COLD AND WET DAYS

These past days have been very rainy; today was extremely cold because of the wind. Anyway, the weather is simply perfect for working at the torch as that keeps me nice and warm! The trees outside our windows have lost all their leaves and guess what I discovered - two baby pigeons in the nest on the tree right outside our window! Fabulous view of the babies since the trees are bare. However, I feel so sorry for the baby pigeons (what is the name for baby pigeons, 'piglings' perhaps?!), they are soaked through from the rain although one of their parents is there most of the time. I get to watch everyday how the babies get fed by the parent. What is cute is, when one of them turns around to get comfy, the other baby will also simultaneously turn too. Sort of like Chang and Eng, the Siamese twins!! I have to take photos and post it here to show you how fluffy the babies are.

Here are some of my latest beads, yes, bird beads and more fish beads!

HAPPY BIRDS!

HAPPY BIRDS! Details/Close-up

ONCE A-POND A TIME #2

ONCE A-POND A TIME, details/close-up

Around this time of the year, I get influenced by the Christmas decorations they sell at the stores. Yes, the retailers have already put out the Christmas items for sale. Here's a set of Christmas-y beads -

MAGICAL WINTER

ONCE A-POND A TIME

Wow, October's coming to a close! I can't believe how fast the year - let's not talk about the week - is whizzing by!! I have been experimenting and toying with my glass beads this week; basically organizing myself with possible new ideas, trying to turn my visuals onto my beads. Not an easy task, I admit.

I had such a kick making the Gumball series and have continued along the same line though the beads are now bigger and lentil-shaped. I adore large beads!! The larger surface allows for better stringer control, since your arm is free to draw more naturally, like a follow-through in tennis.

UNFORGETTABLE

UNFORGETTABLE, details/close-up

CHILL-OUT

LOVE'S SILHOUETTE

Then, as with most things, after the umpteenth bead, I decided it was time to venture into the unknown, ie I wanted to see more colors on the bead surface instead of just the stringer work on a uni-color bead. Here's the first of the series called Batik - so, why do I call them Batik? This is similar to the Malaysian batik painting where the motifs have white outlines; the outlines are actually the original fabric color, before the batik dyes are painted on, the outlines are covered with hot wax.

This set is called Batik Kebaya - Kebaya is a traditional blouse-dress combination worn by women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Burma, Singapore, southern Thailand and parts of Cambodia. The blouse is made from sheer material and usually worn with a sarong or batik kain panjang, or other traditional woven garment such as ikat, songket with colorful motifs.

BATIK KEBAYA

BATIK KEBAYA, details/close-up

One last bead set I'd like to share with you which I call Once A-Pond A Time - koi is very popular especially in Japan, though you would find koi fans outside of Japan who would pay lots for this species. This is my depiction of a koi pond on the beads. The beads have been simply pressed flat without any aid of a mold, again the larger plane allows better 'drawing' on it. I have basically used the same technique as the Batik beads to achieve the water-color effects.

ONCE A-POND A TIME

ONCE A-POND A TIME, details/close-up

ONCE A-POND A TIME, details/close-up