My Rants and Raves,

Or, at least, the ones I've bothered to collect...

I mean, come on, how often do you click on somebody's `link' page? Right. Me either. So I've tried to make this one a little more entertaining---and if you are in fact looking for some jeremiad (isn't that a great word?) located somewhere or other on the site, well, here some of them are, collected for your, um, benefit. With time, they might even all be collected, and isn't that a scary thought?

Of course, strictly speaking, the whole site could be considered a giant rant. And some of the pages, such as the one in which I complain about customer reactions to scrimshaw on ivory are sort of borderline. The shops list has not only links to shops that sell my beads, but shops from which I buy beads, tama, glass and stuff. Other `raves' listed below have hung around long enough that I figure there's a decent chance they won't break my links, and they have good info. The list is by no means exhaustive. Plus, new for 2006, a collection of mini-rants from the index pages.

The flowers were mostly shot in a friend's garden, and are not spectacular pix, though the garden itself is surely beautiful. Lots of daylilies, which happen to be the friend's passion.

My favorite tool for picking out digital cameras. Invaluable. 30apr05

 

It's so out of fashion to gush over something as ordinary as a grocery store but that's exactly what this little paean is. Seriously, though, think about how often you visit your local grocery store---you might as well appreciate rather than resent the experience. (30may04)

 

I get bitten by the novel-writing bug every ten years or so. Last time this happened, around '98, I subconsciously prepped writing for it by dissecting a number of romances I read, trying to figure out what worked and didn't. Along the way I generated some rants. Lots of 'em. One is about American anti-intellectualism; another, about a pair of artists, not only generated a (generally favorable) review, but two rants, linked together. The picture takes you to the Romance review site. If romance novel reading is one of your guilty pleasures, I recommend www.allaboutromance.com's reviews.

 

I suppose we don't really need another rant about the stupidity of war ---but here's [another] one (11may05) anyway. Jeez, this page is getting way too negative...let's have some raves, culled from my latest dive into the blogosphere: it all started with Geoffrey Nunberg, the linguist. He has some of his quite entertaining essays linked to his home page; which led me to languagelog---though a self-confessed grammar nazi, I think linguistics, the study of language as it is (rather than how people think it should be) is even more interesting. And what a careful look at words can say about our assumptions is often truly fascinating, as the contributors show. (may04)

 

The ISGB, or International Society of Glass Beadmakers, has managed to annoy me annually practically since I've belonged. So why do I still cough up dues every year? Three reasons: our regional director, Greg Fuchs, appears to be much nicer than the rest of the board---at least he's polite to me (thank you Greg); 2. the annual conference, the Gathering---still the best opportunity to exchange ideas and to socialize with other glass bead makers and 3. the Forum, despite the mealymouth attitude towards nudity (on an artist's forum, I ask you) is still the best place to go for information on glass beadmaking. WetCanvas' glass forum is also worth checking out, especially for `show'n'tell' (scroll down on the content channel & click on `glass'). (spring 2004)

 

Beadwork magazine published a letter from some poor pitiful teacher who wondered what would become of her and the shop where she taught if her dastardly students took the bread from her mouth by teaching what they'd learned from her to others. For shame!. However, even I'm willing to admit the copying issue can get murky, at least from a moral perspective. (updated may04) Yet another take on copyright and fair use. (11feb05)

 

Third (but not last---someday I'll have to explain my peculiar opinion of the Michigan Guild of Artists and Artisans) in my trio of bead-related organizations with whom I'm annoyed, or are annoyed with me. I have a talent, I guess, which seems strange when you consider how generous the bead world typically is. In this case, I managed to get myself kicked out of volunteer position, which takes some doing. This rant is only one of the ways I made myself unpopular at the GLBG.

 

Not everything on this page is a rant. I have the very great honor to count Melanie Brooks Lukacs as a friend and fellow bead maker. She works in clay, rather than glass, and I think she is the best production ceramic bead-maker working today. She's recently revamped her quite extensive website, and it's a joy to use, besides providing many beautiful pictures of her beads. (mar04)

 

Every once in a while I get a request to reciprocally link to someone else's page, presumably on the theory that we'll both move up in the google page ranks. Sorry, I don't do that. There are, however, some sites that I feel worth listing---in almost all cases, they are educational and labors of love, exemplars of the generosity that make the world wide web worthwhile. Click on the flower to take you to the index of Phiala's String pages. I first encountered these back when I was incorporating kumi into my strung work and was very impressed with the wealth of information. Like many good educational craft sites, I believe this one is by a SCA, or ex-SCA, person. (spring 2004)

 

The picture is linked to www.warmglass.com, a commercial site, but it has a nice tutorial on fusing, as well as other topics. An excellent resource. Brian Kerkvliet is another whose site has lasted forever (in webtime). He finally got rid of the cheesy animated gifs of flames, but alas, the rainbow horizontal rules still persist. Ah well, they've been out of fashion for so long they're almost charming. And the beadmaking articles are pure gold. My favorites are `Beads from the Beginning' which not only gives his formulae on bead release, but also explains---in detail!---how to adjust it for various properties and `Twist and Shout of Lamporking' in which he shows how to make a variety of twisted canes, including ribbon cane. (spring 2004)