Friday 16 January 2009

Blogging and Sharing

Today's post is about Mallory!

Mallory, or Fairy Princess Mallory to be correct, is one of our 'newbie group' on the Wet Canvas Forums.  Most of us aren't newbies any more, including Mallory, but we all like it there so much we can't bring ourselves to move on.

Mallory has a blog - For The Love Of Beads, she is very generous and spends as much time writing about other people's beads as she does her own.  Yesterday she very kindly featured me - thank you Mallory!

I enjoy visiting For The Love Of Beads because I never know what I might find.  Some days it is a focus on another bead artist, or it might be pictures of Spike under the covers -



Mallory looses things a lot, (don't we all?) and it's quite humorous to see what she's lost next, or what picture she might be posting to give us all a little inspiration -



But most of all I like to visit Mallory's blog to see what she's been creating herself!  Here are some of her beads and a link to her Etsy, where you'll find all kinds of pretties!

Thursday 15 January 2009

FREE Tools!!

I entered December's challenge over at The Glass Challenge and have just found out that this little monkee

[caption id="attachment_1296" align="alignnone" width="175" caption="2nd prize winner!"]2nd prize winner![/caption]

has won me second place in the Hobbyist's category!  The prize is a $75 gift certificate from the lovely folks at Burning Brass.  To say I'm excited is an understatement - ordinarily, brass tools are way beyond what our bank balance can afford, so this is going to seem like real luxury shopping!  I know I'm going to have a very hard time deciding, they have so many great  lampwork tools.

This looks like it would be wonderful for putting necks on animals, vessels and much more -

[caption id="attachment_1357" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Neck shaper from Burning Brass"]Neck shaper from Burning Brass[/caption]

But ohhh this looks like a dandy little knife -

[caption id="attachment_1358" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Shaping knife from Burning Brass"]Shaping knife from Burning Brass[/caption]

and I've always hankered after one of THESE -

[caption id="attachment_1359" align="alignnone" width="310" caption="Brass Shaper from Burning Brass"]Brass Shaper from Burning Brass[/caption]

And this looks like it would be really nice for making captured bubbles -

[caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Round Push from Burning Brass"]Round Push from Burning Brass[/caption]

You can see, I have a hard choice ahead of me!  The nicest thing about the whole competition is this -
Burning Brass was proud to be the sponsor for the November / December Glass Challenge.  We would like to thank everyone who entered.  All of the entries were very creative and since judging so many great entries was difficult for any one person, we decided to make judging a company project.  We spent most of one morning casting votes to determine the winners.  Everyone here at Burning Brass had a chance to vote for their
favorite.

Thank you Jim and everyone else at Burning Brass!

Wednesday 14 January 2009

It's still Christmas at my house!

I'm sitting here feeling very blessed.  For many reasons but one big one is that I'm part of a wonderful community on the Wet Canvas Glass Forum - I've mentioned them before but they have to be the most giving, wonderful bunch of friends I have ever come across online.  I'm almost embarrased to share everything I've received but want everyone to know much I appreciate their kindness.

I went to the Post Office this afternoon to see if my copy of The Flow had arrived - YES!!  Woohooo!  The Women In Glass Edition - crammed with incredible pictures and tutorials!  But alongside that was a 'come and pick your package up' ticket.  I wasn't expecting anything so imagine my surprise when the clerk brought out a box -

[caption id="attachment_1342" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="My box!"]My box![/caption]

One of my WC friends had sent me something!  I couldn't wait to get home to see what was in there!

[caption id="attachment_1343" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Oooh! it looks EXCITING!"]Oooh!  it looks EXCITING![/caption]

Wonder what could be hiding under the tissue paper??

[caption id="attachment_1344" align="alignnone" width="318" caption="SOCK MONKEY SLIPPERS!!!"]SOCK MONKEY SLIPPERS!!![/caption]

OH WOW!!!  It doesn't get much better than this!  Thank you SO much Deborah for finding these and thinking of me!  The funny thing is, I had put slippers on my family Christmas list and even mentioned I'd seen some cute monkey ones, but they were not forthcoming - so these put an extra big grin on my face, and my feet!  My old slippers are just about in pieces.

[caption id="attachment_1345" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Warm tootsies!"]Warm tootsies![/caption]

I wonder what Raff is going to think when I chase him wearing these?? Hehehe!

Since I had the camera handy, and since I'd been so remiss about posting most of the other wonderful things I received over the last while I decided to get some more pictures while I was at it -

[caption id="attachment_1346" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Monkey Socks!"]Monkey Socks![/caption]

Rita of Rita'z R-tistic Ramblez gifted me these colourful socks!  I wore them for the first time on Christmas Day and got lots of great comments!  Thank you Rita!  --anyone would think I liked monkeys?! ;o)

[caption id="attachment_1347" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Karen Leonardo Book"]Karen Leonardo Book[/caption]

I was speechless when I opened a package to find this book that Deb sent me - It is full of tutorials for different beads followed by a section on how to turn them all into different pieces of jewellery.  I made my first brooch following instructions in this book and was thrilled with how well it turned out!  Thank YOU Deb!

A while back Paula had surprised me and sent me two crochet books -

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Books from Paula"]Books from Paula[/caption]

The Bead Crochet book answers so many of the questions I had about how to do, and what to use, and I'm looking forward to trying some of the 'recipes' in the wire book too!

As if this wasn't MORE than enough, I also received Pipyr's eye cane tutorial from Maggie - I'm working on this one, I've got a cane made, but trying to perfect setting it into beads.

I know I posted this before but will show it again, Maxine sent me one of her presses!!

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If you aren't a beadmaker and wonder what this contraption does it helps to create beads of a certain size and shape when the molten glass is pressed between the brass blocks.  I'm still working on this, it doesn't come naturally to me and is going to take some practise.  There is a definite skill to getting just the right amount of glass melted to fill the press and no more!  When I get some decent beads made with it I'll post them here.  Thank you GirlFriday!

And to top it all off Rhonda sent me the Lichen glass I wrote about a few posts back - I don't have a picture of it as I made it into -

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(except the bottom one which is my interpretation of Pipyr's eye cane tutorial)

I'm now feeling very indebted to everyone!

Here's The Flow

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It's very exciting to see beads by so many people I know all in one place!  I'm now going to go and have a proper look at it, the gallery of glass in there is breathtaking.

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Finding My Voice

I'm in for a challenge!  I have joined a group run by artist Sylvie Lansdowne called 'Finding Your Voice As A Glass Bead Maker, and today is the first day of my little groups assignments!

Just to make things interesting I'm going to have to switch back to my hothead until my new oxycon arrives, but hopefully I'll have that in time for assignment two or three.

This group is meant to help stretch our imaginations and beadmaking styles with positive feedback from the other members.  I know a couple of people in my group but am also excited to meet some new glassy folks!

My assignment, should I choose to accept (Hah! not much choice there, I committed!)

Assignment #1 This picture


[caption id="attachment_1331" align="alignnone" width="231" caption="assignment 1"]assignment 1[/caption]

My first bead will be based on this image, and use only the colours in the swatches.  I have to use all three colours but can use them in any amounts.  I have until Sunday to make one bead, and one bead only - take a picture and post to the group.  Failure to do so will immediately result in my self destruction!   This is going to be interesting!

Immediately it seems to me that this should be an off mandrel creation, BUT I'm hopeless at loops so I'm going to have to think very seriously before I attempt something like that.  Today will be my thinking day, oooh and idea just came to me!  "Please Miss!!  Can I use clear as well"?

Marcy Lamberson's blog today was talking about Typealyzer, it's an online thing that analyses your blog and tells you what kind of person you are and what parts of your brain you are using when you write.  I couldn't resist giving it a go - here is what it said about me - funnily enough it was almost the duplicate of Marcy's!

ESFP - The Performers



The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

- I don't see myself as a bar floozy, but the rest is pretty accurate!

The Brain Part -

brain
I'm not sure what this means exactly, but like Marcy, I wish there was more of an imaginative slant to it. Oh well, we can't be all things at 6am in the morning can we?

I'm going to sneak off now and analyze husband David's - I'm curious to see what lurks in his brain....

Well isn't he the 'Artist' of course!

I decided to do some more checking and took another test at Bloginality.com this one came out a bit different and said I was -

An ISFP, you are Intraverted, Sensing, Feeling , Perceiving.
This makes your primary focus on Introverted Feeling with Extraverted Sensing.

This is defined as a SP personality, which is part of Carl Jung's Artisans (Sensation Seeking) type, and more specifically the Composers or Artist

Because you are in touch with the inner-artist, you see things heavily in relationship to your feelings and their beauty. You may not be as likely to have a public site, because you feel better sharing with only those who are closest with you.

I think this is closer as I'd definitely consider myself an introvert NOT an extrovert.  -- What are  YOU?

Saturday 10 January 2009

Not gonna do it!!

Nope, I don't think so!

I just had a session with the little torch, I thought I'd try the bead press which Santa gifted me, that was probably a bad idea because it cools the glass right down of course - then I have to wait and wait for it to heat back up in the flame.  It took nearly an hour to make three beads with it, one of which cracked.

I think the only thing it will be good for is stringer work and very small earring beads.  Melting stringer is like melting a full rod of glass with my mega.  Well, it was worth a try.  So what do I do now?  Try and hook the hh back up for a couple of weeks or take vacation to somewhere warm and sunny that has oceanfront property?

Friday 9 January 2009

More information on Ancient Beads

I just discovered The Bead Site, that has some wonderful information and images if you are researching ancient beads. I'm primarily interested in glass one's so these pages caught my eye -

There's much more to see and read there.  The problem I'm finding in researching online is broken links and that's what bothers me about creating links here, I'd hate to think any of these pages would disappear taking a valuable collection of information with it.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="171" caption="La Tène eye bead. (No provenience) About 3 cm long. National Museum, Prague "]La Tène eye bead. (No provenience)  About 3 cm long. National Museum, Prague [/caption]

It was a Teeny Tini, Micro Mini Monkee that she made for the first time today . .

Well, yesterday to be precise. I was feeling discouraged with the temporary loss of my oxycon and trying to think of ways around the problem.

  • No Torching! - not really a possibilty

  • Torch with Hot Head and 1lb cannisters - Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

  • Torch with Hot Head and bulk propane - requires change to current setup

  • Try another option! - but what?


Then! Like a bolt of lightening from the blue I remembered the little torch I was gifted a while back. It only requires propane, and has the same hookup as my Mega Minor!
I pulled this little torch out and hooked it up, thinking this might be a good learning experience, making mini beads (for that's all it would do for sure!).

smithtorch
Without further ado, here's my first Micro Mini Monkee - I put it next to a regular sized one so that you can see the size difference. The neat thing about this is how tiny I can make details with this torch, combining this torch with my Mega Minor could yeild some very interesting results! It would also mean I'd need to rework my set up so that I could have two torches running at the same time, or in tandem at least.
Micro Mini Monkee!

I'll be a week or so without a concentrator, I've spoken to John at Artistry In Glass, he has been super helpful and is having a replacement shipped asap from the company in the States, and will have my dead one picked up next week. I am really happy with the service they have given and continue to give me - thank you John and Carri!

Wednesday 7 January 2009

How to use the #9, or, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

[caption id="attachment_1304" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="The GOOD"]Vetrofond lichen beads[/caption]



What a lovely surprise to find that my friend Ananda had sent me some Vetrofond Lichen to try after I had commented on her beads made with this colour (thank you so much Ananda!). Isn't it pretty! It's the most delicate green with a hint of blue. My favourite of these beads is the middle, think I'm calling it Glacial Fields, which means it's probably a keeper, if I start naming beads it's usually because I'm seeing them as offspring...
The little black bead was my first attempt at using some eye cane I made from a tutorial by Pipyr.

The BAD
My oxycon died on me today, I don't know whether to be mad or cry. It's only about six months old and I've treated it with all love one would bestow upon a family member - except I never named it... perhaps THAT's the problem. Fortunately it's under warranty, but I'm wondering how long it's going to take to get the whole thing sorted out and what I'm going to do in the meantime. Does this mean a switch back to the trusty old Hot Head torch?

The UGLY
Well, that would be my mood, I feel like things are conspiring against me so I've taken to eating to make myself feel better - which by the way is a lousy solution!

The #9
Ahh yes.... the number nine! Cloud nine, Love Potion number 9, the 9 horsemen of the Apocolypse (really!! they just forgot to tell you about the other five!), and the fact that the Mayan calendar ends at the year 2012 and 12 is divisible by three and so is nine! I read somewhere that for some reason if you use odd numbers in your blog posts people tend to be drawn to them - consider this a test! ;o)

Thats it - if you've got any interesting uses for the number nine I'd be happy to hear them.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

On the trail of Ancient Beads

Do you ever dream of what it must have been like to live way back in history?

I just finished a book that was set in the time of the Black Death in England,
the 'Pestilence' arrived on the shores of England 1348 and claimed between 30 and 50% of the population. Not a particularly pleasant time to dream of revisiting, yet the book has sparked my imagination.
350px-black_death

One of the chapters dealt with a glassblower who had come to England from Venice before the Venetian glass workers were herded off to Murano to keep their secrets safe. It was interesting to read and imagine how this art was achieved all those centuries ago.

[caption id="attachment_1300" align="alignnone" width="424" caption="View of Venice, engraving by Bolognino Zaltieri, 1565, with hand colouring"]View of Venice, engraving by Bolognino Zaltieri, 1565, with hand colouring[/caption]

I'm again thinking of ancient beads and how it might be fun to try and reproduce some of them.

[caption id="attachment_1297" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Ancient Beads"]Ancient Beads[/caption]

The web is such a great place to do research, but it can be a bit overwhelming at times with so many links, lots of which lead to pages that no longer exist. If anyone's also researching ancient glass beads and want's to share info I'd love to hear from you! I'm currently looking for pictures of the kinds of 'lamps' that originated the term lampworking.
In the meantime here are a few interesting links that are working at the time of writing this!

Wouldn't it be fun to travel back and watch them being made?

If anyone is interested the book I read was Company of Liars by Karen Maitland.

Sunday 4 January 2009

Start the week with a Treasury!

How do you feel on a Monday morning? I know it's my least favourite time and day of the week, so I was thrilled to see that I've been included in an Etsy Treasury that my friend Meghann managed to snag!

It's the second one in quite a short space of time - I'm not sure what she's doing, but it's working!  Thank you so much for including my Once In A Blue Moon bead Meghann!

Here's the treasury, you can click through to see more details, it is full of artists and crafters from the Capital Crafters Etsy team and Etsy For Animals.

[caption id="attachment_1292" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Meghann's Monday Morning Treasury!"]Meghann's Monday Morning Treasury![/caption]

Friday 2 January 2009

And The WINNERS Are......

Happy New Year to everyone!


I have the results from my Giveaway to share!


I thought it would be fun to have a little ceremony, so I gathered all the things I needed -

My list of email addresses

mp1a

A nice box to put them in -

mp1b

And a guest celebrity to do the drawing

220px-bono_wef_2008

Unfortunately Bono wasn't available...  nor were any of a number of other suitable guests that I had in mind.  I had to lower my sights just a little.

Fortunately (or not!), our own dear Ms. Monkeepenny agreed to step into the roll as Celebrity Guest and Draw Officiator.

[caption id="attachment_1252" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Ms. Monkeepenny"]Ms. Monkeepenny[/caption]

I had to give her a bribe gift of jewellery, but then she seemed quite happy to be the centre of attention.

What I hadn't counted on was her welcome speech...

mp2

"Dear friends, we are gathered here on this auspicious occasion of the very first Fireseed Giveaway.  I graciously conceded to perform the drawing of winners names in Bono's absence."

She went on... I'll spare you all the details,

mp3

"It gives me GREAT pleasure, or it will, once I'm at the party I've been promised afterwards with champagne, choklit and I heard a rumour about some good looking male chimp that might attend...  ...where was I..?  Yes, PLEASURE....   I am almost speechless with excitement to conclude this drawing"

It was at this point that I realised she'd been into the champers already, she began gesticulating with great relish -


mp5

And I cringed as she began to list to one side - this wasn't going at all the way I had planned --

mp6

Before I knew what was happening she was on her back!

mp7

And a strange squeal emanated from her mouth as she toppled backwards off the podium --

mp8

I tried really hard to stifle a howl of laughter and went to her aid - this was not the time to upset the Guest of Honour!

Ms. Monkeepenny managed to collect herself together and with the promise of a few more perks after the event, prepared to continue -

mp9

With all the entrants in the box

mp1c


Celebrity Guest Ms. Monkeepenny dipped in her hand to select the winner....   *** Big Drumroll***

mp10

She fumbled around for a while and brought forth.... (it was right about now that the camera battery died..)


mp11

THE WINNER!!


fireworks10


And right about now that the flash batteries died, and Raff jumped on the table and tried to disassemble my whole awards show!

Never the less we managed to proceed -

[caption id="attachment_1001" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Stanley Starpuck, Space Monkee!"]Stanley Starpuck, Space Monkee![/caption]

And the Winner of Stanley Starpuck is:

[caption id="attachment_1273" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Valentina Miletic!"]mp11a[/caption]

Since I had such a great response, and since Monkeepenny was costing me a fortune, I decided to add a couple of runner up prizes to the draw

Second Prize, one of my Cold Monkee beads goes to:

[caption id="attachment_1274" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Diane Hart!"]Diane Hart![/caption]

Here she is Diane -
p1028789

And finally Third Prize, another Monkee bead to:

[caption id="attachment_1275" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Karin Wilcox!"]mp13[/caption]

Here he is Karin! - Karin, I've emailed you but haven't received a reply yet - I'm wondering if it's an address you don't use much, or if my email has gone into the spam bucket. If you read this, can you email my your mailing address ;o)

p1028790






Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone else who entered! I have another idea for some fun but need to think on it a bit more - maybe I'll have it ready for my next newsletter!