Nothing New ... 2000 year old technique

Just in case you thought silver in beads was something new ... Analysis of Ancient Beads from Germany dating from 30 - 60 AD, shows a layer or silver, encased with more glass.

Click on the link to read the original article.

Interesting!

Thoughts on Scum on beads

Recently - I got a phone call from someone who has just set up a her own home studio. Naturally - she is enjoying the freedom to torch when ever she wants, the luxury of not having to tidy up (as opposed to a shared, commercial studio), and the instant (well, almost) gratification of being able to see her beads as soon as the kiln has cooled down.

However, what she was not enjoying was that instead of the sparkling little gems that she was used to making, each bead, though perfectly formed and the envy of many - was a little dull, a little lifeless. Close inspection - with magnification - revealed a faint, subtle but visible, scum over the transparent glass, with a little pitting. She was at her wit's end trying to figure out what was happening. We discussed gas to oxygen ratios, her concentrator, the difference between natural gas and propane - adjusting the flame - nothing seemed to be the solution.

Finally - I said I would drop by  and take a look at the set up - to see if I could diagnose it in person. When I got there, she told me, "well - this is embarrassing - I fixed it."

And indeed - the latest crop of beads were sparkly and delicious.

What changed?

She changed to a fresh tank of propane.

That was it - the only difference.

So next time you are struggling with scum - consider your fuel source. Maybe a new tank of propane is in order?

Couldn't hurt.

Delightful Glass Blowing video

This is an absolutely delightful video of production glass blowing.  From another time. When glass blowers lit their cigarettes off the glass ...

Worth watching.

How It's Made: Millefiore Paperweights

How It's Made - a Canadian "reality" show - is one of the best things on television!

Here, they show millefiore paperweights.

CiM 711 & 712: Cookie Dough and Hazelnut Mousse Comparison

Cookie Dough, as I mentioned a few days ago, looks a bit greenish, and Hazelnut Mousse more creamy.

On the left, the Mousse, and on the right side of the bead, the Dough. Here, you can easily see the greenish tone to the Dough.

And with the rods - Dough on the top, Mousse below. The difference is more obvious in the bead than on the rod - which look very similar.

Interesting colours. Definitely warrant more investigation.

CiM 712: Hazelnut Mousse

CiM 712, Hazelnut Mousse, a warm, pale cafe au lait colour - almost an ivory, but a little warmer than the colour (from Effetre) that we have come to know as ivory.

I'm sure this one bears more experimenting with.

CiM 711: Cookie Dough

CiM 711 Cookie dough - a taupey beige colour, with a hint of green to it.

Two self coloured beads. Just a hint of green. A strange colour - wonder if it is like opal yellow or stone ground. Need to try with silver. 

CiM 521: Eventide

CiM 521 Eventide is a nice, dark, transparent grey. Transparent grey is generally a lovely colour to work with - and this is no exception.

I wish there was a colour that is the colour that transparent grey is when it is hot though, that lovely purple. Now that would be a colour to have!

The two on the left, self-coloured, and the one on the right, over white.

CiM 713: Nutmeg Ltd Run

CiM 713 - Nutmeg - is an opaque peach colour - appears to be similar to Coral - it goes dark grey when hot.

On the left, self coloured bead, on the right, dots of Eff. Light Sky Blue. 



The rod has a bit of shimmer to it, so it looks different colours depending on the angle, so that's why the beads look lighter than the unworked rod in one picture, and darker in the other.

There appears to be a slight reaction between the turquoise dots (right bead) and the Nutmeg (which also happens with Effetre Coral.

Nice warm colour - could work as a skin tone or for dog or horse beads.

CiM 442: Aloe Juice

CiM 442 - Aloe Juice. And Juicy Aloe is exactly what it looks like. A lovely medium transparent green that is not too yellow - a peridot green if you will. Nice.

On the left, two self coloured spacers. Next, over white. (And an all-white marker bead on the end.)

Very juicy.

Leaf Masher - Finally figured it out.

Here's another tool that I've had kicking around for years - and I finally figured out what to do with it. A shout out goes to Deb M - I'm pretty sure I stole this idea from you - although that's not what I thought at the time! Naturally.

You saw the bell flower bead press flowers? Well - similar idea. Stainless steel wire, ball of hot glass, mash.

Instant leaf!

Some people are making these as headpins, but you know, when I make them, they are more like "as-big-as-my-head pins."

I actually wore one of the flowers and one of the leaves in my hair. Just poked the wire into my updo, and they stayed there all day. Kind of cute, I thought.

 This is the wire I used. I have since experimented and found that the smaller gauges work very well too.

Flower Press: Part 2

Apparently - I should not speculate that something is a one-trick pony, because, dammit - it makes me go out and look for other uses.

What else could a Bell Flower be? How about a fairy skirt?

(Excuse the photos - I washed my photo cube today and it's still not set up again.)

 This lil' gal is a 3 bead person. The skirt is a bell flower headpin - the torso is it's own bead - strung on the headpin, and the head is also it's own bead.

I think she's pretty adorable. And I don't normally "do" adorable.  ;-)

A little glass humour: Cold Molding Glass

Fabulous New Toy: Carlo Dona Bead Press

Not getting as much torch time in as I would like, but here is a little indulgence I got myself.

Ta da!

 

What is it, you ask? Well - it makes these:

It is a flower press. A Carlo Dona flower press. Like all Carlo Dona tools, it is ridiculously well made, and ridiculously expensive. Expensive enough to make you feel like you really have to justify it. It's rather like buying a sports car. You have to come up with the damnedest reasons to justify it. 

 But it's sooooo beautiful. And it does what it is designed to do, beautifully.

It is something of a one-trick pony - it makes flowers on the end of wire. That's it. A flower on a  wire. At least until I think of some other creative way to use it. But it does it so well. Who would belittle a pony for having only one trick? It's like the story of the talking dog - "He ain't so special, he never did any of those things ... ."

In a nutshell, you get a blob of glass on the end of stainless steel wire (I've been using 18 gauge stainless steel wire made by Artistic Wire)

The press has a slit in the side, and hole at the bottom of the cup. Hang your molten gather of glass downward, slip it into the slot, with the wire emerging from the now-at-the-top hole, and press the

 inner part of the press into the outer shell.

 Et voila! A little firepolish - whack in a stamen, and you're good to go.

Rolling the gather of glass in frit (before pressing) is a super nice effect too. Woohoo - finally - a use for all that frit!

If that description doesn't help - try checking out Loribeads video on youtube. I find I have better luck keeping the flower from being lop-sided by hanging the drop down, raising the whole thing up, and peering up to check that it is centred.

This is the largest size I could find - the 6 petal press. You know me - go big or go home!

Anyhoo - spring flowers! Woohoo!

Because I know you will ask - I got it here:

BeadPress.com - Easy to order, easy to pay, shipping was fast and it came extremely well packaged. No fuss, no muss. Very satisfied.

Marbles

Marbles - that's what I've been working on lately. Soft glass marbles. Starting to get stuff that I don't hate.

Photographing them is a little trickier, however.

New Marble Mold

Indulged myself in a new marble mold. I made a large marble the other day that got away from me - it was actually too large for the molds that I have, so "aha," I thought - "That's an excuse to move up to a larger mold!"

I get my Marble molds from San Grumbling, who is the guy that Drew Fritts recommends in his book. I've had my other molds a few years, and I had forgotten how truly gorgeous they are when new.

These are just beautiful marble molds, beautifully made, and beautifully balanced. The graphite is silky smooth, fine-grained and highly polished.

Totally worth it - this is a tool for life!

Creation is Messy - Archived colours

In case you didn't know - Creation is Messy (CiM) listed their discontinued and out of stock colours in their colour archives, here. Useful to know if you are looking up a colour and can't find it.

Effetre Streaky Pink

This is an Effetre streaky purple pink - that I do not seem to have a number for. It resembles EDP with a Rubino core.

It attempts to devitrify - like EDP - and is somewhat less streaky than one might think it is going to turn out.

The top mandrel is two self-coloured beads, and the bottom mandrel are four beads with a base of amethyst and a stripe of the Streaky Pink on top.

 It's handsome enough - I was expecting more dramatic results, I think.

Comparison: Effetre Tawnys

All in the same picture - the tawny Effetre colours. From the top - with their rods below, Butterscotch, Honey Swirl, Tigereye, Amazon. (Weird name - Amazon, in the context of the others.)

My personal fave is the Tigereye.

Double Helix Notos

Well - you're definitely not going to get bored with this colour. If you can't get at least 4 different looks out of it - you're just not trying hard enough. 

 This is Notos, three beads, self-coloured, and reduced. The bead on the left was cooler when reducing - but they all came out pretty similar.

 

This bead is a base of Notos, cooled to not glowing, reduced, and encased.

On the left, a base of Notos, reduced while hot (kinda muddy) and encased. And on the right, a base of black, encased w Notos and reduced cold.

Reduce this one cool.