Imploding is fun!

After my first marble session I realised that for now, the implosions was the most fun for me to make, so I made some more.

This one is my favourite so far. The white petals have a really nice curve, the whole flower is halfway up through the marble, not just at the bottom, and I even got some green leaves in below. They have a different shape than the petals, which I like because I did it on purpose :)

Also the flower goes straight up, and while it is still not a perfectly round marble, it wants to stand the right way up, all by itself. Yay!

These are the 3 new ones I got made. No cracks at all this time, no soot, and I also took care to make the surface nice and smooth and free of chillmarks so you clearly see what's inside.

The baby-blue one has been squished on top. I think I make my marias too flat to begin with, and definately squished this one too much while imploding. I got it uncentered from the beginning too, but I like the melting part so I finished it anyway.

This one I tried to make with an additional row of petals, which worked out fine, but the mass of flowing glass turned sideways while imploding, and it is topheavy too, so ... not so fabulous either.

But I love it, I do, and I want to learn more. The whole implosion process is intriguing and I look much forward to trying it again. I think I may have to make yet another list of 'things to try out', because my mind is sizzling with ideas.

Love,
Lene

My first ROUND marbles!

Ooh, I love my infinite rim mould!

Yes, I decided to go ahead and get one, since all I have heard about it is praise and goodness. Isn't it delicious and pretty and SHINY :)

And it works great too, these are my very first rounded marbles.

From the top left:
a spectacularly cracked flower marble,
a large-ish vortex in pastels and pixiedust, slightly cracked and with a ring of soot,
a slightly cracked planet marble,
an octopus experiment with a very flat 'face',
another planet with several mysteriously flat areas,
and finally the best of the bunch, a white flower with just a bit of soot at the top of the lens.

It seems perhaps I should start out a bit smaller, or perhaps by reading/watching a tutorial :)

I am not unaccustomed to keeping large masses of glass warm (large for beads anyway), but I have never used punties before. I dropped the first marble tree times (the cracked planet), but after that it went well. It is a bit of a distraction though, as is using a new tool, which may well have kept my attention from keeping the heat up.

But I am very happy with them, in anticipation of better results with practice :)

Love,
Lene

Light vs. Dark

Effetre Ivory, my favourite glass to use. The colour is a delicious cream, and the softness is just right for my sculpting.

While I prefer the light version for my ladies, I realise that the dark has its charm too. I have run out of my regular Light (as the load of Light I had bought, is in fact much darker), and I thought I would give the Darker version a go. Here is a pic of one lady in each of the Ivories.

The colour difference is more pronounced in real life, but this clearly shows the curdling effect of the Dark Ivory on the left, and the smoother creamyness of the Light on the right.

It is not just a colour difference though, as the surface of the two are different too. The Light is as smooth as the colour looks, the Dark has a slight texture to it, just as the rods used have a little and more texture.

The Ivories are famous for their reaction with silver, and while I love the rich caramel brown I get from fuming the Light Ivory, I think it is time I start exploring the possibilities of the Dark.

Love,
Lene

My first implosions!

Ooh did I ever have fun getting up at 3 a.m. on friday to torch before work!
Thursday evening I had re-discovered the YouTube channel of Florin Voicu. He may only have postet 5 videos, but the how-tos are making me happy.

I had first seen the one with the spider, but as he says in the beginning, it is probably best to start with something simpler if you haven't made an implosion before. So I looked at his flower tut too and made my own mix of the two flowers.

The two first ones are trash, but this is no. 4. It has tree rows of 5 blue petals and 3 white stamens for the pollen in the center.

Here is a sideview, and yeah, I know it is completely wonky, but that was not part of the challenge this time. Just to implode.

This is no. 3. I thought it looked kind of okay, so I attached a length of clear rod to it and voilá, I have a wonky hairstick :)

I wasn't sure the rod would survive coming from room temperature and getting thrown into 520 Celsius, but it did. Yay! This one has 2 rows of 4 petals, and the center stamen of 3 dots.

And speaking of pollen, check out the beauty of the little buggers over at wikipedia :)

This was so much fun I may have to get myself a marble mould. That infinite rim mould sounds awfully alluring right now ...

Love,
Lene

'My' new Gallery (part II)

I love discovering artists I haven't seen before, and I wasn't dissapointed at 'Galleriet Hornbæk'.

On the walls of the very first room of the gallery I noticed this fascinating piece by Lennart Forup

There are several pieces of his around the gallery, like these odd paintings on wood



This beautifully calm and peaceful angel painting by Maj Trolle is so lovely

I am impressed that people still make marble statues. This is right inside the door and made by Jerry Adder, who also made the painting below

Isn't art great? :)


Love,
Lene

PS: one pendant has already sold, Yay! :)

'My' new gallery! (part I)

This past friday was the opening day of a new gallery, 'Galleriet Hornbæk', in ... Hornbæk ;)

Last weekend I delivered 6 of my big ladies and an assortment of pendants to the owner, Susanne Risom, and on friday I went to the opening. It was great to see my work in the gallery among all the art. 

This is the front of the shop. It is only a window and a door wide, but inside it stretches through 3 rooms en suite, all the way to the back of the building.

Here is a window on the side wall, full of glass, ceramic bowls, bronze animals and bottlestoppers, and also some of my ladies.

This is the jewellery displaybox holding the rest of my glass, next to wild fairytale jewellery by Pernille Mouritzen.

You can see more pictures of art by other artists at Susanne's website: http://www.risom.dk/  and I'll post some of the ones I found interesting in my next post.

Love,
Lene