Lobolita » glass

Beads and a Haircut, Two Bits

Lorraine — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:26:47 +0000

Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of my new haircut. I’ve been experimenting with hollow beads today:

Hollow CIM Chalcedony, DH Triton and Gaia frit, CIM clear dots.

Hollow Vetrofond Smoke Rings

Hollow CIM Sangre with Triton frit

Effetre transparents and opaques with Triton frit

Hollows: CIM Kryptonite with Effetre Periwinkle swirls, Unknown Frantz box pink with Effetre dark lavender swirls

The crowning glory! Trans grass green with leaf cane and applied flowers. On a hollow bead!

Poor Photography Syndrome (PPS)

Lorraine — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:15:51 +0000

Do you suffer from Poor Photography Syndrome, as I do? Do you live in a cloudy climate, rushing out to take pictures in the only spot of sunshine for miles around, only to discover that the batteries in your camera have died? Do you forget to take a picture of your work during the daylight hours, only remembering after the sun is well down and your only sources of light are the discount lightbulbs of various kinds currently living in your light fixtures? Do your hands shake? Does your macro zoom to the wrong object?

Fear not. You are not alone. I, too, feel the pain of PPS, and have for many years. Today, we have two sterling examples.

Example #1: The unidentified fuzz

Though this is not an irreversible problem, unidentified fuzz plagues those of us with PPS.

I’m fairly proud of this bead, which I made on Friday afternoon. It’s Sky Blue Effetre, decorated with Transparent Aqua stringer. The bead itself is hollow, built on the mandrel in two disks, which I teased together, allowing the air inside to puff the bead out to round. It’s about 12 mm in diameter.

Example #2: Random stuff in the background of the shot

These are my new murrini. Aren’t they nice? Also, random junk on my kitchen table, including the bead I took a picture of moments before.

My First Murrini

Lorraine — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:31:57 +0000

COE 104, not perfect, but hopeful! I’m going to try to put some in beads tonight.

Copper-Sulfur Reaction

Lorraine — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:26:57 +0000

Ivory glass has sulfur in it, and turquoise and some green glasses have copper. When the two are used together, as in this set of beads, a black line will develop between the two colors, and the edges of dots or lines may fray a little, giving the beads an antique look.

These beads have a combination of Vetrofond Dark Ivory, Light and Dark Turquoise, Dark Grass Green, Light Transparent Grass Green, and Creation is Messy (CIM) Elphaba. I’ve been experimenting with various poking, raking, and swirling techniques, as you can see, and some things are turning out better than others. I particularly like the bead with poked Elphaba dots and the one with a faux vine made from raked Dark Grass Green dots. That technique needs a lot more work, though.

Lampwork, Nothing But Lampwork

Lorraine — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:08:18 +0000

To the tune of the Star Wars theme. I’ve been busy.

Spacers, striped spacers (practicing stringer control), and various ill-advised efforts at fanciness. All in Effetre from my practice glass stash. Nothing is annealed yet because the kiln is at my parent’s house, and we still have to figure out how to use it. For now, I’m sticking everything in a crock pot filled with hot vermiculite, and I plan to batch anneal anything worth saving once I’ve got the kiln going. So far, so good.