Ideas

Sometimes I don't torch for a while, even as long as a couple days.  I've been working on a couple custom orders and I like them because at least I know what I'll be making.

There are times when I feel like I need something different.  I'm obsessed by rainbows and have been trying to get a bead that combines all the colors, in order.  The problem lies in the fact that yellow and green, next to each other on the spectrum, form a black line where they touch.  The idea crossed my mind of doing wraps of color with a hair's breadth between them on a black or clear base and I still might do it, but then I had one of my custom orders.  It was for a bead combining several transparent colors on a white core, encased in clear.  I made the bead and went to bed.  The next morning, lying half-awake, I remembered that transparent yellow and green don't react.  I had my solution, and here's the result.

 I wound up making it into a necklace for the same customer who gave me the idea in the first place.  The shape is very organic and I love it!

These beads are on the same idea, with no clear encasement.  I never noticed with CiM Sangre and Vetrofond Arancio Perfecto that they retain much more of their transparency if they're encased.  Learn something new every day!

Late Night Insanity

Apparently at 3AM I decided that what I needed to make my life complete was a new BNS.  A BNS is a promotional treasury where you buy into one of the featured shops and in return get your shop featured and have people buy from you.  It's a great tool for exposure and while no one gets rich doing them the participants are wonderful supportive people and great gossips.

For some reason I decided that participating wasn't enough - I needed to run one.  I'm featured in over half a dozen of them at any given time, but I wanted the whole enchilada, so I set one up.  It should be harder than it is.  Pick a bunch of shops and a theme, usually color based (I picked purple -surprise!) and put it out there.  Invite a whole bunch of people and welcome to the party!

Here's the link to mine
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/OTA5MzcwOXwyNzIzMTE3MTM4/open-fireinice-bns-bonus-rounds-its?ref=pr_treasury

As far as glassy goodies go, I'm not sure how well the two will mix.  I've already been dismayed by how much time I spend promoting vs. making, photographing and listing stuff and this isn't helping.

Here are some of the new goodies I've made

 I'm not happy with my pictures lately.  I'v been shooting indoors because outside isn't giving me true color.  I've got to compensate, especially the blue range.  Red doesn't do well indoors, as the beads below (on a base of CiM Sangre) prove.  I only wish I could capture the complexity of the dots and beauty of the beads. They're a bit flat.

 Silver and gold are fine and I love the simple look of silver and gold just plain laid over glass.  Easy to work with.  Easy to wear.  Easy to care for - just either wear it or polish it like your other jewelry.

These were a bit of a let down - I used up my last rods of Effetre light aqua and wound up with beads that weren't the same size.  I'm going on vacation soon and can't afford to order more glass so these pretties are relegated to the seconds section.  Less than 1mm from perfection.  Honestly, I ought to have just kept them for myself and made earrings.  No one will notice a millimeter since my ears are more than a mm different anyway.  I could wear the smaller earring on the bigger ear and no one would know.

I don't know how people list new stuff day after day.  It is either promote what you've got or make it.  I'm having serious issues doing both.  Which is why I was awake at 3AM doing a treasury.

Happy Independence Day

There is a bit of glassy goodness at the end but first I want to share this

 If you leave Joe alone for too long, he gets bored and finds something to do.  I love the skull with the pipe and helmet I found in his man cave corner.  The skulls are models he bought at Toys-R-Us, of all places and aged and decorated.  Periodically I'll find one doing or being someplace odd.  Read that part about Joe getting bored.

I haven't been bored.  The set of beads above is some new Val Cox frit (Ocelot Spots) I want to talk about.  The white bead in the middle I'm referring to as my resting state bead.  CiM Peace, with Ocelot Spots frit melted in.  It's pretty in an amber kind of way.  On the right are 2 beads with Ocelot Spots on Effetre super clear.There's a lot of variation in the way the colors distribute themselves....

The beads on the left are Ocelot Spots on a base of Effetre Straw Yellow.  I didn't deliberately reduce them, but on a hothead, everything gets reduced anyway so I might as well run with it.  Notice the greens and blues around some of the frit?  Not present on clear. Present in a lesser degree on the top left bead.  I figured since I was going to get reduction anyway, why not go for a boro kind of look and encase it?  Here are the results - I like it!

Its a Mad World

Every once in a while I'll get a song stuck in my head.  Admit it - it happens to everyone.  Right now, for me, for over a week, it's been Gary Jules' version of Tears For Fears' Mad World.  Folks say it's depressing but I find it hauntingly beautiful.  I'm humming it and remember about a verse and keep singing it in my head.  I've watched many versions on YouTube, including the original Tears For Fears version, which I don't like nearly as much and a bizarre heavy metal version that I clicked off of 1 1/2 minutes into the song.  I've also watched some Weird Al but that's the subject of a different post.

It's been pretty mad here.  The studio was 110 degrees for a couple days in a row and I barely torched at all, and now I'm on the weekend with Joe working and not torching as much as I'd like either.

 I have made some beads.  Above and below are some Breast Cancer Awareness Beads I made.  I'm donating some of the proceeds to the Susan Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.  I'm not crazy about the politics but I don't see the point in all the suffering cancer provides.  As October draws closer I'll make many more and have some annealing as I type.

 I'm tired of black and white.  Here are some colors with silver wire.

 The beads below I saved for last for a reason.  I really love the wild way they turned out.  The core, which isn't visible, is Effetre Apple Blush.  I love the way silver glass pops on top of it!  I made a twistie of opal yellow, Terra3 and Psyche and mixed with silvered ivory.  This trio I will quite cheerfully keep for myself if it doesn't sell.

What's mad about my world?  Not a whole lot, really.  It's just a pretty song.

My Hot Tip of the Day

Sometimes a custom order requires frit that just isn't available.  This means I have to make it myself, a process that leaves me cursing with tiny bits of glass flying all over the studio that Joe finds with bare feet.  I just found the best way ever to make frit without investing in a special machine.

I blew bubbles of the desired colors in the proportions I wanted then popped them in a deep saucepan and crushed them with a hammer UNDER WATER!  No glass flying all over the place.  Most of the water poured right off and the little bit that was left was easily boiled away.  Nearly instant frit!

Note that I used the saucepan Joe made rice in that had been burned so badly I had to use pumice to scour out the carbonized remains so I couldn't hurt the pan any more than it had been already.  I wouldn't suggest trying it with something good.

Here is a picture of my test bead - no pictures of the process, since I can't trust Joe with a camera

Latest Madness

I'm sure many people become obsessed with an idea and have to flog it until it's done.  I'm just going to talk about it a lot.  Enamel.  It's a new world.  I can't wait to get other colors and will soon.  I'll play with it and write about it and I'll wish I'd never heard of it and move on.  Above is a set of purple beads I covered with oxford light enamel.  I can't get enough of the spatterware effect.

Below is a set I made using CiM African Grey and Psyche.  I love the colors it makes!  I wish CiM would do African Grey again just for me!

 I got a hold of some green aventurine frit and naturally the first thing I had to do was mix a bit with blue just because.  I love the streaky underwater kind of thing.  The bottom beads are a base of CiM Stoneground and Roman bronze pixie dust.  They're pretty, but if I wanted that look I'd get copper glass pearls.  Not doing it for me.

Now these are cool.  The same frit blend as the streaky beads above but just melted into copper green.  Does copper green ring and separate on everything.  Pretty sure it does!  I still like these and if they don't sell I'll just make them into beads for me.  Bonus!

Back in Business

I'm delighted to announce that I've finally been able to make some new beads!

Here they are

 Waterlilies frit on CiM Stoneground with silver foil above.  Below, a base of CiM Tuxedo, rolled in light Oxford Thompson Enamel, then decorated with scrolls of more Tux.  I hadn't used enamel before but I'm loving it!

 Above is Effetre dark ivory (the curdled batch) with scrolls of Double Helix Psyche.  Below, a base of dark ivory with Tuxedo and Effetre 14K, light topaz and medium topaz.

 I made a couple cupcake beads and some Caribbean type beads with CiM Freemen, Effetre blue aventurine and Devardi green aventurine.

I just had to share - making beads again is wonderful!

Found Treasures

The thermocouple on my kiln was damaged when I moved so no new beads until next week when the new one comes in, which has me down in a big way.  I did manage to find a few sets of beads that I hadn't listed yet when I moved, so I can have some new things.  I'll ration them out, I think.

My favorite, made with Devardi Aurora frit on CiM Peace.

I really like the delicate color on them.  It's a tough call which I like better, the Aurora on copper green or Peace.

The Effetre streaky denim spacers and indigo hollows I blogged about last week, and I'm not looking forward to trying to get some usable photos of the hollows.  They are lovely and I was going to make them into earrings for myself.  I still might.

I have a second Etsy shop, Fire in Ice Baubles, for handmade findings and non-lampwork jewelry and I made some very cool beads for earrings to demonstrate some dark silver plum headpins I made.  I'm really digging the way the beads look with the copper head pins and end caps.

The beads are a base of Effetre Spring Willow with Double Helix scrolls.  I thought the spring willow would do that wild orange thing it does but apparently this time it decided not to.  It didn't blush much either.  I love the unpredictability of this color!  I made these beads the same day, with the same rod and some blushed and some didn't.

Check out the first spacer to the right of the focal.  Half went orange and the other half pink.  So cool!  If anyone knows why it does what it does, let me know, otherwise I'll have all kinds of fun trying to figure it out on my own.

Effetre Metallic Black vs. Dark Silver Plum

 I made this set last month and was very happy with the way it turned out.  The only glass used was Effetre metallic black and while I loved the way the beads looked, metallic black is a pain to work with.  For one thing it is ridiculously expensive, and while that is a consideration, for me it wasn't the main one.  The biggest problem was that it is an Italian black.  It pops and boils, and the matte metallic coatings forms so fast on my low heat little hothead that it was nearly impossible to fuse the raised decoration on.

I decided to try Effetre dark silver plum instead, which is slightly less expensive but more importantly, not at all a pain to work with.  Quite the opposite.  It melts like butter, doesn't go shooting rod ends all over the table, doesn't boil or spark and develops a metallic shine when I want it to and not before.  I used the machine made version because I seem to have gone senile and ordered it twice in a row last year and have lots of it.  There is a difference between how the machine made version reacts in the flame and how the handmade one does but it is more readily apparent with dual fuel torches.  On the hothead, it forms a matte luster easily.

Side by side, the difference between the 2 sets is pretty clear.  The black set is black and the DSP set is, well, plum.  The black set has a more rainbow kind of luster and while the plum set does have tones of teal and gold in real life they don't show up to the camera at all.  I chose these pictures because they highlight the differences.

Here the difference isn't so obvious.  I like how these turned out and if I decide to do a similar set I'll use DSP again.  The metallic black might work for stringer or shards but for  a whole bead with raised decoration it's too much of a good thing.

My First Week

 My first week of unemployment has been a busy one.  I've concentrated on my lampworking and have made a bit of progress on that front.  I've started making watermelon slice beads again as they have been popular in the past and are proving to be so again as everyone looks to warmer weather.

I'm expanding a bit into non-lampwork jewery.  It's a saturated market but it's nice to be able to offer a range of prices rather than all labor-intensive lampwork.  It's also nice to have something I can work on late at night when the noise of the torch and dremel tool would keep the neighbors awake.

Time on my Hands

Having just lost my day job I find myself with a lot of time on my hands.  I'll say right off the bat that I feel horrible but I'm determined not to let that paralyze me.  I'm devoting more time in the "studio" and building my lampwork connections.  I feel creative and am very happy with the beads I've been creating.

The above is a little gift to myself.  I made a working hourglass and wired it into a pendant.  It's more of a secondglass and it's lopsided, but as a first effort I'm loving it.  My sister came up with the idea and it's a good one.  If I could come up with a way to get the glass as thin as it needs to be and symmetrical I could offer these on Etsy.  As it is, I'm going to wear it with pride and thanks to Ruth.

I've got 24 hours in a day just like everyone else.  I choose to use them doing what will make me happy.  I will not waste them in negative emotions.

Intermission

 I haven't posted in a while but I've been busy making beads and getting ready for the holidays.  I've been experimenting a lot with gold leaf and just love the way it looks melted into beads and left unencased.  What sparkle.

 These beads turned out soooo cool.  The blue is Vetrofond intense blue and it is very vivid indeed.

 I don't know what is different about the way I'm taking pictures but all of a sudden black backgrounds are working.  If anyone has any idea what I'm doing right let me know.  I have no idea.

 These are little jewels I did for Christmas and if they don't sell I will be completely content.  I'll just have to use them for myself.  The sacrifices we make.....

 I decided it was time for some more purple in my life and am thrilled with Effetre medium amethyst.  I usually use the transparent violets but have been drawn to the warmer, redder purples lately.

I used a periwinkle blue under the bubbles instead of white and like the way it adds a very subtle color of its own.

Joe's been busy too.  He devised a unique cat bed for Gracie.  She seems to approve.

A larger picture shows the construction.  A bit different but recycling at its best.  She's sleeping in it now.

Mostly Beads

 Fall is in full swing and I've been making lots of beads with fall colors, which for me means using a lot of silver glass and the colors that fume with them.  These were a base of Vetrofond biscotti with DH Psyche.

I've also been gearing up for the holidays with lots of red and green and I can't stop making heart beads.

I liked the way the Reichenbach iris orange reacted with the Vetrofond mauvelous in these.  More of a dusty rose and more mauve than self beads.

 More Vetro biscotti, this time with layered dots of triton and silvered ivory.

These just turned out too cool.  Stringer of DH Psyche and biscotti on Effetre Marmorin.  I love the way the psyche and biscotti together made a kind of wine and cream combo.

 These were just too cool.  Base of Effetre dark ivory with CiM Canyon de Chelly and Psyche stringer, a little silvered ivory thrown in too.

 Did I mention Christmas is coming?

 I've been making quite a few hollow beads too.  I'm looking for the perfect bead caps to turn these into ornament baubles.

 For Christmas ornaments you need red and green, right?

I just love the colors on these.  The purple is CiM simply berry and the amber is Effetre med topaz.  The iridescent bead is DH Clio.  The glass struck the same amber as the orange rounds.  How cool is that?

I'll be honest, right now I'm going through a bit of a tough time and torch work is therapeutic so I have more to make than I have to say.  Hopefully things will improve and I'll be less of a hermit and come out of my virtual cave soon.