What is a MARIMO?

No, not a fancy new lampworking tool, or a fabulous new colour of glass - a Marimo is a bunch of algae, living and growing as a free flowing ball, rolling along on the bottom of Lake Akan in Japan. They have no roots and sometimes they will lay on the bottom, sometimes they will rise up to the surface, presumably to get more light.

See videos on YouTube about marimos

They are good for clearing the water in your aquarium, where they will use up all the nutrients before other types of algae gets a chance to grow. If you do not have an aquarium that needs tending, you can keep the Marimo as a pet (or more likely, as a houseplant, though submerged in water).

A few weeks ago I first encountered these intriguing lifeforms, and I'm afraid I fell in love right away. It is probably just a fad, but ... my Marimos are here! Woot!! :)

I ordered a bunch of them. I have some for my aquarium, some for my desk at work, some for the windowsills, some for my children to love, and even some for my mother. Yes, the madness is spreading :)

And hey, being a lampworker, what else could I do? I made Marimo beads!

Just a couple so far, testing out colours. I used my new cane-making abillity to pull stringers with an opaque center and a transparent coating. It is very suiting for these beads, emulating algae strings overlapping the ball surface.

The first cane was made with a peagreen center, and ended up in this bead.

Then I accidentally grabbed a rod of Kiwi, same peagreen surface, but with a transparent center. When pulled to a stringer and applied it has a more ghostly see-through appearence. I like that too on these darker versions.

I tried a few different colours for base colour, which all seemed possible from what I have seen on YouTube, and now that I have the real deal to look at I will see what I can do to make them a bit more velvety. I'm happy about the texture though.

The Marimo balls also exists in other places, like Iceland and Estonia, and even in Denmark we have a similar ball of algae. In Danish it is called 'gedebolle' (goat-ball), named after the green ball a ruminant will retch up for a second or third munching.
Not quite as charming as Marimo or Mooskugeln as they are called in Germany. So mine will be Marimos, unless of course they each get a pet name ... We'll see about that :)

Thing-a-day: Feb. 16 (Silver Cored Beads)

Today I have cored all of the beads I made last night.
It's a great feeling, getting things done.
I am very pleased that I decided to join Thing-a-day :)


P~

Thing-a-day: Feb. 13 (Silver Cored Beads)

Freshly cored beads :)



P~
(Phew! I only just made it before the date changed :)

PS: visit my thing-a-day post, my thing-a-day blog, or the complete thing-a-day project blog

Thing-a-day: Feb. 4 (Chinese Button Knot)

Here it is again that flowery bead. What did I do you ask?
Well, I made it ready for wearing, by stringing it on a leather cord. I'm not much into ordinary knots, it's not really jewelry-worthy I think, så I made this nifty chinese button knot instead.
It looks fancy and symetrical, and it's not that hard to do. This is the tut I have been using.



So for today - a knot.

P~

Thing-a-day: Feb. 2 (Silver Cored Bead)

Todays thing is another bead I have cored with sterling silver.
Much smaller than yesterdays bead, but with lovely mild colours.



I still do not have access to post on the project blog, but I'm hoping to get there eventually.
Or I'll just run my own little (very similar) project :)

P~

PS: visit my thing-a-day post, my thing-a-day blog, or the complete thing-a-day project blog

A technique for January: Dots

After I wrote my post on choosing one technique for each month of 2009 to practice, the leader of the Danish glass group I am in took up the challenge.
She posted the idea for the group and several people wanted to join in. She has accumulated loads of links for us to look at and be inspired by, and on Jan. 1'st she posted the technique for January: Dots.

So far I have only had 2 torch sessions, but both were full of dots. December was very busy and I didn't make a single bead, so I wanted to start out slow and easy.
I used the technique described here, the Wavy Bead technique which I have done before. I didn't do as described though, I used only opaque glasses, and in stead of just dollops of glass laid on the disc, I laid out stacked dots which made funky eyes. When I were halfway through melting everything in, I thought: 'This is a fun shape. I think I'll just keep it'. So I did, and here is the result.


Next time I tried out my 5mm mandrels. They are very thick when you are used to 1.6mm, and heavy. But it was fun, and I look forward to the day that I will try to silver core some of them. I love the cored beads, it's a beautiful thing :) It may not be this year though, as I am trying to not buy stuff, but we'll see what happens.
These are my first beads with a large-ish hole.


More will definately follow :)

P~