New Year's Eve

What a great way to end the year....... the sun was out today! I went for a nice long walk at my favorite park (Fort Worden). They blazed a great new trail that takes you from the beach up to the top where the bunkers are. The photo of the light house was taken from this new trail!

Well Mama, our raccoon, that we have been feeding for 8 years has gone to raccoon heaven. She usually comes twice a day and we haven't seen here for the last 3 weeks. I will miss her dearly....... but at least her grandchildren and great grandchildren still come around.

I wish everyone a fantastic New Year!!!!!!!!

Charm-N-Bead Bracelet!

This is our new bracelet that will accept silver cored beads with a 3.8mm hole and larger. You can add charms to your bracelet which also act as stoppers to keep your beads in place. In my sample bracelet above I used my silver cored kryptonite beads, silver Troll beads and Charms by Lois. These are just examples of what could be used, the possibilities are endless!

Charm-N-Bead Bracelets will available for $48.00 within the next week. E-Mail me with your comments!

andreaguarinobeads@mac.com

Towanda's Christmas!

Towanda thoroughly enjoyed her presents tonight! She is zonked out for the night! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with fantastic food, family, friends and lots of great gifts!
Merry Christmas to you all!

VISITOR.......

Anyone that knows Whit and I know that we have quite the zoo at our home! Besides Towanda we have raccoons, bald eagles, river otters, whales, seals, peregrine falcons, great blue herons and coyotes on occasion. Well this guy showed up last night........... actually he was very beautiful. We really enjoy all of our wildlife around here and I sure hope that he decides to live and let live! Towanda was just a tad bit nervous!

Untraditional Christmas Tree!

Happy Holidays Everyone! We thought we would save a tree
this year and have a Christmas Fountain instead!
By the way we did take the water out first!!

NEW BEAD IDEA?????

This photo sure has me thinking of some new bead ideas! It is from an astronomy website that I enjoy visiting daily.

THANKS TOTEM

TOTEM
born july 21st 1996 died august 28th 2007

Thank you Totem for being such a wonderful companion to Kathy, Dan and Devon.

You were loved by so many people! You will always be in the hearts of those that loved you....

This is a beautiful shrine that your mom made in memory of you. I know that you are watching over your family now......... and thanks for finding Rowan for them!!!!

ROWAN

NEW BEADS FINALLY!

I have finally added some new focals !
Also check out my new bead stix

My friends

My friend Lois came over today for me to help her with her blog! This is her son Jacob who loves to come over and talk football with my husband Whit!

Lois makes really awesome silver charms, check them out on her website.

NATURE

Hey Kathy! Remember this!!!!!

One of my friends that comes by everyday.....
Photo taken by Karen Richard

FORT WORDEN STATE PARK

Thought I would share a few photos from one of my favorite parks to go walking. There are a lot of bunkers here that make for some really interesting photographs.
Enjoy!

BEADWORK MAGAZINE

Check out the Dec/Jan issue! Marlene Blessing did a really nice profile on me.
Thank you very much Marlene!!

BACK!

Well we returned home from a fabulous time in Japan on tuesday! I have plenty of great memories and met many wonderful people! I couldn't have wished for a better trip.


Saying goodbye for now to our Japanese friends.

Me with Aki. What a wonderful person he is!

Me with Dogman at a children's festival!

View from our hotel room in Kobe.

This installation was in a train station, it was a huge metal sculpture.

JAPAN!

Isis and I arrived in Japan 2 days ago. Today we hiked with our friend Minako up in the countryside above Kyoto where the monkeys live freely. We also went to a bamboo forest and several temples. We wanted to share some of our adventures with you! We will update as our adventure continues..............

AT THE AIRPORT!

Thought you all may want to see a before photo and we will post an after photo when we have it all together in Japan! I will do my best to keep updated on my journey. Isis Ray and I are leaving first thing in the morning and are going to spend 4 nights in Kyoto and then move on to Kobe for the Lampworking festival. I made some really wonderful beads (in my opinion anyways). Will post some photos later!!!!!!!!

Bye for now!
Andrea

ANOTHER GREAT CLASS!

I only managed to take 3 photos during this class! This class was great. Everyone made great beads and did a wonderful time silver coring and capping their beads. I am really enjoying teaching this class in my home studio, as you can see the studio is all set up to do all of the silver work. There is plenty of room to move around in and not be crowded. Each station has its own ventilation system which Whit has designed. If anyone would like the plans for this system please feel free to email me and we will send you the plans. You can have this ventilation system setup for about $300.00 and buy just about everything you need right at Home Depot!

I will be teaching more of these classes in the new year, I will post the dates when I have them.

Can you spot Towanda in the first photo???????

Good bead day!

Here is a photo of some of our beads we made yesterday! Larissa of risa beads was also here with Janet and I. Today we worked on silver coring a few of them with Jim Moore's riveting machine!
Janet had such a great time adding the silver cores that we went to Jim's and she bought one! They are so easy to use. Larissa already has one and has been doing some wonderful work with hers as well!

Kicking back......

My good friend Janet Crosby is here and we are just playing around with some odd lot double helix glass. We came in to take a break to find Towanda "kicking back" in the massage chair! We'll see what comes out of the kiln tomorrow and post some photos!

Wonderful Time

We had a great time with everyone! This class was awesome! Thank you everyone..........

We're home!

We're home! Had a fantastic time in Denmark. The class was great and the students and studio were awesome. This photo is of a bunker which Hitler had built. There are a ton of these there. Some of them are almost swallowed up by the sea. An artist turned some of them into Mules running to the Sea! We went in one of them, it was really kinda creepy.


This photo is from a tombstone inside a church in Ribe. The town was built in 700. The history there is just incredible.

I get to be home for almost a month before I am off to Japan to demonstrate at the Kobe Lampworkers Festival.

I managed to get a few beads on my website, you can view them here!

Hope that everyone is doing great!!!!!

Hello!

Just thought I would check in and say hello to everyone! Towanda was feeling a bit left out so I thought I should include her in my blog too! I am leaving on Monday for 2 weeks in Denmark! I am really looking forward to my trip, I will try to post some photos from there on my blog. I will be teaching for 3 days there and then the rest of the trip will be spent exploring Denmark.

My first Masters Class this last weekend was fantastic! The students were awesome. I am looking forward to teaching more of these classes.

Hopefully when I get back I will be able to get some new beads up on my site, I just haven't been able to keep up these days, lots going on.

Take care,
Andrea

Jen Geldard and Kathy Dorfer

Had an incredible week with these 2 amazing artist. Kathy is an awesome painter and Jen a fantastic glass artist! Kathy painted a painting and then Jen and I made beads to make a totem that represents her painting! I will try to get some good photos tomorrow!

These beads shown here are very much influenced by Jen's work. I silver cored them using Jim Moore's Press. It is so fast and easy to use!

On another note my hand has been feeling pretty good lately so I am really hoping to get some beads made before the masters class this weekend.

Will be talking to you again real soon!
Andrea

Great Classes!!!!!

The classes were fantastic! I had awesome students! This is a photo of one of Andrea Land's beads...... everyone did great! It is always so much fun to come and teach at Portia's studio. She totally spoils everyone! Today she even made us pina coladas and home made brownies!!!!!

Checking in!!!

I am still in Naperville, Il teaching at The Gathering Place. This is an incredible place to teach. Portia so spoils everyone!!!!!! I have one more day of teaching and then will be coming home on Monday. My best friend Kathy and Jen Geldard are arriving on Friday! So expect some wonderful beads in the following week! Hopefully Jen and I will be able to collaborate on a few totems again while she is here! So stay tuned...............

Helping out my Dad!

Sorry I don't have any beads but I have been busy helping out my dad with some things these days! I am leaving for Chicago on Wednesday to teach at Portia's.

I am going to try really hard to get some new beads listed before I go!

Still working on them!

Hi Everyone! Had an emergency thing come up .............. so I hope to have some new beads as soon as possible......... will keep you all posted as to when I will be putting them up!

I'M BACK!!!!!

I just returned home from a family get together in Ohio. Started making beads today. I plan on making beads all week and will try to have some new ones on my website by saturday........... maybe sooner, will keep you posted!

VENTILATION!!!!

Check out Kate McKinnon's website, she has some great info there about proper ventilation and the proper firing schedule for PMC. She is an awesome instructor by the way! I so loved my class with Kate and Anne!

Whit is working on his ventilation plans...... we plan on getting them up on our website soon!

Have a great day!
Andrea

Finally! New Beads!!!!

Well I have finally got some new beads up on my site! I plan on making some more 1/4" hole beads tomorrow. I will try to have them up sometime on Wednesday!

Hope that everyone had a great weekend! We did!!!!!!
Andrea

Happy 4th of July and November December Class!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

OK! There are still some people that haven't been able to get into the previous classes......... so I am scheduling one more! The dates will be November 30, December 1 and 2. If you are interested in signing up please e-mail me.

andreaguarinobeads@mac.com

As some of you may already know Michael Barley and I teach together every now and then . This year we auctioned off a class and all of the proceeds went to The Children's Festival here in Port Townsend. Two wonderful woman won the auction! Charlie and Judy from California. Charlie posted their trip complete with photos and gave me permission to pass on the link! You will be able to get a look at our studio, our surroundings and all the fun we had! I hope you enjoy her blog as much as we did! Click here!

Hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!!!

October Class

My October class is now full. If you would like to be on a waiting list please e-mail me.

I actually had some time to make some beads today! Tomorrow is a busy day with no time at the torch, but wednesday is going to be an all day torching day! I plan on listing new beads for sale on my website sometime on friday......... I will give you more details as it gets closer!

New Class

I have added a new Master Glass Beadmaking and Silver Workshop!
You can check out the class description here.

This class has been so popular so I added one more. The dates are October 5, 6 and 7. As of tonight the class still has 3 spots left.

I hope to be able to torch in the next few days and post some new beads on my site very soon!