Finding Your Voice Workshop – Week 6 – From a Children’s Book

The assignment for this week of the workshop (Finding Your Voice -Sylvie Lansdowne on Facebook) was to choose any children’s book and make a bead inspired by this book.  I was amazed at the beautiful inspiration that was to be found this way, and I’m sure that I will use this technique again.

I chose the book “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle and there was a cute little fishy – well,  I just fell in love with  it.

Here is the bead – far, far from the type of beads that you usually see coming out of my kiln!

Glass Lampwork Fish Bead

Interested?  Read more in this series about the Finding Your Voice Workshop.

• 01 – Bead Experiments
• 02 – Inspired By a Painting
• 03 – A Personal Bead
• 03a- A Personal Bead – the Backstory
• 04 – Finding Your Own Inspiration
• 05 – From a Song

Rosemarie Hanus makes beads in her home studio. Look at some more of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.

Tutorial – Shipping Labels – International

As promised, here is how I make shipping labels for international packages.   I use the USPS Shipping Assistant®, provided by the United States Postal Service.  It can be downloaded from the link and installed onto a Windows system.  Unfortunately, it is apparently not available for a Mac.

Since I use this package only for international shipping, I have set the defaults for international first class packages.  To set these defaults (on the version that I  have), first click “preferences” in the upper right corner of the Shipping Assistant screen.

There will be a series of selections on the left side of the screen.  I modified two of the selections:  General and International Label.

In the General Preferences window, I set the “open shipping assistant” to “International Shipping Label”.  This was the only item that I modified in this window.

Shipping Assistant - General Preferences

I modified quite a number of items in the International window.  Most of my packages are under 2 ounces,  so I set the default weights accordingly.

• weight – 2 ounces
• service – first class mail international
• container – parcel
• description – craft supplies (that is what the beads are – you decide what your package would be)
• quantity – 1
• item weight – 1 ounce
• contents – commercial sample (changed to merchandise, depending on the package)

Shipping Assistant - International Preferences

After I have set the preferences, every time that I run the Shipping Assistant, the screen will initially look like this:

Shipping Assistant Overview

I then add each item.  In the upper right area, there is a section called “Items: Content Detail”.  I already showed how I set the default to 1 ounce and “Craft Items”.  I enter the value of the item.  I ship with the receipt, so this number is the same as the sale value of the items.  Click “Add Item” and that is added to the Description.  If I ship multiple beads or multiple sets, I add each item separately.

Shipping Assistant - Content Details

After all of the information has been entered, click on the calculate button.  This will show the amount of postage due.  It is not necessary to do this right now, you can just click the Print button.  I believe that you can save the labels and print a batch of them at a time, but I only do one at a time.

After the label is printed, I cut it, then glue and tape it to the bubble mailer.  These labels fit quite nicely on a 000 bubble envelope.

Again, I hope that this helps someone with their shipping!

Related tutorials:

• Shipping Label Tutorial
• Packing the Beads Tutorial

Rosemarie Hanus makes beads (that she prints shipping labels for) in her home studio. Look at some of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.

Tutorial – Shipping Labels

As an exciting sequel to my Packing the Beads tutorial, I have decided to share how I produce shipping labels.  Please don’t laugh!  This was another step that almost had me afraid to sell online.

Of course, the simplest way is to hand write the address information directly onto the envelope.  This method has the drawbacks of taking quite a bit of time and requiring legible handwriting (or printing).  It is also not recommended for those (like me) that tend to transpose letters and numbers!  Be sure to use a permanent marker or pen – I have used the Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Permanent Marker with success.

Now, I print both of my domestic (in the US) and international label, but I use a different method for each of them.  For the domestic labels, I use Paypal and for international, I use the USPS Shipping Assistant®, provided by the United States Postal Service.

I like to use Paypal since many of my customers use it for the payment method.  It is quite easy to click on the “Print Shipping Label” button next to the transaction.  I can ship to anybody this way;  although impossible to find on the Paypal site,  here is a direct link to make a label.  For domestic shipping, the shipping can be First Class or Priority mail.  I almost always ship First Class with Delivery Confirmation which is only $0.18 – less expensive than buying it at the Post Office.  The weight cannot be more than 13 ounces.  If it is over 13 ounces, I splurge for Priority Mail.

The information that you need to enter is: the name and address where the package is going, the service type (I use First Class), the package size (I use Package/Thick Envelope), and the weight.  The weight cannot be more than 13 ounces.  If it is over 13 ounces, I splurge for Priority Mail.

I print the label on my laser printer onto regular computer paper.  The printout is the label on one half of the paper and a receipt on the other half.  The size of  the label is such that it fits easily on size 00 Bubble Mailers.

Cutting the Shipping Label

To attach the label, first I cut it out.  The quickest cutting method for me is to use my sewing rotary cutter on a cutting mat.  Then I put a little glue on the back of the label, place it on the envelope, and then tape the edges all the way around.  I like the thin width clear tape – not that I am picky.  Wait, I am picky… lol!  Just be sure not to tape over the barcodes!

I would also totally recommend using your non-cutting hand to hold the paper.  I was using that hand to take the picture… lol!

Next time, I will conclude this riveting tutorial by sharing how I make labels for international packages.

UPDATE! Related tutorials:

• International Shipping Label Tutorial
• Packing the Beads Tutorial

Rosemarie Hanus makes beads (that she prints shipping labels for) in her home studio. Look at some of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.

Finding Your Voice Workshop – Week 5 – From a Song

Hungry Eyes – here’s lookin’ at you!  The assignment for this week of the workshop (Finding Your Voice -Sylvie Lansdowne on Facebook) was to choose any song and make a bead the was inspired by this song.  I had a difficult time choosing a song!

In the end, I chose “Hungry Eyes” sung by Eric Carmen; it was in the movie Dirty Dancing.  This song is neither my favorite, nor does it have any special meaning to me.  However, when I was explaining the assignment to my husband in Steak ‘n Shake, this song started plaing on their XM radio.  Hmm, I had a comment about my prior bead that it looked almost like eyes.  There it was; I had a song. As a total aside, I discovered that this song was recorded in Beachwood, Ohio – not too terribly far from where I live!

Glass Lampwork Bead - Hungry Eyes

I can see where I can make improvements to this bead, but the rules of the workshop are quite explicit – make one bead, and that is the one to post.  You can make more, but the first one is the workshop bead.

Now that I made the bead, it brought back a memory.  When I was young, there was a drive in restaurant called the Hungry I in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  I loved going there!  They had a signature burger – the “I”.  It was a lot like a Big Mac, but it predated that sandwich by at least a decade, and was much juicier.  It was delivered hot and juicy to your car in a paper wrapper with an olive on a toothpick skewered into the burger.  Maybe I can start a “Tribute to the Hungry I” series.

Interested?  Read more in this series about the Finding Your Voice Workshop.

• 01 – Bead Experiments
• 02 – Inspired By a Painting
• 03 – A Personal Bead
• 03a- A Personal Bead – the Backstory
• 04 – Finding Your Own Inspiration

Rosemarie Hanus makes beads in her home studio. Look at some more of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.

Tutorial – Packing the Beads

One of the things that I agonized over when I first began to ship beads was how to pack them.  I worried that they would break, but I did not want excessive packaging either.  I have shipped several hundred packages now, and for those just getting started, I thought that I would share what I do.

A little disclaimer, I am shipping mostly sets of smaller beads – earring sets or bracelet size sets (up to 15mm).  I have also shipped solid larger beads this way (up to 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter, and some 3 inches (75 mm) in length).  I would not use this packing method on more delicate or sculptural beads.

First, I put each set of beads into a little zip bag.  This is to keep the beads from going all over the place when they are unwrapped; who wants their customers crawling under a table to round up your beads?  Not me!   Next, I arrange the beads in a line near the bottom of the corner of a 6 inch x 6 inch (15 cm square) piece of bubble wrap.  I reuse bubble wrap whenever I can – I just cut the pieces from wrap that I have received.

Beads on Bubble Wrap

I roll the wrap, starting from the corner to about halfway.  I try and make the wrap pretty tight around the beads – that way they don’t shift around while they are traveling through the mail.  This is actually the trickiest part (getting the wrap nice and tight).

Rolling Bubble Wrap

I then fold the ends in.

Folding the Bubble Wrap

I continue to roll the wrap into a tubular roll-up.  I do not tape it at this point.

Bubble Wrap Roll-Up

I then put the roll-up onto a square sheet of tissue paper.  I make sure that the pretty printed side is down so that it is on the outside, because I am compulsive about things.

Tissue - Ready to Roll

I roll the tissue and fold the edges just like the bubble wrap.

Tissue - Folded and Almost Done

Once the wrap is done, I put a tiny bit of clear tape to hold the tube closed.

A Tube of Beads

This is now ready to go into a bubble wrap envelope.  I also include an invoice with a written message and a business card.

Packing Ready to Go

Of course this only takes a few seconds.  I hope that this helps someone who may be paralyzed at the thought of shipping beads for the first time. This is the conclusion of this exciting tutorial.  Perhaps I will write a sequel soon on how I make and attach labels to the envelope.

UPDATE! Related tutorials:

• International Label Tutorial
• Packing the Beads Tutorial

Rosemarie Hanus makes beads (that she uses to ship) in her home studio. Look at some more of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.

Finding Your Voice Workshop – Week 4 Finding Your Own Inspiration

The assignment for this week of the workshop (Finding Your Voice -Sylvie Lansdowne on Facebook) was to take a photograph and make a bead.  The exercise was to emphasize that inspiration is everywhere.  While this sounds simple, my first reaction was that there was only snow outside everywhere.  Mallory, also in my workshop group, mentioned the same thing.  No, I did not have to photograph something outside, but I stubbornly wanted to.

So I photographed the snow.  We have had a lot of melting of this snow this past week, so it is not exactly pretty right now.  In fact, it was downright dirty and pitted.

Melting Snow

Here is my bead, which I think has lots of possibilities.  I actually like it the way that it is. I used ivory and silver to give the base a dirty snow look.   Originally, I was going to place trapped air bubbles in the white circles, but when I poked the indents to do that, I sort of liked the effect they way that it was.  So, I stopped.

Glass Lampwork Bead - Inspired by Dirty, Melting Snow

I think I caught the essence of dirty snow, don’t you?

Finding Your Voice Workshop – Week 3 Backstory

The assignment for week 4 was to make a “personal bead” – not necessarily for ones self, but that is what I chose to do. As soon as I read this assignment, I knew that I had to make a bead to honor a very emotional event in my life.  Those in the workshop already have read this, but I’ll repeat myself.  This is a story that I have held dear for years.

About 8 years ago, my family went on a vacation, in total there were 6 of us: me, my husband, my sons (aged about 13, 7, 5 ) and my youngest daughter (about 2). We stopped at a gorgeous stream somewhere outside of the Redwood National Park in California.

We were wading in the stream, when my son Paul (the 7 year old) said, very matter of factly, “David (5) is in the water” – almost like he was telling on him. I looked over, and David was not just in the water, he was totally under the water and was being dragged downstream VERY fast. The terror at that moment was unimaginable, it felt like an icy hand had a firm grasp on my heart. David was already downstream from me, and was moving far faster than I could possibly catch up.

Miraculously – and I don’t use that word lightly, Daniel (13) was downstream and just about even where David was at the time. I yelled at Daniel to get David and somehow he was able to fish him out of the stream. This all happened in a matter of seconds, but if Daniel had not been there, or… Well the “or” didn’t happen, and David Didn’t Drown, which is the name of the bead.

This bead is in honor of this day. It was a beautiful day, the blue in the bead represents the sky and the pretty water. The dark blue and the green stand for the unseen dangerous water. I swirled the water around, to represent both the calm ripples on the surface and also the gripping current below.

This bead is similar to beads that I have been making, but with much more color and the addition of the swirls.
I am thrilled with how it turned out!  And… it has special meaning.  I’m reposting the picture from yesterday.

David Didn't Drown

Finding Your Voice Workshop Week 3 – a Personal Bead

I was behind a week on posting about the workshop (Finding Your Voice -Sylvie Lansdowne on Facebook) beads, so now I will be caught up.  The assignment for the week was to make a bead based on something personal, a physical reminder of something emotional.

Before I give you the backstory, I would simply like to present the bead.

Finding Your Voice Workshop – Week 2 Inspired by a Painting

For our assignment during week 2 of the workshop, we each were to chose a painting and then make a bead based on that painting.  Also, the painting was supposed to be something that was very much different from our usual style.

The painting that I chose had little geometric shapes of gray and white at the base and swirls of white in the sky.  There was a graceful tree in black and blue a little off center to the right.

I started out with a blue tab base and then began to add the geometric shapes on the base.  I quickly ran out of room, so I only made one shape!  There are swirls on the top, but they blend in.  I think that they add to the overall effect, but you really don’t “see” them.

When I put the tree on, instead of being graceful, it looks more ominous – sort of a cute, spooky tree.  I like it though… and the geometric shape turned into a pear – quite by accident.

Workshop Tree Bead

This also was an interesting exercise in stepping beyond what I normally do.

Rosemarie Hanus makes many beads in her home studio. Look at some more of these beads at Etsy,  Art Fire, or my Spawn of Flame website.