The Fire Within

Sometimes you make a bead that you are inordinately pleased with. Something about it just calls you & for whatever reason, you dont want to put a price on it & list it.

This is one such bead.

If I didn't know better I'd call it a happy accident. But it wasn't, not really.
I'd been trialling the corals & reds of some new to me 104coe glasses I'd recently received.
Having worked with 96 coe for so long I'd forgotten just how shocky 104 can be. I'll be honest, I work hot & forget to pre-warm the canes ;)
At the end of the torch session I had a whole lot of 'bit's all over my work area & decided to utilise them along with the short ends I had left.
A clear base, three shades of red/coral, some silvered ivory stringer, a bit of intense black & a lot of intense heat & there you have it.

It looked good going into the kiln - it blew me away when it came out. I love mornings like that.

A Very Clever Glass

A year down the track & Gaffers Chalcedony still has me firmly in her grasp.

Exactly where she wants me I suspect, calling me back every time I attempt to ignore her & play with something else.

I try to play with all of the lovely colours in my glass stash, honest I do. While I'm playing with the other glasses I am sure that I hear her (& Chalcedony is indeed a she) muttering words of mutiny in the corner.

I reluctantly pull out a rod just to convince myself that she isn't about to do anything different from the last time I teased her with the flame - & she does. The siren sings her song & weaves her magic again.

Comparisons I

Now who would have thought that after working so hard to get good colour & a high shine in a striking glass, that one would want to etch it?

I'm not sure what made me etch the first Chalcedony beads that got thrown into the tumbler, aside from the usual Deb thought of "I wonder what would happen if ...."
I am so pleased that I did.

How fortuitous that I just had these two sets sitting here ready to list the other day when I got a custom request for a set of each!

Chalcedony Etched & Unetched

My Box of Gaffer Crayons

This was an exercise in patience for me. No playing with reactions or gravity swirling & shaping of glass. I started 4 days ago & finally filled in the last 'gap' in the palette that I was able to fill today.

Quite simply I wanted a reference that showed exactly what colours the different Gaffer Opal's show when used in a bead.

Because Gaffer is a furnace glass, initially designed & formulated to be used by glass blowers, the colour charts show thinly blown shards of the super saturated colours.
This makes even the Opals appear as if they have some translucency, which they do when blown, but not in the more solid masses of glass which become a bead.

There was only one way to fix it..... I unearthed all the short ends I had left from an assortment pack of the gaffer opals & got to work on some small chunky disk beads.

This isn't even the full palette of Gaffer Opals. There are 15 colours missing.
But what a wonderful 'Box of Crayons' this is......so far ;o)

I Think I'm Falling In Love

with tumble etching!
What fabulous soft satiny results. Just right for some of the more muted colours that I seem drawn too. This set I left tumbling just long enough to knock some of the shine off, without leaving a completely matte finish. I think the effect suits the warm earthy tones of ochre, ivory & brown.

Aramac Ramble Set

Sunday - Skydancer

I'm quite partial to the way this bead turned out. The colours of the silver glass" Triton" are softer & slightly more ethereal than usual.
I've been browsing images of butterflies lately & in an abstract way this bead reminded me of butterflies.....

Skydancer

It's a Kind Of Magic

“It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us.” JK Rowling

Even the most uninspiring glass in rod form can surprise us, it too can have a little magic hidden inside of it.
I'd heard this one was tricky, that it was disappointing & not worth the effort... all after buying it of course ;o)
I let that dissuade me from trying it & on the storage shelf it has resided for months.

How self defeating & silly! Stopping any dreams of making it work before even starting, not even attempting to explore the magic of Reichenbach's 6210 aka "Magic" myself.

Inspired to make some thicker twisties by the recent help offered on Seraphim Flameworks blog - I picked up a rod of this glass to use along with my nice safe favorite "Black".

"It's a Kind Of Magic"

(and of course now I have Queens wonderful song playing over in my head!)

One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal
One golden glance of what should be......

Just doing what I enjoy

now that I am getting the hang of actually getting the stringer to go where I want it to. I'm also enjoying watching the bead shape & design naturally progress.

"Mahoro"

'Mahoro' means harmony, or peace. By the time I got to this bead that is what I was feeling, somewhere along the way stringer control had ceased to be a challenge & I knew that I just had to hone my skills with a lot of practise.

It Might Seem Like

more of the same - but it's all about not just getting it 'on there' - but getting it one there in a manner that is balanced around the bead. What on earth am I talking about? Warm up exercises in stringer control & eventually being able to execute a controlled & balanced design in that particular elusive technique.

"Kwaku"