Favorites

A very large natural beach stone garden stake. Natural beach stone. Artist-made beach glass inspired glass. Beach stone clapper with copper chimes.

Not to brag, but must say that I like everything I make. (I guess that is bragging!) Late yesterday afternoon, there was an opening party for a little gallery in town here, where I have lots of things, and people were wandering around oohing and awing (and yes, buying!) my work. Than Last night we had friends over for dinner, and they were wandering around oohing and awing about this piece and that. Nice for my ego.

This morning I was scanning through my eBay listings, and wondering which, out of all 85 creations, is my own favorite right now. Tough decision! I do like them all. But the one pictured above is perhaps, for now, my choice.

It's been out in the garden by the big Japanese maple ever since I put it there to photograph it, and it seems to have found a home there. I'm in no rush to sell it. On the other hand, when it sells, I will enjoy making another of this style. The big copper fork on the base of the large natural beach stone should be buried all the way into the soil, but I left it a little exposed so people could see how it works. It's super stable, and super cool~ and, for now, my favorite.

Broken ~ Yipes!

I use my table saw almost everyday. Yesterday, it broke. How did I ever live without it, and how am I going to survive for the two weeks it will take to have it repaired?

About 3/4 of the way through building six deluxe bird feeders, the bearings went. Not good. Especially for a relatively high-end saw that is only a couple of years old. And while I use it almost everyday, most often just for a few minutes~ maybe half an hour on average. So I am surprised and disappointed that the bearings already went. If it is just the back ones, they will replace them. If it is the front and back, it will mean a new engine. The worse is that I had to ship it off to Vancouver, and it will likely be two weeks before I get it back.

The good news is that I will be forced to get on with glass-making (something I have been putting off) and carving beach stones. It's okay. I have a ton of work to do that does not involve the saw. But I will deeply miss it.

To see all the neat things I make (with and without my saw), just click on the gallery links to the right. Worth looking!

Cedar with Beach Glass inspired Glass and Copper Chimes~ Nice!

Somehow, tung nut oiled red cedar just naturally goes with my artist-made beach glass and copper chimes. I usually sell this style for a fixed price of $175. But for some crazy reason, I put this one up on auction for a starting price of only $137.50. For more information on this wind chime, or to buy it, Click Here.

I am still debating the best way to present a sound clip~ or even if it is wise to provide one. It seems like a good idea, but each recording is a little different, and I bet the system that it plays through adds even more variables.

Right now, the two best options seem to be a movie sound clip hosted on Google, or a sound Flash Media clip on Odeo. I am leaning towards the Odeo file, because the movie clip takes you to a different page (never a good idea, I think, to get people moving off your auction page), and I have not succeeded in producing anything but a very blurry image of the chimes.

My main concern with the Odeo clip is that perhaps not everyone has the software to load it. I wouldn't want to be responsible for freezing up someone's computer-- that's not a good way to gain customers!

Anyway, here are examples of both formats. Comments / suggestions / tips and hints deeply appreciated.


powered by ODEO

If at first you do not suceed...

The MicFlex ~ a nice little USB mic that seems to do a good job.



My first effort at a chime sound file got mixed reviews: some said fine, others said not loud enough. Thank you all for your opinions. I picked up a neat little USB mic, and have tried to capture a better, louder clip. Any comments deeply appreciated.

For the Birds

Remember my $100 workshop? Look what has taken up residence~




For a couple of days I was mainly using one of my other workshops, and this robin grabbed the opportunity to construct her nest. My workshop became her nest house, and I felt like an intruder anytime I had to go in and make something. So I kept my visits to the minimum and as short as possible. Somehow, it worked out okay, and the eggs just hatched. She is so busy feeding these guys she hardly notices me now, but I still work elsewhere, as much as I can.

So how long does it take for these babies to grow feathers and fly away? It's fun having them, but I still have to make a living.

If you like birds (who doesn't?), you may be interested in my super deluxe red cedar bird feeder with copper chimes~ the birds sure like them! To learn more, or to buy it, Click Here.

Fused Glass

Exceptional fused glass artist Karen Godin is responsible for the stunning windsail on this beach glass inspired kaleidoscope wind chime.

I discovered Karen's work over a year ago, and recently she made a few pieces especially for me (and hand delivered them all the way from Oregon!). Her choice of colors for this windsail reflects both her considerable artistic talent and her familiarity with my work. For more information on Karen, you can Click here. For more information on this wind chime, or to buy it, Click here.

Thanks for Your Help

I call these small suncatchers with built-in hooks 'accents.' Beach glass inspired artist-made glass with copper and a built-in hook. Great out in the yard all year long, or in the home or office-- beautiful little accent pieces. As a bonus, they make wonderful Christmas ornaments!

For more information on these, or to buy them, Click here.

Thank you to all who commented on my efforts with the chime sound file (last post)~ I deeply appreciate your help. It seems that the file sounds fine, but the volume is way too low, and speakers need to be turned up. Not good.

I spent yesterday morning at a friend's who has a microphone. Unfortunately his setup has to feed through an amplifier, and the file always came up with a annoying background hum. Also, converting the file to Quicktime reduced the sound level, once again, too low. So more work to be done. My friend plans to get a USB microphone soon, so maybe then I will finally be able to put together a decent sample. I never thought it would be so difficult to capture a little snippet of sound.

Anyway, thanks very much again for all your help.

Sound Advice, Please

A really BIG beach stone freestanding beach glass inspired copper art wind chime garden stake. The beach stone clapper sounds great against the copper chimes. How great? I would like to let you listen~ the best way to do that is the question of the day.

For more information on this wind chime, or to buy it, Click Here.

Given that my wind chimes go all the way up to around $600, it's not surprising that I get some questions asking what they sound like. Perhaps more surprising is that I don't get even more questions about that before people buy.

I estimate that I have sold somewhere in the range of 500-700 wind chimes, and everyone has been very happy so far. But just recently I do have a lot more potential customers asking to listen before they buy. Before I used to offer to phone them, so they could hear them over the telephone. How primitive is that?

Then I found out that my new camera can record a five second sound file to a still picture. At only 150 KB, that's a fine size to email. But why wait for someone to ask to hear them? Lots of people would probably like to hear the sound before buying. So now I am investigating options for providing this service.

Being quite Web ignorant doesn't help. I learn as I go. What I came up with is hosting the image with the sound bite on Putfile.com, and working the HTML into a clickable button. I would very much appreciate any feedback~ particularly along the lines of whether this looks okay, if it works, if it sounds okay. It's only a five second clip. Thank you to anyone who helps out.