I feel Official now!

I now have a fully functional Web site! That is not to say it is perfect, but it is up and online. In a former life I use to be big into street rods (old cars). I had a saying that there was no such thing as a done street rod. There was always something to fix, or add, or chop, or paint. Web sites are the same way. There is always a link to fix, a picture to add, text to rewrite, etc.

I put this off for so long. Considering that Web design is a lot of what I teach and do on a daily basis, you can imagine that I just wasn't overjoyed at the thought of spending the little bit of creative time I have in building and maintaining a Web site. Anyway, I have tried to keep it simple so that there will be a minimum amount of maintenance time that has to go into it. That is one reason that I am not planning on moving my store out of Etsy anytime soon. Etsy offers me the convenience of not having to maintain my own online store. To list an item on Etsy takes a relatively small amount of time and hassle. I may change my mind in the future, but for now Etsy is all good.

Isn't it funny that only now after getting a Web site online for Big Grass Farm Designs do I really feel like an official business person (lol). In the mean time, tonight I am a happy camper. I feel accomplished because the site is up and running (http://www.bgfdesigns.com/) and I have a kiln load of some potential Christmas ornaments and jewelry pieces. Not to mention the fact that after today the Bengals are 6 and 2 and Tony Stewart is 3 points away from the championship (yeah, I'm a sports geek too)!

Lusting!

I am so lusting over this photo backdrop set that the Beading Gem journal is giving away. I am posting this everywhere I can to try earn more chances to win it. Modahouse Table Top Photography Set up

Quilt Squares

Now, if you are not from Ohio you may not know what a big deal barn quilts are. Other states have them too, but Ohio seems to have a rather large amount of them and they are fairly popular. They have branched out from barns and are now on a variety of other buildings. We even have one at the college on the building where I work. Well as I mentioned earlier, Jo at Hilltop Designs hosts an art festival each year called the Appalachian Mountain Artisans Festival. On the side of her building she has one of the quilt squares. She asked me to make some jewelry with her quilt square on it to sell during the festival.

That took a great deal of research on my part. I can fuse images into my pieces, but they come in the form of water slide decals that are created to be placed on the glass and fired in the kiln. There are all types of images you can get on the decals. Everything from animals to flowers to trees, religious symbols, abstract designs, etc. I have yet to find water slide decal material that will go into the kiln that will allow you to print your own images first. I ended up having to special order ink jet decal paper that allowed me to print my quilt images from my ink jet printer.

This means I have to first cut my glass pieces and fire them in the kiln. Once they are done, I can then apply the images to the glass.

Now, my next problem. I needed some way to keep the images from scratching off of the glass. I am using a spray acrylic sealer that should do the trick. I am using about 4 coats of that so it means spray and then drying time in between each coat.

Finally, I have started making the cord necklaces and putting on the findings. I am happy to say that I am getting close to having 25 necklaces and 35 key chains done, but the process is a long one. It takes awhile to get from cutting the glass, through firing, applying the decals, spraying multiple coats of the sealer, making the cords, epoxying (is that a word) on the findings, and finishing things up.

I hope that these are popular for her and people like them. I now realize, however, I don't want to be a production jeweler. lol