Coming up: the Annual lampwork event of the Danish Bead Society, June 1-2, 2013

It's that time of year again. 
On friday I'll be off for the annual get together of the Danish Bead Society, taking place as always, at the grounds of Ravstedhus in Southern Jutland.
Two days of lampwork fun (June 1-2), demoes, glass and tool shopping, and of course - the bead contest.

This year will be extra specially exciting for me, as I will be doing my very first demo on saturday! I will be showing a basic flower implosion in soft glass. Very usefull for both marble making and bead making too. 

Saturday is for the members only, full of fancy demos. If you are not a member, but want in on the fun, I bet you could become one right then and there by simply showing up and paying the yearly fee (200,- Dkr).

But on to the bead contest. The theme this year is 'Contrasts' and since the deadline for sending in has passed, here is a picture of my bead.



My bead for this years bead contest, themed 'Contrasts'.

It is a sculpted bead, with a man on one side and a woman on the other. One is White, one is Black. One is rounded one is angular. One is curvy, one is fit.
It was my first and only idea, so I just had to make it :)
ETA: here it is from four sides

Since I have never sculpted a man before, I made a couple of beads before I were happy (and out of time) and sent off no.4.



I wasn't paying attention when I snapped this pic, so it's 1, 3, 2 and 4

and here they are from the side

 

It was not an easy bead to make. What troubled me the most (besides the sculpting of the man) was laying on the 2 colours seperately on either side of the mandrel, until I remembered (at bead no.4). I could simply make a transparent base, then 'paint' the two sides with the colours. So much easier! so there is your Tip of the Day.

 

Also, it is surprisingly difficult to make a body without a back. You would think it would be half the work, but no. All kinds of challenges arise from not being able to shape freely around the sides of the bead. It all comes down to practice though, and this is a bead I will continue to explore. It's a challenge :)

 

So - the event is open for the public on sunday the 2'nd, so come on over and try making your own bead, see some demoes, vote for your favourite at the bead contest and find many lovely treasures to bring home at the lampwork market.

Furthermore, the shop at Ravstedhus will be open, and several sellers from Germany will be there too, with all you need for lampworking and jewelry making.



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.

P~

A Lampworkers get-together

Well isn't is about time I let you all know that I am still alive and well and having a good time with my glass? I think it is :)

In particular I'd like to tell you about the lampwork meet-up and market I attended during this weekend.
It was a two-day event on the grounds of Ravstedhus, clear across the country from where I live. I packed up my BFs festival tent and took off to spend the night come rain or come shine. Fortunately we had the best weather ever, you might even say it was a bit on the hot side, especially on sunday, the market day.



I have never visited Ravstedhus before, and I was surprised to see how huge the shoparea was. I don't know what it normally looks like but this weekend there were 3 visiting German sellers of lampwork tools and glass as well as the regular shop. It was a beadmakers heaven :)

Saturday was wall-to-wall demoes. I especially liked to hear about electroforming and marblemaking, which are both techniques I'd like to try one day. I found out that I might not entirely enjoy electroforming the way I'd thought, because of the lumpy edges, but that they can be reduced by turning down the voltage. I'd love to try it sometime :)
I'd absolutely love to make marbles, but not opaque ones as was demoed. I'd like to try the transparant ones with implosions and stuff inside. Yay!



Later in the day a meeting was held in the tent in the yard, and the long awaited Danish Bead Association was formed. I look much forward to having a central place for all our Danish beadmakers to connect and get together and I joined on the spot. It'll be great :)



Then we went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. Lots of chatter all around and good food, and then back to more demoes, this time by Jens Chr. Kondrup. He showed us how he works in tubes, and when the conversation came to torsos I showed him one of my ladies and he made me a man in a matter of minutes. It was fun to see his technique of starting at one end and never going back. I go back and forth and back and forth again. I'll have to try his way as he said it creates less stress in the glass.

Sunday was the day of the market open for the public.




I had been looking much forward to this and had signed up as a seller. I probably should have asked questions before I signed up, but now I know that for next time. I had imagined perhaps 15 sellers and maybe around 150-200 costumers, but aparently that was way off.





I guess everything has a growing periode, and since this was only the second year of this event, well ... I'll be happy to go again next year though, and then I'll know better. I should probably mention that Ravstedhus is in a tiny village out in the countryside, which means people have to really want to be there to attend. You don't stumble upon it accidentally. This is not ideal for a market, actually it is quite counterproductive, but for demoing the place is perfect, with lots of space and workstations and supplies and tools all over, so it's a bit of a dilemma.
I'll be happy to go again next year as the socializing was great. I got to meet a lot of new people and talked about beads all day long for two days. Excellent weekend :)

So yes - in all it was a great initiative. Thank you to the organisers and the participants too.

P~

(PS to the person who nicked one of my Goddess-pendants: Congratulations on your great taste. You picked the nicest one of the ones I had laid out at the time. My paypal is open for payment at any time convenient for you on p@profusionartglass.com (that was 350Dkr. in case you 'forgot' that too). Thank you, and have a nice day.)

New Fibulas

I made these for a customer and was very pleased with the result. So was she, yay! :)
These have an ekstra bead, compared to the ones I have made before. I always loved an uneven number more than an even number, but these look well ballanced, so I am happy.



Next year I will raise my price on these, but for the rest of this year I will take orders at the same low price(350Dkr/$70).

P~

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.

P~

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 :)


P~