Bunny Beads :)

I'm so excited!
Tomorrow is my big girl's birthday, she'll be 8, and we have decided to get her a bunny. She has been begging for a pet for years, but since I am very allergic to guineapigs it has always been a big no! to anything furry.

Personally, since I grew up, my pets have always been insects, but you can't really pet them much, and they don't inspire you to whisper your secrets to them either, so ... an outdoor bunny - I am sure that can't be much of an allergy problem.

The thing is though, we have no bunny to give her, just the cage/house for it. So this morning I got up early and started making a bunny bead that I can give her, so she'll know who is going to live in the cage.

I have never made a bunny bead before, but it turned out quite well, so I just kept going and 8 cute little bunnies are now on my table. I only need one for my girl, so the rest will be going up in my Amio.dk shop during the coming week.


I have been googling bunny links lately, and have found that there are several breeders in our area, and a group who competes in bunny hop too, so it shouldn't be a problem to get her a little furball very soon. I am in fact looking much forward to it, since now that the decision is made, I too can dream of cuddling up a little furry creature.

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Thing-a-day: Feb. 25 (Beads & Sculptures)

New beads!


All made yesterday. This is what I usually make in a productive week (or two).
I could so use more days off ...

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Thing-a-day: Feb. 19 (New Beads)

Todays thing is more beads. I got a bit into purple as you can see.
I did manage to get the redish hue I were after to appear, but not as easily as I had thought it would be.
I have cored a few of them already, but one broke because I weren't paying attention :/
I am pleased with the lot though :)



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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 :)


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Thing-a-day: Feb. 15 (Bead Photo)

Today I shot pictures of my beads so I can post them online for sale later.
Alas, it seems that they all have dust on them or are unfocused, so I'll have to redo them after all.
This one is allright though ...


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

Freshly cored beads :)



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(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. 12 (Beads & Sculptures)

Success!
I did indeed manage to get myself up and into the studio at 3 in the morning, so I could get a bit of torchtime in before going to work.
It was quite an experience as I am not a morning person.
This is what I made, two lady figures and some frit tests.


I am pleased :)

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

Thing-a-day: Feb. 5 (Beads & Sculpture)

For today I have some new glasswork.



One goddess figure to display on a stand, one goddess to be worn as a pendant and 4 beads with 5mm holes for silver coring.

These were all made in one sitting, not the best, longest or most productive sitting, but how I ever got the idea that I could make a living from making beads is beyond me. Still - I'm surely going to try. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

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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.

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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 :)

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

I made the Nifty!

Yes, I made a lovely fine bead. This is it, and it includes frit which is something you have rarely seen from me. But - I think I may need to get me some more, I like it!
This is zimmerman, dark rose (I think), which seems much more colourfull when not encased. Strange, I'll have to explore that. I'll also have to make a new bead, one that includes a bit of olivegreen with all the purple. I bet it would be delicious :)



Do let me know of any frits I need to try. I like strong, but muted colours. Think 'autumn'.

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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 :)

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I made pendants

And I love them!
It is so great to see a finished product, even if fondeling loose beads is a joy in itself :)
I have to say, gluing in the sterling bails was not as easy as I had thought. Things were either too slippery or too set. I used two-part epoxy, that dries up in 5 minutes, and I had to remix several times to get these done. Any tricks to it that I should know of? (Angela?)

Anyway, they came out great in the end, and I managed to get a couple of pics of them too, in the last rays of sun for the day. Here we go:






These are all I have for now, as I had only bought 10 bails. I need to order more right now. They are brilliant!
Now the rubber cords I have been talking about - that is an entirely different story. I think I may need to order a lot of sterling chains instead :/

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Angel in progress

I just made a little post in the 'Creative Scandinavians Blog', about this lovely lady:


Wings are new to me, but I like it :)

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Bead Pictures!

Well, here we go :)
First, the shapes that will live after being cooled down in my new Japanese annealing bubbles, even when quite large. The ones on the right are the ones that look like Sue's ATC.


Next - dots.
Love those plunged bubbles.


My newly discovered love - drop beads. I will glue a bail into the hole and they will be quite nifty. Some are based on Ivory,


some on nice swirly odd lots from Vetrofond.


Some of them have been shaped further.


These ladies are all made with just a hole at the top. I look much forward to seeing one finished and on a chain. I have only silver bails, so I suppose I should get some sterling chains, though a black rubber cord would be lovely too.
The 3 ivories in the top row are the angel experiment I did, the 'baby-arm' godesses. I have already made a better one, but I don't think it would hold up to being a pendant, so I'll experiment further on making the wings more solid.


That's all for now.

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Highlights -

of the last couple of days:

Friday: Ooh friday. That was the day that Lydia Muell put up beads for sale. I had kept an eye out during the week after seeing her beads on LE, but I thought I would not be home at the time she would list them. As it happened I had put her in a wrong timezone and the actual listing time were 2 hours later than I had thought, and I were so ready!
I refreshed and refreshed and wondered how many others were doing that too and if her site would take it. I had almost convinced myself that it would be okay if I didn't get it, but as I refreshed once more the beads were up and I clicked and checked out and typed as fast as I could.
And Voilá, this is the latest addition to my bead/glass collection :)


Thank you Lydia for letting me use your picture

I am very excited about this one and have been sketching a bit regarding what I want to do with it. If I can pull it off it will be fit for a queen, but I shall keep it for myself :) Don't know when and with what I can possibly wear it though ... Go visit Lydias blog and website for stunning bead overload!

Also on friday, non bead related: My boyfriend has been looking at cars for a while. The one we have is an unsafe, noisy, smokey rustbucket, but it gets us where we want to go. We don't trust it for longer trips though, and with the holiday/vacation time coming up, he has made a serious effort, and on friday he picked up our new car! It is a whole new experince I tell you. It is silent, runs smooothly and there is more room on the backseat for the litle ones. I feel quite grown up when driving it, it feels like a 'real' car. Yay!

Weekend: There is a dot craze going on over at www.Lampworketc.com for all the wrong reasons, but none the less I have been inspired to do some too. I should probably not show off my own beads right after the glory of Lydias, but here we go anyway :)

The black and silver one was odd. I placed dots as 6-leafed flowers around the bead, melted them in and they were all well placed with a tiny line of black between them. When I reduced to get the silver out they grew right into each other and are just silvered areas now. Hard to see on the black, but very shiny.

The green one was odd too. There are actually 2 very different colours of green dots on that surface, they just look exactly the same. You can see the outlines of the top dots on the lower ones though.

The blue one has a very nice shape and weight. I have not cleaned it out of fear it might crack cause it's kind of big. But I'd like the blue dots closer together, the center dots are too big and not all shiny, and almost all of the tiny black dots are undercut.

Now the purple one came out nicely. The colours go well together (seashell base, some purple on top and iris blue mini dots), the purple dots came close together and the small metallic dots all went metallic and settled in well. It's a nice bead. But the thing is - everybody is doing it, and they all look just like it, so it doesn't feel like it's my creation. It does not make me happy.

These next ones may be simple, but they are all mine and that makes me happy :)

(Sorry about the fussyness that hurts my eyes. I shall replace asap)








Monday: Yesterday I went to have a bag full of beads annealed at my local glass supplier. I should have them back in a few days by mail. While I were there of course I had to get a couple of rods too :) I got black, white and both Ivories of Moretti as I were running out of those.
I also got a goldstone rod, one with the goldstone on the outside. I have tried the one that is incased in clear and find there are too much clear around it so now I will try the other kind. I don't use it much though, I'm not a glittery girl.
I also got 2 short rods of Double Helix glass that I look much forward to trying. I'll have to read up on how to work them first though, as I don't want to waste them. I got Terra and Chaos. This should be fun :)
And I had a good look at their kiln. They sell only that one, and the good thing about it is that apparently it doesn't use too many Amps when running, which is just what I need. It runs high enough for silver clay too, which I want to try later. I'll have too search around for a better price though, as danish prices are over the roof. It's the MF5 from Nabertherm in Germany. I'll go and look what else they have :)

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End of May!

Well, that was May.
It sure blew by fast for such a slow beadmaking month. I did get new glass though, and I am very excited about the silver glasses I ordered. I can see why people love them. The browns with Ivory looks possitively yummy, and the crackle reaction is great. I have made some dotted beads to test how they work and I am very pleased. I love these earthen tones and I am sure I will be making a lot of beads in these colours.
I have also finally tried the good old and very simple technique of closely placed dots with a twist in between. My stringers have always been as thin as a hair, but I have made an effort to make some 'fat' ones of about 1mm's thickness to use as a twisting tool. I have admired many beautiful beads with raised swirls, and now I am practicing the very thing myself. It's a lovely thing :)
Another new thing for me is that I made a reduction. I made a twistie (which is also a new thing) of hades and silver cinnamon and melted it in around a base bead. I turned down the oxygen and up the propane and it turned the silver cinnamon parts completely shiny with silverdeposits. I am not much into shiny, but this was fun and I will try to see if i can make it happen again.
And here they all are :)


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What's Cooking?

Well, after discovering this lovely Lady, Vickie Hallmark, and her fabulous pods, I have been all hopping with ideas of electroforming. Even if I don't see me getting the equipment in the near future (probably not this year), it is very exciting all the same, and I am writing and sketching so I will remember later.
I did get to the torch this weekend, and I made these somewhat podlike things:



Now the thing is - there were 2 more, but they broke on the mandrel. The black one broke right after taking this picture, and the green one is cracked in so many places it's not even funny. This means I have 3 measly beads to show after 2½ hours of torching, and I really don't see how that can ever turn into even a selfsustained hobby, much less a business with a profit.
I do realize that had I had a kiln they might not have broken, with practice I might have been faster, and with a plan before I sit down I might be faster too (I think I need a Colour Book). But still ....
And about the kiln, it seems any kiln I can find will be needing more amps than we have for the whole house at this time. Which means not only do I need to invest in a kiln, but I also need to get extra powerlines into the house to get it to fire in the first place. So I have been ignoring the whole kiln issue, after getting a good start a few weeks back.
I am up and down all at the same time o_O

Mostly up though, I am good at ignoring things. And I have made an order for more glass (this time from Holland again) which is a definate up'er :) The owner told me that postage was the same no matter the size of the order, so I got a lot! 20 colours = 2,5 kg (well it's a lot for me. I can't compete with the 30 pound orders I have heard of, don't want to either :) ) I also got the new Japanese annealing bubbles, so I am hoping for less cracks already. Now I am looking for a nice storage system, since having rods laying in layers on the table is bad, bad feng shui.

This week will be busy though so I may not get a lot of (any) things done. My baby's birthday is tomorrow, she'll be 2. The house is a disaster and needs to be cleaned up tonight before company arrives tomorrow for dinner. We have also yet to get her a present or two. It's amazing how these things sneak up on us time and again. Saturday we go on a boat trip with the workplace people, and the kids sleep over at my parents house. Then sunday we'll have them over for lunch is the plan so far ... it may not seem like a lot, but I'm tired allready.

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I've been shopping!

Not much new has happened regarding beads this last week, though much is on my mind.

I have a glass order laying around in the danish costums. It was sent on april 4'th, arrived at the border on april 9'th and I am still waiting. One might get a little impatient after 12 days!

It was an order I placed with Frantz Art Glass and I were lured into it by an offer of 40% off the Vetrofond Odds, Yay! Not that I need much luring in the first place, but it did make me forget about the customs fee that might be added and completely spoil the deal for me. Sometimes you can get lucky and they miss you goods completely, but with this prolonged wait I am afraid I have been fee'd. My sister holds the family record though, of waiting 21 days for her goods, so aparently I should not complain yet ;)

I also have another thing coming to me, which I imagine will be here much faster. Today I thought it was a long time since I had had a look at the glass items offered at Etsy, so I logged in and started clicking the pages away. This time I didn't choose lampwork beads only, but the whole glass section, which was fun to see. When I clicked page 31, OH! A Treasure! I had no need to look any further, this one was for me. I did try talking myself out of buying it for a while (which is dangerous as someone might buy it while you debate), but no, I had to have it, so I clicked the green button. This is the beauty that stopped me in my tracks:

It is made by Jennifer Geldard who kindly let me use her photo. I don't know what I will do with it yet, but that has never stopped me before :) There is already another one like it in her Etsy Shop, and her website has a gallery with a beautiful and diverse selection of her beads. A few are even electroformed, which is something I would love to try in the future.

Something I have thought a lot about is getting a kiln, but I shall make that a separate post :)

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Goddess Galore: the Artful Nude

One of the reasons I began lampworking in the first place, after initially having looked at about a million lampwork beads, was this: The awe-inspirering beads of the incredibly talented Teresa Laliberté of Lavendercreek

(Thank you Teresa , for letting me use your picture :)

When I first saw her work, my jaw dropped. I went through every picture of hers that I could find, particularly here
At first I thought these ladies were little statuettes, and I were amazed to find out all this detail were actually crammed into a much smaller space. They were beads, Ladies and Gentlemen, and so I were firmly bitten by the BeadBug!
Once I had my own setup, of course I had to try my newbie-hands at making goddesses. I did get the likeness of a woman out of it (sort of) and I were so thrilled. Now I see that they were not so hot, and that I have learnt a lot in the year I have been making beads. These are the stages I have gone through



Ah yes, much better now. I can't wait to see where I will be in another years time :)

Other goddess makers well worth a mentioning:
Rachelle, who also makes guys.
J C Herrell, goddesses with glitz
Ellyloo, who makes some real cute tiny ones with wings
Angelinabeadalina, who makes strange and intriguing female sculptures
and Becky Casady, from a recent search, who works in polymer clay, both beads and sculptures.

Go visit all of them, this is beautiful stuff. It is nice to see that there are so many ways to do a Goddess Bead, even if the basic idea is the same.

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