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TWO NEW
TOOLS AVAILABLE
5/20/13
CROSS-PROMO GIVEAWAY
Lori Bergmann, Zoozii's and CGBeads are teaming up with a giveaway.
Lori wrote a tutorial on the making of her awesome Zebra beads for Bead
Style Magazine, April 2013 issue. In the article she explained
using the Small Round beadroller to judge the size of glass needed to
press a perfect lentil from a Zoozii's lentil presses.
Each of us is having a
giveaway, so you have three chances to win. Here's how to enter:
1). For a chance to win a
Small Round CGBeadroller:
send me an email at donna@cgbeads.com
with 'CROSS-PROMO GIVEAWAY' in the subject line.
2). For a chance to win the Bead Style Magazine containing the Zebra
Bead Tutorial and the set of beads featured:
goto Lori
Bergmann's Blog for details.
3). For a chance to win your choice of either a Zoozii Straight Sided
Lentil Trio Small or Large:
goto to Zoozii's
Blog for details.
Giveaways will end Monday May 27th @ Midnigh-ish. I'll announce
my winner here, Lori & Amy will announce their winners on their
blogs.
5/8/13
I HATE DAYS LIKE TODAY!!!
I had to put Bruce to sleep. He was injured so I rushed him to
the closes vet. She said his back was broken, there was no
apparent pain. He was my fluffy rag doll, and I miss him
terribly. I'll close out his life with a little montage tribute.





4/15/13
We have this 'weed' in our lawn that flowers every year, then we mow
the yard and I don't get to see it again till the next spring. When it
comes to plants I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, so when I
discovered last year that it was primrose I decided to try and
transplant it this year. This is a picture of it in the lawn and
one a week after I transplanted it and it flowered again. I am
thrilled I didn't kill it! so I went and hunted down a couple more
plants and transplanted them, too. I know it needs to go dormant,
but I'm hoping to bring it in this winter to see if it will flower
inside.
4/4/13
Kara & I have decided to do some shows this year so I launched into
a project of making sample beads from every CGBeadroller cavity. I was
a bit surprised, I estimate I used around 8-9 pounds of glass
(not including the marble molds). Speaking of shows, our first
one will be in Lynnwood WA on May 3-5.
If you'd like to see a larger picture, just click on the image.



3/3/13
I've always thought there were enough marble molds on the market, that
I wouldn't need to add anymore to the mix - apparently I was wrong.
Over the past year I have gotten a lot of requests for smaller marble
cavities, and it seems the 1mm cavity increment increases are very
popular as well.
Introducing the Marble
Mold line of CGBeadrollers. Five paddles, with a
total of 24 cavities, ranging from 8mm (1/3") up to 34mm (1-1/3"). I
may be wrong, but I don't think there is a marble cavity that small on
the market. I've also added a bundle package, buy all 5 and get a
stringer tray bonus.

2/28/13
Stewey the chicken update:
I got to hold him today! He was sitting in the corner of the shed with
no where to run and I picked him up. Needless to say he's not happy
with me right now, but he still comes running when I dump feed out for
him. Fickle fellow. He's getting pretty big so we're guessing he
was just a spring chicken when he got loose from the farmer coming
through town. It was fun to hold him, can't wait to corner him
again. Bwhaaaa

2/18/13
Went to a bead meeting Saturday night. I dropped out of attending for a
while (while I was fighting my health), but now I'm ready to get back
into the swing. I got to do the demo. A while back Tammy Whitham from
Australia made a tutorial making tops with beadrollers and allowed me
to post the pdf on my website, so that's what I demo'd. I forgot to
take a baroque tool (BR-6901) with me, but that's another awesome top
shape to do, and the ribbed tools give another dimension, too.
Then I brought out the new beadcap beadroller. We played with it a bit
then spent time 'thinking outside the box' with all the other things to
do with the beadcaps. A dress for a little girl with her legs dangling
out the bottom would be awesome, bells, earring tassels... Spinning
Top Tutorial by Tammy Whitham

2/6/13
February is my Anniversary month,
these first 4 years have really flown
by. In the past I've made a special Anniversary tool, this year I'm
doing something a little different. Check
here for details.
1/20/13
I want to thank Double Helix for making the best clear glass on the
market. I have been playing with their silvered glass since they first
came out with. I could never get the intense colors everyone else could
get. I did a bit better by encasing, but they would almost always
break, so I caved and bought some their clear Zephyr.
Now as if by magic, I have stunning color and confidence the bead will
not break after it's sold. As you can see from the picture, it was
consistent over and over, not just a one time fluke. Considering how
many I've thrown away, at $40 a pound the price is saving me money -
and time - and my hair. What the heck took me so long?
Beads made with BR-8601
Graduated Drops and BR-5601
Chunky Donut Pandora Style


1/7/13
Random thoughts of my grandmother - I think she would be appalled at
the amount of plastic bags I throw away.
12/26/12
We had our first snowfall of the year here. We're in north Texas
so we don't get it often and it never stays long, but we do get
it. The pickup was put into the back yard so Christmas Eve
company could park in the driveway. Christmas day it was already
raining before dawn so my son and I thought we would go to 'The Hobbit'
early enough to miss the turn in weather predicted, but by the time we
got out of the theater there was a full blown raging blizzard with all
the cars already iced up.
Back to the gist of the pickup: yep, it was
stuck and needed to get out. I want to say a special thank you to
the neighbor for watching out of his window to make sure the pickup
didn't make it out of the back yard before I got home to help. We
had snow on top of several inches of rain, that made for an interesting
pre-dusk rescue mission. There's a couple of inch incline in the
backyard, just enough for the pickup to slide sideways and away from
the gate, we wound up using the motor home to pushing it in the right
direction. Tore up the back yard pretty bad, I'll be spending a
few days racking dirt back into place now.
Next picture: my
christmas present. Sometimes husbands can surprise you. I've been
interested in astronomy since I was a kid, top that with all
the science programs I watch, Well - you done good honey.
 
12/19/12
One last chicken entry for the year. I wanted to show off how
comfortable Stewey is getting. I had the studio door open
yesterday and he came in twice to help us package orders. Then later
when I was in the living room I heard him outside the door again, or so
I thought. He had come in and the door had blown shut so he hoped
up on my table and was happily looking out the windows. Today was
another nice 'open door' day and he decided he liked being on my table
so in he came again. I wish I would have looked at the
composition of the picture before I took it though, looks like he's
about to sit on my coffee cup.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE, AND A HAPPY HEALTHY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.
d
12/16/12
I don't know how you winterize your flower beds, but I turn mine into a
chicken bed. You should have seen Stewey dig himself a nest and
fluff his wings to settle into the fallen leaves. His tail
feathers are almost grown back from his last brush with (more than
likely) one of the cats. They actually become quit use to him
now, even getting within a couple of feet of him and everyone being ok
with it.

12/6/12
I have a teaser for you, I have some new beadrollers coming out for
Christmas and these ovals are example beads from a few of the
tools. The smallest one (purple) is 16x53mm, the largest one is
22x63mm (fyi: 63mm is the length of the Beadpen).
There are a few different disc shapes and mixed cavities I need to get
made, then I'll send out a newsletter announcing them. By the way, if
you'd like to sign up for my email newsletter here's
the link.

12/2/12
Finally catching up from my out of town excursion to see my dad and
siblings. Here's a picture of us:
Diane - Daryl - Dad - Dean - Donna (that's me of course)
Happy 90th Birthday to my Dad ! !

11/21/12
No shipping from Wednesday
Nov. 21 through Tuesday Nov. 27th
(website will be open)
Shipping resumes Wednesday
November 28th.
I'll be out of town for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The website (as
always) will be open, but shipping will be closed. My father
turned 90 a few weeks ago, so my siblings and I are gathering for
Thanksgiving to celebrate his milestone.
11/6/12
Question: Who from your past has inspired you?
For me, one of those persons was a woman named Marsha.
Our daughters went to grade school together. She was a single mother
and her hobby was building a house for her and her two children. (nope,
no subcontractors) We loved going over to Marsha's house, you never
knew what would be changed. If the shower would be on the left instead
of the right, or if a wall would be moved 2 feet into the living room
to make the kitchen bigger. Oh gesh, where did that fireplace come
from? And you enclosed the porch? What? The upstairs is backwards? And
you now have a stairway instead of a ladder, booyah. lol Loved
it. It was a magical place to go. To take a walk with her in the
woods on her property was a calming peaceful experience every time. She
was a huge inspiration to me.
Now for the bad news, Marsha's house caught fire last week when she
wasn't at home, it's all gone and sadly no insurance. I'm asking all of my customers to give
me a Christmas present this year by donating $5 to help Marsha.
There's a link on this page,
and please click on the "cool stuff my mom made" at the top of the page.
This is a blog her daughter wrote about what they have learned about "What to
do in the fist moments after losing your home". If nothing
else, it's great info to put in the back of you brain.
10/19/12
I had some abdominal surgery last week, just had the staples removed
today. Phew! I'm so ready to get over this anesthetic hangover and
off the couch. I'm in DYI and FoodTV overload - I am confident I can
now remodel my kitchen
from the ground up, and I now know how to cook flambe without burning
it back down. Of course these are two things that will never come to
fruition anyway, but at least I have the knowledge to execute
them. (Shipping will resume Monday)
10/2/12
This has turned into a 'chicken' blog lately, but how many people can
say they have a feral rooster? I caught Stewey hanging out
doing a one leg stand the other day. Thought someone might be
able to use him as bead inspiration. On the the new house - he is
feral and it's not like we can corral him to get him into a chicken
coup at night, but winter is coming so we built him a house. We've put
wood shavings on the floor and a bowl of food with his water
next to it, hoping he will eventually hop on in and nestle into the
shavings. Once he realizes it's a good place to get out of the
weather, then we'll add some sort of front to shield against the winter
winds.

9/19/12
Every once in a while someone will ask me how the rooster is
doing. Funny, I'll bet he doesn't know he has fans. Stewey
is doing fabulous! He almost has all his tail feathers back now,
just needs those long ones that stick out the top and he'll be ready
for the 'prettiest rooster in Sanger' beauty contest. I'm gonna
have to try to get a picture of him on a better background so you can
see what a pretty color he is. He's really settled in to our yard
being his home, well, since that's where the food is, guess that's a
brainer. Steve & I decided to even build him a coup. I'm kind of
amazed at how the four cats and he have gotten use to each
other, too. I love the second picture, not sure if I wish I could
do that myself or not, think I'll stick to a wash cloth.
 
8/31/12
So I've been making lampwork beads for over 11 years now. I've
burnt my finger several times by picking up the hot end of a rod of
glass, and fisnished the bead. I've had hot glas land on my legs
and arms, and finished the bead. I've even passed my hand through
the flame, and finished the bead. Now I have my final trophy to
add to the list, I flung a piece of hot glass onto my neck, yep,
actually picked it off with my fingers then finished the bead. My
career is complete.

8/12/2012
Trinity
Brass and Glinter
are back online.
Quantity's of Glinter are still a bit low from The Gathering, but we
are restocking, along with adding new items.
We've also put the
beadcaps and earrings in larger quantities.
REFRESH your browser in case it doesn't load properly.
And don't forget the DISCONTINUED
SALE - 50% OFF
8/11/2012
I need to put up a few pictures from The Gathering in Seattle, but in
the mean time, I love this video, it just makes you happy to
watch. Happy
People Dancing on Planet Earth
7/14/2012
I don't blog much about the business aspect of my website, I like to
keep this as a "hay, there's a person behind that company", but I'm
putting in a plug today. This week I've hit what I'm referring to as my
first 'century milestone'. I've just finished running CGBeadroller
tools #99 and #100. I'll release #99 in a newsletter in a day or two (sign up
here), but #100 will be unveiled at our yearly lampwork
convention (The Gathering) in Seattle in 2 weeks.
I've gone from making a few cavity marvers for my own personal use, to
shipping to every state in the union and over 30 countries world wide.
Graphite cavity marvers are not a new concept, marble makers have used
them for centuries, but no one has taken them to the level for lampwork
beads that I have, and continue to do. They are innovative, and provide
the user with efficient time saving tools for accurate consistent beads.
I would like to thank my husband for all the help and support along the
way, and his machinist friend who first started machining them for me,
before we purchased our own cnc machine. I couldn't have done it
without them.
7/2/2012
The other day I caught the feral chicken snoozing underneath the air
conditioner condensation across the alley.
He looked so peaceful, I had to take a picture.

This is what I woke up to yesterday. He was (again) sleeping
peacefully on the outside of our fence in the alley.

Now - this is what I was unfortunate enough to wake up to this
morning. I haven't seen him yet, and it's almost the end of the
day. * sad face * We have a leash law, but we're a small
town, and dogs do wonder past on a semi regular basis, so I'm imagining
I've lost my feral rooster. Sad, I was getting use to hearing
him crow throughout the day, coming out and finding him getting use to
me enough to come in the yard for water. All there was was tail
feathers, so I'm still holding out hope that he got away and will
resurface, but... more than likely I'll have to go back to using my
alarm clock.

(UPDATE)
Well, look what I found in the yard not 20 minutes after I posted this
blog entry? He's missing a few tail feathers (well, they're still
in the alley), but at least he didn't become some dogs chew toy. I'm a
happy camper now, I have my Stewey back. It's the little
things in life that make my day.

7/1/2012
I'm a bit slow on blogging about this, but last week I have a couple
of women come all the way from Houston just to have a CGBeadroller play
day. What's the big deal? Well, that's a 350 mile drive,
not just a hop in the car kind spur of the moment thing. I
invited my best firend, and (obviously) we had a grat time. Fire,
glass, tools, women gabbing, of course we did.
This is what we played with.

Dorothy, Martha and her husband Ray (who came along,
too) Ann and Dorothy again (my camera hog best friend)
 
6/14/2012
She just thinks she's a size
10, when she's really a size 11.

5/29/2012
In the continuing saga of the new ferel rooster in the neighborhood,
he's getting use to me now. I caught him sitting on our side yard
fence, that's where I feed him. He now knows that seeing me there
means he's getting fed.

5/23/2012
Just when I thought the world was going to end in December, I find out
the archeologists have been wrong. This
recently discovered wall paintings with dates 7000 years in
the future. Seems it's just the end of the calendar, much like our
calendar ends on Dec 31, and a new one starts the next day. Drat,
this means I'm gonna have to clean the house for Christmas after all.
4/23/2012
Our house is next to a strip shopping center, with the back lot next to
our back yard. A couple of weeks ago there was a worker in the
back lot, just standing around looking a bit suspicious. Then
Steve noticed what he was watching - a rooster. Now mind you, we
do live at the edge of a small town, and we are allowed to have a small
amount of farm animals, but it's just a bit strange to have a rooster
loose. Yep, he's still around, too. Guess with the feed
store across the street, he's not going anywhere. We're on the
main road going through town, so I'm surprised he hasn't been run over
yet. I kind of like having a feral rouster around, and doesn't
look like any of the neighbors have plans to call animal
controll. So, every morning I get to hear the rooster crow, then
the owls take over in the afternoon. I miss living in the country.
4/18/2012
First rose of this season off of the big rose bush. This is not
the biggest one we've had, but it's close. 5 inches across. We've not
had a stem with more than 2 roses on it, so I'm looking
forward that one in the background blooming. The small rose bush
has a stem with 13 buds on it, that's a record for that bush,
too. I'll post a picture when they bloom.
3/23/2012
It's square flower time again. We have this weed in our yard that
has one of the prettiest flowers I've ever seen. From the right
angle, they are square. They measure about 1-1/2" to 2"
square. Last year there were two plants, this year I see eight
already. One of these years I think I'll dig some up and
transplant them to pots or something. The leaves are similar to a
dandelion. Sadly, they are a weed so the flower will be gone in a
couple of days.

3/21/2012
Is this what they mean when you get 'pinned' on Pinterest?

3/15/2012
Don't ya just hate getting out of practice? I love working
with raku glass, I just have a knack for getting the color to pop when
I frit on black. However... I'm not so good at getting color out
of a strictly raku glass bead. So I lit the torch the other day
and played. Not to bad, more poo color than I would have hoped
for, but I did get a few intense color patches.
Here are some of the tips: *heat super hot *let the bead
cool between heatings *if you see a haze around the bead when
it's in the flame, good job *if the bead has a 'metallic' spot,
toast the bead as if it were a marshmallow to remove the spot cause
there's popped color underneath it *don't put it into the kiln
real hot, let the glow go out of the bead *garage below 940
degrees, 890 to 910 works well.
And of course, use graphite to quickly cool the bead between heatings.
I'm not just saying this because I sell a line of graphite cavity
marvers, but one of the reason I'm selling a line of graphite marvers
is because I found how my custom made cavity marvers helped me get
color from raku.
These are from one of my latest addidtions to the CGBeadroller line.
BR-9401
Small Chubby Chichi Bicone

BR-9501
Tube Beads

3/11/2012
Yesterday, we had our second playday at my house. We
played with dicro, implossions, buttons, doorknobs, glow in the dark
glass, a cupcape sculpture, and misc stuff.


3/8/2012
I took a picture of the first flower of the season, in my back
yard. I'm so lame, I don't even know what kind it is.

2/12/2012
A side note first, doesn't today's date look like a binary code on
steroids? I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show last
week. It was my first time going, and I met my daughter
there. We found a new line of findings [called Glinter] for Kara
to add to her 'tools & findings' category. I'm working on
pictures for her, she's working on pricing, it will be up in a week or
so. [fyi, if you would like to be on the NEWSLETTER
to be notified about stuff, the link to sign up is on the contact
page] We also found some Pandora
style necklaces, some pewter
[supplies are limited on those], other misc. stuff that you'll just
have to look around for. We'll also be adding some big hole bead
caps soon, we have a friend that has started making them, and we're
excited to be able to get our hands on them. And the fun part of
the Tucson trip? We took some time off to go to the Saguaro
National Park, even have pictures an approx. 3000 year old cactus to
prove we were there.

1/20/12
Had a wonderful surprise today, I'm shipping to my 30th country. Just
added China to the list. Looking at her bio, she's quit an
artist. Educated in EU and also lived in Canada, you can see the
influence in her style. Have a look, she does pretty work. Yingni
1/13/12
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!!
The CGBeadroller will be 3 years old on February 1st.
Thanks to all my wonderful customers, I've come a long way.
While the
cost of materials has gone up this past year, the cost of production
has gone down, and I want to pass that saving along.
So, I'M REDUCING THE PRICE.
This will be like getting free shipping every time.
This is not a sale, this is my Anniversary present to everyone.
Check the website, the new pricing is clearly stated on each item
1/11/12
I have no words for this video, I think she says it all.....
YouTube
video
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ETSY STORE
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MY CATS
How To
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MISC
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Bead
Review 2005
The
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_____________________
Dancing
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someone close my mouth for me,
this pool
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left me speechless
360 degree panorama pix
Paris by
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amazing, note the language
fishy
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Telemarketer
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are you a Star Wars fan?
Emperor
Palpatine get a phone call from Vader
This has been around a while, I just found it again
How to
Fold a T-Shirt
David
Hasselhoff's
"Jump In
My Car"
German
Coast Guard
John Walshes
Family
Watchdog
find registered sex offenders near you
David
Hasselhoff is
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kid is too cute
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my
husband found this
(yes, it's clean)
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Coats Vidio
Tom
Cruise Is Nuts
John
Titor time
traveler
click on 'John's story'
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Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
January 2006
short
version - 32 pix
long
version - 337 pix
my
Seattle Sep/2005
trip
my
Seattle June/2008
trip
_____________________

TRIBUTE
TO MY MOTHER
My Aunt Ruth's poem
If
Tomorrow Starts
Without Me
|