Focus On Life - Week 11

 

The Possibilities are Endless

 

I'm late to the party, I know.  My bad...just another day in my life as a single beadmaker.  I work 7 days a week.  Most of the time.  Which brings me to this weeks topic.  

 

I make glass beads for a living.  It's called lampwork.  I use glass that comes from Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, China and the US.  I love my job, it's my life.  And because of this, the possibilities are endless.

I have an endless array of glass colors to choose from when I work.  I can go wild and crazy or make subtle designs.  But usually my work is quite "out there".  I also have a large selection of specialized tools to use.  Some are made specifically for making beads, others are things I find here and there.  In my line of work the possibilities truely are endless.

 

My workbench, where the magic happens.

 

 

If you've never seen my beads, here are a couple pics:

 

 





 

As you can see, the possibilities are endless...

Thanks for visiting!

 

To see other participants of this weekly project, please click HERE

Wrappings & Trappings- Week 10

All Wrapped Up - our prompt for this week.  I was really trying to think outside the box for this challenge and actually found exactly what I was looking for.  A house about 2 blocks from me is "all wrapped up" in Tyvek* but, alas, I didn't have a spare minute this week to go take a pic.

Thinking outside my box once again led me to go through some of my older photographs.  This first one was taken in Homer, Alaska while walking in the Homer small boat harbor.  I thought it was pretty cool how whatever type of shellfish/clams attached themselves to the piling and completly wrapped it up.  I also love the color of the sea water.

 

This next photo was also taken in the Homer small boat harbor.  I was totally fascinated with the ice that coated everything, including this fishing boat.

 

 

My last photo is a place near and dear to my heart.  Whenever I go back to Alaska I have to stop and visit this Russian Orthodox church in Nikiski.  I've stopped many times during different seasons and each time I love it more.  Located on a bluff that overlooks the Cook Inlet it's a place that is beautiful beyond words and photographs.  I believe I read somewhere it was built in 1900.  My photo shows how the grounds are wrapped or blanketed in fresh snow.

 

It's a WRAP!  :)

One Door Opens ~ Another Door Closes

I'm not sure if I believe that old theory or not but I do love doors.  Especailly old doors.  And I'm lucky enough to live in a lovely old bungalow that has some nice old doors.

Doors...this weeks chosen photography topic. 

There are many times I wish I lived in a place where there were lovely old neighborhoods with stately old homes, architectural marvels and windows to gaze longingly at.  Manicured lawns, spring flowers bobbing in a gentle warm breeze.  You get the idea.

Ironically, the town I live in was a lumber town in it's heyday.  The Knapp Stout Lumber Company were pioneers in this area.  Their name is closely woven with the early history of Barron County.  Huge forests once surrounded cities and lakes of this region, carrying an industry that was the inevitable forerunner of the present dairying and agricultural businesses.  And now sand mining for the fracking industry.  A rape of the earth in my opionion.

But I digress....

Last Sunday I drove around this small farming town to see if there were any doors worthy of my photographic lens.

There was one.  And it does not represent that era of which I spoke at all.  And I haven't had time to go back to take a picture of it, maybe later this morning when I run to the post office.

So I wandered around my own home, which was built by the Knapp/Stout people, as are a couple around here, and took my pictures right here.

I've always loved french doors and I have a wonderful pair that are inset with beveld glass panes.  They open to an unheated sunroom that I basically use for storage and I have a piece of exercise equipment out there.  It's too hot to use during the summer and too cold during the winter.

 

I laid on the floor looking up to take this, lol. 

The next photo shows the door from the sunroom looking in towards the living room.  And guess who has to see what was going on...(puppers gazing through the window panes).

 

 

And once again, like last week, I am only able to enlarge the first photo...sigh.

 

Even the door going from my kitchen to the basement and outside back door is beautiful.

 

 

Lastly, my front door.  I need to replace the screen door so the beautiful solid wood door behind it can bee seen.

 

Last week I had fun going around to everyone's blogs and will do so again this week.  Don't forgot to pop in at Sally's blog where you can click through and see what everyone else is doing.  Ciao...