Monday, January 23, 2006

Lampwork bracelet posted

In a new level of achievement for this artist, for the first time I was able to combine more than one lampwork bead, made by me, and that I liked, no less, into a bracelet. I think it turned out very pretty. View it here.

You know you've hit the big time when...

...you appear on a rerun! Much to my surprise, the That's Clever! show that aired in April was shown again today. I found out through some online friends - thank you!

This means that the bracelet is now sold out, but I am taking special orders for them. I'll also be posting more items shortly, so do do check back!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Beads, yes, beads!

A few things have been keeping me from the torch lately. Way, way too much work (don't get me started!), cold after cold, and other commitments. But this weekend, a combination of feeling a bit better and having a bit of time allowed me to dive into the basement and create.

Another incentive was that I just put together a piece of rolling furniture to store my beads in a more accessible fashion. I bought the pull along from Collectors Cabinets. While in the end it is very nice to have, it required a lot more assembly than I expected, including driving many screws, gluing, hammering, and more. It was quite a workout! But it was worth it in the end.

Another thing to note about it is that the "trays" are actually 11x14" acrylic picture frames. It might be possible to purchase them cheaper elsewhere, but I'm glad to have them now. I have the watchmakers' cases from elsewhere, though I need to buy more. I label them using an inexpensive Brother label maker, identifying where I purchased the item and the per-unit cost. This allows me to price my pieces accurately.

Back to the beads. I made three beads last night. Fortunately, they all turned out nicely. In my last torching session, that wasn't the case, so I was a little discouraged. I liked one bead so much (the one at the bottom) that I had to make a few more like it this morning!

This is another "snowy day" bead, sort of like a snow globe bead. We have been having warmer weather lately, with no snow, but snow is expected tomorrow. It felt sort of seasonal to make this one. It was also the favorite of an artist friend of mine who said that of all my beads, this one showed the properties of glass the most. You just can't make a bead like this in another medium.


This one is an attempt to capture the sense of mother-of-pearl inlay. It uses silver foil and clear glass over ivory to make the effect. UPDATE: Since photographing this a few hours ago, it has suddenly developed a bunch of cracks in the colored side shown. I don't know why. I thought the glasses were both Moretti, but it looks like I may have been wrong. How sad.

How to make a bead like this: Start out making a kidlet head. Fail abysmally. Paint onto the surface with a bunch of striped stringers that are lying around. Add turquoise around the top and bottom to see the cool ivory/turquose reaction. Put a few drops of goldish dichroic on the surface of the bead. Melt until liquidy and hope for the best. In this case, it happened!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Top Trends for Spring 2006

I wish there was more to report on the lampwork front. Unfortunately, a combination of loads of teaching work, one bad cold after another, and sales from the website have kept me from any more than an hour at the kiln over the past month. The two beads I made turned out okay, not great; I definitely need to practice more.

But I had a pleasant surprise tonight. When checking my incoming website hits, I discovered one of my earrings made with Turkish silver filigree and labradorite, made it onto Craftrevolution.com's Top Trends for Spring 2006 page (now a PDF download). I'm very flattered and excited that this happened.

More later, I hope, now that I'm beginning to catch up on teaching paperwork.