It’s a veritable plethora of bloggy goodness out there this week!!!

• At the new Glass Arts blog on CraftGossip.com, Lori Greenberg finds two bead artists inspired by American Gothic.
• Seraphim Flameworks tests out the latest Double Helix odd lots and test batches.
• Karolen’s still learning about Pandora as she tries restriking some unstruck beads in the kiln.
• Karolen didn’t spend ALL her time at the torch this week, though — she found a useful new tool for Etsy sellers on the Web.
• Can you make a living as a lampworker? Deanna Chase does it.
• That Marcy Lamberson is a busy, busy person! First she finds the perfect tool to help with the glassy details on your beads.
• Then she coaches Fiona in making a blackbird and a penguin at the torch.
• For the week’s Major Eye Candy, Hannah Rosner knocks our collective socks off with her latest necklaces using not just lampwork, but a plethora of seed beads and crystals as well.

Here’s your latest “Best of” list from the Lampworking Blogosphere!!

Some COLORFUL posts this time:

• Dogmaw’s been experimenting with Glass Alchemy’s Jamboree lately.
• Karolen’s playing with Double Helix’s new Pandora.
• Kandice finds plenty to love in new and old Creation is Messy colors.

We have two artist interviews:

• Lori Greenberg chats with Jill Symons, and
• Melissa Lee speaks with Sarah Moran.

In the miscellaneous category:

• Lisa Liddy compares her current studio and her ideal studio at Collective Creatives.
• Lori Greenberg’s bead designs continue to evolve at Watch Me Create.
• Luann Udell identifies her legacy in the midst of cleaning her attic.
• Finally an anonymous Etsy Bitch Auxiliary member shares a different perspective on Etsy’s “Quit Your Day Job” series.

Thanks to the holiday weekend, I forgot to post this last night. After all, TODAY is what felt like Sunday!

• Laura Sparling lets go of her control freak tendencies over at Watch Me Create.
• Also at Watch Me Create, Kerry Bogert shows off her studio re-do.
• I find out the hard way about letting flammable crud accumulate under my workbench. Eeek!!
• Rachel looks for inspiration in art, nature, and color, and shares her tips for having a successful show. Her fourth tip is especially worth paying attention to!
• Lori Greenberg desperately hunts for one more bead and finds everything but.
• Jelveh shares some eye candy along with her thoughts on copying.
• When Nina Bagley can’t find the lampwork beads she needs for one of her pieces, she calls on her sister Ellen to save the day.

Not too long ago, Twiggy, one of my fellow lampworking-forum members, said to me:

I don’t know how you keep all your online stuff up to date, run a forum and actually get to melt any glass.

As I told her:

Ha ha ha. The secret is I DON’T do it all as well as I look like I do. I don’t keep my online stuff up to date very well. About once a month or so I will go over to each site and play with it a bit so that it LOOKS like I’m keeping it up. I’m really bad about consistently listing stuff on Etsy because I’m finding it to be a PITA. If I had a bit bigger name I’d just set up a shopping cart on my website and list most stuff there, just a few things elsewhere to make myself visible.

Luckily I don’t depend on this for my living!

Also, since I have a full-time job as a computer science professor, I can call a lot of the computer stuff, including running the forum, “professional development” and kill two birds with one stone that way. Sneaky, eh?

I learned how to fake “having it together” long ago.  Of course, there are times when the facade crumbles — if you want to come visit me, you better be coming to see ME, not a clean house!  Yep, one of my tricks is that housework is a low priority.

It’s also still true that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I’d like to do.  So I give little bits of my attention to this, and that, and the other, here and there.  Every thing gets its little bit of my life; nothing gets all it wants.  It’s all compromise, and it works because it has to — because it’s how I work.

Andrea and I had our trunk show up at Beaded Couture in Ellijay yesterday.  Although the weather was sort of spitty-drippy, people still came out to see us.  Andrea did most of the demonstrating because a) my arm was bothering me a bit (tingly fingers don’t make for good lampworking) and b) I do so much boro that working soft glass isn’t something I want to do in public.  Sales-wise it was decent, but even better, it gets our names out there more and more.

Andrea demonstrating lampwork.

Lisa, Beaded Couture's owner and the hostess with the mostest

Our merchandise on display

Helping Vikki shop while hubby reads in the midst of chaos

Birth of a new lampworker, perhaps?