Something new!

I finally got into my workshop with my new glass this weekend, and the first thing I wanted to do was one of my 'things I'd like to try'. I used my beloved Effettre Ivory, a dollop of my new Vetrofond odd light amber and a bit of Vetrofond odd lot Cosmic Storm stringer, and I went ahead and tried my hands at my first off-mandrell piece.

Now this is something completely different from making beads on a mandrel. In stead of inventing the wheel all over again, I decided to try a heart. It is quite possible I should have made just a little bit of research, but instead I just jumped in with both feet. I heated a blob of ivory on the end of the rod, added globs of amber and twirled a bit of Cosmic Storm around it.
I squished the whole thing fairly flat, heated the appropriate area and made a cut diagonally across from the rod and halfway through the disc. This makes 2 pointy ends that when heated ends up as the 2 round top parts of a heart. The center and pointy end of my heart were a bit skinny, but it didn't occur to me to add more glass as I were ballancing the hot mass trying to avoid melting the rod too much and losing the whole thing.
I also tried to poke a hole through the upper center so the heart might be hung when finished, but when I poked from one side, the hole from the other side would close up and just show a little point where it had been. So I gave up on that, and now I have a small heart to decorate my home in some fashion.
Not a raging success, but definately fun, and definately something I will try again.


Front and back. Yup, it's tiny :)

I also made a few beads in black and white, much like this one, which I haven't done in a long time, and some more of the jupiter spacers. I think I have enough now for the necklace I am contemplating, my first planned project. Now I need to work on some teeth beads so I can have a bunch available for my shop, they always sell fast :)

P~