Beads... beads and more beads!

Its actually interesting the way my brain works (but scary no doubt LOL).  First I work hard to get beads made, then I flitter off and do some off mandrel work.... then I flitter off again and try out some strange "I had a dream in the middle of the night" sort of torch session.  I really do wish I could exercise some self control and settle down to doing just the one thing each day!!!!

Given my excitement at the fact that Creative Beading Mazagine has just done a profile on yours truly.... not just a wee little mention.... but a whopping three and a half whole pages!!!!  I thought I should actually put some stuff into my etsy store... specifically some beads... just in case anyone wants a Natalie Monkivitch special if you know what I mean!

Well, when I checked the pathetic stash, there was hardly a bead to be found, so off to the torch I have gone... with a mission.... to make a set.  Yep for those that know me well the word set usually sets my knees to knocking and causes a watery feeling the bowels.... Set allergy it might be called (but slack arse lack of self discipline it really is)!!

I am very pleased to say that I did manage not one set.... but two fairly big (for me) sets.  I also got right into the swing of bead making again, not that I had stopped or anything, but I had definitely been distracted.  I have had a real ball with it.  First off here is the first set I made using scrap twisties off my workbench, they are italian soft glass and using the bead press (another thing I am usually averse to).

Green Scrap bead set

After being so pleased at the success of the first set, and with the satisfied feeling that I had actually knuckled down and achieved something, I made some twisties for a second set in different colours.  I hope everyone notices that I EVEN made the spacers to match..... yahoo!!!

Pink, blue and turquoise twistie scrap bead set

Amazingly I have managed to photograph them and list them in my etsy, although I will admit to a fairly lengthy delay in removing them from the mandrels and cleaning them.... I seemed to keep walking past and thinking of something more interesting to do ..... as other glass bead makers will attest... cleaning beads is not the funnest part of the whole process!!!

Of course I went back for a second torch session and made some off mandrel cabochons for some more pocket watches.... I particularly like this dragons eye one.... I don't even know why, but it looked rather cool in real life.  It probably won't sell or anything, but that is part of the problem with making things only to your own tastes... I hardly ever make anything yellow or orange unless it is for a particular person, its time I branched out a bit I reckon!!!

Dragons eye cabochon on pocket watch

 

Pocket watch fun.... and the cabochon has it!

My glass cabs glued onto the little pocket watches

Well, whilst conducting my usual late night "surf the large chinese supplier website because I can't sleep yet" internet use, I came across some really cute little pocket watches with rather cheesy porcelain cabochons installed on the front.   I thought to myself that these would look so much better with a nice glass cab on there and decided to dip my toes into negotiating with the chinese supplier to get something custom made..... little did I know that about 1 million (prob only really 50, just felt like more) emails later, it looked like they have made up exactly what I wanted.

So I paid, stalked the postage tracker until they arrived into my hot little hand......... Cute, great.... but not exactly what I wanted.  The big issue I had was that the surface of the watch where the cab gets glued is not exactly flat.... not even a little bit flat... bugger!

The domed surface for the cab to go onto

Well after some brain storming with a lampy friend Darcy we came up with the cunning plan to remove the front from one of the watches and try using it as a push mold on the back of a hot glass cab to give the perfect shape to cab for annealing and then later gluing on... it was a plan!



Watch I "killed" to give me the cab mold

So, even though i was still feeling a little bit under the weather, I fired up the kiln yesterday and tried out the idea using both borosilicate glass and then some soft glass.  I used the boro first (because the kiln was ramped up hotter to start with this, then I ramp it down later to the soft glass annealing temp).  I made up the cab using a slice of my recent boro butterfly cane in a large diameter... the cab was looking nice, so I heated the backside up nice and hot and plunged it onto the "mold".  First off there was some really nasty smells.... then a spitting sound and then when I lifted the cab up, this is what I found!

melted mold after first use

There is no doubt.... I killed it!  Clearly not made of stainless steel, but probably zinc or something.  In any case I was grateful for the good ventilation in my workspace thats for sure.

After this cab, I ramped down the kiln and resorted to plan B..... shaping the back of the cab by hand and just using this mold as a guage for diameter.  I tried using the stumpshaper (the curved bit) to make a concave back..... nope, not neat enough.  Then I tried using the back of a teaspoon and .....yahooo, it worked.  This option works, but is not completely ideal I do admit.  I am thinking of getting myself some graphite and sanding it into the shape I want and using that as a mold which would be MUCH better I reckon.

Some of the tips I got from this first batch other than shaping the back for gluing.... keep it slightly smaller than you think.... heat the back of the cab quite hard and then press down to give slimmer sides which sit nicely on the watch front.   I am thinking there are a complete raft of interesting things that can be done with these watches.... it has been a difficult track to run, but worth it in the end!

Butterfly cab glued onto pocket watch front.... this one was a little bit thick around the edges as my first one

Bad.....er..... slack blogger !

Well, finally I have got my finger out and blogged.  I have spent MONTHS saying that I need to update my blog and yet, as the uncrowned queen of procrastination, I have managed to put it off!

A LOT has been going on in my glassy life since my last blog, so I think I will blog about it in chronological order.... at least then it will make sense to me if no one else  ha ha ha

Gumblossom Dreams boro glass necklace

First off, some of my readers may recall that I was on a bit of a mission to get some of my work into some galleries.   Well, not only do I have work showing at the Barracuda Gallery over in Perth and the Canberra Glassworks gallery I was invited to participate in an "invitation only" flameworking event at the Craft NSW gallery in George Street in Sydney.  The "In Nature In Glass" exhibition was fabulous and at the same time SCARY AS HELL.  I was participating with a raft of big names in glass and felt a little like the tiny little tiddler in a pool of sharks, but I figured as long as I do my best, well that is the best I can do.    It was a really big thrill to see my work displayed beside the likes of Chris Arnold and Laurie Young, Peter Minson, Al Usher, Bernie Stonor, Jo Wu, Justin Rossi, Carol Marando and the lovely Penel Bigg!  I even braved the Sydney Train system (which is scary for a transplant from Canberra who is a little frightened of getting lost on the trains) and went into town for the opening of the exhibition by the gorgeous and talented Marina Hyasat.

Well.... you get the idea, it was crazy fancy and I am a bit of a bogan, but after leaving the crocs and moccies at home, I rubbed shoulders with the big guns and it felt really great!  Here is a pic of one of my entries, Gum Blossom Dreams.  Unfortunately it didn't survive the transport and didn't end up being displayed, but I have since fixed it and donated it as a raffle prize to a lovely Canberra Textile group (ACTTA).



Year of the Dragon bead set 2012 Sydney Royal Easter show Entry

I was also happy to participate in the Sydney Royal Easter show again and W O W was the competition hard this year.  It was so great to see the diversity of styles and the large number of entries.  for a competition that was losing some of its support by the local lampwork bead artists, it has turned right around and now a large number of people enter in support.   I was EXTREMELY lucky to get a third with my dragon set this year and to be honest, there were some sets of beads that utterly deserved a prize and yet missed out.  For local Aussies who want to see what is at the edge of the envelope in glass beads go along to the Easter show and have a squizz (might want to take a notebook to write down the names you might wish to contact afterwards too).

Well, I don't want to just write a novel on this one blog entry, so I shall continue on very soon with more glassy musings :-)

Fascinating flat laps..... yeah!!!

Chameleon top on jam spoon

Well, Happy New Year and a great 2012 to all!

Sorry I have been off the radar, in between christmas, kids holidays and a massive volume of glassy orders I have been too busy to pop up even a quickie blog entry.... doh!
I have been honey dippering and now Jam spooning a LOT to fill some local and international orders.  Here's one of my recent Jam spoons with a cute but cartoony little bloke on the top.  The slightly difficult thing with these jam spoons is making the bowl a nice shape and my VERY clever husband made me a spoon press a little while ago.  It is basically an el-cheapo pair of tweezers with two el-cheapo teaspoons on the end in position to cup each other and therefore press the glass into a bowl after squeezing into a flat paddle on the end first.  Easy peasy, although I am going to get myself a couple of steeper more deeply bowled spoons to make a deeper dish on my glass one... more things for the drawing board!

The other thing I am glass to say that I got for christmas is a cheapish but cheer flat lap with machine.  It is one of the Inland swap tops and I absolutely love it.  All of my paperweights have flat and shiny bottoms now and I have started a few lapping experiments as a basic entry into some simple coldworking.  I decided last night that I would make something to lap and rather than go with the "window" style commonly seen with the fish or garden scenes encased in clear then layers of opaque and frit and enamels and stuff around the outside that gives the impression of a thunder egg sort of thing.

I only had 10 minutes or go and reprogram the kiln (it was also 11pm so I was keen to get to bed) so I just make a simple barrel bead using lots of thin coat layers so that the layers would show as stripes when ground back.  Here is the starting bead.... not fancy, but something to practice on:

Simple layered barrel bead

Then I lapped the ends a little, the two large sides and put a bit of a facet on each edge which I think made it look a little classier..... although it took a bit of practice to get these facets straight and even!

Lapped barrel bead after polishing

It feels lovely and smooth in your hand and I keep running my fingers over the soapy feel of it.  I am quite happy with the shape and I think I did a much better job of the polishing than I had done before (thank goodness that was only on the bases of the paperweights and therefore doesn't matter).

I have installed this one on a simple beadable pendant bar with a bali silver bead as a spacer to take up the tiny bit of slack on the bar..... I am really happy with it and are already thinking of more complicated things I can do.... using stacked murrini canes and stuff.......oh  yeah!!!!!!

A full plate.....

Handful of experimentals

I have sort of taken a breath to work out exactly what jobs I have on my plate at the moment and really.... it looks like a VERY busy time prior to Christmas!  I am having quite a bit of trouble prioritising and have sort of found myself either doing lots of bits of jobs without finishing any completely or doing something akin to procrastination by trying out experiments when I do have some torch time... naughty girl I am!

One thing off my plate is the honey dippers.  I spent two days of marathon efforts to remake the broken ones and dropped them off to the Blue Mountains Honey peeps the other day.... thank goodness they really liked them, especially all the christmas themed ones!  Apparently they have a market stall at a local festival which is usually VERY busy and with the lead up to Christmas most of my honey dippers will go up there for sale which is really cool.  I was going to try and make a few extras, but the weather has been stinking hot here in Western Sydney.... REALLY REALLY hot which is not condusive to sitting in front of a torch with a largist kiln pumping out heat behind you..... I have been working in the mornings and evenings where possible and keep my fingers and toes crossed for a cold change!

I have been busy packaging up murrini for Affordable Inspiration too.  I should really send a parcel off tomorrow and another a few days later or I am sure I will be needing a bloody box if I am not careful!  I have a couple new murrini in there and rather than a blend, just packets of the blue striped fish or the black and yellow butterfly fish as well as restocking the run out/low ones!

Watch pendants with my beads

One thing I did get in the mail this morning was a rather nice parcel (after all who doesn't love getting a parcel) and in it were some necklace watches I bought in a bulk buy.  They are completely and utterly super cute and I am already wishing I had bought more than a handful, but I am thinking of some ways of using them with my beads and then shall list in the Etsy store.  Here's a piccie of what I did with the first one I got out of the bag!

Loren Stump underwater sphere.... given to me as a gift!!!!!

Oh, and for all of those lovely people at the International Flameon Downunder in Sydney early October... here's a pic of my "precious" that Loren stump gave to me.  My Dad's best mate Uncle Geoff is a very accomplished wood turner and he made me a couple stands to choose from.  I am thinking I might change them about depending on the mood or the decor at the time..... whoa, how posh and fortunate do I sound now..... I am a lucky lucky girl!

Introducing my bead soup blog swap partner..... Niky!!!

Yep, its my first bead soup blog swap and I have sent off my bead soup to my partner Niky of Silver Nik Naks (http://www.etsy.com/people/silverniknats ) who makes the most wonderful jewellery using chain maille and beads.

Have a squizz at some of Niky's beautiful work:

Of course this makes me worry about the lampwork I made for her, seeing as this is just gorgeous stuff, but I hope she likes the mix!!!

I have been working on some bobbin beads, lampwork beads made around a stainless steel sewing bobbin.  I popped on a bail for a pendant and here is a pic of some of the ones I made on Sunday..... bit of a bugger that I have got enamel on a couple of the bobbins (which looks quite yuk to me) and some just didn't at all turn out how I wanted them to.... but Ce La Vie (or however you spell it). Such is life!

Time to do some listing on Etsy and then get out to my torch and make some murrini for Affordable.  I made a large boro fish murrini which took about 2hrs to heat and pull on my little minor torch (I should have got my Phantom out for that one) and after all the frustration, the fish is AWFUL..... some days the kiln fairy just happens to bypass your house I suppose..... LOL

The Sun.... the SUN.... quick!!!!

Yup, that was my catch-cry this morning when I woke up and realised that there was actually some sun showings its face this morning.  After a week of overcast rainy weather I was VERY keen to get out and photograph some beads.  It has to be said that the boro beads in particular take much nicer photos in the sun than otherwise and so dressed very sharply in Ugg boots, pyjama pants, ratty old coat and no bra with hair sticking out in all directions I armed myself with the camera, the beads and a white bust.  I am fairly sure some of the neighbours will not recover from the scene for years to come and I definitely got a few interesting looks, not all directed at the fact that I had a jewellery bust on top of Leo's car roof and was taking photos I am sure.

First off I have been making some owls out of boro lately.  This was borne from the eyeball crafting and somewhat inspired by seeing the last Harry Potter last week.  I also have to give a nod to a very talented lady called Beth Knapp Tyner who makes the most lovely owl and bird beads out of soft glass (see her etsy store here www.BethKnappTyner.etsy.com ) for inspiration.  Beths Owls are incredibly realistic and not is not at all what I am going for, but her form and colour are just wonderful.

Anyway, whilst the sun was out I took a quick pic of this dongle necklace.  It is plain with no murrini which went against the grain somewhat but it is an order, so it had to be done.  I think it came out looking a bit like drops of rain or bubbles of water and quite like it now its done.  Unfortunately making the dongles clear did not really save me much time at all which was a bit annoying.  I still have two half finished and one more to make which definitely keeps me out of trouble!

ps. I am sorry if I appear rude and don't reply, but I have not been able to post a reply on blogger for ages..... I have tried and tried and its just keeps making me log back in...... I shall try to sort it out, but in the meantime please know that I appreciate the comments greatly, thank you!

Murrini then beads... then murrini again :-)

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!

Clasped to the kiln floor!!!!!

Well, its not quite as bad as it sounds, so everybody relax!

I have been on a true marathon of dongle necklace and bracelet making (8hrs torch time yesterday alone) and thought I would try a bit of an experiment.  My glass chain necklaces are a bit of a challenge to work out a perfect clasp (I usually end up making a slightly bodgy toggle clasp out of glass to match the necklace), but the bracelets are extremely difficult indeed.  I personally do not like toggle clasps on a bracelet anyway, but on a glass one..... ppppffft!  The glass chain jewellery does NOT  survive being dropped, my hubby explained in some complicated physics-y way about transfer of energy or somethin'.... well, they almost explode into the original component parts if dropped onto a hard floor... I know, because I did it... twice!  Therein lies the issue with the toggle clasp on a bracelet, let alone a tedious delicate and dare I say it.... bit expensive bracelet for someone! 

After lots of looking about I just happened on some large ornate-ish parrot clasps in a local bead shop.  They are the idea size, but I don't like putting base metal findings on something like this.... still, in the interim I thought I would try out the clasps.  The funny thing is I thought I would be a complete smart-aleck and attach the clasp using a glass ring which would then go through an annealing cycle in the kiln......... hmmmmm!  The great mystery was going to be how would the clasps survive? would they turn black? would they melt?  Well I popped a cheapy clasps on two bracelets and left in the kiln last night (leaving the clasp end right near the door at the bottom front in case that helped at all).  I was overjoyed to see that they did survive, unfortunately the little lever bit did not.... It melted right out and left two little puddles of "metallic stuff" on the bottom of the kiln (luckily just picked off).  Here is the offending articles afterwards!

On another more positive note, I did mostly (I found one link missing a dongle this morning DOH) finish the necklace and then went on to make a rather cute tiger stripe bracelet.  I also came up with the cunning plan to use one of my name murrini to end off the bracelets which was pretty cool.

Oh, I piled up the two bracelets and the necklace which made a fairly cool photo and let me bask in the results of two days of fairly solid torch time....... YEAH!!!!!

Evolution of a glass necklace

I thought I might to steer somewhat clear of the murrini fest over the last few days and have decided (finally) that I would make a couple gallery quality pieces. I have done the boro chain and dongle style before (something I dreamt of then tried and it worked quite well) and the bottom picture is one of my early efforts using some purple handmade murrini in the marbles on the ends of each dongle. This was using some 3mm chain and I kept each dongle quite short. It is really nice to feel and is actually very comfortable to wear but I did move onto larger 5mm diameter links with large dongles which were very flamboyant indeed.

I have decided to try out a slightly new style of this necklace using finer 3mm stringer chain once again, but with much longer dongle-y bits in all different lengths and colour combo's. I also resisted the urge to use murrini in the ends and instead, I am going to use little tiny helix twists (a technique learnt from the lovely Justin at imagine creations) on each end. I have made a start yesterday (well by start I mean about 6hrs of torching to get to this point) and thought I would show off how it is going. I have only done less than half of the dongles so far, but you can see it will be busy, but hopefully interesting as well.

I wanted something that still had the movement (chain and dongles all move around loose) but looked a bit busier than the fine stuff usually did.  After I finish this one off, I am thinking I might make a big chunky one again...... WAY less hours of work to do the big stuff for sure.    I will try to remember to upload a pic of the final result.  The only issue I have now is finding exactly the right clasps for these buggers.  I have made glass ones which don't feel completely safe and did find a fabulous large ornate parrot clasp design that was perfect..... just not precious metal!  I think I might buy a few large parrot clasps in sterling silver at about $20 each, it would be a bit of a waste to spend days upons days making this style to throw some cheap-arse crappy clasp on it..... it seems there is always a challenge some days!

Original dongle chain testing with murrini

Reopening the Etsy shop..... What to sell?

Well, here I am again, still on a murrini making fest..... something I have a feeling might stick with me actually!  BUT.... I have finally bitten the bullet and reopened my Etsy store.  It has been shut for nearly a year now and that is a little bit embarassing to be honest, but now I am in a quandry..... what should I sell in there.  http://www.beadmonki.etsy.com/ for anyone interested!

I don't intend on selling murrini, I am happy with the arrangement to sell via Affordable Inspiration (http://www.affordableinspiration.com/) which saves the local glass buying public postage fee's and me the hassle of adminstering, advertising etc. the products and mailing them off then panicking about how fast they will get there.  Although maybe if I do make some larger complex murrini and go to the trouble to polish them etc. I may sell the odd slice for collectors, but I hardly think that would be a frequent thing I will indulge in.

I do have lots of experimental stuff, that in the past I would list under my kiln trash'n'treasure category.... these are things I don't think are quite what I was aiming for and therefore are unhappy with them.   Sometimes it will be the colours I used or how they came together or the shape of a sculptural bead that does not match the picture of what I had aimed for in my head.  I can totally understand the thought process of only listing "the best of the best and stuff I am proud of", but in reality, what I am proud of for technical reasons, may not be what the bead buying public want.  In the past my kiln trash'n'treasure category on Etsy was by far the best seller.  I price things in this area quite cheap, I feel I can't ask a lot for something that irritates me and also if I keep it in the house too long it is at risk of being cabified (melted in the kiln to a puddle) or fritilised (crushed into flakes I can use as decoration on another bead).

Hmmmmm....... I think I am leaning towards the slightly cheap and cheesy option of selling off what to me is a bit weird in the Trash'n'Treasure area and to worry about the impression that I am also cheap and cheesy to boot..... LOL, maybe I am!!!

On the bead front, above  is a pic of my latest experiment into boro implosions.... honeycomb with a bee.  I will also pop on a pic (just the slightly bodgy end) of the bottom half of my new signature cane.... the year!

Thinking ahead....

Well, people that know me well will know that I am a real bugger for not anticipating "stuff".  I am the girl who goes to the shops at somewhere like Aldi with no bags and is left trying to juggle 20 items in the front of her jumper and get the money out at the same time.  I am the girl who pulls up to the pay parking exit and then realises that the parking card is in her bag, in the boot of the car... and I am the girl who remembers five minutes before visitors come that she has not vacuumed, done the dishwashing or cleaned the toilet......

I am also frequently the girl who is halfway through a bead that requires a particular colour stringer and realises she not pulled any........  you can see where I am going with this I am sure.

With my murrini making on the other hand I do seem to be finally learning from past mistakes, perhaps this is aversion therapy at work....  ie. go to put the next component onto the complex murrini gather and realise that the component in question is resting all lovely and still cold beside the kiln, not in it!

Nowadays I go through the whole thing in my head, like those elite athletes.... each movement, each component, each tool I will require are all selected and put where they will best serve me before I light my torch....

I make sure I line my components up in my kiln to prewarm in the order that I will require them, configured in such a way that they are easy to grab and grab them in such a manner that I do not have to juggle things around before putting them together. 

Here's an example of preheating in my kiln, on the left (closest end to where I work), I have my new christmas beetle body components, the left end one is facing end on so I can pick it up with a boro punty with a blob of 104 on the end easily, but the second part of this one is side on.... why? you might ask, but to get the second component onto the first I use the haemostats to pick it up, thats where the side on comes in handy.  I have found when preheating component canes and reintroducing into the flame it is much better to grab the murrini with haemostats at the sides and so the second slice is sitting sideways to easily grab that one and apply onto the first the right way around. 

The ladybird canes are ready to grab with a punty, put some clear scrap and pull out to bead diameter (3-6mm).  Now the canes have been soaking for about 1hr so its off to the torch for me.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!  

Something bugging me!!!!

Well, not really much to be honest, but I am really wondering about something murrini related......
..... what the hell are people doing with so many ladybird / ladybug murrini.  Once I started stocking these at Affordable Inspiration they seem to be literally flying out the door.  I am struggling a little to keep up with making them!!!  Don't get me wrong I am totally not complaining at all, I think it is really fabulous that people like my murrini enough to go and buy them, but I would dearly love to know how these little fellas are being used!

I learned from Loren Stump how to make these little 3D murrini and they are fabulous for placing on the outside of a bead or of course for use in paperweights.  At the time I was soooooo impressed at being able to learn a 3D pull (one without clear surround and maintains the shape of the glass) that the fact these little beasts were so very cute eluded me.....  Yep I went off and made a cartoon police car to see how far I could take this 3D thing.  I was very pleased with the outcome, but it was a complete poop to cut up... still fun though!

I am now thinking that perhaps something that might really be cute and different would be some little bugs (like the ladybugs) that were made out of metallic glass and with some judicious reduction could come out something like christmas beetles..... I think it might be time to go and have a troll at Flickr to see of some bug enthusiasts have some inspiration pics for me today........ FUN!!!!!!!!!

Oranges and lemons.... no bells ringing, but I like em!

Yep, I am a murrini "happy chappy" today.  I got my lemon and lime canes out of the kiln this morning.... they looked good (stable no sign of a crack) especially for using the yellow colours in there, always a bit of a risk.  My orange pieces look like they are going to come out fairly nicely as well and when I sawed the large diameter cane I had them sitting all together on my saw top and wow they looked good, so I grabbed the camera and took a quickie pic:

At the back is the orange component cane for me to make up today, you will notice that I gradated from a yellow to the darker orange on the outside colour and also made the wedges a bit thinner so I can fit four pieces in like the lime cane.  I think it looked better with the 8 slices.  You might notice too, that I made the pith a little bit thicker on the lemon before popping on the bright yellow rind.  After I finished that one, I decided to keep it a bit thinner on the lime cane and I do think the results come out a little bit nicer as well.  I am thinking I might slice some of these larger diameter canes up and polish off on my friends flat lap next time I go over to visit her (Gail at goglass studio that is).  I am looking forward to finishing off the orange cane too, it think it will look really cool with all three types mixed in together.... very bright!

Oh, and I thought I would try my hand at some wire coiled donut bails..... well, they are not the neatest job in the world, but I do think they look pretty funky myself.  I used some copper because I had a massive commercial roll of the thin stuff I got at a garage sale for $10 - the dude used it to wire wrap some sort of magnet or something.  I will put its previous use down to secret mens business, but at least it is coming in very handy for a real newbie wireworker.  The first one is a rough ivory doughnut with some of my coffee bean murrini .... I am calling it donuts and coffee!

 This second attempt is not an improvement really, but the boro donut looks quite good in real life on this bail and at least then its sellable to a non-jewellery maker!

Have to make some beads.... begone murrini..... NOT!

Well I do actually feel like its about time I made some ACTUAL beads rather than murrini.  It seems that every time I got onto the torch I have to discipline myself to knuckle down and do what I am supposed to be doing (read, promised orders etc.)..... and fail miserably!

I have so many ideas swirling around in my head that I end up thinking of everything, flitting like a butterfly from idea to idea and never settle onto finishing one project or concentrate and finish one thing off before starting another.  At the moment I have about four different complex murrini going in different stages of component canes..... I think I would gain a great deal more satisfaction if I could just finish one off and put it aside, but nope... I go off on a tangent AGAIN.  I can try to dress it up as "artistic temperament" to have and idea give birth to further inspiration, but if being honest it is more a lack of self discipline in my case.

Today I have unwrapped my new good quality whyteboard and shall endeavour to write a priority list that I can then have the satisfaction of ticking off/rubbing out things as I complete them. 

Stay tuned for the next murrini out of the kiln, lemon and lime slices.  I am thinking they would be really cool to make a cocktail or glass of water bead with a lemon or lime slice floating in the fluid..... just more ideas!

Here are some pics I took this arvo as some inspiration for some tonbodama style murrini and for my good friend Tezza (a lampworker down in South Australia) who makes the most amazing floral and blossom beads you ever saw!  I think these are off a Eucalyptus Ficafolia and the blossoms are HUGE!  Oh, I also discovered that bees really don't like camera lenses close up.... nearly got stung ;-)

Coffee anyone - first try at coffee bean murrini

In my murrini fest once again and went out to make my triangular component canes for a kaleidoscope murrini but got distracted by coffee..... coffee beans that is!

These coffee murrini were borne from a need to make some beads to place onto one of those beadable stainless steel coffee scoops for a gift for a coffee fanatical friend. I am a little bit dissapointed with them in that in retrospect I should have graduated the brown colouring from dark at the centre to light on the edges instead of the other way around. As a result I am calling these my raw coffee bean murrini and shall make a "roasted" variety with more of the darker brown next time.

Anal April has begun, time to sort some "stuff" out on list of things to do!

And the Royal Easter show entry is sent....hallelujah!

Thank goodness I have finally sent off my Sydney Royal Easter show entry. This year I decided that I would enter in the set of five beads rather than the jewellery section. Last time I entered a necklace which was truly horrendous and slightly embarrassing to have my name against, but I figured it was better to support lampwork than not.

This year I have done my usual annoying job of proscratinating until I just throw 5 beads in and hope for the best at the last minute. Geeze I annoy myself with this, I could try and justify it by saying that I work better under pressure, but that would be complete rubbish... I was just disorganised and slack as usual!

I stupidly gave my set of beads a name "burlesque" because at the time I entered I was making burlesque beads with corsets and stuff on.... unfortunately I am a wee bit over them, but had to revisit to make a matching set. I ended up taking some inspiration from a lovely family friend who is a wonderful dancer (working at the Sydney Dance Company) and doing some of that fancy stuff on stage with feathery outfits.... hmmmm I though, why not make a couple of feathery dance burlesque-y outfits to include in my set.... so I did.

I don't want to show what I have entered, but here is a sneak peek at one of the beads, my peacock dancer one from the back view only..... now all you Sydneysiders can go along to the Royal Easter show in a couple weeks and see the set for yourself and have a squizz at the other lovely work by our talented Aussie lampworkers too. I know I am heading in the with the kids for sure!

Form, colour, technical challenge or all of the above?

Hmmm, yep I am in a weirdo mood from the glass perspective at the moment. I have been seduced back to boro in a big way but have been left feeling a bit like the girl who went to the dance with a date and left with someone else (only the date doesn't realise it and is sitting patiently in the corner). A little bit GUILTY..... probaby the right word to apply to the situation.

I had that "feeling in my waters" last night to go and melt some glass about 9pm and thought I might as well get into it and even though I had neatly lined up my coe 104 italian glass ready for a "dance"... I totally bypassed it and made a couple of boro pendants instead.... naughty girl!!!

On a less lampworky subject, I am off today for a lovely 3 day retreat with a whole gaggle of beading buddies (and a few lovely lampy girls too of course) and are left wondering how I am going to go. I haven't made any beaded jewellery for so long I think I have forgotten how to do it really and are worried that I will find it somewhat boring talking about something other than glass (yep, I am BORING in company unless they find glass interesting). Just in case, I have packed my snorkelling gear and figure that for a number of reasons, not the least of which it would be healthy and I enjoy it, thought I would sneak out the 10min to the beach and take a dip at least one day of the three.

Bring on the weekend everyone....... Lets hope the surf is not up too much!

Dose of Molten glass for the lampwork addict please

Yep, I have been getting increasingly DESPERATE to lay my hands on some glass rods and melt them down into thier new life. I have unpacked my garage to the point where I can now step into my workspace and touch the glass rods in thier holders .....YAY .... but still not quite good enough.

So, whats the easy solution you might ask? Well, I drove over to Bilgola to my friend Gails studio and Halleluja, we melted glass together for a few hours. It is really on just feeding the craving, but like any addict, I am sure a small hit is better than none at all. I taught Gail how to make some complex murrini cane (which she did very well at) and she let me use her humungous torch (a GTT Delta for the afficioniado's out there) to make my first unsupervised paperweight. The decision to try out the stumpsucker and make a paperweight was a quick one and so I made a very fast and dodgy-arsed setup which took me all of 15 min to make..... bit of a shame, but better than an empty paperweight, or one with just frit inside. I made a couple leaves, a gumblossom, some aussie flowers (a bottlebrush that resembled a toilet brush and some non-sneeze inducing wattle) and the main feature of a red backed spider with one leg missing - fortunately in the preheating stage we managed to partially melt another leg so he is not lop-sided.

Here is a pic of the offending article.... please shut your eyes to the haze, the smudging and the REALLY shitty shaping job I did. This was the first time that I had made a paperweight totally myself...... yep, I was a bit scared to be honest, but it was really fun (not getting it off the punty) and hopefully they can only get better!

Collabaration - different glass, another butterfly

Hmmmm, a great friend of mine Gail is very VERY talented at fusing and slumping and we are thinking of forming a team and collaborating to make some really interesting glassy things. I will still of course be sticking to beads and murrini as my core business, but the idea of making some larger and more unusual glass bits and pieces really sounds fabulous to me.

At the moment we need some planning time to get all our ideas down and form some sort of a priority listing so we have some goals rather than just run about ooooohing and aaaahing about our combined wisdom and mad schemes (we are both a bit the same, the crazier the better and we feed off each others enthusiasm)

My part of the "collab" will involve me making some complex murrini and small componentry in 96coe which should be compatible with the glass sheet Gail uses and to be honest a lot of the real skill will most likely be how she does her end. Thus far my only slumping efforts have been restricted to some bottles to make platters and "cabifying" dodgy beads (melting a cleaned up bead into a cabochon). In the week leading up to the move and sticking with my comfort zone I made quite a nice orange butterfly cane which I left as a graduated large diameter rod so that different sized slices can be cut..... all larger for the larger project, but some variety of size. Here's the pic of a rough slice of the finished cane. The great thing is that if I saw up the scrappy ends we will end up with some really cool fusing slices (half and quarter wings etc.).

Interestingly enough, I found it quite difficult not to pull down some of the cane for bead-sized butterflies..... Just habit I am sure!

Now..... I MUST go sort out some of my lampworking garage space and search further for beads.......aaaaaarrrrrrgggh!