Curved mandrels and Royal Tombs

First of all curved mandrels! Well Well!! I am really impressed with them! I ordered six (I rarely buy one of anything) from Zooziis ( www.zooziis.com )and could not wait to try them out when they arrived. Amy at Zooziis very kindly suggested a bead release to use on them so it was easy to remove the beads from the mandrels (something I was nervous about since I worked the beads in the flame for a LONG time)I will say that you will need to get used to working with them. I found that I get best results when turning them like I'm turning a crank (I do hope that makes sense)

Where does the Royal Tomb come in? Well the reason I ordered the mandrels in the first place was because I was inspired to make a curved bead from a photo I saw in a book, 'The History of Beads' by Lois Sherr Dublin. The book was a Christmas present from my son and the photo was of an agate bead found in a royal Mesopotamian tomb. Of course my bead looks much different from the 'original’. You can see more photos of this bead on my Flickr account.

Never underestimate the work of an artist!

I’ve been getting ready for another open studio weekend and this old Chinese fable has been on my mind lately so I thought I’d share it. (The open studio will be in March and I always like to prepare way ahead.)

There was once an artist who specialized in drawing Roosters. He travelled from village to village with his work and everyone marvelled at the realistic qualities of his art.

One day a rich patron asked the artist to draw a tiger for him. ‘Oh, I have no experience drawing Tigers.’ said the artist. ‘When I come back next time I will do my best to draw you a Tiger.’

The patron was satisfied with this and told the artist to call on him the next time he passed through the village. The artist went away and for nearly a year he practiced drawing nothing but tigers. A year later, when he was happy with his work, the artist passed through the village and called on the rich patron. The artist knew this man was extremely particular about everything so the artist had waited until calling upon the man to draw for him. He wanted to make sure he drew the tiger exactly as his patron wanted. So, after listening to the man for a while and understanding precisely what he desired the artist quickly and efficiently drew a tiger. He handed the work over to the patron who was very happy and said, ‘Yes! This is wonderful! You have given me exactly what I want! I will buy this drawing! How much is it?’ The artist told the patron his price. ‘WHAT!?’ said the patron. ‘That is very expensive! I mean to say it only took you a couple of minutes to draw this for me.’

The moral of the story: Never underestimate the amount of effort, time, passion, thought, imagination and (last but certainly not least) soul that goes into art and hand crafted works!

The Woman behind the blog

Some of you who are FB friends may have seen this already but I thought I'd post it here as well....A while back a high school friend sent me a request to list 25 Random things about me. At first I thought....this is silly, I don't have time for this an no one is really interested, but after a couple of days I found I did have little snippets of info I'd like to share with people. In a way this was a great way to reunite with old friends and intoduce my self to new friends so....Even if you've no time to read this maybe it will get you thinking about making your own list. And maybe you'll find a couple of surprises along the way.

25 Random things about Delana

1. I’m am and always have been a Florida girl down to the core! I love collecting shells on the beach! You know what they say: “You can take the girl away from the beach but you’ll never get all of the sand out of her pants….I mean shoes”

2. I spent a lot of hours in the 70’s and 80’s with my blow-dryer, curling iron and hot rollers trying to have hair like Farrah Faucet….I want those hours back!!

3. The only way for me to truly learn a foreign language is ‘on the pillow’. This explains why I only ever (almost) mastered Norwegian after nearly 20 years of living in Europe. It also means that if I ever master French or Netherlands Tom has a right to be suspicious!

4. I love to travel but when I’m not on holiday I’m a real ‘home body’. The best place for me to be in the evenings is at home with my family….oh, and DON’T mess with my evening routine!

5. My husband and two sons are gems!!! I could go on for pages but the main thing is I’m blissfully happy, consider myself extremely lucky and wouldn’t change a thing!

6. I feel landlocked in Belgium but other than that I’m happy here. (Yes Belgium has a coast but remember I’m a FLORIDA Girl !!)

7. I’m first and foremost a stay at home mom and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

8. I so enjoy teaching fitness classes and I'm lucky to have lovely clients!!

9. I get so much pleasure creating things from glass but still have a problem calling myself an artist.

10. I’m a ‘kitchen sink’ kind of gal…if I can get it in my bag it’s going with me!!

11. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was trekking in the Himalayas in June 2008 with my good friend Perina….the second hardest was boot camp! Childbirth was a breeze!

12. I managed to serve over 10 years in the U.S. Navy without ever being posted on something grey!! (For my sea duty I was posted to Antigua the Azores and SHAPE Belgium!! It was a tough life!)

13. My one regret is turning down a posting to Antarctica….how many people do you know who can tell you they’ve been on all 7 continents? I’ll save it for the next life!

14. My favorite chocolate is Neuhaus!

15. I LOVE to dance!!

16. BEADS....oh don't get me started! I LOVE making them! I LOVE meeting other people who make them! I LOVE meeting people who like them! I truely believe they bring people together! Glass is FANTASTIC!!

17. I’m emotionally high strung and after years of wishing I was different I’m learning to accept that this is just part of my 'charm'.

18. On 'days off' you're likely to find me in my studio creating away while still in my favorite jim-jams!

19. I’m a control freak…but I’m learning to deal with it!

20. I am proud that Tom and I made the effort to raise our boys with a rich understanding of their Norwegian and American backgrounds.

21. I believe that Tom and I were meant to be together and will be with each other always! (After all I’m terribly spoiled and have too many bad habits to live with anyone else!)

22. I don’t like to watch sports…except men’s rugby and men’s speed skating….It took Tom a long time to figure out I don’t care who is playing/competing or who wins! It is all about the legs!

23. My two favorite modern fictional characters are Captain Jack Sparrow and Sirius Black. I always was attracted to the guys who were most likely to get you into trouble!.....but I married a prince!

24. I like shoes and bags but not in a weird Imelda Marcos kind of way.

25. I never intend to ‘act my age’ or to let a number stop me from doing anything!

Maybe you can make your own list now....don't forget to tag me if we are friends on Facebook or if you are a 'Fan' of Bydelana on Facebook