and I just love the way she expands that creativity beyond jewelry. Which isn't to say you should neglect checking out her jewelry! Visit it all at C Serpent Designs, and find out more about Susan and her work in her blog, and have a beadiful day!

Oh, Robert Redford!!!!!

Judy Richards, the Etsy artist behind Cats Paw Artifacts resides in Portland, Oregon where it rains this time of year. According to Judy, a well kept secret is that it doesn't rain all year around. Ahhhh, but what I want to know is what she means by "all"!

Judy makes lampwork beads and designs jewelry - unique and hopefully artful jewelry. She is always striving for new ideas, new shapes in glass. Judy's work is inspired by nature (flowers, birds) as depicted in glass. She loves abstract lampwork most of all with layers of glass and complexity. She is always striving to that goal.

She has done the work of reasonably exact glass beads - but yearns to break out of that toward something more complex and deep in an artistic sense. She also has a sense of humor and doesn't take herself too seriously - she is the owner of 2 cats, hence the cat beads. Judy likes to laugh and make others smile with her work.

Judy's dream buyer is the Sundance catalog. (Calling Robert, Oh, calling Robert!!)

Probably the best things she has made are jewelry with her own lampwork beads and semi precious stones that have sold that push the envelope of what we think of as jewelry and adornment.

Judy is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, a seller on ebay for 5 years - over 500-100% positive feedback, a member of the Portland Bead Society, the ORBS (Oregon Regional Beadmakers Society) and the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers). Check out all the lovelies from her shop, Cats Paw Artifacts, and her writings on her blog.

Dundas Down Under

Etsy glass artist, Anne Dundas from Sydney, Australia discovered beading in 2004, and the discovery sparked her imagination and began a passion in her life. From beading she moved into the wonderfully colorful and magical world of lampworking, and now makes luminous glass creations to make you drool. As you may remember from my features on Ginger Black and Studio Marcy, I have nothing but awe and admiration for those who wield the torch on molten glass. How DO they DO that?!?!

When not creating lampwork beads or crafting jewelry ("jewellery" Down Under), she is the caregiver for her mother who has MS and designs business cards for other jewelry artists. She professes the view that beading and the beading community she has found since beginning her journey in 2004 to have truly enriched her life. I feel fortunate that I, too, have been introduced to Anne Dundas Handcrafted Jewellery and Lampwork Beads, and all the wonderful pretties that can found therein. Check out her shop for yourself, and take some time to visit her blog where she shares her creative process.

Little Treasures

Marcy Lamberson is an Etsy glass artist who self-proclaims that she loves making people smile through her whimsical beads and sculptures. I have no doubt that she's surrounded by a lot of smiling folks!

She has the wonderful work situation of a sunroom studio overlooking her garden and birds, squirrels, chipmunks and occasional wandering possums. To our enjoyment, she sometimes makes them into beads, too, complete with clothes and jewelry, and turns them into little fun glass treasures.

Glass artists always amaze me, working with a 2000 degree torch and creating colorful amalgams of seemingly delicate glass. Most of Marcy's glass, in fact, comes from Murano, Italy, the center of the beautiful glass world. But strength is important for creations that are meant to be worn like beads, and every piece from StudioMarcy is kiln annealed for durability.


You can find out more about Marcy on the Etsy Glass Artist website and her blog .

She adds new beads almost daily, so stop by StudioMarcy often. You, too, will be amazed at her whimsical art, and the incredible detail she works into each and every piece.

be-dee, be-dee, be-dee, that's all folks!

Relax. Smile. Be.

Simple words of wisdom from Etsy Glass Artist, Ginger Black. Her art definitely inspires that middle concept of joy.

In an e-chat with fellow Etsy Artist Patricia C. Vener, aka Silver Dragon, Ginger had this to say about her work:

"I am in love with colorful, melting, flowing glass. Soft Italian glass called Moretti is what I use to create all my lampwork beads. It’s called soft because it melts at a lower temperature than the hard glass (borosilicate) that Pyrex dishware is made of. My favorite thing about making beads is that there is always something new I can’t wait to try: dot formations, stripes, flowers, fish, adding metals, sculpting - the list is endless! My next adventure in glass is to try fusing where you melt layers of glass together to create an array of items from earrings to dishes."

Her joie de vivre is also apparent in her Bio on Etsy in that she finds "bliss in making glass beads and solace in running, pure yee-ha joy on a snowboard and otherworldliness in a kayak."




I think you can find all that and more in her beads, don't you? To find out more, check out her shop at Ginger Black Glass, and her blog.

Sumptin Special

Whenever I'm searching for favorites from Etsy to feature in the Etsy Treasury (user-chosen collections to share with others on Etsy here), I turn often to one of the most colorful and beautifully photographed jewelry artists on Etsy: ALilSumptinSumptin. Eva has the most fabulous eye for selecting unbelievable lampwork focal beads, and then she pulls them together to create adornments to treasure.

Her inspiration? In her own words: "Whimsy brings me great joy and touches that little girl within me. Most of my creations reflect this aesthetic and frequently incorporate two things I love and enjoy: flower gardens & dogs. All my pieces are one-of-a-kind, oftentimes containing handcrafted Artisan Lampwork glass beads - wonderful little works of Art in themselves."

An artist focused not just on beauty, but integrity as well, she chooses all of the Artisan Lampwork beads in her pieces that have been properly kiln annealed by each respective glass artist to ensure long-lasting durability. She is a member of the SRAJD, so you can be assured that you are dealing directly with the jewelry artist and not a reseller, and she gives back to causes that are important to her through her sales of Paws for a Good Cause items. Guilt-free shopping for bling - who knew?


Do check out her shop and her blog to find that "lilsumptinsumptin" special for yourself or a gift.