Hail, Hail

A week or so ago Steph at vlaDtHeBaT's aTTiC posted a picture of hail stones. The hail had destroyed her garden but, with much grace, she was offering up nature's little monsters as bead inspiration.


So Steph, with a rod of messy Cirrus I made these for you.
Would you like them as they are, or shall I make them into earrings for you?

A note on working with Cirrus - you have to strike it several times to get it to go milky. These were struck three times, maybe four.

Lilies

I wish you could smell these.





A patch of big showy lilies right by my front door.


Torch time tonight, sigh.

Budding Ideas

The beginning of a set.
Very simple beads. A small core of black, wrapped in silver then encased in a vivid transparent. The grass green and the light blue worked great, but the striking red is a little too dark and murky.

I shaped them with my ice tongs to make curved, elongated cubes.

*** A tip for encasing silver foil - never let the flame touch the silver. ***

Right now, I am not sure where I am going with this set.
Maybe different colors over the black - all with this same shape?
Or maybe just the blue and green in different shapes?
Or maybe just make the blue and green pair into mismatched earrings and move on?
Ponder, ponder.

Bloody Beautiful

A big heart focal.
Double Helix Triton wrapped around Cim's Sangre.

I love Cim's Sangre so much I am going to marry it. It's opaque, it's transparent, it's bloody red orange. And when it melts it's heaven. It even has a sister you can date - a beautiful translucent orange called Clockwork.

Hello Grasshopper

A big buggy grasshopper stuck to the side of the house right next to my front door.



I keep partial sets of beads in vintage Murano glass bowls all over my work table. This bowl is full of my Gauguin beads, so far. I don't have the patience to make an entire set in one, or even two sittings. I just make a few each time I get some torch time and sooner or later there are enough for a necklace.



One of the best things about summer is the bugs.

A Laundry List of Complaints

Napoleon P. Oodle doing the laundry.

I got some torch time in today, but it was disjointed and brief.
A marble, some experiments with both light and dark ivory mixed double helix triton, a silver foil bead or two, a black & white button, blah, blah, blah. I need a full, uninterrupted afternoon of flame. Please, more fire. I neeeed it to stop raining. Please, some sunshine.

Fresh Pine

You see three wet pine cones - I see new beads.

Some copper green, maybe some nile green, a bit of red tile roof ocher...

Water Witch

I'm cranky - it's raining too much.

The whole of my little world is sodden and chilly. More summer please.

There are great deals on glass this week at my favorite place to get lampworking supplies.
Moretti & More
Did you know they will even sell you single rods? It's a great way to discover all the luscious colors of Messy Glass and try out some Double Helix on the cheap. Sshhh, don't tell anyone what an extravagantly large order I placed with them last night. Mostly basics, like ivories, blacks and whites, but a few indulgences like messy marshmallow, aurae, frog pond, the new messy olive and sweet strawberry.

Midnight

It's such a small bead for such a big picture.
This seed pod has a base bead of transparent gray with applied petals of dark silver plum.


Instruction page from my bead sketchbook for making midnight seeds:
1. mash and pull dark silver plum petals
2. make a clear (or transparent pale gray) core bead
3. add a band of dark silver plum to the bottom of your bead.
4. apply the petals to the dark silver plum end of the bead, heat and shape.


Queen Anne's Lace - another weed that's too beautiful not to cultivate, I wouldn't dream of pulling one out of my garden.

Bees & Beads

A big old bee in the milkweed.


A heart focal bead made with a center of transparent topaz wrapped in silver foil and dotted with more topaz and an iridescent silver laden glass called Aurae.

The shape is a little wonky. I could have corrected it but sometimes I like to let them be soulfully imperfect - almost painterly. This certainly is not the way of most glass bead makers. There are a lot of perfectionists out there in the flame world. I jump the fence every once in a while and let my beads be a bit wild at heart.



It's too bad they sting, I would love to hold one and see if that yellow fuzz is soft or bristly.

Another Bead Pile

I am still de-stashing loose beads.
So much great stuff from estate sales that is never going to get used by me - so up on etsy it goes.
In this pile there are some copper ethnic hollow beads, some more Murano beads and 144 especially nice root beer colored round glass beads, etc...

I just reached 75 sales in my curiousOldthings etsy shop - whoa.

Carnival Prize

Carnival Heart winged bead.
I am not a big fan of actually going to carnivals. I love the idea of a traveling party with spinning rides, corn dogs, freaks and impossible games, but I hate being in crowds. So carnivals, and their side shows, are more of a romantic notion that a real destination for me.

The bead is big, almost 2" long.

It is an end of the day bead. An end of the day bead is the last bead which is made out of all the shortie rods, leftover frit, stray bits of stringers and popped off bits of glass that are laying about beneath your torch. Some people actually sweep it all up and throw it away (gasp) - I always make a heart as the last bead of each session with all my bits of glass crap. Waste not, want not.

poppy petals

Ages ago I made a single poppy petal.
You can see the original post here.


My intention was to torch a whole set to be worn as a bracelet, which, as you can see I finally got around to almost a month later.


The petal edges were spot heated and ruffled by twisting with a pair of non-serrated edge tweezers. The rod colors are medium red, dark special red, carrot red, cim's sangre, cim's clockwork, transparent striking red and purple red - just about every red kicking around in my stash. The black splotches are black with a dot of raku (iris orange) frit.


The leaves were also made with tweezers and a knife. Thet were made with nile green, a liberal sprinkling of course avocado frit and transparent grass green veining.


Here's the layout for the bracelet.

I am extremely excited about this set. Every once in awhile you make some beads that just seem to be better than what you've made before. I feel like I am finally getting somewhere with the shaping and sculpting of glass into natural forms.