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 :)

I have a bead in Soda Lime Times!!!

Woohoo! I have a picture in Soda Lime Times, the online lampwork magazine.
It's on page 3 of the Neutral Issue, June 2014, and it's my first published bead ever! Wee! I'm so excited :)

The issue is full of beads especially in black, white, grey and the lovely ivory. I am happy to see so many people loving ivory as it is a favourite of mine. It sculpts so well and I love the organic reactions to fine silver, even though I rarely use it myself.

This is the picture I sent in, my new black and white yin-yang bead, this time with shoulders.

Please click to see full version details

I am a new subscriber to Soda Lime Times, but I have to say I am very happy with it. It is full of inspirational pictures and tutorials and all kinds of lampwork goodness. If you make beads yourself, like to work with them or simply to wear them, this is a great resourse for you, and it's only $4.95 pr. month. You can even get a free sample issue if you want to look it over first.

If you don't know it, go here and have a look: http://www.sodalimetimes.com/

Miniatures extravaganza!

This saturday I went to see a dollhouse and miniatures show in Farum Kulturhus. It was the 21'st year of this show, but I never heard of it before, so it was my first time there. And it was spectacular! My almost-8-year old and I ended up staying for 5 hours, wandering, looking, sqeeing with delight at each new treasure we discovered. And shopping a bit, of course, how could we not? :)

Before going I had looked over their website to see the vendors, and one in particular caught my interest. A miniature glass maker. So I went, and looked at all the wonderful tiny little bottles and wine glasses and champagne and tea sets and vases, and extra super tiny little christmas baubles and toppers for your doll house christmas tree. All in scale 1:12. He had even brought his torch and tubes and showed a bit of flamework at his booth.

I asked if I could take pictures, and I could, but only for private use. I asked several times to clarify and make sure since there was a bit of a language barrier (my german is ... not very efficient), but no, no pictures for the internet. No free online praise or promotion was wanted, and alas, no glass pictures for you ...

Instead I will show you a different and wonderfully fantastical miniature maker, this one from Holland. They even won a price, 'Most Beautiful Booth of the show', but it was the themes of witchcraft and wizardry that I fell for. Just look at this.

See this cluttered desk of the wizard and the next one of the witch, complete with tiny spell books, magical potions and scrying crystal balls.

 

Look at all the little (glass)bottles full of odd ingredients, the fearsome plantlife that wants your blood and the magical broomsticks ready to do your bidding.

See the little creature in the cage. The whole thing is about 2" high, so the tiny goblin must be about 1".

Sweet!
Go to http://www.wizardsminiaturesworld.com/ to see all of these and many more. It is all in Dutch, but just click everything and enjoy :)

So what did we bring home you may ask?
Well, since we don't have a dolls house, or are building anything ourselves, I thought I'd start a miniature glass collection. And what do you need to hold it? A tiny cabinet of course. With shelves and glass doors to look in through on the miniscule treasures.
I chose this beautiful one, and a set of little candlesticks (no candles I'm afraid, though they do exist), and when I came across the tiny 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes', I had to include it too :)

My girl got a bunny in a cage and a very sweet picnic basket, which we filled up with plates, drinking glasses, lemonade and cake and bread. Even tiny cutlery and napkins too. And some grass to sit on of course, or it wouldn't be a picnic.
Now we look forward to building a box for the grass and set up a garden with homemade trees and perhaps a view, but who is invited to eat is still a mystery.

The Yin/Yang or Goddess/God bead

Last year I made a bead for the competition at the annual beadmakers meet-up in Denmark in june. The theme was 'Contrasts' and my bead was a double body of a male and a female in black and white. (I wrote about it here, and I came in second, Wee! :)

Last week I had an urge to take up the design again. I really like the idea of it, but there are a couple of things that could be improved on to make my idea fully bloom.

First of all, last year I got the colours wrong. And it's not because I didn't check and google to see which colour is male and which is female. I did, then went to my workshop and promptly used black for the male and white for the female. 4 times in a row ...
This time I have it right, and I have to say it 'feels' right too, when I look at it. Sweet. 

Please click the photo to see it properly

The first 4 beads I made last year, they kind of have a 'let's stick these two bodies together'-look, and that is not what I am going for. I want the bodies to be connected, united into one piece, though still two distinct parts. I rather like my solution of a swirl on either side of the legs, both in the same direction, tying the colours together.

I will keep working on this design, there are a few more things I'd like to incorporate before it looks like the bead inside my mind, but this one came out great. I am very pleased with both bodies, and seeing this lady in black makes me want to use black more often in my Goddesses.

There's a new Etsy in town! Opening SALE!

Well, new might be a bit of a stretch, but after a 4½ year break it feels new to me.
I've been rewriting  texts, updating postage and prices, writting new item descriptions, shoting new photos of new pieces - yep, it feels new to me :)

Now that I am up to 19 items in my shop, and with more on the way, I am ready to tell it to the world. Woot! Play the fanfares and start celebrating,

Profusion Art Glass is back at Etsy.com!

And why not start with a SALE?
Starting now, and for the rest of February, write the code '20off022014' (that's alphanumeric for: 20% off, february 2014) in the coupon box when checking out and get 20% off any and all items!!

Below are a few pictures of fresh items in my Etsy shop, or you can just go directly to the shop and see everything at once.

Remember, the code goes invalid when March begins, so go have a look now!

Ooff! I'm excited! :)

A Dotty Challenge, Part III

Here is my 3'rd round of dotted beads as per Heather Trimlett's 40-bead challenge.

My sizes are still all over the place, but I am very pleased with the pattern on no.2, though it is a bit difficult to see here because of the reflections. 

No. 4 was a surprise. It looks very, very similar to one I made last time, no.6 from the beginning. Woops!

But my intention with this one was clearly different. The first one I just made like that, but with this one I set out to make a circle with a tiny dot in the middle. So ... do they count as different? ;)

I'm up to 15 now ...

Winter Berry Brooch

This weekend I had a lovely compliment on this brooche I made last year, so I thought I would show it to you.

I made it combining my two great loves in crafting, lampwork and metalwork. My first thought was to make a leaf with a lampwork flower, but then I realised that working in copper gives the leaf a very autumnal colour, and flowers don't bloom in autumn.

What then?
Aha, berries of course. So I made up a few delicious winter berries for the birds to feed on. 

The leaf is made with the foldforming technique, and a little bit on the large side at 4 x 9 cm (1 37/64" x 3 35/64"). The shape is very satisfying though.

Since this is only my second time putting bits together and soldering (except for 20 years ago), I tried my way through it, and made the pin in the back and the berries on separate copper wires. This was not easy to fit into the crease in the leaf, which left me with a tiny curl at the top, and the berries with a bit of a jiggle. Next time I would like to make it a single wire running through from tip of pin to attachment of berries.

Here are a couple more Pictures of the brooch, which really should be held in hand to fully appreciate the wonderful organic shape.

Front of brooch - those colours go well together

Side of brooch

Backside of the brooch - see that twist?

I'm rather pleased with it, and since it works very well with warm sweaters, I have been wearing it almost daily for months by now. Sweet!
I love working in metals and also finishing pieces ;)