Where I've been and where I'm going

Hello friends,

It's been a good long while since I have posted. I guess the last post must have been a surprise to read after a long silence. Sometimes it takes a purge to get things moving in the right direction. 

So where have I been and what have I been doing? Well I was working full time, but had my hours cut just before Christmas last year so this has given me 20 hours of time to sink back into the place where it has always belongs and always should have stayed. I have felt really guilty about it for a long time and I am trying to let that go and just move forward. When I went through my big life change it hit me very hard. All the things I loved were very hard for me to do and in a time of need those are usually the things on which you fall back to help heal. One of those things was glass. I still don't know exactly what happened and why it has been so hard to go back to the thing that had won over my heart. I think it might have felt like if I was doing glass that my past would come back with it and no longer want any part of my past, only my future. 

I took a little artistic detour and really dove back into mixed-media and I felt like as long as I was creating somewhere it would bring me back around to glass. Infact I need to come up with a way to combine the two and really create something unique and awesome!

Here is one of my flower mandala's with water colors, distress inks, paint markers, shimmer watercolors and some images of my carved print below.

It was really cool to do a print after so many years. The last time I did one of these I was in highschool!

I have really been falling in love with sacred geometry and chakras. This piece is on recycled fiber board and features the heart chakra and flower of life.

Christian has even been joining me in the studio from time to time.

Here is one of his pieces using some Artistcellar stencils.

I have had the pleasure of being a part of the Artistcellar Design team. Lisa Cosineau is the lead of this amazing group and owner of Artistcellar.  On the team we receive awesome art products, create art and blog about our creations. You can check out my and the other artists  blog posts here. It's been very therapeutic to sit at a table and create even though it takes WAY longer than making some beads ;) 

Speaking of beads I have decided to go and sell in some of the lovely Facebook bead auction groups. I currently have some things I just listed for sale in the LBA Galleria Elementals group here.

Here are some of the goodies I have up for auction currently :)

My and Christian's art will be on display at a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Cafe Gratitude in March. So I have been busily creating some art with that in mind.

I have also started selling in a few auction groups on Facebook like, LBA Galleria Eclectia(Lampwork Bead Addicts), which is a group that sells wearable art and home decor. So my mixed-media work fits in just perfectly there :)

I have also been participating in a fun local thing called Free Art Friday Kansas City. The idea of the group is to leave some of your art out in Kansas City with a photo clue to find it. If you find it, it's yours to keep for free! Here is one of my prints from my carved block above left at a local gay bar and dance club down the street from where I live called, Missie B's.

I have some shows scheduled for the LBA Designers Galleria March 1st and April 2nd, so keep an eye out for that as  those times get closer.

My baby bear, Christian and me.

I had a great talk with Christian last night when we were laying in the dark talking before we went to bed. He reminded me to just simplify my life. He told me to just focus on my art and to just create because it's what I love. To not put expectations on it and to just do it. That everything will fall into place and to just keep at it. It's crazy how we tend to over complicate things when things are actually so simple. I am so thankful for my wonderful partner that provides me with such balance and simplicity. I so greatly admire his free spirit and his joy for life and living in the moment. 

I think that is all I will leave you with today, but I will see you soon with more awesome art to share.

Thanks for coming back to see me. I have missed you more than you will ever know!

xoxo Genea

30% OFF Black Friday and Shaman Sale! 20% OFF Saturday- Monday!

Hello friends!

So before I get into the details of the sale, I just want to refer you to the second part of this newsletter that goes into why I am having this sale. Christian has been suffering with a stomach ulcer for the last year(and we just realized this was the problem recently). For the full details please read below.

It's that time of year again to spread some holiday cheer in the form of artistic gifts for all of those special people on our lists. I have just stuffed the shop full of new beads just before I sent over this newsletter!  I want to help you gift beads, create the perfect jewelry, buy jewelry, or gift mixed-media art this year! We are starting out with a 30% OFF EARLY BIRD SALE for all of our lovely newsletter family first! The newsletter sale will begin at 9pm CST time tonight and go through tomorrow at Midnight CST. Your special code is "EARLYBIRD30" to be used at check out in any of our 3 shops- www.genea.etsy.com, www.thirdeyegypsys.etsy.com, and www.geneack.etsy.com. The shopping fun doesn't stop there! We will be continuing the sale for 20% OFF from Saturday- Monday at Midnight CST by using the code "XMAS20".

I am excited to announce that after 3 long years my jewelry design tutorials have FINALLY made it into Belle Armoire magazine! I am still waiting for my copy, but I am pretty sure this is the link for the current copy. I have some of the beads made, but need to make more as I am out of stock of some beads. Please feel free to contact me if you aren't finding the beads you would like :) 

All I want for Christmas is to have my boyfriend's ulcer healed.......

It's been awhile since we all probably looked at being healthy as a gift, right? What if you were suffering with a sickness you couldn't heal? What if you tried everything you knew how to do, but were still sick? Would you give anything to be well again? This is where we are with my boyfriend, Christian's health. He has been suffering with a stomach ulcer for almost the last year( it took us until a few months ago to realize that shit was the problem). We took him to a MD twice where they prescribed him 2 types of prescription medicines to try to heal the ulcer with no luck. Next we took him to an accupurcturist that did acupuncture and gave him Chinese herbs. She diagnosed him with a liver cyst. He took the herbs he was given, but he still wasn't feeling well. She wanted him to come in twice a week and her treatments would have cost us $1,000 for the month. We could not afford that so we tried to do our best to help him heal by having him drink  pure organic aloe juice, drink dandelion root, peppermint, and chamomile teas and continue or healthy vegetarian/vegan eating. I had a friend that put me in touch with a shaman that is 2 hours away from Kansas City. He has been practicing  ancient shaman techniques  from South America for over 20 years. His treatment starts out with doing a reading from ice to determine where the problem in Christian's body is. Next he will create a diet to help the body heal. Lastly he will do what is called "mouth work" which is a series of acupressure points in the mouth that will cause the body to dispel the toxins that are causing the sickness. The initial treatment will cost from $140-$180 and then the continued mouth work will be $60 a visit. I am doing this sale to help pay to get Christian to the Shaman so that he can be healed from his ulcer. He has become very depressed and barely wants to get out of bed. He has been struggling with eating as well because he is worried whatever he eats will hurt him. It breaks my heart to see my partner suffering with this. My car is also in of a new coil (like spark plugs) so that the engine runs properly ($60) and  I need of 2 more tires($200) so that we can safely travel the 4 hour round trip to take him to the shaman. So all I want for Christmas is to safely get Christian to the Shaman so that he can heal and be happy again. Let's all remember to count our blessings of health this year as we forget how much being sick can take over our lives. Wishing you all the very best holiday season. Sending you all the most vibrant love and light, Genea, The Third Eye Gypsy

Busy Before the Holidays

Hello friends!

Wow, it's been a little while huh? I've been here as always, just BUSY. I have been selling out of beads before they get to my Etsy shop and here(YAY!)! My facebook bead previews have been really awesome. If you don't already know you can check out my posts on my profile or business page.

Want to see what found new homes(Yes, these are all SOLD OUT already)? I thought you might ;)

Ok so I am mildly obsessed by sea glass green AND it's even prettier stone textured! I finished off the "collection" of sea glass beads with the smaller lentils and headpins. 

Mmmm I also love this terracotta color as well. It is SO dreamy with silvered ivory and raku! Here you can see if shiny and stone textured. Amazing how different they look huh? 

I also did  a collection in this color scheme. I call it "Antique Mint". Yes, it does look blue, but the original glass is a minty green before they come full circle to look like this. Pretty huh?

Here are the rest of the beads. I made the spacers just before this collection. I didn't get to smaller lentils yet. I really love the way these turned out.

OUTSIDE THE WORLD OF BEADS....

So aside from making beads Ricky and  I have been creating art.  It's really nice to be creative together. Here are some of the things Ricky has been creating.

This piece is called "Entomology Specimen" since it looks like a scientific study of animal life. I love that it is on 3 canvas' that go together, but are separate. 

This piece is just SO gorgeous. I had to show a few shots. There are SO many details!

I just love all of the texture and layers. 

This was a second piece in his "Urban Vandalism" series called "Dapper Disguise" :D

This one is still unnamed. It's amazing to see where the piece starts and where it ends up. It was really awesome at this step, but just wait til you see the finished piece.

Wow, huh?! It reminds me of thoughts, and aspirations, a journey in life. I love the gears too. It has that "street washed" feel to it like his kind of urban city graffiti style too.

 Here is the base of his newest one. It's even completely past this part already. This is just the bottom layer with many more to follow. I love seeing the pieces come together.

I have been at it as well. Creating as he is making things for his shop. Mine have been for gifts.

I love the ombre wine cork hearts you will see bouncing around Pinterest. I started out with my simple text background and decided to do some more mixed-media stuff to it AFTER I attached the heart. Now ideally I would have done the layers first, but you know how that goes ;) I still am very happy with how it turned out. This went to my bro's gf for xmas :)

It's FINISHED! It's so different from where it started, but it's SO beautiful! I am really happy with how it turned out! I began working on another for a "Pinterest Party" to which I was invited.

This time I wanted raised "gilded windows" for my piece. This step took me forever so I decided to set this aside and start working on a more free flowing piece in the same style. 

Ok... I took A LOT of pictures of this one. I had such a wonderful time creating it. It took me a full day to make it. I loved enjoying it on my wall and I was sad to have to give it away. I'm glad it went to a home where it will be loved ;)

Detail top left.

Detail middle.

Detail bottom right.

The finished piece. This is functional wall art! So cool!  So I did wine corks on the left side to be used a bulletin board for photos. On the bottom are hooks for keys, jewelry etc. 

 Yes, I'm a nerd. I had to take photos of the new piece with it's sibling ;) 

Here they are together on the 1st pieces side. 

Here they are together on the second pieces side. As you can see these were not hung to be close. We just hang our work on the already existing nails from what we had up on the wall before hand ;) 

We were pretty excited to get a Keurig! This was our gift to each other for Christmas. It's been super sweet having fancy coffee every morning. Now I just want to run out and get a ton more pods! Lol. 

 I will be taking a break from making new beads through the rest of the holiday. For now I will focus on making gifts and try to re-charge from the busy year. I will begin new work after the 1st. It's been an awesome year. Each year we have been getting increasingly busier thanks to my lovely supporters! You all have made this dream possible! 

Happiest Holidays to you and yours and a prosperous new year!

xo Genea