Torch Time Again!

 Good golly, I have not been blogging much! Just popping in now to say my torch is back up and running after being on hiatus for a couple of months. I've started out with some fancy silver-cored fish pendants and glass whorls for spinning yarn.
New curved beads are on the to-do right now list! We'll see how that goes~ they are always a bit of a challenge.

My own spindle sticks

I've been telling myself (and a few other people) that I really need to figure out how to use a lathe and make my own spindle sticks for a while now. I am venturing down that road (with a bit of trepidation). Why bother, you ask? Well I have found precisely one person who can make the sticks I need for a sensible price. Well, for any price, really. And what if Hershey Fibers gets tired of it? Then I will have a pile of stick-less whorls lying about and no one will know what to do with them! So~ away we go!

For starters, using a lathe is a little fun, a little hard on one's body and a little scary. There's a whole lot of shakin' going on! And I am no spring chicken. Secondly, these thin sticks take some finesse. As they thin out, you need a sharp tool to do the work for you, no pushing allowed. I am working at The Hub, and the tools seem a bit over used. So I switch to sand paper near the end. And then I get tired of standing there and just stop and bring it home to finish it. Which is kind of silly as it takes a lot longer to finish by hand!

Anyway, I am fairly pleased with the results. I've paired some whorls up with particular sticks in my etsy shop. How are these sticks different?

• They are a bit thicker than the ones I can buy, which I like~ they feel firmer in my hand. 
• The 'flick area' is thicker. I am working on narrowing that.
• The centers are wider; the shape is not quite what I envisioned, but they're on the way!
• Some of them are shorter, which is also my preference.
• 
  They can be notched for drop spinners more easily.
• They are not all the same. This means that specific whorls work best on specific sticks. I'll be working on getting things a bit standardized in future, though I like that they are not all perzactly the same!
• A little oil & beeswax finish is rubbed on.
  
• Right now I am working with poplar, but Urban Timbers just may be able to provide me with some locally saved wood. I love that idea!
  
  

Lampwork Glass Fish Beads and Other Glass Sculpture to Wear!

See Spot

Well, I have little, if anything new to say about lampwork glass fish, except I make them. A lot of them! Sea life is always a fun theme. Most of my fish styles only exist in my lampwork world. They often come together as I work on them, though I have an idea about colors and design before I begin. As I go, I pay attention to how the design is developing and decide what seems to be working (or not!). There is a gallery that contains some previous designs on flickr, and always loads of fish pendants available in my etsy shop, of course!

Pink Adobe Turtle

I also make turtles, seahorses, a random sea urchin, some shells now and again and even mermaids when things lead me in that direction. Turtles are always interesting- folks ask for odd colors and then I want to check and see if there are any actual turtles in similar colors. What a surprise! There really are pink turtles. Not quite like these, but still... Oh, and frogs, but perhaps I should have a special post about those guys.



There is this cool book called 'Art Forms in Nature' published by Dover books that is simply filled with interesting designs to influence my glass work! any of those creatures are from the ocean realm. But sometimes I just have to pull them onto shore! Some these beads go distinctly into the fantasy realm, like these mannikin beads. I call them that because, well, they remind me of little sentries, or maybe chess men!

Making Blown Glass Beads with video link

People are so interested in learning to make hollow glass beads on the end of a hollow mandrel or small blow pipe- myself included! Thanks to a wonderful bead making buddy, I was shown a way to do it that is pretty cool, without the use of diamond shears. Many people can do this better than I can~ I am still learning, but this video will show the basics, along with ways to recover from some errors that I guarantee will happen to you too!

Here is my youtube video in all its glory!
https://youtu.be/hM6L3MVHkWs
 

A couple of video pointers~

*  Make your first wrap of glass nice and thin and right at the very end of the mandrel and it will pull off much better and have a good hole with less fooling around.

*  I start with a small coiled bead or cup bead, very similar to the way a hollow bead might be made on a mandrel. That way there is a little bubble built in from the start.

*  First build a little bead, blow a bubble in, and then add more glass and decorate before shaping and blowing it the final time. The starter bubble is nice, just to be sure you are really going to have a bubble in the bead.

* Because I wanted to show the bead being blown, I did not blow it in the correct way, which is pointing the mandrel towards the ceiling. Pointing the mandrel up seems to work the best for consistent shaping. I have also been told to take the heated
bead out of the flame, point it down for a moment and then point the mandrel to the ceiling so it will be a little stiffer on the outside. In reality, I point down and begin to blow, then move up to the vertical blowing position to finish.


* Make the tungsten pick really hot before plunging in into the bead. Turn up your flame if necessary- white hot is good! Make sure to keep the bead warm behind the flame so it won't crack. Look down the bead through the hole once you've plunged the pick through to be sure it is nicely opened up. If not, try again.

*  When you are ready to pull the bead off of the mandrel, be sure to only heat the mandrel, not the bead. Don't let the hot fingers get in the flame, or they will stick to and mar the bead.

I was not going to put this video up because of all the mistakes I made, but then decided, what the heck~ everyone is going to make some of these errors!

Here are some video links to folks who really know what they're doing!

You can watch Olga Alianova https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atXlC1mxpo4

Davide Penso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phb3vjDs1PE

My favorite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgaN1q4enk0...

A Treatise on Artisan Pricing for Your Handmade Work

This is not to be a blog on how to price your work. If you're looking for that, check out Laura Bracken's jewelry and craft pricing calculator.

What I wanted to talk about here is a bit about the vagaries of pricing artisan handmade work. Yes, you need to take your supply cost and time into account. Also all the training you've done to get to where you are today. But there are other elements that can come into play. I think of it as the 'because I say so' factor. I have jokingly said this to customers from time to time (if I think
they will understand that it IS a joke), but there is a big element of truth involved in that statement. Only I understand exactly how a particular bead was made and what it took to do it. There are pieces I love because I am so happy with the success of the technique involved. But the customer has no clue about that. If you meet me in person at a market or show, I am likely to try and encapsulate the technique used that I am so delighted with. But as a customer, you'd probably have no clue what I was talking about. Most folks smile and nod~ their take away is probably something like 'well the artisan is pretty excited about that piece, so there must be something special about it.' ( I hope they're not thinking- 'well SHE'S certainly proud of herself!).

Does size matter? Well, in perceived value, it probably does, but in reality, size is not the main determining factor in my own price structure. If you look at my etsy shop you will see that most pieces of the same type are pretty close to each other in price. Even though there are some pieces that I am really happy with and some that I feel are more average, I determine a basic price for the type of item and then stay within that range. The base price is pretty much a result of the time I normally spend making a piece of that type. Some pieces take a little less time, some considerably more, but time is not the only thing that makes a piece more or less valuable to me. And since I'm the one making the decisions around here, the prices I determine on are the ones I'll use. Why not charge more for the pieces I like better? Well, as my mom used to say 'it all comes out in the wash.' It is true that, just because I like something, that doesn't mean it will be a customer favorite. And just because I am not impressed with something else doesn't mean it is inferior. Again, perceived value comes into play. What the customer likes will seem more valuable to them than the pieces that didn't catch their eye, regardless of what I tell them. I would never say- 'oh I hate that piece, you should get this one instead, it's nicer!'- regardless of what I might be thinking!

Prices for each type of item will rise over the years as I feel that the pieces in general are nicer, larger or more complicated and therefore worth a bit more. One other thing that I am aware of is what I perceive as the value of the item. If I were out shopping, how much would I be willing to pay for something like I make? What would I think of as a reasonable price? I want my work to be affordable. Maybe something you wouldn't buy every day, but something you're not kicking yourself about buying later because of the price. In the spirit of keeping the joy of owning a wee bit of an artisan's work alive, I'd like customers to remain happy with their purchase on all levels. It is also a reason that I am not a 'hard seller'. If you like something, can afford it and want to take it home with you, then I am on board and happy to help you out! If you want to just stop and chat and look, that's good too. I have gotten so many ideas and suggestions from window shoppers and customers alike~ I consider getting out of my box a bonus to setting up for in person shows.

I am a 'bail as you go' bead seller. When I am at my table, I have a few pieces bailed and ready to roll and a lot that can be fixed up on demand. It is true that folks tend to buy the bailed pieces first (so I probably should have more of them ready to roll). I can sit at my table and do a few more throughout the day, which often brings folks by to see what I'm up to. I've also had folks who want to watch the bailing process- a mini class if you will. I'm just fine with giving out some pointers. If they're serious about it, they may learn a little something.

Here's a little pricing trick I use at my table when selling in person. I use signs that show a range of prices rather than pricing each item individually. After years of hearing folks say 'oh it figures I would choose the most expensive one' I have made my price signs so the highest possible price is a little more than the most expensive piece on the table. Silly? Yes, but I'm much happier not having to hear folks say that so often.

A Picture is Worth... Photo Relevancy on Facebook

Parachute Jumping Turtles

"Kaleidoscopic Gears'

 I wanted to show a few photos that I've posted on  facebook in the   past that have received a lot of attention. As those of you who use facebook know, a post with a photo is much more popular than one without. My theory is that if the photo contains several different things it will get extra attention~ folks will look at it more carefully and often pick out their favorite and tell you about it thus making the post more 'relevant'.

 

Making Faces

And since we're all about relevance and SEO (search engine optimization- or maybe, in this case, FSEO because it's on facebook), it's a fun thing to try out in your spare time!

Even a photo showing rod colors can be popular

Drawing the Line~ Glass Stringer Control for Beginners

Well, I recently purchased a pair of amazing glass beads with musical notes on a staff from Heather Behrendt. The stringer work on them was so precise and tiny I could hardly believe my eyes. Needless to say, I started thinking that it was maybe just slightly possible that I could begin to learn to draw a few lines on some beads. I know the theory, of course~ pull very fine stringer, find sweet spot in flame, apply to bead. Sounds easy, yes?  Oh! I forgot something~ p,p,p (practice, practice, practice, in case you had something else in mind).

I tried a wee bit of this out yesterday, and here are a few conclusions, ideas and points of interest. Firstly, if you are just scribbling stringer randomly around a bead, you can heat up a pea-sized bit of glass on the end of a rod to a nice red glow, pull it out of the flame, attach it to the bead and run it quickly around the bead by either turning the bead around or moving the blob about. This is what I call a 'glass blowers style' application as was used in this bead. Not a teeny tiny line, but quite easy to do, and no need to pull stringer in advance as you are using a blob of glass instead of a thin bit.


But anyone can do that, right? Time to move on to something a bit more difficult. The next bead was made using a commercial thin stringer. Thinner than a regular commercial stringer, but still not really thin, so the lines still ended up thick-ish. I tried out a couple of parallel lines and then a couple intersecting lines. Here's where the sweet spot in the flame came into play. I have often heard that you can work to the side of the flame, using the heat of the bead to heat the stringer. Seems I was working more in front of the flame. I don't think it really matters, as long as the bead is hot enough to make the stringer stick. The stringer should be applied by pushing it onto the bead, not just laying it down onto the bead, or it will not adhere properly. If that happens, it will pull off of the bead and ball up, giving you dots instead of lines. In this case, I added some dots at the intersections of the lines to help hide any blobby bits there.

Now on to the harder stuff! For this bead, the first step was pulling some thin stringer. I have not gotten to the hair-thin phase, but it's pretty thin! I decided to try some colors other than black just for fun. The main tip here is- PAY ATTENTION! Hold the stringer near the end so it doesn't wobble while you apply it, but be sure there is enough sticking out to make the entire swipe onto the bead at once. Be sure the tip of your stinger is not blobbly (cut it off if it is), heat the bead, put it in position out of the flame, but still close (your sweet spot) and apply the stringer by pushing it onto the bead. Wow, do I have shaky hands! You can see I used a lot of dots here and there to hide ends and wobbly bits. I had to figure out how to make that a design element! Oh, but now I've given it away... I do like the look of the different stringer colors~ helps with the retro look! And you can see that is is very different on each side. Why the heck not?!

I will have to let you know if the p,p,p works out, or if I just end up peeved, peeved, peeved!

What's in a Name?

Just a short little bit of something- how about naming all those lampwork glass beads I make? Well, I don't normally name individual beads unless something just hits me. I figure the person who wants to wear the wee talisman will want to name it her (or sometimes his) self. But I can name a series or style of bead so- here goes.

A 'portal' pendant has a hole through the center. It could be a door to new ideas, or a new chapter in your life. I test marketed the name with my all knowing daughter who liked it because there are usually swirly twirly bits about, giving it that mystical feel. Sometimes these also have a bit of a wing along one side.

A 'mandala' bead has eight points- for the four directions and then one bump between those. I often find 'The Circle Game' by Joni Mitchell going through my head when I make these! If I make one of these beads with 7 or 9 points, they become 'kaleidoscope' beads. Sometimes they end up star shaped as well- when I just don't feel like waiting for everything to melt in!

'Glitterati' fish have a shiny center and shiny bits of green aventurine on the outside- for folks who just have to have a bit of bling !

"Cephalopod-esque' beads have a bit of a tentacle. They are not really meant to be any kind of animal, but are such fun for me to make, I just can't resist!

'Chrysalis' beads are stylized beads based on cocoons or chrysalides. Folks seem to like the rebirth and moving to a new phase in life implications in these. They are interesting to make~ often I feel hard to get quite 'right.' I don't make them very often these days.

Me on the radio! Lampwork Glass Beads on Marketplace Weekend...

Woohoo. This is a first for me- I was interviewed for the radio show Marketplace Weekend. It's just a small piece of the whole show about 'profiting on passion'. OK, so I sound a little silly. But still~ it's me on a national radio show! They said it couldn't be done.... You can listen here~

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/your-wallet-profiting-passion

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with the show~ but bending beads is my current obsession!

Taking tutorial photos

Diane at the Soda Lime Times recently asked if I would like to do a tutorial on making these heart pendants to be published in the February issue of her popular digital magazine. She'd seen the Christmas ornaments I was making and thought they'd make nice pendants. Of course I was honored to be asked and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.

But making something I felt was worthy of publication, then writing the tut and taking photos took me just a wee bit longer than I'd expected. I take photos for my tuts myself, which means camera in one hand and hot bead in the other. It also means I've gotta be quick. And the chances of bead fail are high because the poor thing is spending a lot of time out of the flame, and the sludge is cooling and being heated way too often.

I was not pleased with the first heart I made- the lobes were not pronounced enough, just not really what I wanted to show off. So I gave it another go and was quite pleased with the resulting bead. I began work on writing the instructions up and sent the photos for the headpin off to Diane so she could take a gander at how things were progressing. Unfortunately, the photos were blurry and couldn't be used. Why didn't I notice that? How annoying, not to mention embarrassing!

So it was back to the drawing board. The Flow has a lot of great tips for writing tutorials and taking photos, so I took another look there. Diane suggested I try laying the bead down on a marver while taking photos. Was I shaking the camera or the bead or both? Who can tell? When I looked at the settings for some of those photos, I saw they were taken at crazy slow shutter speeds, which made me realize that my new studio space is very poorly lit. So I brought in all the light I could find, laid down my white paper for a nice uncluttered background and played with my camera settings until I got a reasonable shutter speed- between 1/60 and 1/125th of a second- much better! Then, when I was actually taking photos of all the steps, I leaned the mandrel against something to stabilize it and took several pics of each step. When the background was darker, I found I had to go down a step or two on the exposure compensation to keep the shutter speed faster.

Results? Good! The photos were no longer blurry and the tut was ready for publication! The February issue of the Soda Lime Times is out today- lots of lovely eye candy and som fun tuts too!

Scarf Slides and Cleaning Big Holed Lampwork Beads

Whoot! My newest lampwork glass bead endeavor is making scarf slides. I finally got myself a really big mandrel- a whopping 1 inch- and started making beads for scarf sliders on them. Though a one inch hole may be a bit larger than needed for some scarves, they seem to be about right for rayon. I gave one to myself, one to my daughter and one to a friend as testers to see how they work out.

The huge mandrel was much easier to use than I thought it would be. It's always best to sludge and dry mandrels overnight when making any high stress beads or beads that take longer to make. The mandrel needs to start out well heated and to stay heated the whole time. These beads started out with a clear core footprint, giving them a good stiff background to work over.

Important: make sure the sludge doesn't have any little gritty bumps. These should be rubbed off of the dry sludge before starting.

Because it's really easy to see inside these beads, they need to be cleaned extremely well. After the bead is finished and removed from the mandrel, clean as usual and then sand with 220 grit and then 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. This will smooth out the inside nicely. I have to thank Hayley for this piece of advice. It has made a huge difference in the smoothness inside my large holed beads.

A couple of useage tips for these sliders:
For safety, it is probably best to run the scarf horizontally through the slider to be sure it can't just slide off of the bottom. Making sliders with a little bit smaller hole will also solve this issue.

Sliders can be used in a number of different ways- one is to run the scarf through the slider halfway, put the scarf around your neck, and then run both ends of the scarf through the slider. The large hole will allow a silk scarf to easily run through the slider three or even four times. Here are some photos of one around my neck.

Seahorse Tutorial Results

The sweet seahorse Doris made!

I'm always so excited to see the results when someone uses a tutorial that I wrote. Doris Stumpf makes a lot of wonderful sculptural beads- whimsical little people and such. I was pretty excited when she decided to splurge on my seahorse tutorial a few days ago- she made a wonderful seahorse and even wrote a blog about it! Thanks so much for sharing this, Doris!

And, if anyone should have a yen to try this tut themselves, you can buy it right here- I think it's actually a pretty good bargain. Lots of information, and it even tells you how to make the seahorse with the steps two different ways around. I naturally go in a certain order, even though the other way makes a bit more sense! You can pick your favorite.

You Are... Focus on Life week 25

Well, in my mind I changed this from 'you are' to 'I am' So that's what I'm going with!
One thing I am this week is late! I've been forgetful about blogging lately.
This week, I am a bead researcher. I have a lot of ideas about making focal beads- what looks good and what doesn't. But the question is- am I right or wrong? So- I'm asking y'all, among others, for a bead assessment. Here are four beads- all very similar in color, but different in shape and other design details. So the question is- do you have a favorite? One (or more) you don't like? can you explain why??
When I make beads there are always a lot of different thoughts and ideas knocking around my brain- about what I want to do with that bead, what I want to do next, and what others might find interesting about how this all works. One burning question I keep coming back to is what makes a good focal bead!!??!!
Let me know what you think! To see more of what we are, check out Sally's Blog!

Chrysalis Lampwork Bead Pendants

Oh my, sometimes I just get into something, whether it makes sense or not! Right now it's what I call 'chrysalis' beads. I'm going to say that these are representational beads. They are not meant to be perfect reproductions of any type of chrysalis, but rather the idea of a chrysalis. I don't like to attribute any special meanings or powers to my work. I'll leave that up to you!.

So here goes- what are these beads all about? Well, the first one was really an accident. I made this wild bead and decided it looked pretty cocoon-y. Months later I decided to try something like it again. And then there was a competition I wanted to enter that I decided would be perfect for a chrysalis of some kind.

I worked on a lot of different styles- some of them actually pretty accurate, and finally settled on the style of the red one on the left as being what I wanted. Of course I was not chosen, but I had a lot of fun working on these.

There is something about these pendants that really appeals to me. I have kind of a mental list of attributes that I like to include- twirly bits, raised bumps here and there, a bit of wing on one side to give an idea of what's inside, lines around one end, raked colors. All of these things are to give that bumpy, odd chrysalis idea and a feeling that there is something just about ready to burst forth.

I know not everyone will 'get' these, but I have been really happy with feedback I've gotten from folks. When people purchase them for family members who are going through a period of renewal, I am truly honored. So here is a pile of my most recent chrysalis beads...

Handmade Lampwork Glass Bead Headpins and Sets

I've been working on beads sets a little at a time lately. Trying to make more supplies available in my etsy shop. I've kind of decided on the name 'stone soup' for the types of sets I'm making right now. They look like they've got bits and pieces of stone all through them- very organic.



I've also made some headpin sets. These are great fun to play around with! When I made the pins, I left the copper wire about 5 or 6 inches long, so there's plenty to work with. Before I used them, I decided to hammer them flat just because I like the way that looks; then I went to town! I've made a few necklaces out of them-added a few flattened copper baubles as well- making these little paddle dangles is a wonderful way to use up copper scraps. Being new to metal working, I always seem to have a lot of those lying about!