Maggs Creations

04/23/2016

There's something for everyone! I'm at the Madison Bead Show at the Alliant Energy Center this weekend!

04/23/2016

I'm set up at the Madison Bead Show at the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall, booth 325

04/14/2016

So, I was binge watching My Little Pony for background noise while I played with glass, then switched to Leverage. Mistake. My productivity has dropped because Eliot. Whoops. On the other hand... Eliot.

04/09/2016

Floofie!

04/08/2016

All set up at Oddcon at the Radisson in Madison. Come say hi!

03/31/2016

Just spent two episodes of Doctor Who cleaning beads. My inner geek is satisfied and my fingers are pruny.

03/02/2016

Last one of the evening, maybe. Added some peacock herl and hackle for spikey bits.

03/02/2016

Okay, sooo... consensus is that adding the feathers is an adorable bonus, next question... hide the thread as much as possible, or accept that thread exists and go with the flow? I mean, I can buy a spool of thread in every color to make it less obvious, but... I'd rather just do black and maybe white and save the rest of my money for feathers in every color of nature plus lots of unnatural colors, too! Watch the video, share your opinions.

03/02/2016

Next up, now that I've had a bit of practice, this guy gets feather floofies on his tail and antennae!....
edited to add: Just as soon as I figure out how to hold him in place while I'm working on him.

03/02/2016

These are kinda addictive to make. But now I have feather floofies all over the studio.

03/02/2016

When I took the fly tying class, the instructor said, with a bit of a smirk, 'the first fishing flies were tied by nobility, and they had servants hold the hook in their hands while it was being tied. Today, we use these vises, which is a much more stable system.'......
I want a servant to hold this stupid thing, because no fly tying vise ever made will hold a glass invisible mouse at the proper angle to get feather floofies added to its tail. I'm making do with a rubber band and an empty test tube rack, but it's just not the same. Probably. Not having had the opportunity to have someone hold a mouse still for me while I accessorize it, I can only imagine.

02/18/2016

All dressed up to start working in the studio!

12/09/2015

My scanner wasn't working today when I went to scan my Patreon letter so I could print copies of it, so when Chris came home, he twiddled the settings, then asked me to put something on the scanner to test it, so I did. I think there may still be something wrong with the scanner. Thoughts, anyone?

12/06/2015

Free bead if you come to the Bodgery today and mention the secret word... glockenspiel!

12/05/2015

Come play with the marble mazes!

11/21/2015

Come visit me! Fire& molten glass at TeslaCon. Ongoing demonstrations in the vending room.

11/21/2015

11/20/2015

Custom parts for your Tesla superweapon mass while you wait!

11/20/2015

Someone asked me today about glass garden gnomes. This is the only picture I could find, and these were made back in '08 (which is quite possibly why I couldn't find the picture of them online). Yes, only one of these has arms. I was just a baby glassworker at that point. Attention to detail came later.

11/20/2015

All set up at TeslaCon at the Madison Mariott West. Tomorrow: Fire and Molten Glass! Yes, that's right, I'll be doing flameworking demos all weekend long. Need a custom component for your Space Beam Convertomatron Device? Just let me know, I can have stuff ready for you by the next day, as time permits. Payment will be required in advance for all planet-destroying death ray components.

11/14/2015

Tempting Fate, Ninja Level: Me, on phone to a friend, "no, no, I don't think I'll need any help, but thanks. I just have to pack up my torch and some glass tonight for a class I'm teaching tomorrow out at Meant to Bead. What could possibly go wrong?"
Want to see what happens next? Come visit Meant To Bead in Sun Prairie tomorrow and Sunday for my trunk show and mini-classes! Learn to play with fire and molten glass, go home with a new shiny thing!

11/11/2015

People ask me all the time how I make my glass pendants, especially the eyes. It is very similar to this process, only using fire and molten glass instead of a canvas and paint. Take notes, it's a very helpful video.

10/31/2015

The cat ate my homework.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/printing-out-3647436

Just finished writing the October letter for everyone. And I have made a discovery. Printing one or two pages is absolutely fascinating for Pillbug the not-quite-a-kitten-anymore. He sits on the shelf above the printer and does the vulture pose. Printing multiples of a five page letter is apparently…

10/30/2015

La la la. Making stuff for this month's Patreon. Not too late to support your favorite flameworker and get lovely shinies, too. I have a bowl full of tiny tentacles destined for earrings, several octopi basking in the glow of the kiln, and I'm thinking it might be a good night for gargoyles. Want to get in on the fun? https://www.patreon.com/MaggsCreations?ty=h

Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!

10/27/2015

So, today I managed to misplace my keys. Not a huge deal, because Chris has a backup set of them. Which I then couldn't find, so I called him at work, and of course, three seconds after he picked up the phone, I found, before I could even finish explaining to him that I couldn't find the keys. Managed to get to my OT appointment on time even with the delay, and this week I have a different OT, because my regular one is on vacation.

So, since I haven't met her before, we went through the abbreviated version of 'how did you sever your tendon? Oh, you're a glass artist? I saw someone doing glassblowing once, it was really cool. Oh, you don't do that kind?' You know, the usual stuff. Then while she was working on stretching everything out and I was trying to be all 'I am woman, I will not cry even though this hurts like a... it hurts a lot', we got to talking about being an artist, and I mentioned that I'm glad to be back in the studio. She asked how it's going, and I explained that it's going fairly well, and the glass and the profanity are flowing moderately well.
*queue quizzical look*
Me: All artists swear like sailors.
OT: Really?
Me: Of course. If you don't swear, the glass/paint/metal/whatever just doesn't flow right.
OT: Every artist? I've never heard any swearing.
Me: Well, of course we don't swear when anyone's WATCHING. If someone's watching, it's all 'and this was inspired by a spiritual epiphany I had one day while watching the sun set over the rippling waters across the vista after a rainstorm.' But in our heads we're saying 'you !@$%@%@ #$^@ # #$!%ing !%@%@ of a $ #@$%^^%en @ #$^% !%$%$$!$% !$%$%$$@ #^% # why won't you !$%^%$ing work the way you're supp...oh... wait... I kinda like the way that looks. Yup, I think that'll be okay.'
OT: I see. I have a friend who paints, I'm totally going to have to ask her about it.
Me: If she tells you about being one with the flow of creativity, she's lying through her teeth.
The rest of the OT appointment went fairly well. This evening, after dinner at my parents', Chris and I turned the house upside down looking for my keys. At one point, he was lying on the floor on one side of the bed with a flashlight, and said 'I don't see them here, but there's a pile of stuff midway down on your side of the bed that I can't see through.' So I worked my way down onto the floor on my side to look. It wasn't the keys.
It was a non-full box of kleenex. The reason that it was non-full is that someone, who shall remain nameless, had apparently carefully plucked most of the kleenex from the box one clawful at a time. At least he didn't completely shred them, I suppose. I stuffed most of them back into the box, discarded the few that had apparently been more uppity than the rest, and we resumed the hunt for my keys. We checked my craftroom, both vehicles, the garage studio, my craftroom, the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, my craftroom, the computer room, and finally found them. In my craftroom, a room that both of us had ALREADY searched multiple times, under a thing in the middle of a pile of stuff that I know I moved and looked under at least TWICE, and which Chris said he's pretty sure he'd checked once, too.
*mutter*
In other news, mom gave me money for my birthday with instructions to spend it on more craft supplies. Yay!

10/24/2015

Sooooo...... what shall I make today? Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

10/24/2015

I was in a bit of a creative slump, so I asked for ideas on what to make next, and someone said 'Pangolins!'. I had to go google what the heck they were, and immediately said 'Oh, h*** no!'

Of course, five minutes later, I was sketching one on an envelope and figuring out how to best make and apply the scales. This is what came out of my kiln this morning.

10/24/2015

If you squint a lot, it could be a pangolin. The legs are really hard to put scales on.

10/24/2015

Okay, Ms. C.K... when I block you from my page later for suggesting I make a freaking PANGOLIN, you'll know why. *mutter mutter mutter*

It IS kinda cute.... and a challenge and something fun and outside of my comfort zone, but... SCALES??!!

10/24/2015

Pangolin in progress. Scale plates are simultaneously easier and more of a pain in the rear than I thought they'd be.