Saturday, July 30, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Summertime Bead Making and Horse Talk!
Making glass beads in the summertime is a bit more challenging than making them in the lovely, cool Israeli winter. Guy is doing his best, though, and recently came up with these beauties:
They can all be found in our Etsy shop. Please have a look over there if you are interested in any of them. They will make for some really unique and colorful jewelry!
He sat down at the torch today, turned on the kiln, warmed up his hands by making a few simple beads, then promptly got up, declaring that today was just not a good bead making day. And so goes the life of a lampworker. Some days you've got it and some days you don't. Making glass beads can't be forced, at least for Guy it can't. Maybe there are some people out there who can force themselves to make beads. Honestly, though, I think it shows in the end result. When we had a shop in NY for a short time, people used to consistently comment that you could tell how much fun Guy had while making the beads, when you looked at the beads themselves. I was always amazed that people could actually see that! But it IS true. And force just doesn't work. Not in bead making and not in most any other things in life, in my opinion!
In other news around here, Guy's been slowly but surely falling in love with his friends horse, Diana. She is a four year old Frisian mare, and is pregnant with her first baby! She is due in January. Horses have an 11 month gestation period, in case you were wondering. Guy's job, aside from making beads, is to feed at a local farm, twice a day. He has a relationship with all of the horses, but over the past 2 years, he's really become connected to Diana. It helps that he is good friends with her owner, too, and admires the way the guy takes care of his animal. Some people simply don't have a clue when it comes to horses, yet they go on acting as if they do! He usually goes to feed around 6am each morning and after he's done, does a few rituals with Diana: brushes her, cleans up any manure she's dropped during the night, checks on her belly, etc.
Overtime he has become more and more gentle with horses. There was a time when he used to 'man-handle' them, and 'show them who's boss' but lucky for him and the horses, he got some great influence from other gentle horse people over the years and now is much, much more in tune with the animals. He is trying to focus on not feeding Diana (or any other horse) by hand, as hard as it is to do, because as humans, that's the first thing we WANT to do with a horse: give him some food from our hands! But this can lead to issues with the horses, just like with dogs. They learn to use their mouths in different ways, sometimes dangerous (ummm... biting?!). Wild horses are never fed food by a human hand and go through life using their mouths only to eat or to fend off other horses in the herd. So, Guy is trying to go back to nature with his manners around horses lately. A great book that he has, which has influenced him a lot, is called (no pun intended!): "From My Hands to Yours" by Monty Roberts. The author also started out his career with a roughness to his techniques with horses, until he saw the light and started to work with them in kinder, gentler, and what proved to be more effective ways. So I guess my whole point here is that Guy is having a great time being kinder, gentler and more conscious when he is around the horses. I see it benefiting both him and them! And we both think that is a wonderful thing!
They can all be found in our Etsy shop. Please have a look over there if you are interested in any of them. They will make for some really unique and colorful jewelry!
He sat down at the torch today, turned on the kiln, warmed up his hands by making a few simple beads, then promptly got up, declaring that today was just not a good bead making day. And so goes the life of a lampworker. Some days you've got it and some days you don't. Making glass beads can't be forced, at least for Guy it can't. Maybe there are some people out there who can force themselves to make beads. Honestly, though, I think it shows in the end result. When we had a shop in NY for a short time, people used to consistently comment that you could tell how much fun Guy had while making the beads, when you looked at the beads themselves. I was always amazed that people could actually see that! But it IS true. And force just doesn't work. Not in bead making and not in most any other things in life, in my opinion!
In other news around here, Guy's been slowly but surely falling in love with his friends horse, Diana. She is a four year old Frisian mare, and is pregnant with her first baby! She is due in January. Horses have an 11 month gestation period, in case you were wondering. Guy's job, aside from making beads, is to feed at a local farm, twice a day. He has a relationship with all of the horses, but over the past 2 years, he's really become connected to Diana. It helps that he is good friends with her owner, too, and admires the way the guy takes care of his animal. Some people simply don't have a clue when it comes to horses, yet they go on acting as if they do! He usually goes to feed around 6am each morning and after he's done, does a few rituals with Diana: brushes her, cleans up any manure she's dropped during the night, checks on her belly, etc.
Overtime he has become more and more gentle with horses. There was a time when he used to 'man-handle' them, and 'show them who's boss' but lucky for him and the horses, he got some great influence from other gentle horse people over the years and now is much, much more in tune with the animals. He is trying to focus on not feeding Diana (or any other horse) by hand, as hard as it is to do, because as humans, that's the first thing we WANT to do with a horse: give him some food from our hands! But this can lead to issues with the horses, just like with dogs. They learn to use their mouths in different ways, sometimes dangerous (ummm... biting?!). Wild horses are never fed food by a human hand and go through life using their mouths only to eat or to fend off other horses in the herd. So, Guy is trying to go back to nature with his manners around horses lately. A great book that he has, which has influenced him a lot, is called (no pun intended!): "From My Hands to Yours" by Monty Roberts. The author also started out his career with a roughness to his techniques with horses, until he saw the light and started to work with them in kinder, gentler, and what proved to be more effective ways. So I guess my whole point here is that Guy is having a great time being kinder, gentler and more conscious when he is around the horses. I see it benefiting both him and them! And we both think that is a wonderful thing!
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