Vor ein paar Tagen sah ich im Internet eine Abbildung von Scrat, dem putzigen Tierchen aus ICE Age….wer kennt den nicht?!

da hatte ich die Idee und das waghalsige Vorhaben, einen solchen Gesellen zu perlen! jaja, eine echte Herausforderung!

Entstanden ist eine tolle Glasperle, nur gerade ca. 3 cm gross und bis ins kleinste Detail ausgearbeitet.  Etwa eine Stunde habe ich daran gebrannt. Sieht einfach aus, ist aber ganz schön schwer zu perlen, sowas kleines, filigranes!

Aber was währe Scrat ohne seine Eichel?? also musste natürlich auch noch eine solche her!

(zum vergrössern klicken)

und so sieht die Glaperle nun als Schmuckstück aus,verarbeitet ausschliesslich mit Sterlingsilber;

ich habe mich noch nicht entschieden, ob ich das Schmuckstück verkaufen werde, oder nicht.  Es ist ein besonderes Unikat und auch wenn ich sie selbst nicht tragen werde;  einfach nur anschauen ist auch schön

I’m behind on my posts again!

I had been meaning to show off some of the beads I’ve bought from other UK lampworkers before making this post, to demonstrate how they can look when you’re not a beginner! I have photographs I’m mostly happy with, all sitting on my laptop at home where they’ve been for most of this month. Ah well – instead I will direct you to the FHF Show and Tell where you can see all sorts of beautiful beads. (FHF = Frit Happens Forum, a place full of lovely people who like melted glass).

Now, let me back up a step. Lampworking is the art of melting rods of glass over a very hot torch and making beads or ornaments or sculptures or other such things. It tends to be called flameworking in the US. If you want to see some people doing it (it’s fascinating!) have a search on YouTube for lampworking or lampworking tutorial. There are loads of videos up there of people merrily melting away.

I fell in love with the beads, then started looking into how you made them… found the above forum, which is full of information, and began seriously looking into getting set up to make them myself. I had a day’s one-to-one lesson with Jolene of Kitzbitz Art Glass on Nov 6th. Here’s what I made!

My first lampwork beads

The little plain black one at the end was my very first, and the rest are more or less in order. I made a couple of them a bit (more) lopsided by putting them in the kiln while they were still too hot, so they sagged on the lower side. The thin twisted glass rod is called a twistie, and you use it for decoration of your beads.

I had a wonderful time, and was utterly exhausted by the end! We covered a lot of different things and it confirmed that this is absolutely something I want to do. I ordered my torch kit a couple of days later…

At the moment, my kit is here and I’ve put together a new set of shelves for the kitchen so that we can clear a nice big space on the table for me to work on. I have the bits and bobs for ventilation (though the supplier I bought my fan from sent me the wrong one! I’m trying to get that sorted out) and have found out where my local propane supplier is – a whole 5 minutes down the road. The local carpenter should be giving me a quote any day for constructing the enclosure for me to work in – I’m getting a 3-sided box with a top made that will sit on top of the table. The fan goes in the top to extract the fumes given off when melting glass, and will vent out of an old tumble drier vent in the outside wall.

I’m getting there! I want everything ready before Christmas – we’ll see if I manage that. Once the fan and box are sorted out, there’s just a number of small things to get – propane alarm, extra G clamps, leather welder’s apron and glove, first aid kit for burns… and eventually a more organised storage solution for glass, but that’s not urgent. My glass rods are currently standing in empty pringles tubes!

have arrived! I found some beautiful lampwork glass beads from fellow Etsy vendors Cottagecove and glassaddictbeads, and have already completed 2 new earrings. Photos will come soon – I loaned my camera to my friend.

Cottagecove makes beautiful beads that she calls raku – swirls of color and random patterns abound and are more striking for the simple design of the beads.

raku lentil glass beads by Cottagecove

glassaddictbeads are also striking – the patterns running through the lampwork look like flames, in brilliant shades and the beads have a nice heft, so that they will suspend nicely.

satori beads by glassaddictbeads

I already have more designs running through my head for the beads, I just need to find the right gems!

The Agate Design Jewelry Holiday Show is just around the corner!

Mark you calendars for Sunday, December 13th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., 1029 Neilson Street, Albany, California.

Choose from our collection of simple, elegant handmade jewelry — including our new “Gold Collection” and many other pieces that have not yet been featured on the website!

Questions?  Just contact Teresa by e-mail on the Order/Contact Us page.

Look forward to seeing you!

A new deal every day so be sure to check back here or the site.. Today 25% off total purchase, paypal, revised invoice on etsy. Till midnite tonite 11/29. http://www.catldy99.etsy.com

The Egyptian, beaded collar necklace is not on sale, but is available on ebay. http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts

Suzanne from Just Made on Etsy has created these amazing little hollow beads.

Each vessel is blown on a tiny mandrel, cleaned and filled with 4mm Swarovski crystal bicones.  Suzanne then rivets and caps each bead in sterling silver.

Amazing!!

Amazing hollow glass beads from Just Made

: : : : : : : : : : :

Froschprinz  (verkauft);

grünes Fröschchen (verkauft)

Jenny hat sich eine rosa Geisha gewünscht, im Tausch dazu habe ich von ihr eine wunderschöne selbstgenähte Knotentasche bekommen;

(verschenkt)

(verkauft)

Froschanhänger; auf Kundenwunsch in etwas helleren Farben nochmals nachgearbeitet…..

Engelchen;

roter Drache mit orangen Flügeln und Punkten; (verkauft)

Weihnachtsfröschchen (verkauft);

dieser Weihnachtspinguin bleibt bei mir, weil er leider bei der Schmuckverarbeitung (meine ungeliebteste Tätigkeit) oben Glassplitter gelassen hat ;-(

Mädchen mit klitzekleinem Vögelchen;

sooooo…..das war’s…bis zum nächsten mal

schon ein bischen weihnachtlich ist es hier geworden, aber da gibts noch viele Ideen umzusetzen….

The etsy shop is closed today due to a show…. Will reopen tomorrow noonish…. Check back then…

Let’s set aside today to being kind, to doing one kind thing for another… I’ve already broke my resolution once, but hopefully I will improve as the day goes on… On Twitter, @Rachel_Cuddy hug your stuffed duck today….

And if you want to be kind to me visit ebay

http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts

Well, yesterday was an eventful day for a group I belong to, a professional group. (which will remain nameless). A call for the resignation of a leader. Not my call by the way. A number of us in the group object to some new tarifs. But I hope there are other ways to solve this than hurt leaders who are donating their time by the way, with an ouster. The leader is a human being with feelings and is trying to do her job. It’s a tough problem to solve. And, yes, this group has cliques. But I try to ignore all that.

Well on Twitter, (a microcosm of the world) there are also cliques. People who refuse followers if they aren’t good enough, or avoid those who aren’t in their clique defined group. Are you with it enough, are you young enough, are you savvy enough? I follow anyone who says something about themselves in their description, whose interests I share, who is enjoyable, and who is NOT an internet or social media marketer…. I try to sell my work there, but I do lots of other enjoyable things on Twitter. There are too many internet marketers, many in name only. The only marketing exception I make is jewelry marketers. I follow them and try to learn from their expertise.

My thought for the day – some follies of human interaction.

Visit my shops for jewelry and beads
http://www.catldy99.etsy.com
http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts

I’ve got a new toy! I’ve been in love with BRBs (Big Round Beads) ever since I first saw a set of them a few years ago. Making consistently sized, perfectly round beads is a skill that I have found to be harder than it looks, so, I finally ordered a press. Now I don’t have to worry about consistency in size and can focus on the design instead. OMG, I love making these! I confess that I’ve been playing with this press all week :O)

With this press I can make 16mm and 19mm rounds. I want to get another press for other sizes so I can make graduated sets. Most of the time I love the uniqueness of free-form hand-shaped beads, but not so much when it comes to a set of perfectly round beads.

So far this week, aside from playing with my press, I’ve mostly worked on finishing up some special orders. Tomorrow I want to get a few sculptural beads made for Ebay and then the week is done, this week just flew by for some reason.

I do have something to show for all my playing this week, I’ve got two BRB sets, both consist of 19mm sized beads.

This first set is a cool mix of my ambrosia design together with a few sparkly dichro beads. I’ve also added a pair of nuggets which would make nice earrings or dangles or whatever.

“Sparkly Ambrosia Balls”

This next set reminds me of the kind of things you might see on a deep sea salvage operation. You never know just what you might find in these beads, but searching is half the fun! My one focus while making them was to put stuff inside! You’ll find large sections of fine silver mesh, tangles of copper and what appears to be gold wire. You’ll find interesting objects caught up in the wire, you’ll even find a few jewels (cubic zirconia :O)  ). There is also plenty of dichroic glass, murrini chips, bubbles and latticino. They are all heavily encased in crystal clear glass.

“Sea Salvage Orbs”

Both of these sets are starting on Ebay this evening. I hope to have a few sculptural beads for you in the next day or so. Have a great weekend!

Happy Week before Thanksgiving Week!  Greg and I have been busy doing shows and we are done for the year, so it seems like a good time to run a sale.

I am running at 20% off all items on etsy, artfire, and the website.  Just write in my message to seller section “Thanksgiving Sale” and I’ll either send a revised invoice or refund the difference from your paypal payment.

www.cdlampwork.etsy.com

www.cdlampwork.artfire.com/

www.chase-designs.com/

And marbles are included too:

www.chasedesigns.etsy.com/

Last day of the sale is Sunday the 22nd.  Happy shopping!

Deanna

Le perle sono ricavate dal disegno del grande designer e architetto Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruk 1917 – Milano 2007) per il villaggio a Singapore del 2000 (Domus, dicembre 2000), l’immagine è quella utilizzata come sfondo per la parure Compro/vendo/affitto.
Qui si può leggere la sua ultima intervista concessa al settimanale Panorama

“Se qualcosa ci salverà, sarà la bellezza” E. Sottsass

Lunghezza collana 250 cm

Lunghezza orecchini 8,5 cm

I must say that there is very little on TV these days that I get excited about, but a new episode of “House” is one of them. I have sort of an avoidance/attraction thing going with him, somewhat like Cameron. (I’m very sorry to see Jennifer Morrison leaving the show by the way.) In the real world however I am a happily married woman – just for the record.

People like House who erect such large barriers to happiness/intimacy and live mainly in their minds, not their hearts, are a challenge. A lot of people want to break through the cement and find his soft underbelly. He has one, as Lydia proved in the first episode this season.

In a lot of ways his mind is a beautiful thing, but we have hearts AND minds as human beings. The game of hide and seek and “find the disease” has it’s purpose, but there is or should be more to life. His sense of humor is a saving grace however, no matter how wicked.

And the manipulative, wicked part has its attraction for anyone with any cynical leanings. Someday I’ll figure out why I like him. He’s just a character… anyway.

We’ll continue on from last week’s post…

Ok, you’ve got your idea down on paper, you’ve broken it down into it’s most basic elements, you’ve found images to use as visual aids. You have a pretty clear picture in your mind of what you want to do. What now?

Well, it’s time to take all of this to the torch. Bring your sketches and your visual aids to the studio and pin them up right in front of your torch.

I would highly recommend in most instances that if this is a sculptural piece you are working on, that you do your first one in ivory. If you really don’t like working with ivory, then at least use an opaque that isn’t dark and is easy to work with.

Here are the reasons that I suggest ivory…

• It’s very soft and easy to sculpt with.
• It holds heat for a long time. Since you will be so focused on your design it’s likely that you’ll occasionally forget to warm your bead, in this respect ivory can be a bit of a saving grace.
• Ivory is a nice light color and so it’s easier to see fine detail and definition. With very dark colors as well as with transparent glass, it can be very difficult to see these details.
• Ivory is inexpensive glass and so you can practice and not have to worry about how much money you’re wasting every time you have to dunk the whole thing in the water jar.
• Ivory is very well behaved. You can really abuse it and it will still come out looking pretty good.

If the design you are working on isn’t sculptural, it’s still a good idea to have a sketch handy for reference and to make your first few attempts out of easy to work with, inexpensive glass. The fancy, expensive stuff can come later, once you’ve fine-tuned your basic design.

Of course if your design is one that is dependent on glass reactions and things that can’t really be substituted for by other glass types, then you will of course have to do your experimenting and your first attempts using the actual glass and supplies you will use for the end-result bead. But you can still save on the amount of expensive glass that you use by building your core bead out of clear or some other inexpensive glass, then apply a thin layer of your intended glass over the core. If there is any sort of structure to your design (i.e. stringer work, dot placement, a specific shape, etc.) then I think that it can still be helpful for you to at least make some basic sketches.

The image at the top of the post is an example of a sketch I did (about 3 years ago) and the resulting bead. The bead ended up being a bit different but the sketch served it’s purpose wonderfully. It kept me on track, it reminded me of the basic design I was going for, even the colors that I wanted to use. When it came time to execute some the design elements as depicted in the sketch, I found that I wasn’t really able to do them exactly as I had drawn them, so I altered them slightly and though they are a bit different, the general feel ended up being very similar.

When working out small details for your design, it is helpful to do this ahead of time, on small test beads. For instance, when considering the color and shape of the eyes for my mask above, instead of just winging it and putting glass I am unsure of directly onto my bead, I first make a small round bead and  make test eyes until I am happy with the shape and color that I have chosen. This technique works great for any type of detail that you want to work out ahead of time instead of taking the chance of ruining your actual bead. I keep a pot of vermiculite handy for just these occasions. If I’m in a real hurry I just set the bead off to the side and it cools in about 5 minutes, then I can see how my design will really look when cool.

Remember that you can always put your main bead into the kiln to keep it warm while you work out small details on test beads.

I hope you’ve found this week’s tip helpful!

(Tuesday’s Torch Tips is an ongoing weekly series of articles. If you’ve got any suggestions for future tips, please leave me a comment and I’ll cover them if possible. Torch Tips will cover a wide variety of topics including; basic lampworking techniques, design, photography, marketing and selling, and so on.)

Amanda Jones creates unique jewellery using Lampwork Beads from her home studio in Liverpool. Shiny and colourful, her pieces make a vivid statement!

Amanda Jones Rockpool Jewels

Rockpool Lampwork Beads

This economy is sending me around the bend… Please take a moment to look at my ebay and etsy shops, lots of good deals and good work… thanks so much!

ebay http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts
etsy http://www.catldy99.etsy.com

Paypal only. Only today November 15 until midnite. On etsy.com only. Put “Forum” in message to seller and I will send a revised paypal invoice. 25% off on at least a $15 purchase.

http://www.catldy99.etsy.com

Just a quick post today to show you my lastest bead up on Ebay. I gave you a sneak peek on Friday, so here is the rest of the bead…

“Fire Blossom”

It’s hard to get a good impression of this bead with just one photo. It’s rather complex, consisting of 3 separate implosions, lots of murrini, a silver glass fish, all on a very organic base of silvered-ivory and sparkly dichroic glass. It is roughly tube-shaped, or pillar-shaped although I didn’t melt everything in smoothly. I think it looks better and much more interesting this way. Check out the auction for more views.

I hope you all are having a beautiful Sunday! We’re still having mostly rain and dark, overcast days but the swamp that is our yard, doesn’t seem to be getting any deeper :O)

Ebay has lots of new beads listed which I want to plug today. http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts



I also sell on etsy.com and there is always a lot to look at there -
http://www.catldy99.etsy.com

Very Lemony Chicken

Using skinless chicken breasts means this tangy dish is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol.

INGREDIENTS

1-1/2 lb. chicken breast, skinned and fat removed

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 cup fresh sliced lemon peel

3 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

1 medium onion, sliced

1/4 teaspoon salt

black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

DIRECTIONS
1. Place chicken in 13×9x2″ glass baking dish.

2. Mix lemon juice, vinegar, lemon peel, oregano, and onions. Pour over chicken, cover and marinate in refrigerator several hours or overnight, turning occasionally.

3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.

from Spark People

lots of good beads on ebay
http://stores.ebay.com/Cats-Paw-Artifacts

Yep, my new bulbs arrived last night…

You know that scene in the movie Close Encounters when they open the spaceship door and they are all nearly blinded by the burst of intense white light?

Well, when I turned on the lamps with new bulbs, it was just like that! Wow!

I have to wonder how I didn’t notice that the lamps were getting darker and darker. When you do something every day sometimes you just don’t see the changes I guess. Anyway, my photos are great again. I was having to really crank up the brightness in order  to see the  colors correctly, but now they are fine just as they’re coming out of the camera…YAY! This makes me really happy :O)

**Edited to add this before and after shot…

Here is my WinterTide bead I wrote about a week or so ago. The pictures were terrible, I worked on them for hours… the bead didn’t sell (I wasn’t really surprised since the pictures were so bad.) Here is a side by side comparison. The difference is pretty dramatic!

I think I will move this bead over to Etsy if anyone is interested…**

Ok so, here are a few pictures of my latest beads, taken with proper lighting!

This is “Venus in Violet II”, I made a goddess similar to this a few weeks ago but I etched her. This one I am leaving unetched, she is beautiful just as she is. I am in love with this color, it’s CIM Thai Orchid. What an amazing shade, so yummy! This lady is currently up on Ebay.

“Venus in Violet II”

She’s sporting one of my handmade murrinis in her necklace. I really love this murrini, but it is the only color I’ve made so far. Next week I need to have a murrini making day because you guys are going to get tired of seeing this one put into EVERYTHING I make…lol!

Next up is a Forest Guardian. He’s a special order so he’s already got a home but I thought I’d show him anyway, I like how he turned out.

And finally, here is a sneak peek of a bead that is starting on Ebay tonight. I’ll post the full bead in the morning.

That’s it for today!

Handmade lampwork glass beads and glass bead jewelry by artist Sihaya Hopkins.  Includes options to buy both finished items (earrings, pendants etc.) or just the beads themselves to make your own designs.

Website:  http://www.blossomstudiobeads.com/home.php