312 Dots ;o)

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)

Holo-Boro

Here they are - my very first hollow boro beads!







The dotted one is my favourite, part of it reduced to a silky gold finish, now I want to see if I can get a whole bead that colour!  The pictures don't capture that unfortunately.

Michelle, you asked about boro on the mega minor.  I have nothing to compare it with, but found that with my oxycon I could melt it quite easily.  I think my challenge is going to be getting used to the way the boro melts, it doesn't flow like the soft glass does and I'm realising I have to get it really hot to get the beads smoothed out nicely.

Here's a chart on Artistry in Glass' site that might help anyone looking at torches and oxycon's and wondering what they need for the most heat.

Torch and oxycon chart  - it says my combo will do small & medium boro which I figured would keep me happy for a while.  I decided to push the budget with the oxycon as I didn't want to be disappointed.

Today's Picks

Here are some dot beads I've made over the last week or so.  There should be a name for a group of dot beads, I've always been partial to a 'mischief of rats' and a 'murder of ravens' - not sure about dots. .   a blizzard of dots?  Nahh - have you got a better idea?

Today's Picks

Milder weather means I can torch more. I felt like doing some dot beads, and have been using the bigger mandrels, I like the size and feel of bead I can get with these. Still having some trouble getting the beads off the mandrel, and I think it's because the cold pressed steel is more porous than the stainless, allowing the bead release to really grip tight. I'm rubbing the mandrels with a little beeswax before dipping them at the minute. Having mixed results with that. Some come off much easier and some don't.

Bright and cheery dots!



Earthy dots



I really like the size of this one!



And here are a couple of drop prototypes that I'm experimenting with



Last but not least some purple hearts - my first hearts, hoping to send some off for Beads of Courage

Today’s barrels

Here they are!



The top one is the longest one of the day, the bottom one is a 'remake' of this one from last year - not quite the same, but you get the idea
Raffi just wanted a lap to climb into

He's usually soooo hard done by..

It is official, I now have beads on display at David Paterson's Glassblowing Studio in Merrickville, (my beads aren't on his site, but you'll see the kind of work he does)



I put a display stand together to hold some single beads on cords, and have also submitted some necklaces to The Grotto, I think they prefer to be the exclusive location in Merrickville for their artists so I've made sure that I have offered them items with multiple beads that are more complicated and only showing single beads at David's.  

Here are a sample, put together with help from my David who 
thinks of mixing things that I wouldn't!









I want to try and get some listings in my Etsy shop and see if anything comes of that and will also be on the look out for any other possible locations, maybe Carleton Place or Almonte.

So, I have not been idle, even though I've been quiet!

Yesterday was fun at the torch!!  I am starting to understand how the size and placement of the dots can create different patterns - sounds obvious right?  Not so, my green and black bead in this picture has tiny white rectangles between the big dots, I was thrilled when this happened.  It's all about how the glass spreads and I can't wait to get back to try more things.

A couple of these have murrini in them, I want to have another go at that too, I melted it in a little too much, and placed clear over top of one of them, which I have decided I should have done at an earlier stage to make sure I covered the whole piece.

I also used some violet yesterday and got a silver reaction onthe top right bead that I'm having a hard time trying to replicate.

I have a HUGE pile of beads waiting to be annealed, I hope to get them done this week.  It's hard to bite the bullet and tell myself 'do it!', because I keep wanting to add more beads to the pile!!  These are spacers I made last week to help me put some bigger beads together in necklaces.



A couple of pairs of earrings, putting jewellery together does not come as easy as making the beads!




These are made with Kumihimo weaving, it's done using a circular board with a hole through the middle and many notches around the outside.  I'm thinking of hanging pendants from these.



Definitely still dot-addicted, infact I feel a torching session coming on as I write this :o)



More dots, dots, dots - the green one in the middle is actually very pretty, the picture doesn't do it justice.  It sparkles and looks almost like it has facets, I'll try some more of those in different colours.

The hardest thing about lampwork is staying focussed!

Too many colours, too many shapes, too much wonderful inspiration out there, I don't think I'll ever be able to make a set of beads for a necklace I'm having way too much fun flitting from bead to bead.

Here are three barrels I made yesterday - I even named them! - Christmas in July (because it's got red and green but not Christmas red and green and it sparkles but it feels like a summer bead), Dreamtime and Codex. Dreamtime is my thinnest and longest barrel to date, I love the length and want to get 'em longer and tapered. I know, I'm naming them, that's a bad thing, that means they are becoming family members and you can't sell family members!!