rejiquar works

26apr05

I never have any difficulty coming up with stuff to write about. The problem is trying to come up with something that will be even marginally interesting to read; thus I'll spare you the penguicon overview I've been working on the past couple of days (though my lack of ability doesn't mean there weren't some interesting things going on). Here's another another nice little but certainly not earthshattering post of some beads I made recently.

24apr05

I was going to wait till next Friday to do more flower blogging but this was too good to pass up.

23apr05

At the last minute (or at least, 2nd to last hour of the day, the wizard showed me a cute little trick with Gimp's curves tool to fix a flower shot I particularly wanted to include with Friday's flower blogging (the bluebells, if you care...) So I got to make the page I really wanted after all. I'm going to be busy at Penguicon this weekend, so it works out that I've got this other page ready to go, of some abstracts in a new color scheme to celebrate the arrival of spring and warm weather.

Penguicon? Well, it's a hybrid sf con and extended linux users' meeting. With sword-fighting thrown in, since there's always been a lot of cross-over between computer geekdom, sf fen, and SCA folk. Lots of perl for the wizard, sf & IP issues for me, not to mention an sNb area (as if Joan Vinge as a GoH weren't enough!), writing workshops for the would be author of the f2 generation, and anime for the glue-to-tv child.

I note this new and improved version of the sf con not only features wireless access, but chocolate & fresh veges in addition to the typical consuite beer and chips. Very civilized, and should be fun for all.

22apr05

In the tradition of Friday cat blogging, or even Friday embroidery blogging (would that I could generate embroidery that fast!) I thought I'd try Friday flower blogging.

This batch of pix comes from a little access point (for fishing and canoeing, I think) near the Mark Twain national forest, in Missouri, and wandering around taking them was the best part of my trip from St. Louis to Springfield.

21apr05

I was going to post the next batch of beads in the 100 bead creativity exercise, especially after some of the folks in the group were kind enough to say nice things about my site, but after creating a rough version of the page, I concluded I couldn't see what was going on with the beads---they need to be rephotographed, probably individually. However, as it happens I did manage a decent job of photographing one subset of those beads, so once again my pages are leapfrogging themselves. (Well, to be perfectly honest, I made good use of Gimp's curves tool for lightening up the too-dark pig beads, but we won't go into all that.) And, eventually I really will go back and do all the `in between' pages. Honest. Scout's Honor. Truly. Really. I promise...Why are you all nodding like that?

20apr05

Here's a little post about a new variation on an older type of bead, the stripey, that I thought might be fun to document. In keeping with my backasswards approach to doing things, I still need to make pages on the two older techniques for making this bead. The middle technique is somewhat documented (not to mention developed) by others; the oldest requires photography while making beads. Believe it or not, I've seen great tutorials by folks who can work glass and take pictures of themselves at the same time. Hm. Or rather, wow. I suppose if I set the camera up on a tripod, got a cable release and mounted it on the table so's I could push the button with my knee, that might work. It would certainly make tutorials easier, as the wizard often isn't available when I feel like doing one. But in the meantime, a little tidbit to enjoy.

05apr05

Ah, the joys of having one's mechanic call half an hour before close to inform one that the car for which an appointment was made a week in advance is not done. (I think the loaner---because I live 50 miles away---is actually his own car...at any rate, at least I didn't have to sleep on a bud's couch which is what happened last time I made an appointment to get my stupid car fixed...yes, I'm looking for a good mechanic in the a2/ypsi area.)

So, here's another kinda half-assed, but still sorta fun page, of my accidental suncatcher

Ah, procrastination rules:)

04apr05

For some reason I've been having a lot of difficulty with hot spots lately when taking pictures. Can't fathom why, since my technique is exactly the same it's always been, but I photographed one necklace I've been wanting to post on three separate occasions, and it still doesn't look good.

Since this experimental pixie floral on a mixed opaque and transparent glass background is the least exciting of the new items I once again failed to photograph the way I wanted, it's going up first.

I suppose I'll eventually run out of ways to procrastinate showing my bad photography, and then the rest of the stuff will get posted.

02apr05

When I went to my first Gathering, I rendevoused with my mom, who was in driving distance; and she researched restaurants. This was back in the late 90s, and she was looking for an official city site, but what she found instead was some guy's recommendations.

They were all three wonderful, and the one place was one of my best dining experiences ever. This local really steered us right. ---So, here are three of my Ypsi favorites, all of which are independents---businesses that are one person or one family's vision:

Bombadil's coffee shop, 217 West Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti, MI, 734-544-5080. Right next to the beautifully restored downtown branch of Ypsilanti District Library, what better way to spend an afternoon than sitting at one of the high tables, drinking coffee, reading a book, and watching people wander by against the backdrop of downtown Ypsi's wonderful `storefront Italianate' architecture? (think Hopper's Early Sunday Morning) But bring cash; they don't take credit cards or checks.

There are any number of wondeful Thai and Korean restaurants in the area, but if you'd like to sample the fresh, light fare of Vietnam, Dalat (734) 487-7600, 100 W Michigan Ave Ypsilanti, MI is the place to go. Just as was often the case in Vietnam itself, the decor is plain but the prices are incredible; it's family owned (in fact, I believe the owners live in the building.) I'm particularly fond of the hot and sour soup with tofu.

Unlike the other two, Al Noor, on 2333 Washtenaw Ave, is on the western outskirts of town, an old taco bell having been converted into a very unpretentious middle eastern restaurant. Again, the food is good and very inexpensive. And when they say garlic, they mean it. Yum. (By now you might getting the idea that even cheap restaurant food is a big treat for me. Writing this post, I've realized that reasonable cost---in cash and fat calories--- as well as taste, were criteria for me.)

01apr05

Continuing with the fibrous theme...

I love recycling. Perhaps the most luscious yarn I ever bought was recycled silk sari yarn (available at Have you any Wool, in Berkley, MI---of all the yarn shops I've checked out, and there are many wonderful ones in the tri-county area, the selection in this tiny hole in the wall place just off 12 mile road, (on 3475 Robina Ave. 48072) between Coolidge and Greenfield, just seems to exactly fit my own tastes---and the clerks were fabulous too) and someday, perhaps I'll post a braid of it---or maybe just the skein itself.

Going further back, I've been collecting wool sweaters haphazardly for years, planning to felt, dye and sew them into a sleeveless coat or robe to wear during the winter months while I'm torching. But here's an even more direct way to recycle yarn.

I'm not a knitter, but the instructions look first-rate, the kind of tutorial I wish I wrote. Thanks go to Posy, who is a knitter.

Hm. Now I just need to find (or create) a tutorial on disassembling silk ties...

31mar05

Today I have another page of kumi, this time a textured fuscia and green braid, which I finished (tasseled) and photographed the same time as the purple and green ones. Unfortunately, my photography, which tended to over-expose the braids, was not in this case particularly amenable to repairs with Gimp.

But that just means when I get around to rephotographing it, I can repost, right?

30mar05

Yesterday I posted a link to the functional but ugly; today, I thought I'd post a link to the pretty but not particularly functional---to wit, a series of kumi in purple in green in which I'm trying to make my favorite pattern (that I call `twisted diamonds') fade in and out of the braid. The new page includes links of two older braids and two new ones. Enjoy.

And while I was at it, I cleaned up the main kumi page a bit, mostly by adding text links in addition to the image ones.

29mar05

Yesterday I posted a few links to off-site locations. Today, I thought I'd post links to this site's internal organization, in the form of a(n incomplete), somewhat functional and very utilitarian site map. At some point, I might even make the upper right button on this page a link to this map...trouble is, it makes the font kinda ugly.

28mar05

Although I don't use blogging software, and I certainly don't post every day, I have turned my site into one of those dreaded blogs (quite awhile ago, in fact)---to document added pages, if anything else. Lately, I've been trying to post every day (we'll see how long that lasts) and it's occurred to me I could list some of my favorite blogs, another traditional thing to do.

More...

27mar05

In addition to the 100-bead exercise referenced below, we (the `creative play group') started on a specific exercise this month: take a bead made by another artist (selected by the exchange co-ordinator to be different from our own work) and copy it; then to make a change to each of six successive beads. So far, I've got the copying attempts photographed. They illustrate nicely just how difficult is to copy someone else's things well.

Personally, I've always felt copying was not only a great exercise but very humbling: anytime I think I can replicate someone else's stuff easily, all I have to do to disprove the notion is actually attempt it. Never fails.

26mar05

The internet, email and other electronic forms of communication so often get blamed for people's bad and thoughtless behavior---everyone's so rude, everyone's always speaking harshly, as if those invisible people out there don't exist and don't have feelings.

Well, pffft. No-one complains about the rudeness of old fashioned snail mail or newspaper editorials. And sometimes, just sometimes, that nasty ole faceless internet can bring about a reconciliation of sorts.

So there.

25mar05

Added picture of the fancy copper hood in my studio.

24mar05

I finally have posted the first batch of beads from the 100 beads creativity project I'm participating in. I've also posted some new giftwrap though the pieces themselves are in an older style.

09mar05

Somebody was kind enough to send me email about a recent post (10feb05) of some frost images. I glanced through it briefly, meaning to reply later (my usual modus operandi); unfortunately, while cleaning out spam, I inadvertantly deleted it---along with a letter from my uncle, sigh. My apologies, and please resend.

More...

04mar05

One of the pleasures of going to bead conferences is trading beads. The sticking point, of course, is if you want to trade and the other person doesn't, but despite the potential for embarressment, I ask anyway. (At least, whenever I can work up the nerve.) And this year I got some really gorgeous things. Interestingly enough all but one of my trades was in the barrel shape, a form I almost never do; and three-quarters of them featured silver leaf as a surface decoration. And one, I'm very sorry to say, is uncredited because I can't find the info---lemme know if it's yours!

Enjoy.

03mar05

Someone saw the apa pages on this site and emailed me, expressing an interest in Sord&Sworcery, the science fiction and fantasy apa I edit. That's great. She asked how it worked. Besides promoting the apa and showing some examples, that was supposed to be the point. Oops. So I went back to the main apa pages, trying very hard to look at them the way someone who had no idea what it was would. Hmm. So I added an apa howto page, which I hope explains how an apa works. Or how Sord&Sworcery does, anyway.

And yes, we're still looking for members.

02mar05

Perhaps three years ago I made a page of my first floor stringing studio but never got around to posting it. Meanwhile, we moved, and I started working on a new studio, which combined flameworking and bead stringing. It's still not finished, but I've posted pages detailing what we did so far. If you like touring artists' studios or reading rants about home improvement projects then today's post is for you:)

11feb05

I've been slogging through finances, trying to get ready for SUW, 1120s, etc. What a bore. Yesterday, I took a break and made a quickie little web page of hoarfrost landscapes, and then started on the embroidered stocking page, which I've finished today---something I've wanted to post for years.

Stockings are low stress, since they're gifts---I do what I like, but still get to try and match them to the recipient, which gives me a start point for design ideas; since they're used only once a year, they don't have to be durable, which means using all sorts of fun tacky things like holographic printed sequins.

Like a lot of my textile projects, they've been in abeyance for the last couple years, since we moved, but a spate of babies old enough to wonder where theirs are has inspired me to work on catching up. I finally finished off two this year, and started on two more, with three others I really ought to finish by the end of this year. Thank you, Chris Reilly (Firefly BeadCraft) for letting me dig through your sequin collection and get inspired again...

10feb05

I took some pictures during freezing fog along the Huron River bike path last Wednesday, the 5th. If the conditions are right---as they were Saturday---the crystals can get 10mm or more long---but even these shorter ones can be quite dramatic.

22nov04

Two years ago, I promised to make Peggy and Asa Gray, of Boxelder Acres, where I buy my summer vegetables, a web page. This one isn't very professional---it's done my usual folksy style---and it really ought to have its very own border, and maybe a different design. Which, come to think of it, was supposed to be yellow and green, but, of course being in the Misc directory, defaulted to brown.

Oh well. It's done. I'll fix it someday:)

18nov04

Ah, the joys of our litigious society.

Lampworker named fooferaw posted a couple of days ago on Wetcanvas not to make glass rings any more, 'cuz she wuz getting sued for half a million bucks by some ebay customer who lost a finger in a car crash. Wearing her ring, so the customer sez.

Well, gee. I knew there was some other reason I made glass beads, besides getting cut, burned, dealing with learning curves (translated, making fugly, fugly beads), under-oxygenated torches, not mention freezing my butt, since I have a 20x32'' fresh (that means outdoors, in MI) air intake. I wanted to get sued. Oh, boy.

It's pretty clear that the customer, who among other things was no-pay on her auctions, is hoping for a gravy train---myself, I won't wear (metal) rings any time I'm using equipment (which translates to most of the time) because of the stories I've heard about fingers getting ripped off. Nevertheless, for glass to slice a finger off without an incredible amount of force behind it (i.e. the accident) is unlikely.

But I still think this is outrageous. The artist in question (who, owing poor website design---oh how I'm beginning to detest flash---I can't identify by name) is passing along a disclaimer for us beadmakers to use, which I herewith have added to the site. My spouse has for years grumbled about warning stickers on ladders and the like, but the day will soon come to pass when, as he's predicted, knives will come with a ``Warning: extremely sharp; may cut you'' sticker (if they don't already...)

On a more cheerful note, I've got a new necklace page that I think is kind of fun.

31oct04

I've been busy, busy, busy. Most of this business---sculptural glass inspirations by Mavis Smith and tipsNtricks by Lisa Walsh; a weekend precious metal clay workshop with Ivy Solomon; an intense three-day seminar with Stevi Belle featuring her trademark vessels, elegant angels and blown beads, as well as meetings for the two local glass guilds to which I belong, GlassAct251 and Northern Lights---hasn't developed to the point of producing photogenic stuff yet.

Stevi's class also inspired me to tackle the problem of powders for Bullseye again. I've made a little progress on that front, but again, it'll be awhile before I have anything definitive.

Given that Hallowe'en has only another six hours to go, I don't think those witch beads I was planning on for my wiccan friends are gonna get done, but blowing in Stevi's class inspired me to try the traditional flamework style of blown beads, using tubing with points---and I finally, years after taking that boro class with Doni Hatz and Tim Drier, achieved a rotation of axis bead. Not a great or on-center rotation of axis bead, but a blown bead significantly better than the last time I attempted them. Ever so slowly....

Only two years after he sent the disk I finally posted Joel Keener's many fine covers he's done over the years for Sord&Sworcery the science fiction and fantasy apa I edit. Still going strong after 14 years, and with 4 new members this year alone, it's finally growing again---slowly, like everything else I do. Though we still have space for new members (yes, that's a hint:), I'm very happy with the current mix.

It is the apa members who have been on my case to finish up with the Viet Nam pix; so I've added two new directories, the Floating Market near Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta, and Notre Dame in Saigon. Well, I suppose once I churn these out, then I can start on the PALM pix....

20sep04

I just love the internet. I got some earnest young man calling for ``the lady of the house''. This individual begged me not to hang on up him, explaining he was from the Dove Foundation, and that he wasn't going sell me something or solicit funds. And, silly me, I didn't. So, of course, the minute I disagreed with him, he hung up on me. Ah yes, good manners as the way to promote one's point of view. Turns out a quick internet search confirmed my experience (this is their typical modus operandi when they run into folks who don't agree with them), gave me an immediate sense of who they are, and a phone number to call and complain.

Nice. It's getting a little harder for these annoying telephone invaders to hide under rocks.

19sep04

Another quick little page, of my favorite flower pix taken during a June road trip. Putting it together was my reward for digging another five-gallon pail's worth of concrete chunks out of my ``new'' backyard, which at the rate I'm going might turn into a garden by 2010 or so---the WWII starter home we lived in Detroit may have been small and unexciting, but it really only had one owner before the wizard; and it's been properly maintained from the get-go. Our neighbors down the street from our current location call their house ``Frankenhouse'' which in our case applies even more so to the yard---someday I shall have to relate some of these stories....

In the meantime, if you were considering using concrete to make a rock garden, and you have any pity whatsoever for the future owners of your property---don't.

17sep04

Well, yes, someday I'll finish that page about the Vietnam floating market---it's about half done---or even the one I promised last year to Boxelder Farms (I did at last get a nice produce shot, which only took a year) but in the meantime, yet another little page, of the first necklace I've strung in months. Enjoy.

At least I've updated the String and Adornment pages with text links, as well as the original thumbnail links.

29aug04

Um, all those generous folks at Northstar and Glass Alchemy, who gave me goodies like water bottles filled with glass rods (and being in bike-friendly Portland, they understand how to make water bottles properly, with wide mouths and good capacity) not to mention technical literature on their products will be happy to know I'm finally playing with them. A little. I've discovered Spring Luster looks pretty on lemon Crayon yellow. At least, I think it's GA481 Spring Luster. It's that transparent green rod that strikes to a sort the reddish-purplish brown that (usually) denotes something out of the Amber-purple family.

I have any number of slightly bent mandrels and have finally discovered a use for them: outdoor plant markers. Everybody knows about houseplants plant decors for beads stuck irretrievably on mandrels, but how many houseplants does the average person (especially the average person like myself who enjoys weeding but detests watering) have?

But the outdoor garden has a nearly limitless potential to use up such things, and thus, at long last, I've found a useful way to dispose of them and my ugly boro experiments at one go: I put the glass on without release to decorate them a little, and then I use 'em to mark all the bulbs, new plants etc in the garden. This may end up being so successful, after watching those bent mandrels pile up for years (since I started lampworking, in fact) that I might start trolling for more amongst my lampworking friends. And, incidentally, make the required 1000 or so ugly, er, unsuccessful experiments to get a handle on boro's often unpredictable behavior.

I also worked on the old house. It really and truly will be on the market soon. (Anybody wanna buy a house in northwest Detroit? I have one for sale...) Having thus been fairly virtuous this weekend, I felt free to post another series of flowers shot during a bike ride---this lot from 3 months ago; particularly notable, in my opinion, are the species columbines.

20aug04

Ah, the emphemerality of the web. The gathering pages were getting out of hand, so I decided to move them all into their own directory, which at least has the bonus of a more felicitous background color. I've fixed the links in the posts below, but of course any cached links will point to directories I've since cleaned out. Given my er, huge, fanbase, I don't expect anyone actually bookmarked the links about the first and third pages, but today's work. Page two, which covers the more informal evening program and particularly Dietmar Kuehlmorgen's fascinating wax torch, is now up. Also linked up some pix shot & posted on 16aug of late summer flowers taken along the same bike path as the dame's rocket earlier this spring. Now, about the trillium I shot this spring. Or the PALM pix. Or Vietnam. (Gee, maybe I should go make beads now...)

14aug04

The post below, dated 05aug, I did indeed start writing on the 5th. But I didn't actually manage to move it onto the public part of the site until a couple of days ago. (And even so, it's still not done.) While going through my 2004 digital images, I found some stuff from several months ago I've been meaning to post---nice, little projects to crop the pix, update or create pages, update the related index pages, all in a couple of hours: some frit and powder floral vase beads and some closeups of some old peyote pieces---closeups for a blue, black, and white donut necklace and new posts of two old pieces, my first netted project and an peyote disk necklace. Enjoy.

05aug04

Just got back from Gathering, the ISBG's annual conference, held this year in Portland. This follows trips to visit my sister, who wanted me to coach for the birth of her third child (she claims I was even useful). While I was there, I sold beads to Cosecha for the first time, and sold and/or swapped out about $1500 of new merchandise for Bead Monkey, so for the hordes and hordes of people (like, all three of you?) in the Twin Cities pining for new Rejiquar beads, your luck is in. Got home for a day and a half before taking off on PALM for a week...haven't posted any of those pix yet, sigh. But at least I'm done traveling till xmas.

Attended a good and very helpful (if not technical enough for my taste) lecture on glass color chemistry by Henry Grimmett of Glass Alchemy; toured the Bullseye Glass Factory; saw lots of great lectures. Lots on precision dot techniques this year---Warring States by Larry Brickman and Dustin Tabor, and, what I found to be a particularly nice pairing, Lani Ching's new basketweave approach, followed by Terri Caspari-Schmidt's presentation, in which she explained how she developed her own style after ``making 500 blue `Lani Ching-style' beads'' ---utterly fascinating. More...

30jun04

Owing to knee and ankle problems, I cut down to training just six minutes a day, on rollers. (We started riding again last year, after a 10 year hiatus.) That was January. In April I went on a bike tour to Vietnam, babying the still flakey joints; by June, when I did PALM, they didn't bother me at all, though I still couldn't seem to manage more than about 45 miles a day. (Of course the fact I was stopping to take pix might've had something to do with that. I'll get some up. Soon. I promise.)

Today I actually went some distance at an average pace of 20mph. I never go that fast, except down hills. Of course, I was drafting (riding close to the guy in front of me) and there was no wind and no hills, but still---I did it. I've never done that before. What a blast:)

So, for all you folks who haven't gotten on a bicycle in years, take heart. You too can ramp up to this thrill.

04jun04

Somebody actually found the rave about our favorite grocery store, and emailed me about it, with yet another reason to favor local stores, which I duly added, along with a couple more of my own reasons I thought up---so now it's a baker's dozen. Something possessed me to clean up the Craft Books review page a little, and add a semi-review of a card-weaving book, plus a few recommendations for some craft books in other genres, such as French Beaded Flowers and Flameworking.

30may04

Still haven't done that next Vietnam page; and I really do have to get back to work now, making beads. So here to hold you for a bit is a little rave about our favorite grocery store, which I've been meaning to write ever since they warmed my heart last winter by providing refuge for my frozen bicycle-riding self with bathrooms, donut holes and a hot bev.

28may04

Added another Vietnam page. Lots of text about initial difficulties, only 3 pix---sorry. Next time, though, is the floating market, and that should be fun. Also did a bit of cleanup on the rants and raves index, actually adding a couple of off-site raves, in addition, of course, to insite rants:)

27may04

Creative Commons has released 2.0 versions of their licenses; and along the way, dropped the non-attributed versions. Naturally, that's what I chose as the default for this site. Sigh. Evidently, most folks want credit, or at least, the ones who do are most vocal on the creative commons site. However, this does at least have the benefit of pruning the available licenses from 11 to 6, and, from my point of view, the choices I'm willing to offer from 4 to 2: the share-alike/non-commercial/attributed and the share-alike/attributed. They're not compatible, so it occurred to me I should simply dual-license the contents of this site under both. Of course, that means begging the wizard to change the st2html code (not to mention rerunning all the pages) again, and of course the usual caveats apply: content by other people on this site remains under their wholly-owned copyright only.

It's the grey area---my images of other's work---that's held up the process so far, but I've more or less refined my thinking on that, so everything should be getting updated fairly shortly.

26may04

Put the finishing touches on another vietnam page, about the cu chi tunnels.

25may04

Tried---and naturally failed---to photograph some of the fish mentioned below, if for no other reason to prove it's not just a, well, fish story. So I post a few sops instead.

23may04

The wizard has been busy. He's rewritten the st2html perl scripts, so that the interior pages (the ones with the links on the left side) reflect the new site organization, added a tag for creative commons licenses and reran the pages (which I now must review, which is why you're not seeing them yet).

But he also went ahead and added the style button on the main page, so you can see all the various designs, past and present. Want to see that truly dreadful color scheme I had before vietnam? Or the unfinished minneola orange version? Now you can! (And if this doesn't display properly in your browser, please let us know; be sure to include the name and version number. Thanks.)

22may04

I frequently see folks fishing as I ride the Gallup Park bike path, which parallels the Huron river, and I have to admit, despite the multitude of fishing poles, pvc tubes mounted on their bikes, chairs, coolers, and tackle boxes, I'd never seen any evidence of actual fish.

Well. I dragged myself out of bed at oh-dark-thirty for the AABTS (otherwise known as the Ann Arbor Bakery Touring Society) sunrise ride, got soaking wet before I'd gone a mile, reflected that if I could just discipline myself to ride all the way to Wheeler Park (the start point) I'd probably enjoy it---or at least have other people besides the long-suffering wizard with whom to share my misery.

Did I mention it was raining? All that water meant the river was overflowing its banks, onto the bike paths. We skirted one flooded area, only to enounter another, by one of the playgrounds. Oh, the joys of riding through several inches of water, in the dark, with rain spattered glasses, illuminated by a weak headlight, with a bunch of fish jumping and banging against the front wheel.

Yup. Fish. Not little minnows, either, good sized ones, at least 8'' long. When we returned from the ride, the last of the fish was gently being carried back to the now-receding river, and they truly were a foot (30cm) long---brown, with big scales. I have to admit, I've never before encountered this particular hazard riding a bicycle.

(Yes, the day did indeed turn out beautifully for riding. And as a special bonus, I got to see a power pole burning, also on the way to the start point. Even without the official ride, it was well worth getting up at 5am.)

21may04

Displacement activities rule again: instead of taking the car in to get the brakes, A/C and exhaust system repaired, not to mention a woefully overdue oil change, I worked on Vietnam: finally, I put more than just one or two pix up at a time; here are most of the images (worth reproducing) from my first full day in Vietnam, in which I visit the beautiful Giac Lam pagoda.

The rest of the day, as I recall, we got fitted for bicycles, a frustrating and unfun experience for all. Perhaps I'll do the boring page with blurry shot taken out of the airplane, accompanied by excruciating paragraphs of text about my preparations (or lack thereof) accompanied by lists of crap I took. After plowing through that, the rest should be fascinating by comparison. Of course, if you're planning a bicycle tour to a third world country, even that might be marginally interesting, who knows?

14may04

I'm still frantically trying to get beads ready for GlassAct251's booth at Bead&Button, so I haven't had as much time (and, to be truthful, energy---I presume this aching sensation of fatigue is leftover jet lag) to work on the vietnam pix.

Like many people I was shocked by the Iraqi prison abuse and horrified at the beheading of a civilian. Even before I learned of these appalling incidents, I could not help but be struck at the irony of paying a pilgrimmage to the Son My memorial during the US invasion of Iraq.

This is definitely the most somber part of the trip; but even at this memorial, the guide honored us for attending rather than castigating us for the actions of our government.

I had planned to work up the pix in more or less the order I took them. I have added the Vietnam directory to the Miscellaneous link (see right---currently only available from this page, sorry---if you're on a different one, select `home', from the buttons on the left, to get back here.) So next time, I'll publish images from the temple I visited on my first full day, and the wonderful---and quite unexpected---way the Vietnamese welcomed me to their beautiful country.

09may04

Lots of people requested that I post pictures from my bicycle tour of Vietnam, which I hope to do on a periodic basis over the next few weeks; right now, I've created a page for this image, in which I explain why it is perhaps my favorite.

Even those of you who couldn't care less that I spent the last month of my life coping with heat, humidity, insane traffic (the Vietnamese treat traffic signals as a suggestion and the national music of Vietnam is honking horns---they use 'em kind the way bats do echolocation), and of course, no opportunity to make beads, nevertheless can rejoice over the return of readable font colors on this page. And yes, I'd go back, not least for the still incredible level of craft.

29mar04

There are some very interesting---essays? books? manifestos?---being written on the state of copyright law, and at some point I suppose I'll collect the ones I find most germane on the Rants page. I have read Larry Lessig's latest book Free Culture and it's excellent, not to mention (I suspect) a lot less negative in tone than, say, Jessica Litman's history of copyright law, Digital Copyright (you know it's bad when a law professor advocates civil disobediance as a remedy). Larry Lessig and his publisher, Penguin, have co-licensed the work, which is available noncommercially for free on the web, or for $24.95 in paper. I've gotten both, and may even donate the latter to my public library.

But rather than reviewing that (lots of other people will do a better job, I'm sure) I thought I'd talk a little about this book, Jean Kropper's Handmade Books and Cards instead. In the review I explain both why this book is such a wonderful example of its kind, the howto craft book---and in what way I feel so many others fail to be.

I've promised my local guild's long-suffering graphic designer that I would create a tutorial, or at least present some arguments with supporting pix why cleaning bead holes, which admittedly is not the most exciting part of the process, might nevertheless be a Good Thing.

22mar04

I keep magically hoping that using filtered daylight will look as good as using a studio lamp. Nope. Nevertheless, I have to turn these puppies in soon, so I decided to photograph them with the quick'n'dirty technique. These twisted dot florals were made for my local guild's latest bracelet exchange. As a special bonus you get some of my supremely unoriginal (though largely unpopular) opinions on copying. Ooooh, exciting. Hm. Time for bed, I think...

21mar04

Happy Equinox (a little late). Here we're celebrating with alternating snow and sun with temps in the 50s...I've gone ahead and revamped the links on the side of this (main index) page. However, I haven't gotten the wizard to rewrite the perl scripts to make the same links appear on all the other pages. Soon. In the meantime, you can use the home button to get to this page, and the new categories. Next project is to photograph the floral beads for the latest glassact exchange, and maybe some of my latest floral & fish beads. We'll see.

17mar4

Happy St. Patrick's Day. It happens to be one of my favorite holidays, for a couple of reasons, one of which I'm willing to admit publicly is that if I had to pick a favorite color...green would probably be it. So of course I wore all red and black clothing today. Ah well.

I've been on a big honkin' dichro focal kick lately, so I finally photographed some of them & added them to that page, with dimensions and (gasp!) prices---check it out and tell me what you think.

16mar4

The Bead Bar, in Sterling Heights, MI, is celebrating their grand opening by giving one of my dottie beads to the first 100 customers who buy $50 or more of merchandise. They commissioned these beads specially to match the store decor---beads are available in amber, uranium yellow-green, cobalt and alexandrite--pale Spring pastels as shown in the picture above. I just love the airy delicacy of these pale colors, and hope you will too. I'm so pleased to be their `featured artist of the month'.

I'm still thinking about site reorganization, so I've made some interim changes: I've added the shops list on the GlassBeads main page; I've also updated the dotties page with some pix of actual type dotties I really and truly sell. Look for new pages on other types of beads I make, new pages for the howtos, faqs, rants'n'raves, etc. Soon. Really. Maybe even this year:)

(Sorry about the less-than-stellar font colors---I spent hours trying to get a nice, pastel, springish color scheme that was also readable---didn't really succeed on either front; obviously I still have lots to learn about how color works especially on monitors!) The Bead Bar is also carrying a lot of my big dichro focals, and I'll probably revamp this page to show those next. I'll fix the colors then.

29feb04

I'm going to have completely revamp the links at the side of this page, and the other pages...but that involves getting the wizard to rewrite the st2html scripts (sort of like a mini-CSS, I guess) and then rerunning every single page. Bleh. Not this week. So in the meantime I suppose the thing to do would be to set up a howto page in String, as I have in Glassbeads. Which I will do. Someday. Until then, here's the only link for a repair job which I thought had some interesting points. Note that it is not a beginning tutorial, but rather illustrates some intermediate level (?) tips and tricks for dealing with plastic sheathed cable, my favorite stringing material.

I've also received another email about the bead curtain. It seems to pique people's interest, so I've written a little bead curtain FAQ which again is not linked anywhere else---and is currently in the wrong directory besides, since it really ought to be in HowtoString, rather than just String. Or, put another way: incipient link rot...

28jan04

Added that photo setup howto. The illustrations don't perfectly correspond to the text, and there's no illustration showing the use of a white card (the basics are to a) not let the card show in the picture and b) tilt it till the dark area in the picture gets lit up, or at least as much lit up as you can.)

Two people have written about the stringing---especially the knotting page, so I updated it, with a couple of very old drawings of bead tips. Almost as old are a pair of 2into1 necklaces both probably originally made in the early 90s. I'm also working on a page featuring a garnet restring. Enjoy.

09jan04

Added another howto the promised demo for how to make florals using dot techniques. Speaking of technique, it's not great, but I promised, so here it is in all its...mediocre glory.

As soon as I con the wizard into ironing out my problems with multiple unordered lists, I'll post the photo howto page.

27dec03

Added scrimshaw (on bone) to the Adornment page; added a couple of new pages---both necklaces: one in the string section and one in the the bead weave section. Also, posted an honest-to-goodness new bead, not just a new picture of an old bead, on the 17th. This page also includes one of my extremely sophisticated (ahem) photo setups. Enjoy.

My thanks to the patient relative who allowed me to make off with her necklace so I could photograph it...last June. Must get it back to her. Maybe with a pair or earrings or one of those new pixie floral pendants.

09dec03

Added stripeys to the glass bead page; added a new hollow bead howto (with pix!) and moved the glbg Commemorative bead sequence (which also has pix of hollow beads being made) to the howto page. Enjoy.

Also some other fairly useless web pages, specifically some gifts I've photographed & finally gotten around to posting.

05dec03

Every once in awhile, the interests of Big Business and the little guy converge. Maybe not often, maybe not for long, but now is one of those times as IBM is poised to beat the crap out of SCO, much to joy of the Open Source community, which has been enduring for months SCO's baseless attacks on one of its most dearly held tenets: the validity of the GNU public license, the legal instrument under which the folks writing the code that's made this website possible release their work.

The GPL simultaneously allows hackers (not crackers---hackers are the good folk) to retain copyright yet freely share their code. I've wanted to license this website under the GPL for some time, but GPL is for software. However, in the same spirit, Creative Commons has made licenses for artists.

They haven't yet created the specific license I want, which allows for non-commercial, attributed use of my (not others') copyrighted material without alterations, and commercial, non-attributed derivatives of it. Nevertheless you may consider all content of this site copyrighted by me (but not any material copyright by others, such Joel Keener's art or Deb Brown's story) licensed under these terms.

It's not ideal; as I said, I don't want credit for (highly) derivative works, and I don't care if they're sold. But it will do for now.

Also, I've updated a bead exchange (this is turning into quite a saga, here) and added a little howto for striking effetre silver pink. Enjoy.

03dec03

Just for a change, I thought I would post information on the purple beads in the ``Stringing'' special issue Beadwork, featuring three abstracts before somebody called up to order them. They cost exactly the same as the orange curliQs featured last time, so the link will take you to the orange curliQ page again. And for your convenience, here again is the list of shops carrying my beads. If they don't carry what you want, ask!

I like Beadwork magazine, really I do. I think in many ways they're gutsier than other beady types mags out there, and I admire them for that. They will actually take political stances. Mild ones, but still... However, I really disagree with their statement (in the letters column of the December03/January04 issue, p.10) that ``It isn't illegal to teach someone what you've learned in a class, but it surely isn't ethical.'' Baloney.

This is just one more example of the real cost of the big corporates defending their so-called IP (intellectual property) rights to the social and creative detriment of society at large: even individual artists are beginning to believe that every little innovation or variation belongs solely to her (or him) forever, contrary to historical copyright, forgetting the huge wealth of material we all draw upon before we ever so much as picked up a pencil or bead.

23sep03

I wanted to post the wonderful photograph of Dustin Wedekind's `Faux Coral Necklace' (pp. 70--71, Beadwork, Oct-Nov. 2003) featuring one of my orange curliQ beads, but their legal department probably forbade it; at any rate, I've shot a bunch of them---both in the original minneola orange and the redder appearance they have in the mag in a similar background. If you're interested in purchase, see this page. Also, the list of shops carrying my beads is up and running---save yourself the cost of shipping:)

I will be selling these and other beads at the Great Lakes Beadworkers Bead Bonanza, Sunday October 5, 2003, from 10a-5p, at the Southfield Civic Center, 26000 Evergreen Road (at 10-1/2 mile), Southfield MI. It cost $3 to get in, but hey, you're helping out the GLBG's biggest fundraiser.

My profound thanks to the individual who reported my bike to the Ypsilanti police on or about Friday the 19th, as well as to Officer Gillahan, who spotted it in the lost in found. I guess I used up about a month of luck getting it---as well as the digital camera in the bike bag which I used to photograph the above---back; as for the idiot who stole it...!

21 Jul 03

I moved (physically) earlier this year, so I've been a tad busy. I suspect I will continue to be a tad busy until I've sold the old place and finished fixing up the new.However, I've created a new index page, though you can access the old one if you'd rather look at softly colored flowers instead of brightly colored beads. The image above is my 2003 postcard. This year I've participated in the Chicago Embellishment/International Quilt Show, and Bead&Button and will be also selling beads August 9, 2003 at Gathering the annual conference for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, held this year in Lowell, MA, just outside of Boston. I've also been selling beads to a lot of shops this year, and hope to have a list of them soon, as well as the demos/howtos for making hollow beads.

30apr05