Our Last Show of 2009 is This Weekend!

Elm Street Holiday Artisan Sale
December 11 - 13
Friday 5-10 pm, Saturday & Sunday 10 am-5 pm
395 Elm Street (the corner of Elm and Grosvenor)

Featuring the creations of 4 talented artisans:

Sumak Designs - Gemstone, Pearl and Silver Adornments
Formations in Metal - Metalsmithed Wearable Art
Hearts of Glass - Flameworked Glass Jewellery
& Donna Schultz's irresistable all-natural handmade soaps

PLUS - BONSAI from the president of the Winnipeg Bonsai Association!

Come with a friend or two to browse and visit in a comfortable and relaxed setting, while you enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and snacks. An annual tradition at Elm Street and Grosvenor!
















Here's a recent pic of some of our leaf pendants on our tree display. At $10 (etched pierced leaves) to $12 (veined elm leaves) to $14 (oak leaves) to $18 (our sculpted maple leaf pendants) they make great gifts and stocking stuffers!

Custom Dragonfly Stickpins on Etsy!

I am in love with our new dragonfly stickpin design! And we've had a great response to them at our recent shows. I've finally made an update to HeartsofGlass.Etsy.com in order to make them available. It's in there as a custom order, so you can select your colours and shapes and I'll make a dragonfly just for you!

New Purple Floral Bead

As promised, here`s a shot of my latest encased floral! I`m using a new technoque to apply the stamen now: pre-nipping-off a point-pulled stamen section, and attaching it to a clear rod. Then I can just plunge it in as deep as I want, and melt off the clear rod leaving an automatic "expansion dot" of clear on top.
Before this, I was plunging a point attached to the full stamen rod, then cooling that and nipping it off the bead itself. This worked fine when the stamen rod was skinny, but now that I'm working in a thicker section it was giving me more trouble. I was either breaking the stamen off too stubby in the plunge-dent, or breaking the whole darn bead off the bead release. The new approach is much less disaster-prone!



















Front shot, showing the stamen cane. I like how the stamen went a bit spirally this time! Finally, distortion working in my favour! >:)



















Side shot of the floral showing the reactive base. I love how the reactive cane recipe turned out! It`s a bit less yellow and more blue in real life.

My Mom should be landing in Winnipeg for a visit right about... now! She's here for work and knows we're working too getting ready for the Velocity show on Niagara this weekend. She`s agreed to help us come up with names for our work (such as this bead - suggestions, anyone?), and maybe do a little tagging duty too! What a trooper! :)

December Has Arrived!

And we've finally got some photos of a few of this week's creations! There's lots that's waiting to be wired as well. But here's the sneak peek!















Strawberry Ice opalino calla lily pendant.


















Mauve Dragonfly pendant.


Stay tuned for a new floral bead photo coming soon!

Studio Shows for the Next Two Weekends!

Andrea and I are getting ready for our Velocity Studio show this weekend! After the bustle and bright lights of the huge Signatures show a week-and-a-half ago, we're looking forward to capping the season with laid-back, cozy studio shows. It was exciting to meet so many new people at Signatures, though! I really came out of my shell and felt like I was "in the zone" with greeting and answering questions. Sometimes I can be so shy at shows! Luckily Andrea is so outgoing.

Speaking of reaching new people, I was on the radio this morning! CKUW's "People of Interest" show at 8:20am. I went on a bit of a ramble about Coefficiency of Expansion and different glass families that probably bored people, and I forgot to bring up our recycled leather bracelets when asked about recycled elements, but overall I think I got the message across about the durability and soulfulness of artisan-made flameworked beads. And of course I mentioned the studio shows! Since they are held in private studios/homes word of mouth is crucial.

So I hope to see you this weekend or next! We'll have lots of new leather cuffs (we almost sold out at Signatures!) forged earrings and dragonflies.

Booth Photos from Signatures

What a busy weekend at Signatures! We met lots of new people (with some lovely visits from friends and repeat customers as well) and had a great reception to our designs, including some new ones like the hammered silver locking earrings and the brand-new dragonfly stickpins!

Here are some photos of our booth set-up, from Saturday. Not the best quality photos but enough to give you an idea.














We have more lights, better risers and more versatile displays, organized by theme.














Our current banner is lovely and hand-painted by Andrea, but it's on its last legs and is a bit too large in scale to work in a regular booth. Next time I'd like to have some vinyl banners done up with our current logo and photos of the torch.


Andrea and I are off to sleep (and sleep in tomorrow!). We've got next weekend off and then it's time for the Velocity Studio Open House at 664 Niagara Street, December 5&6, 11-6! We'll also be working on a few custom orders. If you have a special request, the next few weeks would be the best time to get in touch with us! We enjoy working with people directly to create the perfect blending of visions.

Signatures Directions

Signatures is on! Our booth looks its best ever. Andrea made several embellishments to our displays. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures soon!

Thursday & Friday Nov. 19 & 20: 11am to 9pm
Saturday Nov. 21: 9am to 6pm
& Sunday Nov. 22: 9am to 5pm

How to find Signatures at the Convention Centre:












How to find us at Signatures - Booth 105 right by the entrance:


















ps - our friend Sumak Designs is booth 226! Check it out for pearl, gemstone and fine silver creations.