It's time to Bead!

Beading has always been one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy making jewelry using a variety of beads but of course, being a stained glass artist, I tend to gravitate to glass beads. Although metal, stone and ceramic all make beautiful beads, there is something about the sparkling surface of glass that I love. Attraction to how glass beads look is not the only magnet that pulls to toward them, but there is also something special about the way they feel in your hand and against your body. I am posting a picture of a small beaded bag necklace that I have made. It is made of glass delica beads, a very consistently sized seed bead from Japan, glass crystals and small silver beads. It is really one of my favorite things I have made and having recently sold it, I thought I would share it with the world one last time. I will be teaching some beading classes at the studio and soon will add beads and findings so beaders may purchase supplies. The second photo captures some of my new favorite beads that will be offered at the studio. I can't wait to make something out of those fish beads.........Robin

Community

Earlier this month I participated in the Denton Community Market, an outdoor market that sets up on the second Saturday of each month on Carroll Boulevard in Denton, Texas. I arrived, set up my tent and then set our my wares to join the sale. I really had no idea what to expect or who might be there but as the morning progressed, I realized that this was a very special event in which I was participating. The market was full of arts, crafts, plants, food, and music but most importantly, the market was full of the sense of community. Webster says that a community is a unified body of individuals : a group of people with a common history or common social, economic, and political interests. The participants of the market were a community, a community working to make an event that would enrich our city. At this market I saw old friends that had spent most of their lives building the sense of community in others and a new generation who were following their vision and working for the good of all. Sometimes we need reminders that life is always full of potential for great things to happen. The Denton Community Market is one of them.…..Robin

I hope you got to stop by the studio to listen to Vanessa Helvey and David White last Friday. Performing many of her own songs, Vanessa "wowed" the group with her voice and guitar. David White plays an incredible guitar and mandolin and together the duo was definitely a crowd pleaser. If you didn't get to see them, they will be performing at Twilight tunes on the square tonight. We hope to have them back in the studio not too far in the future......Robin

Music and Art, Now that's the way to spend an evening!

Join us Friday night at the studio for music from Vanessa Helvey and David White. Vanessa is a singer songwriter who is originally from the Texoma area. Her father taught her how to play the guitar when she was 14 and she has been playing and writing music ever since. She moved to Denton to attend the University of North Texas where she graduated with a degree in Political Science. She has two dozen original songs and looks forward to recording in the near future. Until then, she follows her passion of playing as much as she can locally and in the DFW area. David White studied music at the University of North Texas and will be playing madolin and guitar. Vanessa describes her style as Americana/Alternative Country/Folk and the trio hopes to eventually add a drummer and move toward a more electric sound. While performing in Austin, Vanessa was discovered by a group that will be producing a reality program about the life of musicians. She could be a candidate for the new innovated program but the selection process is still in the works. If interested in a preview, you can check out Vanessa's myspace at www.myspace.com/vanessahelvey.