As I did with the classes I've taken in the past few years, I'm sharing what I made in the class. Not because they are wonderful - but because they are first beads and learning experiences.
And so that I can come back and look at them later. ;-) And maybe snicker a little. ;-)
Brace yourself - there's a lot of them.
Embossed copper inclusions - you saw this bead a couple of days ago - so I'm just adding it here for completeness.
More copper inclusions - and learning to keep them looking coppery and shiny, instead of shifting to red. (Background glass is CiM Kryptonite, btw.)
Getting there. Bead release broke on me though.
Nice, but still not what I was trying to do.
Bingo! Now it's starting to work for me!
This is the same bead, after sandblasting, btw.
Working with Dichro. Again, bead release broke on me and so I didn't finish it.
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Which made it a good bead to test the sandblasting on. No sense of loss if it messes up! Lesson learned from this one - much more masking required.
We explored the ol' enamel + copper foil effect. Base is Kryptonite, white enamel, copper foil.
This is a hollow - decorated with the same enamel and foil effect, and sandblasted.
Dichro on red bead. Happy with this one.
And on a leaf. Yeah - it's blue leaf.
We also practiced encasing dichro on coloured backing. Here's the leftover chunk.
We played with putting objects into a key mandrel.
Silver foil + rubino effect.
The sandblasting totally saved this bead - it was butt ugly. It was a hollow I lost control of, gave up and mashed and rolled in frit. It is now moderately interesting.
This is what my workstation looked like after a few hours of my toolbox barfing out tools.
(Yes - I moved the Tim Horton's bag before I lit the torch.)
It's ... black. Actually - it's enamel.
And this is the same bead, after masking and sandblasting.
And the other side.
Other assorted beads.
So help me - all I could think of was this reminded me of those acrylic toilet seats with the plastic fish in them.
Urg. This was a swing and a miss.
Hey - there's the Taxco frit on the obsidian base again!
And a proof of concept - dragons wrapped around a bead - and sandblasted. Needs work yet - but shows promise.
Amazing! how fun, LOVE the copper inclusion beads!
ReplyDeleteFabulous ... looks like an awesome class.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind me asking, what did you use for the masking?
I'm experimenting with masking and etching, but never get these crisp outlines.
Remember - this is sand blasting - not acid etching. The acid etching masks won't work for sand blasting.
ReplyDeleteWe tried all sorts of masks - the most robust is sign vinyl - adhesive backed vinyl. However, stickers, (you know, like your 10 year old niece has) can work too. Check the scrapbooking stores and also the dollar store. Look for metallic stickers - paper just is destroyed - and pay attention to the shape, not the motif (look at the back of the sticker to see it in silhouette.)