Jenelle Aubade-Caracas

One day I was surfing the net and bumped into SortaFlowering Designs featuring some great tutorials that instantly became a must have.

SortaFlowering Designs is run by Jenelle Aubade-Caracas and her husband Daniel Caracas.

The beads are gorgeous and the pdf tutorials are excellent! Pay them a visit. You definitely will not be sorry :)

Our Studio:

Susanne Clarke of Scarab Glass Works has been wonderful at hosting the teachers willing to come here.

So far Kim Osibin and her wonderful helper Toni Lutman have been here 4 times.

The KING OF HEAT ... Jim Smircich was here mid April. EVERY beginning lampworker should take Jim's class. After 3 years of making beads I now know the importance of HEAT CONTROL.

Our first crack at Boro with James Daschbach from Lily Rose Beads

Michael Barley Oh my gosh what can I say but SUPERB!

Then the fun interesting magnificent techniques taught to us by Sherry Bellamy of Orca Beads.

Then when you think you know it all along comes Trey Cornette. What a great teacher not to mention an all round nice guy.
We all LOVE his new brass tools!
An absolute must ... I kid you not.
All of us who bought the set from the class agree we can probably toss our forming tools because this will do the trick.

Visit the class gallery showing a bit of Trey at work in our class.

For those of you new to lampworking it is well worth your time to take these classes. There is no better way to get involved in a craft than seeking out the experts in the field.

Free Blogs for Fresno and surrounding area lampwork artists. Full details in the members area.

The truth behind Ullja Kuntze's Online Fraud Investigation

I just heard about this situation a few weeks ago. It appeared serious enough to check into. I was going to post to the Wall of Shame but a guy putting a kitten on a BBQ for the fun of it and a woman calling people frauds does not quite compare.

The situation is better served here.

What I found was appalling to say the least.

A woman by the name of Ullja Kuntze started a smear campaign against lampworkers because they complained she purchased their beads and then placed them for resale on ETSY. She claimed she made the beads she purchased from other artists herself. Eventually ETSY closed her account since she was in violation of their terms of use.

As if that was not bad enough Ullja Kuntze would purchase these beads and them claim she did not receive them or they were damaged etc. and demand her money back.

When the artists put their heads together they discovered that Ullja was herself a fraud, liar and cheat. They formed a group to complain to the services hosting her stores. Ullja's stores were removed.

In retaliation Ullja Kuntze started a website called Online Fraud Investigation. Here she posts the names and states where lampwork artists reside. She claims to report these artists to the IRS, state and local licensing boards.

Ullja Kuntze does not know who pays taxes to the government OR NOT.
She can no doubt be nailed for both liable and slander.

Not to mention one certainly has to question the mental state of someone so driven for revenge when she is the one clearly in the wrong.

There is now a lawsuit against Ullja in progress.

To get the whole TRUE STORY you can visit http://www.ulljas.com/. This is a website put together by lampwork artists involved in Ullja's smear campaign.

Artisan Fraud Truth Report is yet another site fighting the smear.

If you google Ullja Kuntze there are many websites discussing the problems people are having with this woman. Apparently even though she has been served with the lawsuit she is not afraid. Her latest post to her blog was Nov. 9th.