Author: ShebaMakeda

2010 blog review – apparently we’re “on fire”…

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Got this 2010 summary of my blog stats in my inbox this morning and my first reaction was:  “Really??”  And here I’ve been mentally beating myself up all year for not blogging more (2010 was a record low number of postings for me)…  But, i’m bright enough to know that these stats aren’t due to my efforts but to you folks – my lovely readers –  who visit both this blog and my Etsy store regularly even though there’s been nothing much happening in either of those places during the last year. 

Sooo… first, if there’s anything you’d like to see more of on this blog, then please let me know in the comments and second, allow me take this time to say:

Thank You!

Finally, here’s that summary of the 2010 stats email I received from the WordPress folks:

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 6 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 125 posts. There were 14 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 7th with 218 views. The most popular post that day was My Glass Beads.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were europeanbling.com, facebook.com, ottawaglassbeadartists.com, artistsincanada.com, and lampworketc.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for goddess beads, sheba makeda, annealing glass beads, lampworking supplies canada, and annealing beads.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

My Glass Beads October 2007
5 comments

2

Lampwork Supply Sources for Canadians November 2007
2 comments

3

Glass Class 101: Annealing & Glass Beads January 2008
10 comments

4

Tales from the Torch: More pregnant goddesses July 2008
14 comments

5

My Studio October 2007
8 comments

Happy New Year!!

ShebaMakeda 2 Comments
encased stringer pic run thru iphone Percolator app

batch of encased glass stringers pic run through the iphone Percolator app

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are raring to go for 2011!

I’ve been pretty absent from this blog this past year… 2010 was a year of extremes for me: when things were good they were wonderful but when they were bad they really well and truly sucked.  All of which apparently left my muse in such a state of confusion, she completely abandoned me which meant I had so little creative energy, I barely torched at all in 2010.  And what little I did make I wasn’t terribly excited about – at least not enough to put out the effort required to photograph, blog and list everything.  Artistically speaking, 2010 can be summed up for me as a great big old… “meh”.

If you’ve been following me on Facebook then you have some idea of what i’ve been up to – it so much easier to do a quick update there vs. here…  Anyhoo, I’m back as my muse seems to have somewhat rejoined my world plus I’ve decided to torch regularly regardless to work through whatever creative block I’ve been experiencing… I found not torching left a big empty hole inside me that just couldn’t be filled with anything else.

Finally, this blog is due for a major overhaul.  I think a new theme, some updated pages and pictures of my latest beads would do a world of good. 

(Coming soon…)

ShebaMakeda @ the 3rd Annual OGBA Glass Bead Show

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The Ottawa Glass Bead Artists (OGBA) present:

Our Third Annual Glass Bead and Jewellery Show.
Where:  Hellenic Centre, 1315 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.
When:   Friday November 12th from 4pm – 9pm &
                       Saturday November 13th from 10am – 9pm
This is the only show in the Ottawa area dedicated to handmade glass beads and this will be my 3rd year participating. 
Hope to see you all there!
There will be over 25 artists selling their handmade, glass beads and jewellery. Once again – fabulous door prizes to be won. Our retail vendors will have stones, sterling, beads, pearls, tools, findings, vintage, kits, wirework, Swarovski, and much more…
Additional details and the list of artists on our website: http://ottawaglassbeadartists.com/
For the latest news, check out our blog: http://ogba.wordpress.com/
 
New this year: CLASSES!!!  
– We have 4 talented instructors offering classes Friday evening and during show hours on Saturday (no, i’m not one of them). Check out the lineup here:  http://ottawaglassbeadartists.com/classes.html  Mark your calendars, sign up for classes, and see you next week!!!

I’m back from the ISGB 2010 Gathering…

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my goodies from the bead swap and some Bead Bazaar purchases

…and trying to take it all in.  I had a FABULOUS time and have so much information now whirling around in my head i need a few more days to let it all settle in. The one thing i can say is i now completely understand why other beadmakers get so excited about going every year – it was 1001 times better than i expected – the demos, energy, eye candy, meeting beadmaking and glass legends, making new friends…  I can’t wait to go again!

I’ve slowly been loading the pics to my Facebook – so if you haven’t seen them yet, take a look there… I’ll try to load them to Flickr as well (for the non-FBers) by this weekend.

I’m off to the ISGB Gathering

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Grace and I are heading off today to attend the Gathering – the annual convention of the International Society of Glassbeadmakers – in Rochester, New York.   This will be my first time attending and i’m beyond excited!  I’ve wanted to attend this conference since i first lit a torch four years ago…