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.



Tolkien Event at Galleri Castens!

The premiere of the new Hobbit movie is just around the corner, and jeweler extraordinaire Karin Castens of Galleri Castens in Copenhagen is making an event of it.

She has made a series of jewelry with an elven theme. It fits her style perfectly, and this saturday, on dec. 8'th at 2pm you are invited to come to her beautiful shop and enjoy a free Tolkien themed harp concert and the unveiling of her new pieces.

She has only revealed one of her designs, a gorgeous pair of earrings. They are so very pretty and I want them! I'll pet them and squeeze them and name them 'my precious'.
You can see them here, on her facebook page, where you might also be very lucky and win a pair! Yes, Galleri Castens has been touched by the spirit of Christmas and is giving away treasures right and left (or at least a fabulous piece every sunday until Christmas). Go and like her page NOW to have a chance at winning.
 
Karin also asked all of us, who have pieces in her gallery, if we would like to participate in creating Tolkien inspired jewelry for the event. Why yes, yes I would :)

My first idea got dumped pretty quickly, and my second thought was to make orc teeth and maybe some bones. But when I showed my children the tooth I had made, and asked them what it was (is it a pelican? is it a tadpole? well, at least one child suggested it was a claw) it was pretty obvious I'd need more time to practice to be able to pull that off.

In the end I was very pleased to send in this leaf and flower necklace on handpainted silk ribbon.

Making this have me tempted to do an all flowers necklace, with different colours and sizes all around the neck. That would be lovely for spring :)

Now I am looking very much forward to saturday, where I will go and have a listen and a look at all the beauties that has been made. Want to join me? :)

Happy/Sad Facebeads, a blast from the past

Recently I got a surprise order of a whole bunch of happy-sad facebeads. This is a bead I made back in 2008 when I were just starting out, and it was really nice to make them again.

These are just like the ones from back then, but now I have several new ideas flapping around in my mind because of this visit to the past. Yay, this will be fun!

I rarely have this many beads at once, so I snapped a few pictures before sending them off to their new home tomorrow.

Cute, eh? :)

 

 

Only a few more days, before ...

... the one and only annual danish lampworkers get together, arranged by 'Foreningen Danske Glasperler' (the Danish Glass Beadmakers Society).

On friday I'll be off to the most southern part of Jutland, where Ravstedhus graciously lend their land and facilities to the society for two days. Two days of demos, bead talk, tool and supply shopping and on sunday, the lampworkers market, and more demos open to the public. It will be great!

This year I made sure I took the time to make and send in a bead for the competition. The theme was 'Eventyr' (fairytales), or I could be completely wrong because that word can also mean 'Adventure'. Oops?!

In any case - I made a trippel dog bead, to illustrate the 3 dogs from 'the Tinder Box' by H. C. Andersen. What a weird ending that tale has. The soldier simply terrorizes everybody into saying: 'Why yes, of course, you must be our new king!' I realise that old time fairytales are not made for children, but still, is that the kind of morals we/they would want to pass on as great? I am a little confused.

So - I have never made a dog in glass before, and 3 in one does not make it easier I can tell you. I did need a couple of tries before I were happy. The first ones didn't even look like dogs, but rather teddy bears. Then I realised how to fix their faces and a more proper way to place the legs. They are still cartoony though, but after all it is a fairytale, so that is just fine.
I sent in the one on the left, in wich I included a heap of 'money' for the dogs to sit on.


view of the 3 little dogs 'cause they are cute

another side view

See how the ones on the right are all teddy-ish? Even with the tounge sticking out. They are all ivory and I fumed them a bit, for a more delicious tone of brown. There are always things you'd like to do different, but time is up and I am pleased with my progress, and with the bead I sent in.

I am looking forward to seeing the other peoples fairytale beads, to getting to do a roadtrip, meet all the lampworkers and to all of the weekends adventures. Yay! :)

I hope you have a great weekend too :)
Lene

Oh my Goddess!

This past week were all about the Goddesses.

Not only did I post 4 Goddess pendants to my shop at Amio.dk, like this one:


The Lady of the Shapely Posterior :)



I also got to send off this beauty halfway across the country, to Marslev on Fyn.



Please click the picture to fully apreciate her gorgeous slender curves

This is one of my new ladies, the largest bunch I have made until now, and her new owner is very pleased. I am so happy that I could make that happen. It is my mission after all, to spread the joy of lovely curves, captured in glass.

This week I will post a couple of these beauties to my shop, and I hope to get in a bit of torchtime too. I have a Goddess project I am quite eager to create. But - it's a secret for now, and I'm not telling ;)

Have a beautiful week,

Lene

KM&V Countdown - Week 10

I love getting mail :)

This week I recieved both the displays and giftbags I ordered last week and also a fresh bunch of glass, Yay!

I can't work without my favourite base colour Ivory, so I had to get some more. And while I were at it, I also got some new to me Double Helixs, the Kalypso and Helios.

I got to try out the Helios today, and I must say I love it. It fumes a lot, and when I made pendants, like the ones I have been making recently, but with the Helios instead of Psyche, I got lovely browns with a whisp of pale purple/light blue. They are very fall.
The beads are still hot in the kiln, so I can't show you until later, but I were very pleased with them when I put them in for annealing.

So this is just a short update, pics will be included later.

See you then,
Lene

----------------------------

Later is here!
And so are a couple of pictures. Aren't these just delicious? I am still very pleased, can you tell? :)
I love these shapes. Nicely melted half-way in, looking juicy and voluptuous. Very organic. Yup, this is what I have been after :)



And my new displays look like this. Stylish!


The foot is weighted so it doesn't fall over when you look at it which is nice. There is room for a pair of earrings up there in the middle, but I don't make earrings much so I will not need that. The pendants will present them selves better higher up, so I'll see if I can secure the chain somehow on the backside.
Hmm, I may need to buy more chains. I'll put that on my list.

Bye for now!
Lene

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~

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~

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~

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~