Flippertygibbit

That must be what I am, because I can't stay focussed.  I want to work on about 50 different things for the bead show in November and common sense is telling me to nail it down to four or five and then I come up with a whole other new idea....

Meet The Batchelor

Name: Alvin
Age: Perfect
Favourite Food: Mum's chicken soup
Favourite Pastime:- Tweaking knobs
Wants to: Bungy Jump
Looking for: A Nice Girl!

[caption id="attachment_487" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="The Batchelor - Alvin"][/caption]

Actually it's not a totally new idea, when I first started lampworking I was making faces, looking back, I'm pleased with my progress!

[caption id="attachment_489" align="alignnone" width="209" caption="Polly Wog - early face bead"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_488" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Bad Hair Day - early face bead"][/caption]

Please Stand By - Technical Difficulties

I can't seem to get any work done!

Maybe it's because I'm obsessed with MONKEES!

312 Dots ;o)

First Murrini

Sometimes something very little can cause great excitement... take my first murrini for example!



Sorry it's such a blurry picture, but you have to realise I'm photographing something not much bigger than a pin head ;o) This is my camera on micro macro manual focus, with me trying to focus using one hand because my other is holding the glass!!

This murrini is a banana! Yes a banana! A banana on a blue background with a red border - just in case you needed help identifying it. It's very exciting! Yes, I pulled a little to quickly and a little too soon and I don't seriously think I'll be able to pick up a slice of this and place it on a bead -- but watch this space!

I was going to try and explain how I made it, but found this YouTube video from Corning that shows the process on a much larger, more easily understood scale -

Sidetracked

I was going to try and beat the 324 +/- dot bead that's currently in the lead on the dot challenge, but somehow those little primates were calling to me today and I had to do monkees instead.

Not content with World Domination, seems like they might be shooting for Universal Domination -

MONKEES IN SPACE! 



..I think each one has about 26 dots.....

A Challenge

One of my favourite places to hang out on the internet is the 'Newbie Thread' on the Wet Canvas forum, its morphed from the original idea of a place to post worksheets for a group of lampwork newbies to work on, to a wonderful little community within the Wet Canvas forum.  So many of the participants are doing incredible work, and yet I think total beginners could feel comfortable there as well.  We all post our triumphs and our failures, share whats going on in our lives and generally support each other in our glass endeavours and things beyond.

So, what's the challenge you might ask?  One of our members was telling how she'd made a bead with almost 100 dots on it - or maybe it was just over 100 dots, anyway, she threw out a challenge to see who could make a bead with 100 dots or more on it.

I don't consider myself particularly competitive, but I have to say, when I stood behind the torch and started counting dots I didn't want to stop!  The challenge is running until October 1st and I jokingly commented that by that time we should be up to 7 or 8 hundred dots per bead!!  Come and join the fun!  The more the merrier!

This bead is my homage to one of my favourite beadmakers - Larry Brickman  and gives me even more appreciation of his perfectly sized and placed dots.

I counted 212 dots on my bead!



Of course SOME people are just too smart for their own good....



..sorry Maxine... I couldn't resist stealing it! ;o)

An Etsy Treasury

I'm not exactly a wiz when it comes to Etsy, but I do know that being in a Treasury is a good thing.  What a nice surprise to check my mail this morning and find that I've been included in one!  If you click the image you'll get to the treasury while it's active.



Thank you Tenneka!

In case you are wondering what 'M' for Monkee is doing in a 'C' treasury, Tenneka contacted me to say she hoped it was ok if she called my monkee a 'Chimp'.  If he's going in a treasury I don't mind what he's called!

Exersises in Stringer Control

One of my Wet Canvas buddies introduced me to Holly Cooper's beads .  These are amazing, her intricate designs have spurred me on to try and tame my stringers!

Yesterday I stood at the torch, pulled stringer and practised laying it down on the beads, some things went better than others.  I'm thinking that perhaps if I keep practising I might be able to get control over thinner stringer than what I was using yesterday - I am getting better at pulling it at least!

Trying something new

Lets see if I can add some entertainment ...

What can I say - this is brilliant!

Crowded House - Dont Stop Now

Close up

Here's a closeup of the beads in the necklace for anyone who's interested :)
They are Faux Boro, this is done using soft glass that reacts to create a borosilicate-like look - I love the colours that come out in these beads!

A new necklace

I finished a necklace yesterday -

More monkees

Here are the last three that I had cooling, I like the hats and wondering what else I can do to make each one a little different.

Monkee Business

Some days are better than others!  Today I found out one of my favourite web blogs is back!  Monkeemaker is back, bigger and better than ever, she has a whole new website and I can't wait to find out what kind of summer 007 has been having!

I was so inspired, I thought I'd have a go at monkee beads for a hollows exchange I'm in, they are in flux at the minute, I'm trying to figure out which is the best (and cutest) way to do them.



This is my first attempt, I was pleased as he's pretty cute, I made his smile with a black dot of glass covered with another the same colour as his face.



This one I decided I'd try painting on the mouth, I don't like the look as much as the first one.



Painted mouth again on number 3, it's not working the way I want - I think thinner stringer is in order.  BUT!  I do like the blue eyes!



Now even if you don't like Monkees you have to admit this one is pretty darn cute!  I had a revelation with his mouth and I love the way he turned out.  Too bad the hollow blew a hole just above his face so I put a blob of brown there hoping to patch it up, it looked a lot like a cow-lick so I decided to keep it just the way it was! --That's one of those 'happy accidents'!



This one looks even cheekier than the previous one - I'm liking this mouth sculpting thing and wondering how else I can use it!



This one is just silly, I tried to put a banana on his head, it didn't  quite work and I notice it's got a small crack in it - back to the drawing board.

....I have MORE cooling!!

Just for FUN

Ever wanted to see your name in lights? Well, maybe your beads on a building?

Here are the Moos Brothers brightening the side of this construction site! All of a sudden I feel larger than life!

First Annual Juried Show at the Marianne Van Silfhout Gallery - Brockville

And I'm in!! Yay!

I submitted a necklace and some loose beads, my necklace and six of my beads were accepted and I'm thrilled!

I finally finished my Warring States necklace that I'd had on the go for ages, I had strung some of the beads on a cord but finally made more so that I had enough to make a complete necklace - here it is -



It's bright eh? :o)

Let me see if I can find pictures of some of the loose beads that are in the show -













Here's a link to the gallery page http://www.sl.on.ca , the show runs from the 5th August through to the 12th September, and the Show opening is this coming Friday the 8th - I'm looking forward to that, there are some wonderful pieces of art in the show, lots of paintings as well as wood carvings/turnings/assemblages, jewellery, pottery and more!  I think my beads are the only glass in the show, which makes me especially excited and proud.

The Gallery is just inside the main entrance of St. Lawrence College in Brockville, there are maps available on the Gallery page of the website.