Hot Glass: 12th Session

In my 12th session of Lampworking, I was concentrating on creating earring pairs and a few goddess beads. Those little gals are starting to come along nicely.

I also played around with some shards that were sent to me in the focal beads on the bottom. There was some unexpected (but still intreguing ) mysterious smokey blue colours that came out in the mostly amber coloured beads. I used Ivory glass as a base for them. It's such an interesting reactive glass and I'm slowly finding out all sorts of neat stuff that happens when you use different colours of glass on it.

I wish that I had more of the sparkle tangerine. The bead on the top right corner was made with a little shorty that someone gave me. I also want to buy at lease a pound of the new Effetre cool colour named "Kiwi". It is so lucious and juicy, I don't ever want to be without it in my kit!

Hot Glass and Nifty Knitting on Etsy!

I've gotten a bit behind in my weekly posting, so I'll have to catch up with my posting about my "Hot Glass" lampworking sessions #12-16!
In the mean time, here are some knitting stitch markers that I'm listing in my Etsy shop in time for the holiday gift-giving season...

It was really tricky trying to make matched sets of beads but as they say on the LWE forum, ppp/practice practice practice!

I'll be getting back into doing more with the felt beads as the weather cools off and I'm not able to use my garage studio when it gets too cold.

I'm hoping to have some of my Goddess beads up for sale in a local store soon... I just have to finish some of the production work on them!

It would be nice not to have to sell art, but I've got to pay for supplies and little things like rent and groceries somehow! Now's a good a time as any to thank the stars once more for my understanding hubby!

Hot Glass: 9th, 10th and 11th Sessions

Yes, it's time to catch up on the glassy goodness! I've had a few sessions before and after Pennsic so here's some pics of what I did (in order of newest to oldest). Not much in the way of notes on what glass I used. I'm starting to get familiar with what is what. I think that the most important thing is to get the images of the beads recorded. Wow! I was soooo "rusty" after a few weeks of no lampworking! Feeling like I'm back in the swing now and looking forward to what comes next. I'm particularly pleased with the Goddess beads. I've got a store that is interested in carrying them for sale. Now I just have to arrange to get them annealed and I'll be all set!

Pennsic 37 Painting

America is indeed a litigeous society and as such, I did not facepaint/bodypaint at Pennsic 37 as I had hoped to...

Turns out that even buskers have to have liability insurance for this Event now and I was not prepared for that this year.

As a result I only did one painting at Pennsic 37 and that was for a new friend who was attending the Blue Feather Ball. I'm glad that I was able to help her out, as I had just slipped and fell in the mud that same day and gotten a "royal" bruise on my knee and pulled my groin badly.

This painting was done with Wolfe Bros. makeup so that it would "stick" a little better and defy any possible rain that night. By all reports afterwards, my friend had a lovely time and wowed many.

I had a great time at Pennsic getting to know old friends better and making some wonderful new friends. I'm really looking forward to next year! I think that the Journal my husband asked me to keep for him so that he could enjoy the Event vicariously was a success and I managed to meet at least one person from every kingdom in the Known World of the SCA. I think he's going to want to attend for most of two weeks next year. Pennsic 38, here we come!

Hot Glass: 1st Goddess Beads

Baby Got "Back"!

I've been seeing many variations on Goddess beads around the lampwork forum where I hang out (lampworketc.com) but wasn't quite bold enough to try one out. That changed last week.

I decided that my "skillz" were coming along enough to give it a try.

I'm still quite the newbie, but I was pleased with how they turned out. They're rather addictive ~ I'm going to do some more in this design and then try out some other goddess forms, from the "willendorf" style, to pregnant, to super primitive etc, and run with it! I see these types of beads as a female empowerment statement!

Going from L to R, Top to Bottom: 1) Dark Turquoise 2) Dark Ivory, w. #1 raku frit and 32g fine silver wire 3) Trans. Lt. Amber, aventurine stringer 4) Fossil, 24g fine silver wire.

This was my first opportunity playing with the silver wire. I like the effect, but whoo! does it get away from you! I expect to be making lots of beads with the silver before I get the hang of it...

The owner of a boutique around the corner from me ("Angels and Avalon") is very interested in my Artglass Goddess Beads, so I'm looking forward to working out a deal for her to sell them in her store! More news to come on that front as it develops...

(By the way, I'm going to be heading out to go camping for two weeks this friday, with approximately "12,000 of my closest medieval friends" so look for my posts after I get back if I don't post anything before I go!)

Eye-Bead Tutorial

Well, I not only won 2nd place beginner for my blue protective eye bead in the "Artistry in Glass" summer contest, (yum, more glass supplies! I've ordered them already!) http://artistryinglass.on.ca/newsletter/contestwinners.html but I got the tutorial made up for it today too! I'm glad that my "dotting" and "raking" lampwork skills are progressing nicely.

Now I just have to keep from going bonkers because I didn't get to make any glass beads this week!

Oh well, at least I have some new supplies from AiG to look forward to, and I got the fine silver wire that I ordered in the mail this week too... My next "Hot Glass" posting should be really interesting!

(Okay, back to procrastinating about getting my garb sewing done for my impending medieval camping trip!)

Hot Glass: 8th Session

Usually I mention which glass that I used in each bead because these photo collages are for my lampworking notebook. I decided to put the notes in the book this time as I didn't think I had enough space on the photo page!

The jelly beans are for my "Eye-Candy" exchange in the Lampwork Etc. forum and they're inspired by the delicous "Jelly Belly" tm beans ~ my favourite candy!

I've been working on getting a bunch of "Norse style" beads done to Trade at Pennsic 37, this big Medieval camping Event that I'm going to.
I'm trying to base the designs and colours on actual beads that were dug up in archeological finds, but I forgot the pic yesterday so I had to "guestimate"(I know, the bubble dot bead isn't norse...it's just pretty! Every so often I try out a bubble bead. I'll probably focus on them more when I get better control of my dots).

...I've been working on variations on eye beads. I made up two dragon eye beads but one of them broke in the vermiculite. I think I was looking at it too long before I put it away! I'm going to try and re-create the design in my next session because I liked how it was looking!

D'oh! I thought that the flower turned out only "Ok" and I think I'll put flowers on the back-burner for now. I'm having a lot more fun with the eye beads!

The hollow heart was supposed to be a round hollow bead. I started out using med. amber stringer, but I didn't realize it would take more than one rod, so I didn't have one on hand to finish it with. I tried to finish it with the same colour rod. Note to self: Don't do that! It looks like it needs to be the same thickness all over! A good learning experience though... and I like the colour. That's the same tone of actual fossilized amber that I adore!