Death of a plate..... but tried again with success!

Sharks vomit plate 1 with hole

Oh yeah..... there is no question, I killed my plate using Sharks Vomit 1 when I tried to slump it into the mold.  It is mostly due to the fact that I totally forgot that I needed to slow down the ramp up heat rate and so when the plate hit about 350deg C there was a muffled clang...well to be honest multiple clangy sounds and when I peeked into the peephole, there it sat.... in MANY parts.  I was not happy, indeed I was rather upset, but as they say... you learn much more from a mistake than you do from getting it right the first time.  I decided that because it was in pieces, I might as well ramp the temp right up and see if some of it will fuse back together.  In fact it did fuse back quite a bit, but left a little hole that I have decided would be a good spot to sit a marble ( I put a circle around the hole zone on the above pic).  The glass also somewhat dripped down the sides of the plate mold and I will have to grind that off.  I am still toying with the idea that I should re-fuse and then try slumping this one again.... just toying at the moment, but if I have to look at it too long like this, it shall feel some heat I promise you!  LOL

Being a big one for getting it right at least once, I decided to spend 4 hrs of my time yesterday to make up another fusing plate using my murrini again.  This time I tried to stick with half decent murrini (ie, not too many clear inclusions etc.) although they are still my rejected ones, I made sure they were as tightly packed as I could get them.  I even pulled some little stringer sized murrini to pop down the gaps and it really paid off.  The glass did not move around very much at all and the fuse came out lovely.  I slumped it late last night and got this beauty out of the kiln this arvo and now have a cute little square plate..... I love it!!!!

Sharks vomit 2 slumped into plate -  sweet success

I have now got a kiln full of  "testers" that I will see how they look when they come out before I think of using them in a larger plate size.  The handy thing is that I will be able to glue on some bails and voila.... instant pendant.  Hopefully they won't be too ugly to be worn and if they are, well I will keep them or donate them to someone who seed beads cabs or something fun like that.

Testers to see what happens in the kiln!

Have a fabulous week, this week is getting things done week for me....... YEAH!

The 104coe murrini fusing experiment..... SUCCESS!

Well despite my concerns about fusing the miriad of murrini (I quite like how that rolls off the tongue... Miriad of Murrini.... yeah!)  I opened the kiln lid this morning to some sweet success!  Both sides of the piece were really cool with the bottom side maintaining the integrity of the pattern where the murrini sat against the clear glass:

And then there was the top side where the different glass sort of moved around a bit an squidgied the top of the pictures.  Green and Blue glass seems to be really prone to this moving around in a very viscous (not vicious) fashion, I am sure the techno-types out there would be able to say exactly why, but for me, sometimes I really like it and sometimes ....er.... not!

Here's a pic of the top side and you can see the distortion to the pics, and yet I still think it is pretty damn cool!

The next job will be to try slumping this into a plate mold, which I am now a bit nervous about given that I do not want to ruin this glass now its worked out so far.  I could be conservative and try with some other glass first...... but NAHHHH I will stick my neck out, scoff at the danger (danger of buggering it up that is) and dip my foot into the slumping waters...... ok, now I have slightly scared myself!

Have a wonderful day everyone, its sunny, warm and fabulous here in Sydney right now..... I am loving life!

Back from Crazy month... with a bit of sharks vomit !!!

Ascidian bead experiment

Yahoo, I am glad to say that I am home after a literal marathon of glassy goodness.  First off I was on the committee for the 2011 International Flameon event here in Sydney and whilst it was Motza fun.... it was also very exhausting!  If you would like to see some photos of the event http://www.flameondownunder.com/flame-on-2011-photos.html  or of course would like a chance to bid on some of the items of art created and donated for Spinal Cord Injury Australia then try http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/flameondownunder/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_from&_jpg&_trksid=p3686 for the full listing of lovely stuff to drool over and maybe even buy.... LOL

 After spending a crazy time at the flame on with Robert Mickelson, Chris Arnold and of course Loren Stump (plus heaps of other lovely lampwork peeps), I then got to help out at the studio for Robert who is a really lovely bloke and a great teacher.  Unfortunately I didn't get to stay the whole time (friends wedding in Victoria) but the students were producing really amazing things!

After all my travelling around and being away from my own torch I have been rather desperate to melt some glass too and since I got home that is just what I have been doing.  I spent some time today on my first ever fusing project to give my new (and much larger) kiln a good run.  Here's a pic of the project before it went into the kiln.  I had some 104 sheet glass laying around and decided to use a whole lot of the knobby ends of old and crappy murrini pulls with the odd lump of "other" also all in 104 COE of course.

Sharks Vomit - Pre fused

I have decided to call this "sharks vomit" because it is basically a mish mash of all my scrappy ends and bad murrini pulls.  It had great potential to just all smoosh together and looks really foul, but then again... it also might come out rather fun!  If it turns out at all I am going to slump it into a greenware plate mold I bought a little while ago which I think might look rather funky!

Oh..... on a VERY happy note, my work has been accepted by the wonderful people at the Canberra Glassworks Gallery........YAHOOOOOOOO!

Murrini-ing on and more sea themes!

Well I am now definitely back in my usual swing.  Which is in actuality a little crazed given that I have just got back from working with the lovely Loren Stump and are on the committee for the first ever International Flame-on Downunder in less than two weeks time (and things are hotting up in more than one way..... LOL) see http://www.flameondownunder.com/ for info .  After the flame on I will also be working as Technical Assistant to Robert Mickelson, boro flamework legend and then driving for 10hrs to attend a wedding where my twins are flower girls.......aaarrrrggh (run away, run away....)

I need to make some murrini to add to the give away bags at the flame on from Affordable Inspiration who sells my murrini for me.  But.....I have been making some absolutely horrible murrini over the last couple of days!  Just lazyness or throwing them together and hoping for the best which is an option that NEVER works out well for me.  I knew there was an issue with my blue striped fish when my kids commented that they looked like the offspring of a budgie and a fish.......hmmmm, could have shaped them better.

And here is the clownfish with the large eye and the weird mouth......doh!

I did knuckle down tonight and popped a little angelfish murrini (large diameter first off) into the kiln and hopefully something nice will come out for once..... cross your fingers and toes for me if you can, I will show the results even if shameful!



The Bead Soup is in the house!!!!

Well, first off, let me apologise for not having any updates for more than a week.  I somehow managed to faint after visiting the facilities in the middle of the night and knocked myself unconscious on my bathroom floor for some time.  Apart from some mild concussion for a few days, I managed to fall with my head tucked under and have pulled the muscles down my neck, spine and shoulders..... very sore stuff!  The doc thinks my blood pressure dropped suddenly, lets hope there is no repeat of this!

Now onto my bead soup.  It ARRIVED!!!!!  and, its gorgeous.  My swap partner Niky is so very clever she sent me a sort of Peacock coloured theme in purples and it is a divine mix.

Niky even sent me some lovely english lollies called parma violets which are the yummiest violet flavour (yep, I have a "thing" for them) and I am rationing them out slowly... one a day!

I will have to try and get some more pics of the beady goodness out of the plastic bags and maybe some progression pics before the big unveil next month (without giving too much away of course), but this mix is so lovely I am sure I will make a couple of things out of it rather than squishing all that goodness into one article!

On a lampworking front I am about to go and work as Loren Stumps technical assistant again.  This time for two back to back Loren I and Loren II courses.  I am really excited about it and just hope I can be helpful to the students when they need/want it, I suppose worse case I can make sure they are all fed and watered (last year I hand fed chocolates to some of them whilst still torching.... LOL)  One of the best bits for me personally is that Loren is running an under the sea themed level 2 course, so I will see him make that gobsmackingly gorgeous complex fish murrini..... Oh yes, there shall be some secretive notes taken.... well, maybe not at all secretive, but I can't wait to see how he does it.  I have to add that Loren is an absolutely top bloke, a brilliant teacher and a real genius with what he can do with glass... an inspiring man to be about I can tell you!

Time for the Bead soup to be sent off!!!

I am VERY excited to be participating in my very first bead soup blog party and I now have my swap partner Niky......YAY.  She makes the most gorgeous chain maille jewellery you have ever seen, you can find her here http://silverniknats.blogspot.com/.  The only problem I am having now, is the usual anxiety associated with swapping with someone you don't know and worrying that you might send too much, not enough (not likely to be a problem, I would rather overcater for a party if you know what I mean), its ugly, they won't like it, it just doesn't inspire them or even worse kills thier mojo outright..... you know, the usual exchange/swap stuff.... Ha ha ha ha!  Next I am sure I will be worried about doing her lovely bead soup some justice, goodness knows I can make jewellery when I put my mind to it, but this isn't just slapping some beads onto tiger tail, I want to really make something fabulous...lets hope the grey matter comes to the party with me and I come up with a great job!

I have just about got bead soup ready to send and could even have it off today with some luck, but in the night I had a brainstorm and now want to make a particular thing I think Niky could really use and have fun with (as an added extra that she can use whenever she wants to down the track sort of thing).  Wish me luck everyone!!!!

I have been working hard on getting my murrini order ready to send and have come up against a little hurdle..... my Frog Song murrini which is like a swimming little frog and one of the UGLIEST murrini I have ever made is sold out.  You might think this sends me the message that what I think is ugly others can use and make beautiful, but I find it hard to imagine making more of that ugly cane.... Maybe I should look at this as an exercise in self discipline, but these murrini look more like a frog that got squished on the road by a car than anything else to me.  Maybe I should make some dead cane-toad murrini just for fun.... now I like that idea quite a bit more!

I have made a few beads lately and seeing as I have been on a mission to catch up on orders, both informal and formal ones, I made ANOTHER belly dancer bead.  Why the capitalisation on another you might ask, and well... so far I am up to about belly dancer bead number 14 and still not happy.  This one I managed to reduce the silver glass I was using as her coin scarf and discoloured the side of her belly.......aaaarrrgh!  I shall have to get onto another belly dancer bead and I am sure that when I make one I think is good enough (its for a well-respected lampworking friend) I will breathe a massive sigh of relief for sure!

Filling the bowl..... My husband earns his wife-taming stripes!

On Saturday my husband was rather excited and leapt out of bed at about 7am.  Why you might ask? Well....not only had my parents given him a bag of money (change in gold coins of about $100 worth) there were a number of local garage sales on......aaarrgh!

Now I have been on a mission to try and get rid of extraneous stuff (mostly not mine though, I am quite emotionally attached that! LOL) and when Leo comes home to swap cars so he can go back and collect the BIG thing he bought, well.... I didn't exactly have a tantrum, but I sure made my displeasure felt about the whole situation in no uncertain terms!

It turned out to be one of those times where I should have bitten my tongue!  He came back with a very nice wooden corner cabinet for the grand total of $3 that fits beautifully into the dining room and fits all out board games perfectly!  It does need a rub back and re-varnish, but then so does nearly everything in the house...sometimes even me!! 

If you have a look he even popped a lovely large glass bowl and thats when things got interesting!

Leo made the suggestion that I fill that bowl with all my rejects, orphans and experimental beads!  He said it would look really "cool" in there and that guests could fossick amongst the beads for fun.  My first reaction was that it is an inspired idea and how thoughtful he was about my art and how lovely that he would make a place for it....etc....etc... until he said those dreaded words..... "now you don't need to leave them on the kitchen bench".... which of course totally ruined all the warm fuzzy feelings I was having towards him for his kindness and realised that when nagging me not to leave my beads and stuff on the kitchen bench (in the most annoying place I do admit) he has had to resort to giving me an alternative.  10 Points to the man who has changed a womans habit without argument!!!

Here is my old bead storage area, between the kitchen sink, the phone and the coffee machine (oh, and the kids slushy machine which is too cold to use right now anyway)

Of course I shall still have to remove the mandrels and clean them and stuff, but at least I won't be building up a massive pile of odd's that slowly spread out over an ever increasing area!

Best of all....... I am now on a mission to fill the bowl!  Everyone's happy!

Nat :-)

I'm in the Bead Soup Blog Party...whooohoooo!

It is possible that many of you are far more observant than me and have noticed I have a button with link to the Bead Soup Blog Party over at the bottom right!

I have joined up because to be honest it sounds like a real Hoot!  Plus I am thinking it will get me making some actually jewellery again (I have been very slack for quite a while now).  I think it sounds like great fun to make up a set of beads to send off over the ocean (unless I get an Aussie in my swap, possible but not likely I am sure).  I was on the torch today and thought I might make up some beads to send off, but then after lots of thought, I decided that it would probably be better to wait for my swap partner name and then do some sneaking about on thier blog to see what colours they are into (or anything else sort of special they might like).  I will be making a marathon effort to get my beads off really quickly given that the reciever will have the maximum time to make up something with them and I am hoping my swap partner does the same sort of thing.  As it turns out I will be off for two weeks in the beginning of September working as Loren Stump's Technical Assistant (soooo excited, I loved working with him last year), but this will be leaving me with very little time to do the making part of my swap.  I figure if I can have mine all finished up and photographed then I will have it all ready to upload on the party day (day to post up the finished article then go around to everyones blogs and drool over the all the loveliness!!!).

I have my half of the kaleidoscope murrini cane done, last bit tomorrow....YAY!  I have promised some more marine life murrini to one of Kerry's lovely customers and will get some of the components done for that too if I can.  Even though I am catching up on my TO DO list, after adding in some more, it seems that it is the perpetual to do list.... always something more to do!

Nat :-)

Off my back, on my feet and murrini-ing!!!!!

Oooooh, that feels so good to get back into some serious murrini-festing around here.  I have been so focussed on making stuff for my etsy store and getting side-tracked with some experiments that I have let my murrini making slide a little.  I have a whole lot of stock I need to get down to Kerry at Affordable Inspiration and in my defence I have been getting rather organised (ie. making large murrini and leaving some in component form for the next time rather than just making enough for right now).

I have also been really crook this week (that ill for those non-aussies) and have spent nearly a whole week in bed with no voice and whinging about the sore throat (mostly silently to myself to be sure) and having the frustration of needing to yell at my kids and only having a completely unsatisfying tiny squeek come out!!  Well, the antibiotics have now kicked in and the kiln is hot and its time to murrini. 

I have three constructed canes I am doing today, first off is the dragonfly cane final assembly (ie the two halves).  this is dragonfly cane number two I have made (the first one is back in the archives in this blog with some notes on how I came up with the planning for it).  The wings are a little fatter on this one and I will admit that I was not quite so anal about the graduation of colour, which I might add barely shows on the smaller diameter stuff once pulled down.  This one was made to restock and therefore, is still very nice, but not perfect.  I am hoping to avoid the "bum cheek" dilemma I had last time by making the body just a streamlined straight line.

Here is the second cane I will be putting together.  This is some more monarch butterfly cane, the last one I did I had a scare from one of my girls and accidentally put the two halves together off centre.... I am determined not to make that mistake with this one!  One thing to keep in mind with using the oranges and yellows in canes like this is that they are a bit unstable and rather prone to cracking.  Usually once they are pulled down this issue seems....er... less of an issue, but I always anneal even my final small diameter pull fully just in case.  To be honest it also makes the canes very nice to chop up neatly which is always a good thing!

And finally, I have decided that I should revisit my efforts at a kaleidoscope cane.  I am going to put these three together and fill with some other colours into a triangle shape which I will make into another component cane.... hopefully by the time I pull this out a couple more times you don't completely loose the detail, but considering that I found this one particularly ugly, I figure it can't hurt and I can keep my fingers crossed for a pleasant surprise anyway!

Eye eye! I will be keeping an eye on you!

Hahaha, yep and the bad puns can roll on...and on... and on!

 I have working slowly on my next dongle necklace and .....ta dahhhhh, its got eyeballs on it!  I know, I know, its the next level of crazy (not to mention a gazillion hours of torch time), but I think it will have a real impact when it is finished.  I am finding the odd momka cane I am using for the iris really interesting in that one will come out bright blue, then one will come out with green flecks, then one will come out with a green ring around the outside etc.  It seems really random and I am trying to see if striking the glass helps bring about this change or not.... so far I have not been successful in controlling the colour change effects, but I am happy with some random-ness in my life on occasion (it will irritate me just a little tiny bit until I work it out though).

I thought I would just have a quick posting tonight, I will have some more interesting stuff to chat about tomorrow I think!

And the "eye's" have it

I have been off line over the last week or so for a number of reasons....
1. General slackness
2. Lost camera and therefore nothing to show off
3. Jaunting over to my friends glass studio to melt glass

The most pleasurable of the three was of course going to Goglass studio (www.goglassart.com.au) and melting a pile of the lovely Gail's glass into "stuff".  The other exciting thing was that Gail has not long ago returned from the GAS (Glass Art Society) conference over in Seattle, USA with loads of info, new toys and tools and even some gorgeous Momka borosilicate glass (odds, 2nds and testers etc.) that she gave me some of...... gotta love that lady!!!!!

When I have got home, first off I resisted the urge to commit some of the interesting odd rods to murrini-i-fication (anything that looks interesting at the rod end is at risk of this around me I will totally admit).  Today I could resist no longer, there were some really cool looking rods that had loads of tiny weeny little inclusions that pretty much just look like heaps of tiny stripes.... I thought.... oh, now that might make a really cool eye iris if I let the centre pull in and just pop on a black dot for a pupil then lensed in some clear..... and indeed it did!!!!

Here is a couple of the efforts from today, I am hoping they are not too strange for someone to wear and I particularly like the larger one with the fine white twisty pattern around the edge.  Sorry about the slightly dodgy pic, it was taken inside and with my daughters cheap and nasty camera!!!

This interesting cane slightly struck to a blue / green tinge and with the lense on top looks rather realistic!!!!  My husband Leo now apparently is in desperate need of a white eyeball marble!!!!!!

I don't really like those eyeball pendants with lids on them - just creep me out a little, but I can see the lure now I have a wide open eye pendant.  I thought they might be good for those who like the Turkish style keep-the-evil-eye-away type pendants.  I told the kids I would make an earring set and hang them backwards on my ears so I can say I have eyes in the back of my head...... ha ha ha ha!  I also threatened to make Leo a brown eye....... with some brown toned stripy cane of course ;-)

One upsetting thing is of course that these canes are real one-offs, they are not production and I don't think will ever be no matter how much fun I am having with them.  Here is where the hoarder in me rears its ugly head telling me to put them away safely for when I really need that special thing..... aarrrrrrrggh!

Blast from the past.... using some VERY early murrini

I cannot blame the lovely Mr Loren Stump COMPLETELY for my murrini obsession, although he does bear a great measure of responsibility for the improvement in them thats for sure.  Every once in a while I go through my murrini stash and come across some of the early first ones.... usually this makes me scrunch up with some shame and think that I should hide them somewhere they can't be seen by the general public, but not yesterday.

I often participate in the monthly bead challenge run by the gorgeous Jan Cahill (http://www.jancbeads.net/ ) on our local glass bead makers forum here in Australia (http://www.glassbeadmakers.net/forum/index.php ) and this months challenge is Fantasy!

I had made up my half of a dragonfly cane,was quite happy with that and was in the mood to try a bead or two for the challenge.  I decided that if I cut some thin slices of the dragonfly wing components off the dodgy end of the pull they might make a cool fairies wing (possibly cooler if they didn't have black outlines).  So I threw a couple in the kiln and made a bead.

The process I use when just sort of playing with this type of bead is a bit .....er.... painful you could say.  Because I sort of want it to grow as I go along there is no pre-planning (apart from the wing component) and I end up scrambling around looking for bits and pieces with a hot bead waving around like a mad woman.  I decided that I would try some enamel on the bottom of a fairy simple tab bead which once I had made that base decided I wanted some simple murrini flowers on there....... MAD crazy-arsed dash to the box of floral murrini to find the old simple ones I made a couple of years ago.  Once I got them onto the bead I decided I wanted a full fairy and now needed some ivory stringer... juggling of the mandrel and the rod in the same hand ensued.... once done I wanted a component cane in purple for the dress.... more juggling and swearing... I am sure you get the picture!

When I put legs and arms and a body with a dress onto the bead, I realised this fairy needs a face of a certain size.... Going through my randoms box of murrini in one hand whilst try to keep the bead warm in the other must have looked odd, but finally I did find a bag of small faces (from a time when I pulled everything too small).  The very FIRST face cane I had ever made, complete with non-matching sized eyes and a too small mouth.... I had got to the point where I no longer cared which face, just any face will do so I grabbed one of the murrini I NEVER use and usually hide.  Surprisingly the size was just right and once I had thrown on a shock of hair she looked quite good.  I popped on one of the dragonfly wing slices and sort of wrapped it around the bead, because it was really too big, but I was really over the drama by now and just wanted to finish up I went ahead.  I also decided that since this bead was going to look really bad anyway I might as well try out a small slice of the 2011 signature cane and see how well it applies next to my signature monkey face..... quite well as it turns out!

Here's the results.   I think this bead is an example of two wrongs can actually turn out ok.... not perfect, but definitely OK!!  She is rough there is no doubt about it, but it is a good start for some new ideas.... one of which means I really do need to pull the wing cane bodgy end down a bit smaller!

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!

Glass clasp solution.... and the toggles have it!

I am in a good mood today, I finally completely and utterfly finished my fancy dongle necklace and even made a clasp for it.

I have spent many hours trying to work out a clasp solution for the glass necklaces and last night, thought well .... bugger it, I will try making my own glass toggle clasp.  The added bonus of making a glass clasp is that 1. it will match the necklace and 2. I can genuinely say that the necklace is completely and utterly glass in its ENTIRETY!

I had given making glass toggle clasps a bit of a rip in the past and needless to say had only limited success.  They did work, but looked unwieldy and ugly and I suppose I didn't have the experience I do now and they weren't particularly neat and round so I was loathe to put one of those ugly monstrosities onto my painstakingly made dongle necklaces....... but I have now changed my mind!

Here is a pic of the toggle I made last night for the latest necklace.  I decided to use some of the helix twist cane for the loop rather than just some clear and I think it looks great.  I used a short bit of helix cane with clear blobs at the end for the toggle bit and just measured the whole thing as I made it.  Actually I did stupidly make the toggle stick first and then had to match up the loop...... the second one I made I did the other way around and that was MUCH easier!  I also found that if the loop is more of an oblong shape then the toggle stick is easier to get in lengthways and then sits better at one of the smaller ends.  The other issue I had to sort out was how to get the whole shebang to sit nicely.  I had put a stem on the toggle stick and found that if I bent that stem at nearly right angles it sits beautifully against the neck!

Oh, you might see that I also popped my signature against the loop end too..... had to sneak in somewhere didn't I. 

Below is a pic of where I thought I would try something a bit new.... a bit "dangly-er".  Here is a pic of the start of that next experiment.......... I am obviously having some fun with these, even though they take hours and hours at the torch (the dongle necklace took me more than 12 hours of torch time counting making the chain (which I am getting much faster at) then making the components for the dongles (either murrini or helix twists) and then of course, putting the lot together.  Interestingly it is all worth it when its finished off, definitely some job satisfaction to be had there!

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!!!!!

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 ;-)