"Easy Fix" for the Winter Blues #2

If your visualisation skills aren't working for Easy Fix #1 - there is always Easy Fix #2.

Put heater on in studio. Turn on the kiln, the oxycon, the torch & equipped with MPS player & coffee sit down at torch.
(The internal & external heat sources help the visualisation skills.)


Make beads in the most delicious shade of opaque blue glass on the market.....Gaffer Denim Blue (G-125).
Of course there are lashings of G-109 Chalcedony....are you surprised?

Playing with glass

I have just learned that not all frit sizes are created equal when it comes to pulling & using stringer made from them!

What can have a fabulous reaction when a larger size frit is used - can really turn to custard when a smaller size is used. Still I like the contrasts of the reactions

"Kwasi"

I Hope You are Sitting Down

Because, oh my goodness, - it's actually something glass!
Now don't tell anyone - but I got to the torch & made beads. After 5 weeks it was not like riding a bike & for the first two sessions while I did what I felt I should be doing, nothing much went right....or at least the way I intended.

Boy there seemed a lot that needed to be re-learned, but my friendly audio book narrator & I stuck at it. By the third session, with tales of ancient Egypt being absorbed, the flame burning hot & bright, & the effects of the pre dinner G&T still gently lingering I adopted my 'stuff this I'm just going to relax & play' attitude.....it was then that things got considerably better.

For the first time I actually got some stringer to go exactly where I wanted it to my murinni I made didn't seem such a waste of glass when teamed with this combination of ivory & silver glass stringer! Now all I have to do is work on not melting the stringer completely in....& somehow cutting the Murinni shorter so I can melt it in further without distorting the overall shape of the bead ;o)

Three views of "Reyhan"

A Fantastic Finish ... Finally

Something I tempted you with a 'teaser' of last week is finally finished. I kept the focal bead for the finished piece from view, because I wanted to share the impact of the piece as a whole.

The focal bead is, in my mind, an absolute stunner made by Hector from Seraphim FlameWorks. I believe it was the first time he had ever sacrificed one of the elegant tubes shapes that we associate with Seraphim FlameWorks to that particular form of torture, oopsy...I mean "crunch press" & boy am I pleased that he did!

"Desiree" has been sitting in my collection, & at times pocket, for just over a year....quietly just waiting for the right moment to make it's début as a wearable piece of art. I just knew this bead had every intention of telling me how it wanted to be presented ;o)
Being a wonderful crunched bead that felt so good in hand - it got a stay of execution from being incorporated into such, simply because I liked picking it up & handling it so much.

What a fabulous palette of colours this bead contains. Having a spectacular bead to design around lets ones mind run wild with visions of the possibilities. It' an absolute joy to indulge in the ultimate pleasure of letting something dictate the colours one needs to use with such a wonderful piece.....& also a really good excuse to raid carefully hoarded stashes of semi precious gems stones & silver.

I already had the carnelian, moonstone, red aventurine & some blue-green glass beads of unknown origin, but hideously expensive, that I thought just might work. But I still needed something to pull them all together, something that would compliment, but not compete with the focal bead.

A pre Christmas outing with my friend Rose resulted in us discovering a wonderful strand of Fire Agates. I didn't have the bead with me, & in fact hadn't even picked it up & fondled it in some time, but I knew instantly that they were exactly what was needed. A quick & merciless raid of my stash of silver & voilà!

Mine

This rather important looking piece doesn't have a name as yet - but as you can see from the above photo this baby is all mine! Excuse the boring black t-shirt, I know it deserves a far nicer setting. In fact when the Mailleman's son visited earlier this evening the suggestion was made that his Dad needed to take me out somewhere that required dressing up in an outfit to showcase this piece!! Nice lad!

For your own piece of Seraphim FlameWorks magic check out their Etsy Store & their eBay listings, you wont be disappointed!

A couple more dangly things

I've been busy making pendants out of some of my beads.

It's been challenging as I am not really a pendant wearing person (although I have been called pedantic in the past), so I have tried to let the beads dictate how they want to be presented.

This bigger bead has hand shaped & hammered squggles dangling off the bottom.

This one I left a little plainer - as it just seemed to lend itself to an understated simplistic look.

Which side would you choose?

I've just finished loading beads & descriptions to my Etsy store & my website. What a way to spend a Friday night - whatever happened to the days when I used to go out & socialise on a Friday??

I just thought I'd pop these up here before heading for bed - I honestly can't figure which side of the focal that I like the best!