Kim Fields: Sculptural Flowers Class at Bifrost Copenhagen

Last week I and a bunch of other lampworkers had a great time with the lovely Kim Fields, teaching sculptural flowers at Bifrost. Oh my, was it ever hard!

Kim's flower technique is quite advanced and takes a LOT of attention and focus from first timers.

Kim Fields showing the first bead, having everybodys attention

These are my beads from the first day.
First a small basic flower. I made mine in babyblue, with 5 petals. This one came out okay.

Basic babyblue flower

The second one, a dogwood flower, was larger, and that alone made it more difficult. My petals almost got away from me a couple of times, but I pushed them back in and gave up on the final shaping  ... well, here it is. The rubino oro came out well at least :)

A dogwood flower (supposedly)

The last bead of day 1 was a poppy, with 2 rows of petals. Phew!
Keeping all those from touching, and also keeping them all squished and nicely thin, was quite a challenge. Kim demoed it in periwinkle, but I wanted a bright red one, like the first single petal she had made to show the shape and how to ruffle the edge.

Kim's tip of the day: make single petals untill you know what you are doing. Then worry about getting them made directly at the bead.

Kim's single poppy petal. Sweet!

My first ever Poppy!

Apparently I squished the inner petals a few times too many, which made the black part smear the whole petal. The outer ones are fine, but hard to see. I think this calls for a do-over :)

We also made our own cane. I am very pleased with mine, so I might just keep it forever :)

Day 2, another challenging day:

This one, shot from it's very best angle here that makes it look fairly okay, was quite difficult, with 2 layers of different coloured leaves and petals. It is made sideways on a small barrel, so no hole in the center.

We also made a small leaf, but mine broke so I tossed it. It looked very nice until then :)

This final flower, the sweet pea ... well, it doesn't really have a good angle, so there you go. It's rather tiny, so perhaps a larger size would have been better to start out with.

Tiny Sweet Pea flower

And here they are all together for a show of size.

Phew! That was a hard 2 days, but very rewarding. Many thanks to Kim for traveling this far to teach us, to Jette for arranging the classes and to all the students for being there and completing the experience.

Kim Fields: Take Flight Class, at Bifrost Copenhagen

So finally, here are my bird beads from the Kim Fields class, in order of completion.

Day 1:

First bird, 3 layers of wings on such a small body is not easy. The head is tilted to the left. I didn't mean to, but I like it :)

Second bird, an owl, came out kind of okay. With a white coating on the belly, wings on the back, a tiny bit of a tail and many many tiny little claws. The eyes were difficult, in that the indentations in the white were easily lost since white glass is so soft. The beak is more of a nose, but the placement is good. The horns ... meh.

Bird no.3. A little extra one I fit in, in the afternoon. Nothing special.

Day 2:

Bird no.4 the Pudgie. Markings around the beak and eyes. Took a lot of fiddeling and didn't come out too well. Also made me forget to heat the tail, so it popped off later in the kiln. Oh well ...

Bird no.5 An actual bird, the Vermillion Flycatcher. Mine is a bit chubby, but I like it all the same. The black line on his face was supposed to go through the eye and through the beak, but as red turns black when hot, it was not easy to see where the colours met. Trying to tell the to colours apart, I got it too hot and the line flowed downwards. An ekstra dot of red on the top of the head pushed the line too.

This final bird we made is the Musvit. I am very pleased with how it came out. See how the head is round with an angle at the back and a full melt-in at the front? It has a good size too, compared to the body. See the half-circle marking on the cheek, and the eyes properly indented? And it has a line of black running down the chest and some white under the tail.

The wings need work in the shape and thickness, but they have a lighter line across on the upper part, and a coating of striated stringer (which I made myself, Woot!) on the 2 lower wing layers. It is on the topside of the tail too.

After only 5 sparrow shaped birds ever, I'd like to declare it a success. Yay! :)

This last bird is not made by me. It is made by Kim Fields herself, and now resides in my glass collection. Isn't it fabulous? :)

All in all I have to say it was a wonderful experience. Being in a room full of hyper-focused people is a special feeling, and I am very pleased I got to be a part of this class.
Thank you to all involved.

Kim Fields: Take Flight Class, at Bifrost Copenhagen

Oh my! Did I ever have the best two days with Kim Fields and the other students over at Bifrost Studio Glas. Oh yes :)

I almost didn't make it, being very ill om monday. I was in bed all day and couldn't eat a thing. I thought there were no way I could be at the class I had looked forward to for months.
Tuesday morning I felt somewhat better, though still doubting I could last the full day, but off I went with determination. And lo and behold, the excitement of the class and the good food we got (+ a little bit of coca cola) kept me on my feet all day. Yay!

The only birds I have made before this course has been tiny one-colour spacers with a dot-head, tail and little squished dots for wings. They are all cute and fine for earrings, and where actually the first thing I made back in 2007 when I got my torch and tools.

Now however, I feel I can move on to bigger and better, and since I love to sculpt my lampwork, this class seemed like just the thing for me. And it was! I had a blast :)



Kim Fields making a fabulous and complex Toucan

And I learned so much from Kim!
Sculpting colourful birds is nothing like sculpting goddesses. You have to be very precise with the heating or you'll loose definition on the previous steps. I learned about precision heating, laying down lines and not have them move while melting in, softening the base, but not loose the shape of little dots on top, pulling tiny dots into shapes with the tip of a stringer ... I even made my very first cane. Hooray!
It was simply a fabulous class, and I am so happy I got to go after all. 



This is the Toucan, finished but for the final turn of the head

We, the students, did not make a Toucan, the beak alone took half an hour to make, but it was interesting to watch the process, in case we should feel adventurous later at home :)

We did get to make this one below. I don't know the name in english, but Kim had spottet it out her window in the morning, and it is one of the sweetest local birds I know of. It was the last one we all made, complete with face- and chestmarkings, and 3 layers of double layered wings, using the striated cane we made ourselves.
I was very pleased with my version of this one as it went into the kiln, and I hope I will be when it comes out too. I look forward to getting my birds from day 2 in the mail, so I can post them all together.


The danish name for this bird is Musvit

Many, many thanks to Kim for coming all this way to teach us, and to Jette for arranging it and for taking so good care of us while we got lost in colours and shapes and flames.
Thank you!!!

Gail Crosman Moore Class, Day 1

Ooh, I've had a great day :)
It is so nice to be in the company of dedicated beadmakers all day, torching away for hours.

We made 6 beads today, all in Gails lovely style. My first beads, we made 4 in a row on one mandrel, were quite wobbly and unevenly spaced, but after that it went very well, and I can't wait to see my beads again tomorrow.
Gail is a lovely woman, and everybody were very focused, working constantly at their beads all day long.

Here is Gail, working on one of her fabulous pod pendants






As for working in boro - the colours are just wonderful. Nice muted tones, just like I like them. Laying down lines of stringer is much easier than in soft glass, but shaping the base bead can take a while. The boro hardens much quicker and must be reheated a lot. Also, the bead while being shaped, is radiating a lot! of heat. It is not easy to get close to the bead when laying stringers or dots.

I am still undecided as to weather this is something I would like to invest in at this point, but since it will require a new pair of glasses, not just the glassrods, and probably new beadrelease too, I think I will have to wait for later. I'd love to try to make implosion marbles in boro, but I guess I could practice in soft glass first, then upgrade later if I like it.

Tomorrow will be interesting too. We have been asked to bring inspiration (pics, objects what have you), and our own works that we would like to develop on. I am not really sure what to bring, but that I must think about in the morning.

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Gail Crosman Moore Class!

I have been looking forward to this weekend since I snatched the last seat in this class back in may.
I love Gails pod- and flowerlike beads, and getting to try boroglass will be exciting, since I have only ever worked in soft glass. I can't show you a pic cause I haven't asked for permission, but here is her website with gallery and blog and many lovely pictures.

Now I will pack a few tools and go to bed so I can get a good nights sleep before we tart tomorrow. 7 hours at the torch will be a bit hard, but the classes at Bifrost are great, and my friend Lenette will be there too, so I know it will be a fun couple of days :)

Yay!

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Pictures from the Larry Scott class at Bifrost

Phew! That was a really hard weekend.
It startet out great with a short introduction of Larry and each of us students, while sitting down for a cup of tea


(must be a fine day ahead, right? :)

Then we went to the torches. Larry would demonstrate how to make the beads give us the materials and we'd get busy duplicating.
We had 8 beads on schedule during the two days, and began with an easy ivory and coppergreen design. Then on to larrys Peacock bead. Mine is not so fancy (the dots were too small to rake propperly), but here it is anyway, along with the Byzantine bead we were taught later on sunday.



The Filigre and Window beads went better. Here are mine, one etched to show the dark lines of silver on top of the ivory ridges, which is a trick he showed us.





By then evening had come, and those of us who wanted to, went out to eat locally. I had a wonderful time. I can't remember when I were last in a propper restaurant, and it was nice to be with people who also love beads :)
However - when we left to go home I didn't feel too well. I managed to get home and went straight to bed, proceeding to toss my cookies at regular intervals all night long. This was no fun and left me weak, dried up, tired and somewhat shaky. Not the best condition for precicion dot placement I'd say. The next morning I went to class, feeling fairly well most of the day, though the smell of lunch was no pleasure, even if I usually love lasagna :/

We were taught about dots, the Byzantine bead above, silver fuming, pulling stringers with a core colour, the No-name bead made with dark silver plum and Iris orange (which I gave up on shapeing)



and finally, the bead I had come for, the Night Sky bead



This bead has many more steps than any of the others, and of course I had to forget one (crusial) step, making my bead very dark and not so interesting. I did get the center dichrolayer down well (for a firsttimer anyway :), and some lovely massive swirls, so I am not entirely unpleased with it. And next time I'll definately remember :)
Here is a pic of how it should have been looking. I could not stand up the chance of getting one (or two as it may be) of Larrys beads, so here is the newest addition to my bead collection. A Byzantine bead and a Nightsky bead. Lovely :)



By now the afternoon was progressing and I were feeling quite poorly again, so I left during the last bead. I know how to make it though, if I should feel like it, although I would need a glass I don't currently have.

All in all it was a very educational couple of days. I have learnt a lot of little tricks and tips, and it was wonderful to get to meet Larry and the danish beadmakers. I should go on more courses :)
It was hard though. I usually only get to torch for about 4-6 hours in a week, so all this sitting and standing made my back a bit sore. But it's all gone now along with the sickness, and I am feeling fine.

Finally, here is Larry showing us the Byzantine and window bead.





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A class, a class, a beadmaking class!

I'm so excited!
In just one week (6 days to be precise) I will attend my second beadmaking class ever. The first one was a beginners course, just to get me started, and it was over 3 years ago! This time I am splurging on myself by having enrolled in a 2 day class taught by Larry Scott.

The class will be held at Bifrost Studioglas, which is where I went for my beginners course too, and where I get most of my glass. It is a great place I think, and I look much forward to 2 whole days of torching.
Imagine that, hours and hours on end of melting glass and learning new tricks. It will be glorious! And further more, I have arranged for a day off from work the day after, so I will have time to go through everything again at home. Super!

I have recieved a mail with pictures of the beads he'll teach us, and they look fantastic (can't show you, because I haven't asked permission, sorry). I look much forward to learning the techniques and trying it all out for myself. Both his byzantine beads and windowbeads are there, and also a lovely black one with silverblue swirls, looking like a galaxy in outer space.

The course was a spur of the moment thing, as Larry Scott was going to be in Denmark for the opening of an exhibition at Bornholms Kunstmuseum. It's all about glass beads and opens today. I hope to get to go and see it myself later in the year. It runs from january 17'th to march 14'th 2010.

In other beady news, besides lots of purple beads, I made this guy.



Unfortunately he is stuck on the mandrel and is now living with one of my favourite plants :)

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