I’m officially BACK!

yippee!!! got my laptop back from repair and i’m good to go!  i’m now back to surfing wirelessly from the comfort of my living room couch, wrapped in my fave blankie with a cup of tea rather than being stuck in that subterranean teenage hellhole i’ve suffered through over the past few weeks.

I have lots of old posts to catch up on so to begin: here’s one new beadie i’m particularly proud of – my first successful encased floral!! It’s about 1.5″ long and has 3-4 large red and yellow flowers and about 6-8 tiny yellow flowers.

my first encased floral

this is my 4th attempt (i’ll have to take a photo of the very sad three previous attempts, lol) and other than the clear encasing being a little burnt it came out pretty good.  the flowers are nicely defined and they didn’t smear even when i pressed it so all in all not too shabby.   

Generally speaking i’m not really into flower beads but encased florals are such a very classic lampwork technique (they require a certain amount of skill and mastery of heat control) that just about every glass beadmaker attempts to master them at some point.  Being able to make one (in my opinion) serves as proof of a certain level of skill development i’m happy to see i’ve finally achieved.  My motivation to make these is a floral bead exchange on LE – it was just the push I needed to force me into trying something out of the norm.  I’ve challenged myself to make at least three error-free encased florals by the exchange deadline (May 31st).

Here’s a close up of the other side.  I added a navy centre to the big flower this time in addition to the bubbles.  As soon as i get time to torch again i’ll be making some more…

other side of my first encased floral

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Got a package. Wanna open it with me?

box 

Since i only torch part time, I don’t get to order glass supplies very often.  But when i do it’s soooooooo exciting when the package finally arrives – almost like Christmas!

Now this particular box is four, yes FOUR months late in arriving (don’t ask) so my emotions are a bit mixed: on one hand i’m like a kid in a candy store cuz i just LOVE getting new glass stuff but at the same time i’m extremely ticked that it took this long to arrive.  aaahh well, time to move on.  (sigh)

Let’s open this sucker up!

Open box

oooo… styrofoam, exciting stuff that.  i’ve got a garbage bag full of these bits in the basement cuz i can’t bring myself to throw them out.  reduce, reuse, recycle, right? (or am i kidding myself?)

Dots, dots, dots book

I didn’t order this, the supplier sent it as an apology for being so late with the shipment.  What do you think, should i accept the apology?  (And i wonder how they knew my dots suck?)

alabastro rods

Look at those rods.  Aren’t they scrumptious?  i keep stroking them, they’re so delicious i almost want to lick them.  my imagination is going wild thinking of all the cool things i’ll do with them… They’re a special type of Italian glass called alabastro – supposed to give a translucent effect similar to alabaster.  (duh?) Sounds fantastic doesn’t it? 

reaming bits & cubic zirconias

some longer bead reamers (yay!) and square cubic zirconias.cubic zirconias

I can’t wait to try these.  the trick is to embed them in the glass without causing the bead to crack – sorta like a faux diamond.  sparkly glass and diamonds.  can a girl ask for more? 

  Corina Spotlights

These Corina Spotlights are classic technique booklets in the lampworking community. I’ve heard great things about them and after a quick run through i’m quite impressed at how much information is stuffed in those few pages.  I hope she starts making them again…

silver wire

30 gauge fine silver wire. crap. i forgot i’d purchased these and ordered a pile from somewhere else last month.

stringer control dvd

Haven’t watched this dvd yet, but lots of people recommend it on the forums.  You’ll be able to judge for yourselves over the next few weeks if it really does help me improve my stringer control…

alabastro rods side view

just another gratuitous alabastro rod shot.  side view this time, just cuz i love them so much.  i tell ya, completely, utterly, deliciously lickable…

Contemporary Lampworking

This is a highly recommended, two-volume collection of probably everything i’ll ever need to know about lampworking.  I quickly scanned through both volumes and there’s such great info it’ll be a while before i get fully through them.

black nebula frit

one last thing…some boutique silver glass frit.  cuz really i can’t justify paying $100/lb for glass rods (yet).  If i can get this to do its magic, maybe then i’ll reconsider…

gratuitous kitten shot

and just cuz i can, a random kitten shot.  That’s my kitty Busta.  He’s just so cute – dumb as post and worst hygiene of any cat i have ever owned but still so darned adorable i can’t help but love him to death.

I’ve updated my studio page…

studio 

Ever wanted to see where all my creations are made…? this is it. 

(Click the picture to go to the studio page and a description of my work space.)

The photos should also help clear up much of the confusion regarding the difference between glass beadmakers and traditional glass blowers…  could you really see me running a furnace and blowing a vase in this tiny set up?

Buying my beads: because you asked…

 [rockyou id=96835124&w=450&h=350] 

I’ve put together a page detailing how/where to buy my beads and/or place a custom order.   If I’ve missed anything, let me know.

http://shebamakeda.com/my-glass-beads/custom-orders/

You can also find the permalink for it entitled “Buying my beads” in the Pages box on the navigation column to the right.

I’m still in recovery mode from yesterday. Cooking Xmas dinner is hard work – especially since i normally rarely cook on this scale.

Hope you’re all taking full advantage of the holiday season, family time and Boxing Day madness.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday Season…

… and my very best wishes go out to you, your family and friends.  Have a wonderful day!

xmas dove

sincerely, 

Evelyn & family,

ShebaMakeda Glass Art

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada