Balancing act

One thing that all artists face is the tight rope of life. Many of us in the world of lampwork do not face the same restrictions of regular folks. There is no one to scowl at me if I am not at work, there is no time card to punch, and there are no co workers to hold us accountable. We also get few of the benefits of a "real" job, such as knowing how big that check will be when pay day rolls around.

As many of my readers already know, I am a house husband. Not only do I try and work a full week in the studio, I also do the cooking, school drop off and pickup, and the house maintenance. I am the first to admit that I am about the worst house cleaner out there, but my family is well fed, no kids are left outside the school, and more importantly, my kids are still in one piece( so I must be doing something right).

Here are a few of the tasks that I am responsible for in any given week.

Cooking
Cleaning
errands and school stuff
Making art
Selling art
Promoting art
Teaching art
photographing art
ebay sales
etsy sales (or lack there of)
grocery shopping
emails, taxes , scheduling classes and various other assorted computer time activities.
sleep

Now I am sure I am forgetting something is this list ( like something fun ), but you can see my problem. Which ones are priority, and how do I decide. First one to go, to my wife's dismay, is always cleaning. I can live while a few socks hang out on the floor, I can not live with out food.

I try and schedule three days in the studio, one to teach at the Visual arts Center, and one to work in the office. Here is the problem: Life gets in the way.

Let me give you and example. Two weeks ago my son got a very minor fracture in his foot. This started a huge avalanche that impacted two weeks of careful planning.

First I had to cancel class to take him to the ortho doctor. Which led into the next week when I lost a day in the studio to make up that class. Which led to two days out of the studio. I can not even remember all the ways in which the universe conspired against me, but I have not set foot in the studio in a week and a half. All of my scheduling and good intentions, gone out of the window. Next week we will try again.

Now I know a lot of my beadmaking buddies out there are in a similar situation. So come on and give me your solutions.

I do gripe a lot, but I would not trade anything for my ability to be there when the family needs me. The glass can wait, even if it gets a little impatient every now and then.

And here is the pay off, one of the new marbles from before the broken foot issue.

Marylin Monroe With A Cold Sore

( or the importance of form)

Over the years I have had the pleasure of jurying all three Bead Review Books and I can now tell you that form is the single most important factors in your beads. A lot of us are guilty of thinking of form last. The first thing we think of when we sit down is our new secret technique, or the latest batch of silver color to come into our hands.

None of this matters if the design and shape of the bead is poorly executed. When I open up a slide, the first thing your brain hones in on is the form. If the ends are not straight, or if the curves of the bead are off, then your eye tends to stop at the flaw. The extra cool pattern or shiny new glass becomes secondary to the flaws of the form.

In my beginning classes, most of the first six weeks is taken up by the donut bead shape. Until you can master the heat control required to get a clean even dimpled shape, there is not much point in moving on to bi-cones or more complicated forms. We do dress the beads up with the basic skills like dots and lines, but every bead contains the basic shape.

In my own work I am constanly tweaking the form, and trying to match shape with design. It is a matter of making a lot of beads, and trying a narrower end on this on and a gentle dip in the middle of the next one, and on and on, trying to create pleasing shapes, and then concentrating on the desgin of the pattern.

All of this ghoes back to a critique I had in college. We were all told to bring in our best piece( a glassblowing piece). All of us trotted in with the best designs, dichroic glass, and glass bling that we could muster. My proffesor( Kent Ipsen) then proceeded to paint all of the work flat black. His next words have stayed with me for twenty years.

" Now is it still your favorite piece"

When the work was all painted in a dull flat black, we sat down and got all nitty gritty on the form. That is one day I think we all learned a lot.

I also gleaned this other pearl from the days critique. " A vase with a bad lip, is like Marylin Monroe with a cold sore" . I took away the lesson that no matter how pretty the package, we will always see the flaw first. So get out to your studios and always think of the all important form.

You can now get Etsy, Ebay, and Blog update notices on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/pearsonglass

Yay, I have a follower, Welcome Embelishyourself, you are the first official follower of the blog.

Things are a little slow sales wise. I guess I am the grass hopper. I always forget to save beads and money for the month of August. I am taking the month of August to spend some time with the kids, get my Etsy shop all in order and fully stocked, Keep ebay trickling along, and finishing plans to take over the bead world( these plans are continually evolving and changing so stay tuned).

About 1 month to go until the kids are back in school and I can start working in the studio again. First up will be a new stock of Skull and hearts series stuff. Next will be a new smaller line of beads for Etsy and Ebay.

I have started a new Etsy street team with a few fellow glass artists. We have an empty blog, which we will be filling out over the next few weeks. The purpose of the group is to promote ourselves as a group to the different online sales venues. I will keep you up on that front and link to the blog as soon as it is running..

Last thing today is a note about Drama. There seems to be a lot of it this month. I do not know if bead makers are all getting over heated or what. I think we should all just go make beads and stop worrying about who did what to whose design, and who said what on all the forums.

Take a look at the now stocked Etsy Store and let me know what you think.

I finally got around to redesigning the website. Now you can hit it up for a good overview of my work, my schedule and links to my online sales. Take a look and let me know what you think.

www.bradpearsonglass.com

I just got back from the 2009 Gathering. For you non bead people, this is a convention for the International Society of Glass beadmakers. Yes their are enough of us to have a decent conference.This was my sixth conference and they just keep getting better. Due to the economy this one was a little smaller, but I still got to meet a lot of new people.

If you are into making beads, this is the place to be. You can always find the heavy hitters sitting and talking to people who are new to the art form. The gathering organizers did a great job this year and the socials were fun and interesting along with all of the artist who put on some wonderful demos and lectures. ( I was one of them and I survived with out embarassing myself on stage).

You missed my demo on "using the masking tecnique to create squares and angles". I know it does not sound exciting, but these are the skills I am currently using to make my work, and it is all about designing hard geometric shapes to blend with the graceful curves of the bead. Below is an example of what I made in my demo.

My head is still swimming with the suggestions I got in late nite bead talks down with the ladies of room 806, so look for a few minor new directions in my work. As always the ladies would like to see more colors.

Thanks to everyone at the conference, see you in Rochester.

For more info on the conferences and the great organization that puts them on got to www.isgb.org

I am in the process of revamping my business model. Sadly for those who have not had a class yet, my new plan is to travel and teach a lot less. It was getting a little overwhelming, and I never had time to work on my own work in the studio.

I have renewed my Etsy store and fully stocked it. I am spending a lot more time in the studio( and I must say that some cool new stuff is coming). Ebay is now a regular activity at the studio.

A lot of the new focus is towards streamlining my items, and keeping my artistic integrity at the same time. This can be difficult when trying to make a living, but I want to be proud of my work, not just make production work for money.

So here is your job, take a look at Ebay and Etsy and let me know what you think, any comments or helpful suggestions are welcome.

Ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/pearsonglass_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5583798
Here are a few of the new rings from the Etsy store

I am super exited about some of my new work. For a while now I have had the desire to take my current style of beads and carry it through to a finished piece of jewelry. It is a desire to see my work to the end. Normally I make a bead and it goes off to a collector or a jeweler who take it to the next step.

Here are a few of the new pieces. The silver is kept really simple to allow the glass to be focus. I will say that silver soldering is a royal pain. I am not used to careful measuring, cutting, filing, cleaning and all that goes with metal work. My hats are of to you full timers.

Any way, here is the work, what do you all think??

New Collaboration

One of my students( who is a wonderful artist herself) and I have begun a collaborative series of Focal beads. I am making beads with recessed areas for her to make woven bead sections. As we move along we plan to make things more complex. These will be available at our respective shows, Ebay, and Etsy. These first few were about the mechanics of the process. My partner in this is Ingrid Bernhardt. You can see all her creations at :

http://www.ingridbernhardt.com/

Whew.... it has been a very busy week around here. I have been back at the torch making whatever I want. After a winter of hearts and working on the house it is a great change. I stored up all my ideas from the winter and am charging ahead full steam. Here are a few of the new pieces from the last week or two.

I am having a lot of fun introducing some new colors into the designs. Those of you familiar with my work know that I like to stick the simple high contrast colors. Well all that is changing, so bring on the color wheel.

Let me know what you think. Its time for me to head to the torch.

Brad

I've got lot of heart

For the last month I have been working on these hearts. Pictured you see about 150 of the after cleaning. They are ready to be signed. This project was a commission by Bon Secours. They were great to deal with and the hearts will go to the donors and staff that will attend the opening of a new world class heart center here in the city of Richmond. The second picture is all of the finished pieces nestle in their packing foam awaiting delivery.

Now we can get back to our regularly scheduled art work.

Look for some new marbles in the near future. But first I plan to take a few days off and rest my wrists, and hands.

Brad

Greening the Studio

Often I worry about the environmental aspects of my artwork. Is what I make worth the impact of running a studio. I do try and keep everything to a minimum.

Here are a few of my efforts:

My studio is at home, no car rides or energy used to get to work. Services such as telephone and internet do double duty for home and office.

Order supplies in bulk. This keeps down energy and money used to ship supplies. It helps me and the environment.

I try to conserve materials and minimize waste.

I have been cutting back on traveling, trying to sell more work through the internet, and teach more local classes. I know that plane trips really hurt my yearly carbon footprint.

I do not air condition the studio.I just adjust working times in the summer to match the cooler parts of the day. A fan is my best friend in august.

My newest tinkering has come up with this solar air heater. It pulls warm air from the studio and uses the sun to heat it up about fifteen degrees and returns it to the studio. It is still a work in progress, and I hope to add a solar powered fan to move air through the system. Right now the fan is on a timer that is set according to the sunny times of the day.

Whew!!! it is busy around here.

I am pleased to announce that the Visual Arts Center now has a full time lampwork area. I taught the first marble workshop in the new space last Saturday. As usual it was a great bunch of students, and the class went off with out a hitch. I must admit that I was a little nervous about teaching marbles to people who have never lit a torch before. They all did great and everybody got a couple of nice marbles to take home.

I am also in the middle of making 350 heart shaped pendants. A local hospital( Bon Secours) is opening a new heart care facility , and at the opening, the doctors and donors are all getting one of these hearts. This happens to be the same hospital that my mom went to when she had a heart attack, so I am of course glad to see that they are continuing the work that saved her life.

I am also pleased that Bon Secours is buying gifts from a local artist, and not some vase that any number event cordinators may get. Lets hear it for supporting the local art scene.

Some day soon I may get back to my own artwork, I have a bunch of marble designs floating around in my head.

All for now, Brad

Needless to say, I have not posted in a while. It is kind of slow at the studio right. I am firmly in the grip of the dreaded winter doldrums. I will be in the studio a lot over the next few weeks. Bon Secours Hospital just commissioned 350 pendants for a heart hospital grand opening. Nothing like a deadline to kick me in the pants.


Otherwise all is quiet. I am having trouble deciding where to go with my art work. So expect to see a lot of experiments on Ebay over the next few months.

All for now,

Brad

Well I had a wonderful weekend in the mountains making beads. It was a luxury to be able to concentrate on nothing but glass. I sat down at the torch on Saturday at 9:30, and next thing I knew it was 9:00 at night. I will be posting some of the work as time permits. I was the designated teacher on Friday, and the class was great. I think I learned as much as some of the students. Teaching forces you to examine your work and give justification for the methods and outcomes of your labor. The final assignment was to combine my methods with the students previous methods and merge them into something new. It was wonderful to see the growth of everyone. The wheels were really turning in our heads.

I did learn that Chattanooga is a really long way from Richmond. I also learned that the mountains are a wasteland for really good radio stations. I also learned that Chattanooga is a pretty cool town, not the small southern city that I pictured.

Brad

Well I am over my rant about daylight savings time. I have been getting ready for a bead show in Richmond VA this weekend. I have come to the conclusion that pixie dust is evil. Every time I sit down to do sets and pairs for the show, the dust sits there and calls to me. I find myself experimenting half the night with the stuff. I like the results so far, but I really have other stuff to do. Here is one of the beads from this week.



As you can see it is good work but it is not the inventory that I need for the show.

Brad

I hate the time change. As soon as you get your children into a nice little routine, along comes a one hour difference as puts a wrench in the whole. A 3 year old does not care what the clock says. So I have to face a very energetic child one hour earlier everyday.

On top of that, it is now dark when we used to go to the playground. So now on top of all the other stuff we are stuck in the house after the nap.

I HATE THE TIME CHANGE.

Well it is after midnight on a Friday night. You never realize how much life will change when you have children. 4 years ago I would have been out and about. Now I am enjoying a quiet house, getting some work done. My three year old reminded me that " Halloween is getting very close to our house now". For some reason that struck me as funny. One little secret of having kids is that holidays get to more fun as the kids get involved. A couple of nights ago we made Halloween sugar cookies. By my daughters reaction you would have thought that I had just spent a year handbuilding her the coolest present in the world. My normally sassy little girl was replaced by the sweet 2 year old that I used to know.

As soon as we put away the shorts and got out the pants for colder weather she has been convinced that it will snow soon. So all of you in the south , this is your warning! According to Avera it will snow tomorrow. It is funny that no matter how many times it does not snow, she does not get discouraged in her meteorological aspirations.

Later, I am off to finish formatting this weeks auctions. Keep your eyes out for them on Saturday, there are some great winestoppers for x-mas presents.

Brad Pearson

Well I am still working on getting the website up and running. My Dad is doing most of the hard work, I get to just say how things should look.

Last night in the studio, I continued the work on my new Idoleyes series.

It usually takes twenty or thirty pieces to get settled into to the direction of a new series. I have to find a balance between the swirling eyes looking mystical and downright busy. There always seems to be a fine line that is easily crossed into chaos. A good friend of mine always said , "working with glass is like cutting hair.... You have to know when to stop!" At least last night went better than the previous. After working 1 hour on a single bead I ended up with a piece of crud and a nice little burn. That was one experiment that did not work!!

For those of you who want to see the work in person, my next show will be in Richmond at the intergalactic bead festival the first weekend in November.

Welcome to the Brad Pearson weblog. As many of you who are reading this know, I am a glassbead maker. It is a pretty small field in the art world. I started off as a glassblower. Over the years my work became smaller and more intricate. Moving to beads as a format was a logical progression in my work. This page will be the place to catch up on the events of my career and some of the more noteworthy aspects of my life. I will keep you up to date on new ideas and series as they unfold.

Currently I am getting used to being the stay at home parent again. Working as a full time artist and managing two munchkins is not an easy task.I have not been to bed before 1:00 AM in a few weeks. This would not be so bad if I was not handed a newly fed and ready to play 5 month old at 7:00 AM every morning as the other half heads off to work. By the time I get him back to sleep, I hear the inevitable " IM AWAKE" from the other room. Its off to breakfast and morning caffeine. Sometime around 8:00 PM I will finally make it back down to the studio to start all over again.


I am off to the studio for a few minutes of peace during the one time of day that both naps line up.

Later