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I often grapple with the notion of acquiring a beadmaking style. I'm pretty eclectic with my beadmaking. There are certain things I go back to again and again, like florals, which I find very challenging and would like to do better, or "reactive" glass beads, which appeal to the mad scientist in me. Other than that I tend towards making more long beads than round ones, styled in what ever my inspiration of the moment happens to be. I like it when my inspiration comes from new places. Most every morning I stop at my favorite coffee shop to feed my caffeine addiction and chat with my coffee shop friends. It just so happens that the barista does stained glass, so when business is slow often chat about glass. She always tells me I should make earings. I agree, I should, because I love earings, but I think they are hard because it is difficult to make them match as well as I'd like. Last week we had the earring discussion again, but this time I asked "What color?" and she said "Orange. I don't have any orange earrings" Orange is not a color I'm particularly drawn to, in fact, many of first beads were orange because it was color I didn't mind wasting; I figured I'd save the "good" colors for when I was more experienced. So last week I worked in orange, and actually had fun with it. I ended up being pretty happy with my orange earrings, and my coffee shop friend was both surprised and delighted when I presented her with a earrings this morning as I paid for my coffee. It's alway fun to suprise someone with an unexpected gift!
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