A Story

...Once upon a time there was a girl. This girl really liked glass. She loved seeing what it could do, how others used it. So she started learning to work with glass, to manipulate it in flame and turn it into works of art. Months turned to years and before she knew it she was arriving at the two year anniversary of her start date at the torch.....

Yep. February 18 will be two years! I can hardly believe it! It seems like just yesterday that Melissa was sitting me down at her torch to melt glass. My first beads weren't worth writing home about, but they were MINE!

Remember these?
Yep, those were in fact my first beads. Since then I have learned that glass can do amazing things. Two years later the explosion that comes from thrusting a rod of glass into the flame too quickly still scares the heck out of me!
Then came the first beads at my own torch at home in my very own studio. (I really should post new pics sometime. It has changed SO
MUCH!)





And from there came the point where I stopped being afraid to play with colors. Using colors that people called "fugly" I created some unique focal beads, learning that all colors can be gorgeous when used in different ways.





This year I'm looking forward to more Silvered Glass, I've fallen in love with shards. Here's to a 2010 full of discoveries, play time and gorgeous works of glass!

Promised

So I got way too excited about these pieces that I thought I'd post the promised photos just a bit early.
I've been playing a lot with silvered ivory. The photo above is definitely proof of that! Top right is Vetrofond dark ivory with silvered ivory shards and a string of goldstone through it. The top left is Vetro Dark ivory again, with dots of violet pastel. The bottom bead is Vetrofond dark ivory, silvered ivory shards and a bit of Double Helix Elextra glass.

Definitely in love with these glasses. Managed to get some CIM Plum and Thai Orchid to play with too. Looking forward to seeing what I can make!

New creations...

So over the past few days I've been mulling around bead ideas in my brain, and trying to figure out how to make a perfect "round" bead. I would like to announce that I have, in fact made perfect matching spacer beads! The same day I made those, I was playing around with silver and frit and all sorts of wonderful things.

The bead to the left is just one view of one of the focals I made. I love this bead! I used frit from Val Cox, which I am just in love with. Under the frit was a bit of silver foil, which reacted as yellow on the white glass. Also I added some perriwinkle stringer, just because I could and was playing.

There is nothing like being able to sit down and torch for two hours straight. I loved being able to just sit and play, not caring about anything really. It's amazing that I pulled such wonderful things out of the kiln! ...Now to clean them.....

Color

I've started using colors that I wouldn't normally touch. Mainly for an exchange that I'm doing over on Lampwork etc. The idea of the exchange is to make beads out of colors that others consider "ugly" or "fugly".

So far I've played with EDP, Strawberry Sweet, Coral, Opalino Grass Green, and Candy Corn. I think that I'm really fond of all of the beads that I've made so far. Really it's a step out of the box for me- working with colors that I wouldn't think to combine.

Sadly, one of the beads (with the Opalino green and Coral) Looks really Christmas-y. I was hoping the coral would have turned out more orange than red. Silly coral colors.

I'll admit that I burned the crap out of the EDP (Evil purple) and it's a bit hazy and... chalky almost? I need to learn more about the color before I play more with it. I don't like how chalky it turns.

Frit, beads and other things

There are days that I want to just sing everything instead of talk it. I think that today is one of those days. Since Sunday I have tried to do two batches of beads a day. It's really paying off. My kiln fits 11 beads each annealing cycle because I make them and put them directly into the kiln. I don't want to mess around with batch annealing.

Anyway, so I make about 22 beads a day. I can seriously say that not all of them are good ideas. Some turn out amazing and others I have to blink at and wonder what I was thinking.
(Left) This was the first batch of beads that I did. The first two turned out really... wonky. I was getting used to the glass and melting it. These are beads 5-11. At this point I had only made 4 beads prior.

My second batch was much better, if I do say so myself. You can see them to the right. I'm still working on getting perfect shape, but for only having done some 40 beads at most I think that I'm getting there.