Author: ShebaMakeda

Who knew?

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img_1448-1As a little girl i spent many hours sitting between the knees of various female relatives getting my hair braided.  I always wanted to just let my hair go free in its natural kinks but considering the amount of effort required to untangle the resulting knots it was rarely permitted.

Once i had the Teenager, i thought i’d be free of those many, many hours of back-breaking labour required to convert a fantabulously kinky afro into tiny, neatly twisted coils. 

And then braids came (back?) into style for boys…

Hellloooooo…. HOLLOWS!!!

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I’ve been practicing… A LOT.  And look, i’m finally able to make hollow beads!!!!  They’re a finicky bead to make so when i finally (yes, FINALLY!!!) got the glass to puff up into these lovely air-filled bubbles i had the biggest grin on my face!

img_1430I’m currently working at about a 60% success rate (and no i’m not showing any more of my failures!  wasn’t the last post enough??) so I’ve at least figured out what i was doing wrong.  As with most things in hot glass, perfecting this technique is simply a matter of practice, practice, practice…  I’ve wasted so much glass trying to figure this out but now that i have it’s a skill learned forever.  Or at least i hope so…img_1427These beads are about .75 to 1.75 inches in diameter.  Now, if they were solid glass, worn together they would be relatively heavy – instead, they’re quite light.  I keep wanting to juggle them but so far i’ve resisted.

Moving forward,  i’ll now mainly be working on fine tuning my technique:  flat or dimpled holes, thinner sides, more evenly shaped and better decorations.  I think that necklace of hollow beads i’ve been planning is just weeks (rather than months) away…

My hollows suck!

ShebaMakeda 3 Comments

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Yes, all THREE were supposed to be lovely, round hollow beads.  Sad isn’t it?  I’ve been trying to make hollows for almost three years and this is still only the best i can do.  Believe it or not, these are almost as pitiful as the very first hollow bead i ever tried in my second beadmaking session way back in 2006. 

The blue goddess on the right was my first attempt: she was supposed to be a round hollow bead but when she collapsed i just turned her into a chubby goddess bead.  And since she still has a couple bubbles inside her, she can be considered a goddess… with gas.  (smirk)

The brown crunchie in the middle was my second attempt:  such a complete and utter flop (pun intended) i just pressed it.  There’s an uneven air bubble trapped in there somewhere – all it does now of course is make the bead unstable.  (sigh)

Sadly, this amber and green bead on the left is my most successful attempt EVER – if only it wasn’t so ugly:  overly thick ends and sides, misshapen bubble, nowhere near  the lovely thin walled, round i’d like my hollows to be.  (oh well, at least it didn’t collapse)

I have no idea why this particular style of bead completely eludes me.  I’ve been able to easily make very other style of bead i’ve tried but have made little to no progress here – despite practicing.  I’ve studied the technique, i’m following it (i think) and my hollows STILL SUCK!!!  (I must be missing something…)

In any case, i have decided i need to fix this issue ASAP – by practice, lessons or whatever!  I have a design in my head made of hollow beads and I’m DETERMINED to have that necklace ready to wear by June.

Definition of insanity?

ShebaMakeda 2 Comments

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THIS.  Now you might be looking at this nicely organized selection of murrini (chips from complex glass canes) and wondering what could possibly be insane about this, right?  RIGHT? 

img_1359img_1361HA!  Ok, well it all began like this:  I was surfing LE when i stumbled across a thread discussing commercial murrini… i thought cool, i could use a few more – i LOVE murrini (but so far haven’t developed a burning desire to make my own). img_1360 img_1358

So I clicked through a few pages and links on the mentioned supplier’s site and found several murrini styles i liked.  Nothing insane there, right?  Just  appreciating all the pretty colours… a harmless bit of window shopping… i mean c’mon, these really are pretty aren’t they? And in styles i’d never seen before – in fact MUCH better than the meagre selection from the tiny assortment bag i purchased way back when.  So i clicked some more… cooooolll, all those complex designs in such miniature form…  No biggie,  i’ll just buy a few.  Yeah.  a few.

Next thing i know, all of THESE showed up at my house.  Ummm…ok.  Bit more than i planned.  Or needed.  But still, there’s nothing insane here, right?  Excessive maybe, but insane?   naaahhh.  It’s like shoe shopping – when the selection is especially cute, you can’t leave the store with just one pair…img_1354They were a little dusty – as anyone would be after making the trip from Italy to Canada (via the US) – so i figured i better wash them before putting them away.  (Don’t ask me why,  I have no idea.)  So guess what i did?  I dumped all those bags into a bowl.  Yup, ALL of them.  Into ONE bowl.  And yes (in case you weren’t absolutely sure), this is when i think i crossed the line from excessive adoration to borderline insanity.  Have i mentioned that the largest of these murrini is about the width of a child’s fingernail (4-5mm)?  the smallest the size of the tip of a marker (2-3mm)???img_1400Once i actually looked into the bowl for just a moment i thought: what the hell have i done??  Whatev, it was too late to worry about it so i swished the pile around to clean them, scooped them out onto a towel and started the sorting process.  

img_1398And yes, that’s when i fully crossed the line from borderline  to complete and utter  insanity.  It took me three days (on and off) to sort that mixed up pile of murrini by size, pattern, shape and colour.  And you know what?  I ENJOYED it!  For some bizarre reason, I found the process soothing: as i created each pattern pile it helped me come up with ideas of how i could integrate each murrini style into a potential bead design.  img_1401

Now, considering i have bins of commercial seed/glass beads i’ve refused to touch for years because they’re all mixed together, you can understand why i’m in a bit of a shock??

Ahh well… i suppose that’s the magic of hot glass: it’s so unrestricted, even what should have been a tedious chore like this, can develop into an exciting opportunity for new design directions. 

New beads with these murrini should be coming soon…

Oops.

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mandrels with cracked bead release

One of the most basic lampworking skills is dipping mandrels.  As long as you do it correctly, it’s a no-brainer.  When it’s NOT done correctly, however, it’s a huge pain in the butt.  And yes, even if you have been dipping mandrels for almost three years (ahem), it’s still possible to occasionally mess up…

img_1351As soon as i stuck these mandrels in the flame, the bead release flaked completely off.  My first reaction was of course to wonder what the heck was wrong since my other mandrels were fine.  Then i remembered: buncha new mandrels.  Dipped.  Right.  Did i scratch them up them before dipping to give some “teeth”?  Couldn’t remember.  Doh!  (siiiigggghhhhh)

So now, i have to wash off the old bead release, re-season and re-dip the whole pile of new mandrels.  It’s not that big a deal really, just annoying.  Dipping mandrels definitely ranks as the second most boring chore in glass beadmaking (right after cleaning the beads).  I tried to pay the Teenager to do it for me and even he couldn’t be suckered into this dreadful task. 

The only upside is at least i can’t stab myself with anything pointy while dipping…