Keep it Simple!

Sigh....things just haven't been going well at the torch lately but the other day a thought struck me. Am I getting too focused on the production side of things? Am I expecting too much from myself by trying to make complicated designs? I promised myself several months ago that I was going to slow down this year. The plan was to focus on making beads etc. for the pure joy of it and not for the business side of things. Ok, I don't have to put food on the table with this but I do need to cover my 'costs' and if you like to take as many workshops as I do you will know that costs can be pretty high. (Plus I have a real love for tools and gadgets and this doesn't help to keep money in my account.) So....yesterday I decided to sit down at the torch and work with two colors and make a simple bead. I pulled a fairly thin stringer of intense black and grabbed a rod of ivory glass and lit the torch. As a result a couple of nice focals came out of the kiln this morning and I'm happy so maybe this is the end of the dry spell. The photo above is of the best bead from yesterday's session. More photos of some beads from last week can be seen on my flickr account.