Welcome!
Canterbury Keepsakes is a web site devoted to handmade glass beads and unique jewelry creations.
You'll find beads ready to purchase if you click on any of the pictures in the auction column below or on the Specials page.
All the beads on this website were created by me, Lezlie Belanger, one
at a time by melting glass rods in the flame of a torch before being popped into a digital kiln to be annealed.
Specials
New Harvest Veggie bead
Specials Today!! Wednesday, July 8
Beads available on
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Auctions
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Blog/Ramblings, fresh from the flame
July 7,
Hope you all had a great July 4th holiday! We sure did! My daughter and the two youngest grandsons came on Friday and just left yesterday.
On the 4th we got up at the crack of dawn, signed up for the races, my daugther for the 5 k race and my grandson who's eight signed up for the kids 1 mile race,
then hurried to the Thomaston Panckae breakfast (really really great pancakes!!), went back to cheer on the racers, and then to the 4th of July parade,
It was like a little snip of Americana...a live Norman Rockwell painting!
On Sunday we went to the beach, another beautiful day and grilled on the deck for dinner. Now I need a few days to catch up, both with laundry (beach = lots of sandy towels and gear) and with beady things.
I have sevearl small sets of Autumn gourds and Veggie beads to add to the Specials and have enough for a new Auction as well.
I did some research on exotic gourds and squash and have a few new varieties added to my usual assortment.
Always fun to try replicating new types in glass.
June 31,
I got a wonderful surprise in the mail, a lovely BC ribbon bracelet from Julie V
(RockerJewlz) I love surprises and I'm so touched! Here's a picture:
Zeph came up last night and made a dessert with peach "caviar" that he talks about on his blog Plat Du Jour
It was really tasty and such a fascinating technique with soooo many possibilities.Each tiny sphere bursts in your mouth with a concentrated punch of fruity flavor
I suggested key lime pie with Margarita "caviar" and volunteered to taste test if he tries it!
June 24,
It's my oldest grandson's tenth birthday today!! Seems like just yesterday
that we were anxiously awaiting his arrival!
I'm heading out for a few days, chemo this afternoon and staying till Noah's game
on the local All Star baseball team. I'm working on getting everything shipped before I leave..
Here's some very exciting news!! The Hartstone Inn is nominated for an ACF award for Fine Dining!
Others nominated in the same catagory include The French Laundry in California and
Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago, just to name a couple. Prestigious company!!!
My son Zeph is #2 chef at The Hartstone, assistant
to the owner, Chef Michael Salmon, and when Chef Michael is away, Zeph is responsible for the kitchen.
Of course I'm a very proud Mama, and can vouch for the excellent food at the inn. Everything I've tried has been heavenly!
Here's a link to the nomination announcement:
ACF Announces 2009 Achievement of Excellence Award Winners
June 19,
Just a quick update, It's pouring out and foggy, in other words a perfect day for melting glass and
making beads! I was just recharging my IPod and thought that I'd share what
I've been listening to and ask for some recommendations of what to get next.
I'm wading through Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand right now. A classic and a loooong book. I checked
it out for free from the library MP3 download site. Free is good!
I think The Graveyard Bookis a great read (listen)
for all ages, though it's really classified as a children's book, for older kids. I'm trying to decide if my oldest grandson would be old enough for it. It won some awards and I can see why! Fun and fanciful and delightfully narrated!
I finished the Twilight Saga series, easy listening but not too much content, The Lace Reader,
which was pretty good (takes place in Salem Mass so it was kind of fun to be able to "see" the
places in the book as I've been there several times.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
was pretty good. It had the calm and measured pace of so many of the Scandanavian writers.
much traditional religion for my own particular beliefs, a little slow going and not what
I'd consider a fun read. I think The Help is still my favorite book in the past several
months, though I did really enjoy Duma Key, Stephen Kings new book. His writing is developing
with age (like a fine wine, richer and with more character as the years go on.
Little Bee
and The Woods were both
fairly good, lots of rich descriptive style in Little Bee and a side of life that I've never been exposed to....interesting.
June 19,
One of my beads was chosen for a "Treasury" on Etsy! It's a little showcase of items that have some kind of common theme created by Etsy members.
Treasury
One of my sock monkies is featured in a blog Stamper's Ink
They have a really active stamping store and a great web site, and happen to have a sock monkey that appears on the web site.
II'm getting shipping done this morning and then getting ready for my daughter and grandsons to come.
I have beads spread all over the guest room and have to organize and clean up so they'll have room for their stuff.
It's supposed to rain this weekend but there's a Summer solstice festival on Main Street so there should be plenty to do
and as a back-up I bought a Pirate jigsaw puzzle that has a mystery treasure finding game (something to do with a special
flashlight and glowing clues or something like that) Should be fun for the two older kiddos anyway.
June 18,
I stumbled upon a great thing on the Internet yesterday! It's something most
people probably know about but it's new to me. It's called Slacker
It's a music site that has lots of pre programed music with a great choice of different venues. I've been listening to the Soft Hits. It has a
nice mix of some classics and some of the new stuff that
I might not have found since I don't listen to the regular radio much.
It's like having an I pod filled with music you like but without the bother
of downloading songs, and it's free! Music for the lazy....guess that's where the name "Slacker" comes from.
You can even block a song if something
comes on that you don't like so it won't ever play it again for you.
A nice feature if there's a song that grates on your nerves.
On the beady side of things, I took a picture of the disks I've been obsessed with making.
They look just like a big pile of candy! Now to decide just how I'm going to mount
them so they can be used in jewelry like a regular bead would. In these a little
goes a long way. I think one as a focal in a simple bangle or cuff style bracelet
would be really striking, and I want to try some smaller ones and attempt making a
ring to put a candy disk into.
June 17,
I got the new specials up and have been working on lots of spiral
beads, not really beads but cabs with no holes.
I've been toying with an idea for them and they are really addicting to make.
I want to mount them in a silver bezel setting so they
can be used as a special focal in a necklace
or or bracelet or a few could be linked together
for a really bold piece. I made a little tool tonight
that really helps me get a uniform thickness and size.
I'll take pictures tomorrow.
I've also had a thought/phrase that keeps coming up
(in my own thoughts and in things I see and that people mention to me)
and seems to have taken on a special significance . It's "full circle",
as in coming full circle, though the circle is key in many
different aspects of life. Just musing a bit for now
but have the feeling that it's important.
Friday June 12,
I've been away (chemo, Dr's and family
stuff) but I'm back and catching up with beads again I think I
found someone to do the painting and repairs that I can't do,
and it's a woman contractor! I love the idea of giving the
work to a woman. I applied to a vocational school back in the
early 70's myself. I thought since I was creative and fairly
handy and had done a little "helping" with my father in his
workshop that carpentry would be a profession that I'd be good
at and would satisfy my need to be creative and involved with
making things. It was a different world back then and they
refused to allow any women into their carpentry program since
it required some framing and rough carpentry along with the
cabnirty and fine carpentry classes. They didn't think a woman
could handle the rough stuff. I'll admit I was a little slip
of a thing then, half the woman I am today in more ways than
one! LOL! Still ....I wonder what would have happened if I'd
gone down that road back then.
It does my heart good to
be able to at least hire a woman who can do the work now.
June 4,
I've been tiling the back splash in my kitchen
and have it nearly finished! Whew! It's looking good except
I'm still wondering if it's not too dark. I went with stone
tiles and love the variation of color and natural slight
sparkle some of the stones have....but it is a little dark. I
got replacement outlets and switches to since the bright white
that was there stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of all
the stone colors. Now to see if I dare replace them myself or
if I hire an electrician to do it. I'm such a chicken, though
I'll make sure the power to the entire house is turned off
before I touch anything electrical. I also got some pendant
light fixtures for over the island. Something I've been
wanting to add since I bought the house.
I'll take some
pictures once I get the construction (or destruction if
you know my own particular style of home renovation) mess
cleaned up a little.
Not too much bead making has been
done since the tile project started but I have some new ones,
mostly because I've been too distracted to take pictures for
most of the week. I did some nice pink and black beads, some
angel wing beads, some angels with the imploded feathery wings
and some of the new bubble flower implosions style pendants
....as well as some very sleek and modern looking off mandrel
spiral disks. I'm loving the off mandrel work lately!
I was musing about the creative spirit and developing
designs the other day and thought I'd put up some pictures
that sort of illustrate the progression of a design, or at
least how it works in my creative process.
The start was the lotus blossom on mandrel implosion
flower, like the one I did a tutorial for in Karen Leonardo's
book a couple years ago.
 
Which evolved to practicing traditional off mandrel implosion
flowers including the rose style flower below
  Then I had the angel wing experience in the
hospital, leading to this angel wing design
Meanwhile
still experimenting with adding little implosion flower
"capsules" to other types of beads
After that I tried combining the idea of the heart with angel
wings made from the implosion flower capsules
And finally (for now) using the implosion
flower/wing idea for actual angel wings on a sculpted
angel
The
pictures aren't the greatest, but it gives a bit of an idea of
the process...a peek into the mind of an obsessed bead maker!
Who knows where the progression will end up?
Older "Ramblings"
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