from October 09, 2008

New....

It's been awhile but I'm back on my blog with a pic of a necklace designed for something special. Approached by someone
who was holding an auction to raise money for a desert race in Morocco ultimately to raise money for food and education of
the children there as well as locally. She is one of a team (all women) who will be driving jeeps across the Moroccan desert.
Months of endurance training as well as months of raising the money to enter for the privilege of competing as well as gathering 50 kilos of food and clothing. I had the easy task of providing something for their auction. Anyone interested in following this race can do so at http://www.trophee-roses-des-sables.com. The race started today! and is called Roses des Sables which translates into Desert Roses....and therefore my inspiration. The colors of sand, pinks and ambers (the colors of a desert sunset) and I luckily came across some vintage brass camels as I was completing the necklace (what luck!)
I also decided to create a painting also titled Desert Roses (in honor of the two sisters participating in this race) in colors of
pinks and siennas with a bit of collage included depicting Moroccan images. Just the sort of inspiration I love!

from August 15, 2008

This is How It Starts....

Having recently discovered working with hot glass (in a small way), I take particular pleasure in knowing that Hudson, where I have lived for over thirty years was the site of a glass industry located on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains. At it's height over a century ago, it was still possible (at least in the early years when I first moved here) to find colored glass while walking along the beach or just below the wharf.

I'm happy to have a place to work on my torch in my home even if it is in the basement. This is at it's messiest but it's a happy, colorful mess.





The glass starts out in rod form (as you see on my table next to the torch. Heated in the torch, it melts and I guide it on to a steel mandrel coated with a bead release formula that will let me slide the bead off later when completely cooled. After the base bead, several other colors can be added (a little like painting with molten glass) and texture can be left or completely melted in and then shaped into perfect little spheres, barrel shapes, squished between graphite paddles or even molded into presses. Lately I've been experimenting with sculpting the glass using small scale steel tools (steel because they can stand up to the heat taking care not to let them get so hot that they stick to the molten glass). Sculpting beads would be for the goddess type beads as an example which require shaping with the aforementioned tools as opposed to a symmetrical bead. Upon completion and while still so hot they've just lost the red glow, they are put into a fibre blanket to cool slowly to avoid thermal shock.
Then I gather together finished beads from the fibre blanket and slide them onto some mandrels to be put into the kiln to be annealed (takes the stress out of the glass that's accumulated during the time it's in the fire) although personally I find that part stressing myself......Finally they must have the bead release residue cleaned out of the holes before I can use them in jewellery.



.....and then the satisfying part....designing the finished product....

from August 15, 2008

Of Fish and Goddesses and Midsummer Night's Dreams....

As promised muchearlier on, I am posting the pics of some of the beads I've produced. My raised dots are my usual favorite but now that I can work with more metals I am experimenting with how to use them. Metal effects are obtained by reducing the oxygen and using a richer fuel to bring them out with a wonderful raku look to the glass (somewhat tricky). I love the "not so little" bum on my turquoise "goddess". There is also an unintended gilded birthmark on her frontside! The fish started out as a hollow bead until I kept going with it and it grew fins.... Having used a 5/32" mandrel I can wear it on an interchangeable bail that I made especially for the Pandora/Troll beads that are so popular now. The next ones out of the kiln are all florals which I can hardly wait to assemble into a sort of "Midsummer Night's Dream" theme.

from August 13, 2008

It's About Time!

What a pitiful blogger I am....averaging two or three a month! Is time really moving that fast?...or am I too slow? I check my favorites e v e r y day and yet I don't update my own.....I must work on that...
I continue to practice glass techniques on my new torch set up.....and I am slowing down now to expand on my favorites so that I can produce some sets to design around. This goddess bead (based on the Venus of Willendorf of Austria 25,000 - 20,000 BC)
is my favorite one. The glass is a copper green/red which looks like oxidized bronze. Here she is in all her voluptuous glory....
My success with this bead is due to the wonderful tutorial by Teresa Laliberté.

from July 16, 2008

These are the days....

These are the days I'm going to miss in the dead of winter. I love being able to move outside and work on my projects.
Here I'm doing some hammering, best done outside in any case, and my barrel is just the right height for me. The projects I'm working on are for some jewellery pieces that require some embossing. The funny juxtaposition of my fish "out of water"
next to my newly discovered bird's nest didn't escape me and I found myself creating "fish beads" on my torch and sterling silver wire nests with tiny blue pearls as eggs....a creative segue from my task of embossing.....
I'll post the glass fish when they come out of the kiln.....
By the way, note that in Kate's blog, (Art Vein Vessel) she also has posted her collection of nests....!

from July 5, 2008

SATURDAY, JULY 05, 2008

New Torch!!

I'd be embarrassed to tell you how long I've had my new torch (probably over two years) before I actually set it up this week.
I was sort of happy plodding along with my single fuel torch (a Hot Head) and have to say slightly intimidated by having
to introduce a 20 lb. oxygen tank to my workshop. Last summer I made the plunge to purchase an oxygen concentrator which takes the place of the dreaded 20 lb. tank. I feel much better now and EXCITED to see what I can do with this new set up.
I was told the learning curve was somewhat steep - but - not so much. I've tried out a few techniques and although it needs
some tweaking - I'M HAPPY! And actually I've heard similar stories from other glass workers who are having trouble deciding how much to become involved in this aspect of glass work. So my story is not that unusual. I'll post pictures later this week.
Must go play now......
OK - so now I've taken photos of the first few beads. The first group were my first few on this new torch set up. I had that sense of false confidence when I saw them. It was downhill after that. I was also new to using the reduction frits which have beautiful metallics when done correctly but are tricky until you know your torch settings well enough. It requires a reducing flame (fuel rich and lower in oxygen). The leaves were something I was never able to do without having them shatter because of the type of torch I was using before (the Hot Head). It simply wasn't hot enough. These photos don't do them justice as the clarity and color are even nicer. They are addictive so they should only improve with practice...

from March 21, 2008

Silver and Pearls

Funny how I've returned to a wintry palette so soon. This is one of my favorite designs - sterling silver forged into lengths
of ribbon looking bands connected by some sensuous chainmaille and sprinkled with pearls. It feels great too as the bands
of silver rest on the wrist with the chainmaille creating enough drape and the four clusters of pearls as accents around the wrist.