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

KM&V Countdown - Week 11

Okay then, only 10 more weeks to go.
This week I have (yet again) spent recovering. This time it was the back-to-work and get-up-earlies that got me.
Yes I admit it. I love staying up late and sleeping in in the mornings. And since vacation time is the only time I get to do it for days in a row I may over do it a bit. Lets just say that a 3 week vacation can shift my rythm with about 5 hours, which makes it a bit hard to go back to early mornings.

So, what did I do to get closer to a fabulous and well prepared show in 10 weeks?
Well - I have been looking for a nice way to display my pendants. So far I have been laying them on a polished black slab of stone. It is a very nice stone, but it really doesn't do much for the pendants.

This week I got a special offer from BoxDisplays on a standing display I have not seen before. I can't find it in their pages now either, but I have ordered some and will show them off when they get here. I hope they are all I imagine and need them them to be ...

Also I have realised for some time now that I have no nice packaging for my larger Ladies, and that simply will not do at such an occation. So while I were at it I ordered a whole lot of giftbags with handles.
They are black and with a matt surface, which I imagine to match my jewellery boxes perfectly. I will stamp them with my logo and they will be all lovely and nice, and if I get a folder or postcard ready there will be plenty of room in the bag for that too.

In conclusion, I am very pleased to have these two problems mostly out of the way (there is still the stamping to do of course), but once more I must admit that I have quite a sinking feeling about the most important part - my actual glass products.

This week I plan to go shopping for a bit of glass. I have run very low on light ivory and it's the base of pretty much everything I do so it has to be taken care of, and quickly so I can continue my quest of creating a forrest of lovely Ladies.

P~

KM&V Countdown - Week 12

What a great week! :)
Not only am I still vacationing, not only did I manage to make my (almost) first fabulous hollows ever ...

Check out the size of this set! I were very impressed with my calm patience. If this is what happens when I torch in the morning, I really have some prioritizing to consider.

These are made in ivory and covered with Zimmermans fabled Z-99 purple. I love the stuff, it keeps prolonging my purple period. My stash will last for a while, but it's really too bad they don't make it anymore :/


I'd like to add that these are made by building discs only, not on a hollow mandrel. There has been no blowing involved, as you can see by the unevenness of the beads, or should I say the wonderfull rustic and organic shapes ;)

I also tried adding a bit of very chunky frit, which I have never tried before. It was not easy to get it to stick, but I am very pleased with the colour. I might like to crush it into smaller sizes of frit, but for this is was good.
Isn't that a lovely purple/blue planet full of little islands? There's even a crater :)


I am a bit undecided about wheather all these should be silvercored, but I suppose I'll have to see if they will fit my tool and let that be the deciding factor.

SO - not only did I get to make these lovelies, I also got a kick in the butt from the wonderfull Karin Castens of Castens Gallery (blog / website). I love what that woman can do with a little bit of silver, gold and precious stones!

But back to the kicking part - it led to me visiting an art gallery down the street from Karins shop, presenting my glassfigures to the owner, and voilá - on saturday I delivered 3 figures and 3 goddess pendants to be included in the gallery. Yay! :D

The gallery is called Gallerie Eros. It is the only gallery purely of erotic art in Denmark, and in a couple of days she will have pictures of my ladies on the website.


The gallery has a mix of old and new, explicit and understated, and you can read all about it on the gallery website!
The owner, Bettina Sinnet Fornitz, was very optimistic and now I am too, so a double yay! and many Thank You's goes out to her :)

A lovely week. Just lovely :)
P~

KM&V Countdown - Week 13

Still vacationing and loving it :)

This week I have been grating all the rough edges off a bunch of these metal cubes I use as base for my larger ladies.


When I get them they have sharp edges and pointy corners, and are somewhat unpleasant. Now they are all smooth and nice to touch. It is important to me that all parts are a pleasure, and as a bonus they will not scratch the surface you place them on (unless you make an effort), Yay!

I hope you are enjoying the summer where you are :)
P~

KM&V Countdown - Week 14

I'm afraid I have no beadrelated news this week either, because this week we went away on holiday, Yay :)
We played in the water, we watched the baby swallows leave the nest during the week, we got close to the wildlife at Knuthenborg.







We visited with family and played bordgames. I've made a few sketches of beads I'd like to make, and began drawing a palette of coulours to stick to, but nothing I'd like to show off :)
It is nice to be back home though, and I am looking forward to the rest of the vacation too.

I hope you have a lovely summer!
P~

KM&V Countdown - Week 15

Oh my, what a week. I don't think I have ever worked quite as hard all in one week. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with my show and everything to do with the rain that fell last saturday and the flooding that followed.

I have spent every evening of the week moving boxes of stuff, I even took a day off to try to get ahead. I did start out sorting the stuff, but by the end of the week I just moved the dry boxes to dry spots without looking much at it. The wet boxes had to be sorted of course, to see what was trash and what was treasure. I have to admit, it was mostly trash, though some things have been rescued. It is amazing how we have let it build up without even looking at it.

I am happy to say that the basement is dry now (mostly) and looking better than ever (mostly). I would really like to sort through the dry boxes and only keep the good stuff, and I will, I just need to regain my energy, and also give some attention to my show project. I feel terribly behind after this week.

So - since nothing beadrelated has happened this week, I'll tell you about an experiment I did the week before.

While surfing I came across this post on Watch me Create
I had never heard of fuming with EDP, but it sounds like something I'd like so I had to try it right away. I made a little bead in dark ivory, then fumed it in fine silver first. I wanted to make it crackle, but I guess I burned it all off.
Then I got my EDP and cooked it 'till it boiled. I could see the fuming hapening, but the bead didn't seem to take it. As I cleaned the bead the matted areas could be rubbed right off, so I'm guessing I put it in the wrong place in the flame or perhaps it was too cold. I shall definately try this again to see if I can get the matted surface to stay.

And I want to show you something interesting that happened. Here is the rod I used for fuming. See how at the end it has gone all clear? Fascinating!


Have a great week, try something new :)
P~

PS: I'm very happy to say that my oxygen concentrator is still alive after the flooding. I did manage to get it out of the water in time. Phew! & Hooray!
Unfortunately our laundry maschine was not as lucky :(

KM&V Countdown - Week 16

This week I have lost several beads to cracking bead realease. Some mandrels were freshly dipped and dried, some were dipped weeks ago. I think it might be a humidity problem. Maybe.
I did get a couple finished, these are from my first torchsession:


And my second:


The green flowerpod is a mess, and that lady on the right? She has no boobs because of beadrelease releasing too soon. I decided to make some nipsenåle (cause they aer made without release), even if I don't intend to bring any for the show, and here are 6 happy turtles in a row.


On saturday we had 2 months worth of rain within a couple of hours. Some areas close by got 150mm. I don't think we got that much, but it still ended up in my basement and my workshop.
I managed to burn my arm when reaching behind the kiln to untangle the cord of my oxygen concentrator, the only part of my tools that is on the floor. I hope I got it out in time, that water was raising fast! But I have to say - peppermint tootpaste is your friend. It took the pain away quickly so I could shovel water all night completely painfree. Yay! :)


But oh my poor muscles. I have aches all over from shoveling for hours on end. I need a rest. Goodnight :)

P~