lampwork flamework

Tales from the Torch: Feb. & March (part deux)

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I’m back on the Teenager’s computer again as the kitten Busta finally finished chewing through my laptop’s power cable.  Now doesn’t having a cat usually mean no pets chewing random valuables around the house??? i might as well have a dog.

Soooo… until i decide whether to replace the power cable and harddrive on my laptop vs buying a new one, i’m trapped in that teenage hellhole again… damn cat.  Anyhoo, i did manage to backup most of my pics from the last meltdown so found a few more from February and March. (I didn’t torch much in April/May as I had the flu.)

These random beads were for a long bead exchange on LE.  They’re all about 2-2.5″ long (except the purple one) which isn’t huge for me at all – my beads are normally 1.5-2.5″ long.  I think the winner made a bead something like 11″ long.  not sure what one would do with a massive (and fragile!) piece of glass like that…  I wanted to try bigger but about 4″ is my max. anything larger seems to be beyond the limits of my current torch – i can get there but it takes forever to melt all that glass and the results are seriously ugly.

 

This Chocolate Goddess was part of a gift package for Valentine’s Day… 

 

My sister snapped up this Winter Garden pendant as soon as it came out of the kiln… Note my improved stringer control – that Corina stringer DVD has really helped.

I’ve been torching all weekend and have some new beadies cooling in the kiln right now.  I’ll try to post them tomorrow…

Tales from the torch: Feb & March

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Here are some of the things i’ve worked on over the last couple months:

Verdigris Swirl: This was a custom order for a green pendant.  Took me forever because i had the hardest time developing a great design in green (other than lime and olive, it’s not one of my fave colours).  I finally won my battle with that quirky hand-pulled glass colour copper green and this was the happy result.  The verdigris finish is a natural reaction of this glass.  (sold)

Modern Ethnic: This pendant is based on a designer room i saw in a home decorating magazine.  I really love the contrast between the smooth modernity of the red glass vs. the rustic look and feel of the ivory.    (sold)

Tribal: This pendant was an experiment in black and white – the white glass stripes reacted heavily with the silver laden black and developed a lovely antique patina.  A very cool and completely unexpected reaction. (sold)

Some additional ideas in development…

The first two were efforts to work with my Kalera long and lean bead press.  I have a bunch of presses i never use, so i figured it’s time i tried them out.  I’m sort of on the fence about pressed beads.  On the one hand (once you figure out how to use them), they offer the opportunity to make consistently formed and sized beads in shapes that are near impossible to create by hand.  On the other hand i feel like the design is a bit constricted by the shape.  Now is that my fault or the limitations of press?  hmmm…

i think i’ll etch them… a frosted finish might highlight the shape better…

That last one on the right is my usual handshaping with a 23k gold stringer decoration (love this and will have to make more!)… i think i’ll always have a preference for hand-shaped beads.  What do you think?

These organic look beads are copper green with fine silver wire, raku and/or green adventurine frit – which sure spreads a lot on copper green.  This is one of those cases where less is much, much, more. They’re small (for me) and feel just great in the hand… like smooth brightly coloured pebbles.

A recent custom order…

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Tusk: this order was fun – the client wanted a different and personal take on the (currently very trendy) ivory tusk/bone/horn pendant thing.  It’s about 2″ long.

Took me a few rather comical tries before i finally figured out how to make a tusk in glass…  Quite impressed with myself actually as this is not only my first tusk but also my first successful bead with a horizontal (as opposed to vertical) hole.   

ivory tusk

I was asked to give the pendant the look of antique ivory – i think i accomplished that quite nicely.  The ivory base reacted beautifully to the silvered stringer by crackling and turning a bit golden…

Here’s the back view:

tusk back view

See Meech?

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I’m not the only one… ;~D

(This post is purely for my cousin who thinks me calling certain colours of glass “lickable” is completely and totally certifiable.)

Photo is from Sarah Hornik’s Flickr photostream of her trip to Murano, Italy. 

One particularly cool photoset of hers shows Italian glassmaster Lucio Bubacco demoing how he makes his incredibly detailed soft glass figures: Lucio’s demo. wow.

What the…????!!!

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I know, I know… i’m just as shocked as you.  seriously.

It’s a set.  And I don’t make sets. 

Really.  i don’t. 

I’ve only ever made one other set before and it was pure torture.  Took me over a year to finish those too. 

But this set?  just took a me a few hours yesterday morning. barely.

I just don’t know what came over me… must be some sort of sickness: 

matchie-poo-beadyitis.  

…or something. 

In any case i’ve decided to name them: Deep Blue Sea