Leftovers & More...

Hi all, hope you had a great Turkey day...ours was was very nice...having 4 days off was really good, we did just about nothing...went for long walks, did a bit of yoga at home, did a bit of shopping & that's about it...oh yeah ate a whole lot of yummy leftovers, what about you?

this past weekend I managed to list a ton of beads as promised...I will have a couple of new yummy sets, focal beads & leftover sets by Thursday 2pm California time in my etsy shop...

On Wednesday last week I had a quick, as in short intro class to bead making with the nice people in the photo below...Sharon, Lisa & Kevin...Lisa was a natural, Sharon's beads looked really good for a beginner & Kevin did great too...he is also a boro artist, although we had very little boro glass at the studio, he did come back on Sat for about an hour & showed a bit of boro, the second picture is the swan he made for us...he is going to come back to our studio to teach a 2 day intro to off mandrel boro class sometime around spring vacation 2010, I will keep you posted of the dates...

Graceful Studios News: We have added a calendar of events to our blog upcoming dates of note are my lampworking class on Sunday the 6th from 9am to 2pm, & the Christmas Boutique on Sunday December 20th from 10am to 4pm...see you at the studio...

Last week's two yummy focal beads go to Amy, send your addy girl...for this week I have very special bead, I love love this apple core bead with a modified harlequin design...I was going to list it in my shop, then I realized I did not have a yummy bead for the giveaway, so now you can enter to win it by making a comment on this post...

Thanks for stopping by...Life is good...

Jelveh

Peace

Happy Thanksgiving...

Hi all, hope you are all ready for Turkey day & you remembered to get the sugar for the cranberry sauce unlike me...so now we are making the stuffing & cranberry sauce tonight...This Thanksgiving I am so very thankful for everyone & everything in my life, specially my yummy hubby, all of my family & friends, Life is good...

I have an appointment this morning, then at 1pm I am teaching a 2 hour class to 4 students at the studio...then after than I am cooking...so that is the plan...

I ask myself where is the time to add new beads, I have them I promise, I have a couple of pairs of earrings too & a few pendants...I have added a few items to the shop already & I will add the rest of the goodies to my etsy shop between now & Sunday night I am sure...

Last week's yummy bead goes to acptuser, please send your address...for this week I have 2 yummy focal beads for your beading pleasure, one person will win both of them, enter to win them by making a comment on this post about anything you like or what you are thankful for...

over the weekend we had a Rock Carving Class at the Studio, it was a great 3 day class & lots of fun was had by all, I took a couple of photos when I stopped by on Sat after my yoga class... Well I am off to my appointment then to teach & then to cook & then to add more goodies to the shop...

Thanks for stopping by...Life is good...

Jelveh

Peace

Finally, New Beads...

November already? what happened to August, September & October? Oh yeah, I remember I was busy running around the globe...well after being gone pretty much from September 15th until the first of November, I am back...I have had such a fun past few weeks, as you may know I was teaching a two week class in Turkey that was awesome & I met so many new friends & had fun with my old friends, but I also was teaching class an average of 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, for two weeks...then I came back, made some beads, helped Grace put the finishing touches on the Graceful Studios...a couple of days later Corina Tettinger arrived for her class, we had two awesome, 2 day classes full of great students in a span of 6 days...see Photos of students in a previous post below...

I played the role of assistant to Corina, from getting her coffee to certain size stringer to making beads for her to make some awesome design on, I did it all & I was happy to be able to do it...Corina was/is a very talented glass artist & an amazing teacher, queen of all glass beads in my mind, she was also fun to hang out with, very generous & nice...Grace & Frank worked their tales off as well, Frank ran around & made tools & adjustments to all equipment & of course without Grace & her loving nurturing ways, there would be no Graceful Studios, she did so much work to get the place going & made sure we all ate & had fun the whole time...

The class was so successful that most of the students are already signed up for Corina's next class in our studio on Feb 19, 20 & 21st, 2010, where she will be teaching a 3 day class called "Let it Bloom" everything & anything to do with flowers of all kinds, from surface to encased & a few she has never shown before...

And now back to our regularly scheduled program, first off if you have won beads on my site in the past two months and don't have your bead yet, please please send me your address via email & remind me which bead was yours, I have a few sitting here waiting to go to their new homes...

As you may recall a few posts down, I had two beads to giveaway last week, well one of them, the aquamarine rivers bead, the one on the right, I gave to Corina as a gift never remembering that I had offered it here in the drawing, so I will make another one for the lucky winner of that bead which is Stephanie, the other bead the swirly lentil goes to Ginny of Florida...thank you all for playing along...the lovely focal lentil above about 30mm round I made in Turkey in Class while I was teaching, love the way it came out, this one is this week's bead giveaway...enter to win it by making comment on this post, possibly about your last class or workshop experience...

Oh yeah almost forgot I made a ton of beads, photo above shows them together as a group, I am happy to report after years of not making too many Dichroic beads since I was not always getting good results & the glass is expensive to waste, I finally learned from Corina what was the problem, the glass was not the right stuff, Corina brought some with her for the class, I ordered more from Frantz and made a set of my garden beads, inspired by Corina & her Dichroic beads...I listed them & others yummy beads in my shop on Etsy ...some made in Turkey, some made here before & after we hosted Corina at our studio, so you can imagine my mind is full of new ideas & designs, there will be a ton of new beads coming your way as soon as I get some much needed rest...

Thanks for stopping by...Life is good...

Jelveh

Peace

Picking up Corina....

Well I had hoped I would have some time to list some beads by today, but I ran out of time sometime a month ago & have not been able to catch up with it since...today I am off to the airport in about an hour to pick up Corina Tettinger for her teaching visit to our studio & town. Graceful Customs Studios is happy & lucky to be having her teach here & I am so excited that after many years of talking to Corina on the phone & email we finally get to meet...The first two day class Corina is teaching on Sat & Sun 24th & 25th is full, the second class she is teaching on Wed & Thurs the 28th & 29th of this month has 2 spaces left...let me know if you want to join this class...

The beads above are both for giveaway this week, two people will win, one each, I pick who gets what, but you can try & let me know why you should get the one you want, enter to win them by making a comment on my blog...I made them while teaching class in Turkey at the awesome Glass Furnace.

The Photos below are of the studio all polished & ready to go, Grace & her hubby did such an awesome job getting the place together & have gone all the way with the new torches, glass & venting systems, not to mention all the yummy foods & goodies Grace has placed in the studio...if you are in area & would like to visit send me an email, we are located at 10730 Center Ave, in Gilroy.

I will try & list some yummy beads I have made both in Turkey & here since I have back in the next few days when I get a chance, but it will be late in the night when I have a chance so we shall see if sleep is more important...lol

Thanks for stopping by...Life is good...

Jelveh

Peace

Where in the World....

Lets play a game, you guess where in world I am writing this email from, and the first one who guesses right wins a set of 5 beads, their choice of colors, when I get back to the studio in Gilroy...don't be fooled, my language may be deceiving you on purpose, so think about this one hard...

In the mean time the Opening of the studio was a huge success...you would be able to see it more, had Grace and I not been so busy running around feeding & demoing beads for our over 100 guests through out the day, we might have taken more photos...I asked my mom who is the usual photo person at all events if she took any photos and she say "oh no, I forgot" so there you go...I had 4 awesome students for the class which was from 8am to 1pm, then I melted glass & showed off making fish & pumpkins for the rest of the day as guests arrived, I think I saw Grace twice the whole time, once in the start of the class in the morning and once when we sat down at the end of the day with my mom & hubby & Grace's hubby & had a glass of wine & relaxed...

We had 5 different vendors who brought their yummy glass beads & jewelry...the Rock Carving people were so in to the glass they were at every demo I did...and signed up for later classes...

so here are a few photos that we did manage to get from a couple of other people...

hope you are doing well too, thanks for stopping by...life is good...

PS we have added another 2 day class with Corina on October 28th & 29th, send me an email if you are interested...

from somewhere on the road...Jelveh...

Peace...

There will be BEADS...I promise...

Hi all, hope you are having a good week...things are good around here...I am still recovering from that pesky kidney stone...so I am a bit lazy today...

this last Saturday my parents gave a party for my birthday, we had a ton of fun, most fun was the CAKE and everything to do with the CAKE, my sister got this yummy Flowerless Chocolate Cake with a chocolate gnash frosting from Whole Foods, right after everyone sang me Happy Birthday, which I love by the way, my sister put the cake down in front of me on the coffee table & my sweet almost 2 1/2 years old niece Sophia leaned over & blew the candles out & started laughing...she is so cute I loves her lots...for the record I love all of my 5 nieces & nephews & feel so lucky to have them in my life...I would show you pictures, but I forgot my camera & for some reason dad is not able to send me his photos...it was a great day, mom made the best Persian food ever...Thanks everyone for all the love & gifts...Life Is Good...

I did manage to make some beads, I washed them, I have taken photos & I am slowly but surely adding them to my etsy shop...so keep checking back, there will be more later today & on Thursday too...here is a couple of photos of what is coming...

Sarah from Sweden wins the flower bead for last week's giveaway...this week's bead giveaway is a funky focal with a ton of color & encasing, it could be considered a landscape of sorts, I just love the colors in it, its about 27x28mm...enter to win it, make a comment on this post about what is your favorite kind of cake or desert & why...I loved that cake cause it tasted like a dream of chocolate in a bed of fudge...

thanks for stopping by...Life is Good...

Jelveh

Peace

New Beads & We are Home...

Hi all, how is your week been? I can honestly say that even though we have moved across the world in the last week, my week has been great...The whole trip was so smooth, we took off only a few minutes late from Heathrow, other than that, it was sunny when we left London, it was sunny when we got to San Francisco. We picked up Sammy, the most expensive hamster in North America without too much hassle...he is very happy in the sunshine...My awesome sister drove us home...we have been sleeping alot, but I have managed to go to my friend Garnet's studio twice already to make beads, while mine is getting set up again...The beads I have listed today are the last of the beads made in England...

They don't call it Sunny California for nothing, since we have been home it has been in the 70's...driving has been odd, in Oxford we never drove, now anywhere we go we have to drive to...we Americans need & could use a good public transportation system...I know we have some in larger cities but not like they do in England. I do miss England, I miss Oxford & Laura & our place...but we are now back in our home & near family & friends so Life is GOOD...

Now to the bad news, the weekly bead of the bead giveaway for the past 2 weeks has not been shipped I am so sorry ladies, I totally spaced it, I will ship them out on Thursday with a thousand apologies...the bead for this last week goes to Ginny of Florida...congrats girl...

The bead above is for this week's giveaway, a yummy underwater anemone bead from my splash series she is about 23mm along the hole x 35mm wide x 7mm thick...

I have added some yummy new beads, including some very yummy Silver Glass Focal beads to the shop, check them out here or on the side bar...I am going to list a couple of more items in the next couple of days, and then hopefully every day after that, my goal is to have a lot of items in my etsy shop all the time...so keep checking back, I will still let you know when there are new beads of course...

off to see the tax guy...thanks for stopping by...

Jelveh

Peace

The Tough Go to Paris & Beads...

What is it they say? When the Going get tough, the tough do XYZ...Hi all, as you have guessed by now, we went to Paris over the weekend...I know, life is just so good & we are so grateful to have the opportunity to travel to all these fun places right before we come home...We took the train on Friday, stayed about a block from Arc De Triomphe , went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower Friday night, spend 7 hours on Sat roaming through the very large Louvre Museum, to see it properly one has to spend a few months there, then a quick trip on the metro to Notre-Dame just in time for evening mass which was kind of cool, with the choir singing & the incense smell. On Sunday we walked the Champs-Elysees before our train trip back to London.

It was a great little trip, both hubby & I had been to Paris before, both of us when we were 12 years old, although I was 12 years old about 4 years before hubby...so this was all new to our adult eyes...we saw so much art, I will show you more photos of these and stories in the coming weeks...we loved it all, life is GOOD...We are almost done with the packing. I have a date with the lovely UK bead maker Laura Sparling on Thursday to chat & maybe torch a bit. I have a bunch of beads made for the weeks to come, so I will be listing a few new items every week or every few days, you have to check back in the shop for new items...

How do you like the new look of the blog? I thought it was time for a change. Also on the right side I have posted a poll about bead colors, please vote for your favorites when you get a chance.

I have a ton of yummy new beads for you today in the shop, you can also click on the bead photos on the right side to get there...

Sandi R. of TX wins the yummy landscape bead for last week. The ultra yummy bead in the photo above is for this week's bead giveaway...what can I say, it came out so good, very peacock. you can win it by commenting on this post. winner picked at random in about a week.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the week & make sure you think & feel good things...

Jelveh

Peace