Glasperletræf 2014 - Danish Glassbead Society yearly meet-up, Part Il, the Beadmarket

On sunday we welcome the public and set up a small market. This year it had grown to 11 booths with several new people joining in.

The new people included:

Frank Miguletz of FaxArt 
I were very impressed by the amount, the size and the precision of his beads. I had seen pictures online, but nothing beats the touching-holding of the real stuff.

 

Sabine Übelhör of Flammenliebe  
Sabine makes beautiful feminine beads and ringtops. Cute, colourful and full of details.

Dorthe Andersen-høyer
How fun to meet this lampworker, who is practically my neighboor :) And what beautiful flower necklaces she makes. I want the pink one! (or possibly the green or the golden/brown one)

Jane Bundgaard of Bundgaard strik og stearin 
maker of fabulous fun lampwork buttons, button bracelets and much more

 

Britta Christoffersen of Krea-huset  
I especially love her disc necklace. Wow!

Of the repeat sellers I'd like to show you

Martina Schlemminger of die Kleine Verroterie
Her booth is full of cute creatures and always colourfull

Manuela Hagn of BavarianBeads
offering up all her many, many presses and showing amazing beads made with them. Unfortunately all my close-ups had a lot of glare, so I only have Group shots for you.

Jens Kondrup of jckondrup
blower of very large 'chaos'-balls, and tripple connected schnaps glasses

 

 

Birgitte Ekholm Gaardsted of Ekholm Design
odd organic shapes flows from this lampworker

Lisbeth Larsen of Galleri Lisbeth L
Strict shapes in playful colours

Connie Sørensen of Søglas
a tray of colourful fish pendants

Bodil and Otto Zebitz
Many, many ideas spring forth from this lampworking couple

And of course, myself, Lene Piasecki of Profusion Art Glass :)
Pendants and pins galore

Sorry you missed it? Come by next year, or use the links :)

Glasperletræf 2014 - Danish Glassbead Society yearly meet-up, Part l, the Demos

What a great weekend, as always, when we have our annual lampwork meet-up.

I have taken so many pictures so I will split them up in a couple of posts. This first part is for the saturday demos. Do click the pictures for a better view.

Saturday is for members only, and wall to wall demos. A very interesting and fun day.

First up was the lovely Martina Schlemminger, who demoed first a cute spotted duck, then a little Swabish pig (not pictured here).

Martina Schlemminger

Manuela Hagn demoed a sweet old style teddybear. It was brown and without murini, but shaped like this lighter one from her booth.

Manuela Hagn

Then Frank Miguletz stepped in to show us a wigwag

Frank Miguletz

and Christiane Strauss set a ruby zirkonia into a ringtopper

Christiane Strauss

By then we were all very hungry and it was time for lunch.

After lunch Dorry Tierry Niclou showed her technique for hollow ringtops with things inside. Only very small things can go in as they have to pass through the nut in the bottom. She made two, one smooth and one with an impression of an ammonite on the top. Fascinating ...



Dorry Tierry Niclou

Frank Miguletz showed how to make his smiley beads

Frank Miguletz

and then it was time for the annual general assembly of the beadsociety. We went to have dinner at Øster Højst Kro afterwards.

When we returned Jens Kondrup made a nectar cup for butterflies, shaped like a flower, and a tiny goblet.

Jens Christian Kondrup

Tina Moslund showed us how to do enamels with a torch, and gave many tips for ending necklaces securely and putting locks on them. Very usefull information :)

Tina Moslund

By then I was very tired and took off for my B&B while others continued hanging out.
Saturday is always a very long, intensely informative and interesting day. I love it!

On sunday there were demos too, but alas I missed two since I spent the day tending my booth, mingling and doing some shopping :)

The two I missed were Jens Kondrup making his large hollow kaos beads, and Britta Christoffersen showing how to make a tiny beermug.

I did get to see Connie Sørensen making an ancient zigzag pattern

and Jane Bundgaard give tips on how to make buttons.

Oh, there are so many possibilities and not enough time to try it all :)


Coming up: This years get-together of the Danish Glass Beadmakers

Just a short note before I dash off to this years Beadmakers Ball at Ravstedhus in Southern Jutland.
Okay, it's not a Ball, but I liked the alliteration :)

I any case - in just a few hours I'll be off for Jutland and 2 days of all glass and fire. Yay!

This year, in addition to two full days of demos,  we have not one, but two bead competitions, and I can't wait to see what has been sent in. Here below are my submissions.

First, for the single lose flower themed bead, I have sent in a little flower fairy.

Baby flowerfairy hugging her pet Ladybird

And for the new competition, which I will translate to 'Finished Work' I sent in this emerging fairy pendant, hanging from a grass leaf I made from copper.

Emerging butterfly fairy pendant on handmade copper stand

And a close-up of the pendant

Emerging pendant

She has little wings on her back and is not yet fully emerged from her crysalis.

That is all for now. I must pack up the last few things and get my car on the road. I shall return during the next week with a photo report af the weekend.
Have fun till then :)

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.



Back from a Beadiful weekend (part II)

Sunday, the second day of the event, is open for the public. From 10am to 5pm there are demos to watch, you can try making your own bead, there is a beadcontest to vote for, both Ravstedhus and Ombos are open for business, and finally, there is the bead fair, full of awesomeness to bring home.

Here is my booth

and here is Martina Schlemminger's, which was next to mine. I could use some more colour, don't you think?

Here is a picture of some lampworkers looking at the contest beads. The theme was 'Eventyr', the danish word for fairytale. It also means adventure, so there is room for interpretation :)

And here are the winning beads!
First place goes to Connie Sørensen for the Sleeping Beauty Castle
Second place goes to my three Tinderbox Dogs (woohoo!!)
and the shared Third place goes to Bente Clausen's Goddess and Matina Schlemminger's Dragonhead.
Hooray, Congratulations all around! :)

You can see all the (13) participating beads at Brittas Blog Pibbs. She has made an extensive account of the weekend, 4 posts long: post 1, post 2, post 3 and post 4. Go have a look, there's a ton of pictures :)

Spending a whole day looking at beads can make you fall in love. This year I brought home this fun and colourful mushroom from Martina and the fabulous glass pen below. And I didn't need a full day, it was love at first sight :)

Glorious, aren't they? And now I just need some ink. Martina had brought some, but it never crossed my mind that I would need that too. I just loved the glass as it was. Yum!

Then I went shopping for materials. I got some glass, light ivory, sea colours and pinks, and also some tubing so I can try the blowing technique we saw saturday night.

And some leather cord necklaces, some copper wire for leaves probably, and 3 magnetic locks with inlays, so I can make either bracelets or necklaces on wire. Can you believe I have never made a beaded bracelet?

I also got 3 large neckdisplays and a hollow mandrel with a blowhole for hollow beads.
Yup, definately a great weekend :)

Lene