I love leaf beads, but the ones I have been forming freehand so far have been fairly massive and heavy. They are beautiful and I am very proud of them, but I'd like to be able to create leaves with more of the lightness they would have in nature.
So I have invested in a leafmasher, and these are my very first mashed leaves.
I rather like them, though I can see already that the uniformity of the shapes is not entirely satisfying for me. I am pleased that the sizes are different, in fact making a perfect match might be a challenge. But that is part of the joy of nature and organic beads. They aren't supposed to match perfectly :)
I need to practise the final loop that makes them stringable. These are looped, but they are all quite wonky. I intend to try making them on a spacerbead too, and on a length of wire. And while I try out all those solutions I will practice doing it quickly so the leaves doesn't crack from too much cooling before I am done fiddleing and re-fiddeling.
And when I get a good grip of that, it will be time for some post-mashing individual shaping, and time to get some colour and perhaps even sparkle into my work. I have after all admired this piece by Nina 'Sam' Hibler for years. Delicious! :)
Love,
Lene
Posts
2 comments:
Thank you Lene
Your leaves are beautiful.
I use the small leaf masher and then do a little extra manipulation of the glass so they look different.
Thank you Nina :)
That is what I will try too. I don't know what size my masher is, but I like the size of leaves I get, so yay!
Post a Comment