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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

First Beads on the Diet

This is going to be a great challenge for me because it is stretching my efforts beyond my comfort zone. I generally make very simple beads, focusing on one technique in one color scheme. Now I am trying to play with color more and simultaneously keep basic skills under control, such as shaping. On the first bead, I obviously still need work on this. Using the photo editing software is something I thought I had down as well, but while there may be a way to combine 3 or 4 images into one uploadable block, I haven't found it.





This first bead is a base of half Vetrofond pearl grey and half Effetre ink blue, with some overlap. On the top half of the ink blue I applied silver foil which was melted in and encased in Effetre super clear. I have Vetrofond clear and CiM clear, neither of which I am fond of. Instantly forgetting that CiM poison apple loses its definition under encasement, I attempted to make a flower from it and the result is that strange item you see on the bottom of the bead in the second picture. 2 simpler flowers (CiM ghee doesn't work well for this, does it?) and voila! My first learning experience on the color diet.




My second bead still didn't come out exactly as I envisioned it, but at least I like the shape. It is a base of ghee, which went brownish for the first time since I've been using it due to the amount of time I spent working it. I applied a very thin stringer of CiM slytherin, which I believe is always going to look a slightly transparent black, and then it got all arty and stuff. I wanted there to be a purple layer to the poke points, made with CiM poi, but used too small a dot and wound up with a line of indeterminate color. Opal yellow was the next layer, which I thought might work well with the ghee, and then CiM poison apple, which I planned to look transparent. The final touch were flowers, made with poi stringer encased with ink blue for a little more complexity and to shield any potential reaction between the poi and ghee. My flower shapes seem to be a shade better.




So, what have you learned, Grasshopper. I still have an awful lot to learn.




2 comments:

  1. Great start! And I'm jealous... I can't torch until Saturday. *sigh*

    If I were you, the first thing I would do with these colours is this:
    Make a Twistie on a base of Copper Green with Slytherin, a Double Helix Reducing colour and a Double Helix striking colour.

    Then, I'd make a base bead out of Ghee and roll it in silver leaf, roll it in some raku or double helix frit and melt that in and then wrap the twistie around it and melt it in. I like to push the twistie down as it melts to widen the striped area.

    Then, I'd press the bead or mash it into a tab and make some surface swirls with a steel pick, and then maybe decorate it with silvered ivory stringer or surface florals in Ivory.

    If you try it, I want to see! :)

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  2. I want to see this, too. I will try using my Terra light, but according to DH, by the time I get any decent color development out of it it will be reduced to mud. I'm always willing to give it a go, since it was on the agenda to try this with a smaller quantity of glass. It'll have to wait until I get back from the doctors and print out the instructions. Thank you for the encouragement and suggestion!

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