I had a flock of crows harassing a hawk this morning, so I had my camera ready when this bald eagle went by, and the crows went after him instead of the hawk.

Sometimes I think I might be just a little bit obsessed with birds and beads.

Today started out so grey and gloomy, but the sun peeked out this afternoon. I soaked it up! My cardinals (yes, they’re mine! I claim ownership!!) came back to the feeder today, and hung around long enough for me to change the battery in my camera and put the long lens on. Should have seen me fumbling for the battery charger one handed, hanging onto the camera with the other, and all the time watching the bird on the feeder.


I’ve got some pretty beads to show tonight. When I look at the photos, I find myself thinking I sure hope they look this good to others. I can’t see the beads myself unless I use 4.00 reading glasses, so when I look at them to list them, I’m not all that impressed with them, but when I look at the photos, my reaction is, wow! I need to make another one like that!! (That’s if I remember what glasses I used). A good example of that is this one:

 It could be Aurae underneath, or maybe Psyche... or this one:

 Kalypso, maybe?

And then if you want to get to real frustration, try TerraNova,

 TerraNova needs to be heated red dripping hot, then cooled (but not cooled to where it might break when you put it back into the flame), and then heated again, then cooled, then encased with clear, but you can’t get the bead too hot when melting the clear, because that takes away the color so you’re left with muted browns. Maybe 1 out of 10 comes out with this beautiful coloring.

I like the way the storming came out on these two,

That’s why the silver glasses get to be an addiction, there’s always a surprise waiting when you open the kiln.