I've had beautiful bluebirds visiting my bird feeder! The first time I saw a bluebird in real life was about 5 or so years ago. I'm still captivated by them. I was recently at my sister's house and she had a suet feeder up and bluebirds were visiting her feeder. I have never seen bluebirds at a bird feeder before. I dug my feeders out from the boxes in the basement and filled them with suet. (I had taken them down last spring because we had a black bear visiting our house regularly from Spring straight throughout to fall.) This feeder is just a few feet away from a window in my family. It has wonderful watching these gorgeous birds from just a few feet away.

I have never seen bluebirds at feeders before. I take this as conformation that it has, indeed, been a very long, snowy and cold winter. These poor birds are hungry!

The monthly challenge at Art Bead Scene has a bird theme too. Naturally I was doubly inspired to create bluebird beads. I tried my hand at creating a small round bead and sculpting a bluebird out of it. Cute enough, eh? But I wasn't altogether in love with this little guy.

I just love lentil shaped focal beads so I defaulted to the lentil shape as my canvas to paint a bluebird.

The back of the bead inlcudes some scrolling vines and leaves.

You can find the bluebird beads in my Etsy shop. 

Now let me share my super exciting news....I have been invited to join the talented team of designers at Art Bead Scene! I have been following this talented group for a number of years now and I'm completely honored to join these ladies and become a regular contributor to the blog. In February I was asked if I'd be interested in writing a guest post for the blog. Of course I said yes. You can find that post here. Beginning in April I'll be blogging on a regular basis at Art Bead Scene! (I'm so excited!)

You'll want to head on over to Art Bead Scene to join in our birthday celebration. We are giving away lots of gifts!!! Hop on over to find out how you can win!

Thanks for joining me today. Stay tuned because I have some new copper pieces I'm working on. I'm really excited to share these with you. I'm designing some new toggle clasps impressed with super cool images. That's all I can say for now lest I give it all away. I'll be back to chat with you soon.

Hello! Are you ready to feel the warmth of Spring? I know I am! So many of us are ready. I live in the Northeastern part of the US and we've had a cold and snowy winter. Today we are experiencing a touch of warmth with temps in the 50's and plenty of sunshine. No complaints about that!

I know I've been MIA from my blog for over a month now! I've had some unfortunate events and circumstances that have pulled me away from my creativity. When situations arise I find it difficult to find my creative space. This week I'm beginning to feel my artistic mojo coming back! This is a good thing because that is a happy space for me.

I did manage a day or two in the studio happily behind the flame of the torch.

I've been working with ivory and sivered glasses. Silvered glass is a VERY expensive glass that is heavily laden with .... silver. It creates a variety of chemical reactions with other types of glass, especially ivory. The reaction creates beautiful organic, crackling and caramelization to the ivory. Depending on how the silvered glass is worked in the flame it yields absolutely gorgeous, irredescent, shiney and/or a variety colors. It's just fun to work with! Kalypso, Clio and Gaia are among my absolute favorite types of silvered glass. 

The following photos are close ups of these scrumptious beads! 

I think these organic beads are just awesome! I'd love to hear what you think of them.

You might remember Kalypso from my Kalypso pearl series. Below is a new one I created last week. A beautiful sea foam green sports murrini slices, a twisties, bubble dots and of course Kalypso pearl accents. Sea Scrolls is a large lentil shaped focal.

I'm trying to get better at using my Facebook business page. I am starting to offer beads for sale on my page at a discounted rate before listing them on Etsy. Join me at Ema K Designs on FB to stay current with all my offerings. 

Finally, I created some beads to go on a cruise. I know! I'm not lucky enough to be heading to the beautiful Bahamas myself but my beads are! Who knows maybe next year I'll join Heather Powers and all the girls on this journey, I mean palm trees and beads! Does it get any better?!!! If you want to learn more about the bead cruise head on over to Heather's bead cruise site.

Even though I hadn't been feeling overly inspired lately it seems like there has been a lot happening and I've got so much more I want to share. As I write this my kiln is running through the annealing cycle. I was inspired by the March Challenge over at Art Bead Scene and the happenings in my own yard. We've had some beautiful visitors to my own bird feeder this week so I'm combining the two inspirations to create beads for the challenge. You'll have to come back to my next post to find out what I made. I'll be revealing my new bird inspired beads and sharing some very exciting news with you too.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.