Thing-a-day: Feb. 14 (Glass Art Sculptures)

Maybe not a forrest quite yet, but it's a beginning.
These aren't glued, just cut and ready to be.



P~

Thing-a-day: Feb.6 (Pendants)

All week I were thinking it would be easier on a saturday, to find time to make a thing, for shooting a pic and for posting.
And yet here I am posting in the last minutes of the day. Ah well ...

Todays thing is a couple of pendants I made. I love this shape of beads :)





P~

(PS: sorry about the bad pictures. I had to shoot them indoors at night. A re'shoot might be in order here ...)

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?

P~

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. 3 (Mini Sculpture)

My third piece of a thing is this, a small glass torso, now finally and permanently glued to it's foot.





I did not make the torso today, just the glueing part, something I have been postponing forever. It is the first one I have assembled completely, and I can see I have yet again procrastinated on something very worth doing.
I am really pleased with this one and I plan on making an absolute forrest of ladies. It would be fabulous :)



This assembly is just short of 12cm, the lady herself is 4,5cm high and 2,5cm wide.

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~

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 :/

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 :)

P~

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~

New Glass!

I never thought I were a shopaholic, but now I am beginning to think I could be one.
I don't shop for clothes or shoes, or decorative items for my home though, like females normally might do, but getting a delivery of new glassrods in the morning makes me delirious all day! Ooh the joy! I feel giddy to the point of getting comments.
I didn't have time to open the box that came this morning, it arrived just as we were leaving, so I have been ... distracted all day, and just waiting for the moment that I can turn off this PC and go home to fondle and sort my new treasures :)

And speaking of treasures - I mentioned Vickie Hallmark in my last post. For a week now I have been wearing this beauty:



Thank you Vickie, for trading with me, and for the use of your picture

I love her pods. The shape is so delicious, and the colours are wonderfull. It is nice and heavy in a way that makes me think of precious metals and stones :)
Vickie uses ribbons for her pods, and I definately need to think of something pretty too. I just threaded it onto a meter of sterling chain from my supplybox, because I had to wear it immediately when it arrived :) I suppose it could be okay if I oxidized it, but right now it is too shiny.

Well, only ½ an hour now, till I get to go home. Yay!

P~

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.

P~

Glass Art! Can't live without it :)

Okay, so when I said I were completely off international shopping, that of course does not include Etsy. Etsy is my special friend and I have shopped again.

This time from the long time admired AngelinaBeadalina. Angela makes amazingly large pieces for a lampworker, and though not all of her work appeals to me, I am frequently blown away by her organic flowing shapes. I thought about it and found that the faces she make are too chunky for me, but the long slender women figures are so what I want to see. Then going through her gallery I realized I rather love some of her faces too, like this one, or this. So overall, a most definate thumbs up :)
Now the thing is, she is holding a ridiculous sale of $25 a piece for 25 items in 25 days. I don't know how long is left, it can't be much, but that is not a sale, it's a give-away! And I lucked out and checked her shop at just the right time. I am now the happy owner of 'Essence of a Woman'. I saw this piece posted online before, and imediately loved the strong, happy, free shape of this dancing goddess. How can you not? She is just glorious.


Thank you Angela, for the use of your beautiful picture

Apparently I can't hold on to money when I've got them. However if I don't have any to use for fun and frivolity, then I can. It all works out nicely, and I'd like to propose a toast: To unexpected Tax Returns, Hoopla! :)

I do hope the postal service will cooperate this time, because I can't wait to get my mail !!!

P~
(Glass Art Collector, Yay!)

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 :)

P~

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.

P~

About me:

As this is a blog about lampworking, I shall leave out most of my unrelated life (which sadly takes up most of my time). I'll just leave you with the facts that I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, with my family (BF and 3 small children), and make a living from being an engineers assistant on a full time basis.
I'd rather be torching though, as creating is one of the greatest joys in my life. I wrote a post about it on the blog of the Etsy Team I am a member of, the Creative Scandinavians. Go here to read it.

This is me, trying not to laugh at my sisters comments, while she tries to make me pose a bit less like a stone. She is by the way incredibly talented in whatever she puts her mind to, and has an Etsy shop here.







As for the lampworking - Glass beads first caught my interest in the summer of 2006. Somebody in the ATC group I used to frequent (the very best one for handpainted/drawn ATCs and friendly chatting: FineArtsATC ) posted a link to Wetcanvas.com I went to check it out, and noticed a glass section. Although I had never worked in glass personally, I have always loved the material and the proces of glass blowing. I took a look around, and was surprised to see it was all beads.
I spend days looking around, following peoples links, checking out ebay and generally enjoying this newfound wealth of treasures. It slowly dawned upon me that these artists were people like me, with families and jobs and other responsibilities, who were making these incredible and often intricate beauties in their own homes!
The thought that one could work in hot glass at home, and not need a million $ workshop + assistants and years and years of training, was a revelation to me. I looked and searched some more, and finally found a weekend course in lampworking, quite close to my home. I had to wait about 6 months, so my newborn baby would be old enough to eat proper food and not starve when I went away for 2 whole days. I think I were very patient, and the grin on my face as I made that first simple spacer bead was worth all the waiting in the world.
We were 8 on the course, and for two days we made beads. Round ones, square ones, dotted ones, they even taught us to make a tiger bead with our own twisties, which I thought was very advanced. In short - I had a blast :)
At the end of the course I ordered the starter kit of tools and equipment, and when it finally arrived, I set up a workbench in our basement. This was february 2007 and I have been torching ever since.
Life is good :)

P~

My latest beads

So, just to get going here I thought I would post a picture of my latest beads. It is just a bunch of spacers, but the colours are beautiful! I am very pleased :)
As I am a new lampworker with only a few hours free for torching every week, I have yet to make a larger piece of jewelry. When I saw this necklace, I thought: 'I can do luxury too!'. Yes, even a sterling girl like me can change and I am growing to love golden and warm tones too. Now I just have to think of what to do as a focal, as I am strictly against being a copycat. I may also just make it a really long chainlink necklace of all spacers. That would be lovely too. Ooh, I love possibilities :)

P~