Well, after returning from working as a tech assist for Loren Stump for two weeks and standing and watching the students all melting glass (well, not just standing there of course, but you get the gist I am sure) I have got home and have gone into a glass melting frenzy! I have been making murrini and beads like a steamtrain...... Some have come out ok, some NOT! Its interesting that when you are working and not a student you really do miss out on some of the finer points of how to do things, I am of course wishing I had done the course as a paying student right now, but appreciate Gail at Goglass (
www.goglassart.com.au) letting me work with such a great bloke and being exposed to a miriad of new ideas. I feel frenzied to melt glass and try out new idea's .... always a good thing I am sure!
I made myself some of the 3D clownfish Loren showed the class and boy did I wish I had actually stayed to watch how he did it. Mine look a bit more like a squirrel fish (those ugly ones with disproportionately large eyes) and then I forgot the mouth and adding it afterwards... well its not recommended lets put it that way!
One good thing is that I have decided to make more beads using my own murrini. It seems mental that I tend not to use them myself and yet I see the lovely stuff my customers make with them and drool...... doh! The frog in the jungle bead above is the first bead I have used this particular leaf cane on and I am quite happy with it - although the frogs legs are not very well done, it did give the green leafy jungle feel and after all that is what I was going for.
This bead is where I have moved on a little from my frog on a lily pond beads I had started on before going to work with Loren. This one I applied a bit of yellow rose cane as a waterlily and popped a dragonfly slice on top of that. I am loving the green growth on the side at the right too (based on ascidians, water filtering animals in the ocean) but I need to do more work on the koi fish on the bottom layer and are thinking I might make some koi murrini for them rather than a swipe of white with some orange and black spots.
I am still trolling my way slowly though the gorgeous work at the Bead Soup Blog Swap and there are some fabulous and inspiring pieces of art to drool over. I figure it might take me a week or so before I get though, but I will read all of them. I have tried to comment on them, but either through my own stupidity or the internet systems some use, can't work out how to have a say..... sometimes I make myself wonder I tell you!
