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?

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 -

• Ancient European Glass Beads


• The Venetian Bead Story Part 1 and Part 2


• Beads of Bohemia

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 "][/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!).

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.

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!

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

[caption id="attachment_1304" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="The GOOD"][/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.

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.


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"][/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"][/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!

• History of Murano Glass


• Anglo Saxon and Viking Glass


• Celtic Glass


• Roman Glass on Wikipedia


• Rare Iron Age Glass Bead


• The Ancient World - Beads - Glass and other materials

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.

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!"][/caption]

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



A nice box to put them in -



And a guest celebrity to do the drawing



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"][/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...



"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,



"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 -




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



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



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



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 -



With all the entrants in the box




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



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

THE WINNER!!

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!"][/caption]

And the Winner of Stanley Starpuck is:

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

Here she is Diane -


And finally Third Prize, another Monkee bead to:

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

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!