Well I have to say that I am a little bit pleased with myself today. I exercised some self control yesterday and finally got the wing cane pull done for my next dragonfly murrini (the complex wings with transparent lobes types). Today i will at least put the half cane together and maybe even the full dragonfly cane if I am lucky! I am really happy with the component cane and did the same graduated transparent blue I did the first time, boy was I tempted to go for a green transparent, although I think next one might be purple which I reckon would look very nice. One of the really good things about making the same complex cane is learning from past mistakes, the first dragonfly cane had a rather strange little bum cheek sort of arrangement going on, but this time I shall make the transition smoother I am sure. I will try to get a pic or two later today if I can get some nice slices of wing.
The other thing I did with varying degrees of success last night was make a few beads for my Etsy store and a couple orders. More of the burlesque ladies popped out of the kiln this morning... mostly not quite good enough, but one or two were ok!
About 18 months or so ago I did some experiments with fully encasing wheels and cogs from old watch parts. I found that if I was very careful about not heating that particular area again after encasing then they turned out fabulous and looked just like cogs and wheels floating inside the transparent glass. I thought I would try out some surface stuff (inspired by a lovely Australian Lampwork artist Sally Shepherd http://www.happilyeverartist.com/ who has recently been working with surface design using steampunk style parts) in addition to my usual encasements. I used Aurae over clear and reduced a little for the strange little robot in the middle of this pic of last nights work! The watch parts I used for the eyes had quite long protuberances on the back which came in handy for inserting firmly into the glass.... I quite like it, but I have seem MUCH better robot beads about I am sure!
The other thing I experimented on last night was using some enamels to make stockings on my burlesque beads.... I am quite happy with them on this purple lady, although next time I will use ribbons rather than the dots for studs on the suspenders.... please excuse the bead release residue on the mandrel, I was too keen to take a pic whilst the sun was out to wait and take them all of the mandrels and clean them first!
The other thing I did with varying degrees of success last night was make a few beads for my Etsy store and a couple orders. More of the burlesque ladies popped out of the kiln this morning... mostly not quite good enough, but one or two were ok!
About 18 months or so ago I did some experiments with fully encasing wheels and cogs from old watch parts. I found that if I was very careful about not heating that particular area again after encasing then they turned out fabulous and looked just like cogs and wheels floating inside the transparent glass. I thought I would try out some surface stuff (inspired by a lovely Australian Lampwork artist Sally Shepherd http://www.happilyeverartist.com/ who has recently been working with surface design using steampunk style parts) in addition to my usual encasements. I used Aurae over clear and reduced a little for the strange little robot in the middle of this pic of last nights work! The watch parts I used for the eyes had quite long protuberances on the back which came in handy for inserting firmly into the glass.... I quite like it, but I have seem MUCH better robot beads about I am sure!
The other thing I experimented on last night was using some enamels to make stockings on my burlesque beads.... I am quite happy with them on this purple lady, although next time I will use ribbons rather than the dots for studs on the suspenders.... please excuse the bead release residue on the mandrel, I was too keen to take a pic whilst the sun was out to wait and take them all of the mandrels and clean them first!
