A Special Whorl Video Showing the 'Wagon Wheel' Effect

 I really expected that this would have a more interesting name than the 'wagon wheel' effect. Anyway~ see how it looks like the whorl is reversing directions while it's spinning around? Not true! It's an optical illusion created by quickly flashing lights and your brain's trying to make sense of what it's seeing! So cool.
This was a special request whorl, which I did not think I would be making. But one day I thought, oh why not give it a try? And hey presto, a whorl with a face on it. And it spins pretty nicely too!

Glass Bottles ~ Lampwork Tips

Little lampwork glass bottles are quite a lot of fun to make over a torch- when everything goes according to plan! Because I know these can be used for some very special purposes, I tried to keep calm and think happy thoughts as I make them. Which is usually not too hard. They have their challenges, but the final result is often surprisingly nice!
For the glass makers in the crowd, I'll give a few pointers. These are made at the end of a hollow steel tube which has been dipped in bead release. I like to use KRAG mudd because it is strong and cleans out nicely.

* Dip the mandrels the night before so the bead release will be firmly attached to the steel.
* Make a small bead right near the end of the mandrel~ this will be the neck of the bottle. Make the ends of this bead nice before continuing. You will need to keep this area warm the whole time you are working on your bottle so that it won't detach from the mandrel. Bounce it in and out of the flame often keeping the mandrel warm as well.
* Begin wrapping the glass at the base of the neck as you would for a hollow bead.  Because you will add several layers and blow it out and expand it later, the bead does not to be as large as the finished bottle will be. Apply one or two layers of glass and do a 'test blow' to be sure there are not weak spots that will blow out before proceeding.
* Add decorations- more colors, enamel, silver foil, whatever your heart desires! Melt everything together carefully and manipulate as you wish. Don't let the whole bottle get floppy while you do this. If things start getting messy, remember to take the bottle out of the flame and let it stiffen up; let gravity work for you too!
* Shape into a basic teardrop shape, then blow a little air in to expand. Reshape, flatten a bit if desired, blow in a bit more air and continue shaping.
* Add a lip wrap~ just one or two wraps around the top of the neck.

* Add handles~ put a dot of the lip wrap color on one side, then halfway around. If they look straight, add a thin bit of glass even with the dot from the bottle side up to the lip wrap. Melt gently and open and shape the handle using a poking tool. Add another handle on the other side. Handles may need to be shaped more than once.
*  Check the shape of the bottle and adjust as needed.
*  Heat the base, attach a thin rod to it and pull gently to make the end more pointed.
*  Check it all again, make sure everything is warm and pop it into your kiln!

Using Enamels in Lampwork Beads

Here’s a rundown of the enamels I use for making lampwork glass beads, such as it is. I don’t actually use all that many colors. I have tried a few others, but these are the ones I’ve settled on. 

I like enamels because they give nice, clean colors with none of the problems you can run into with glass rods. No devit, no mud, no worries! I also find them essential when I’m trying to duplicate most types of designs from nature~ I always use them as part of my seahorse patterning. I wrote a blog about an experimental bead of that sort a while ago, trying to imitate a natural pattern. My camera ran out of gas in the middle of the experiment, so there are no pics of the best part, but you can get an idea of what was done, anyway.  

By the way, I don't care how many people say to do it, I DO NOT recommend putting your enamel in a shaker or sifting it onto your beads. Talk about some airborne micro particles that you can breathe! Ugh! 

Here are links to a few articles on this blog that talk about enamel use.

http://isinglassdesign.blogspot.com/2008/06/metamorphosis-of-bead.html

http://isinglassdesign.blogspot.com/2010/09/enamels-quick-tip.html

http://isinglassdesign.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-taming-of-edp-lampworkers-secret.html

I’m still not really sure about the edp trick, but it’s worth further exploration. 

Here are the colors I use, and why!

*  White(9010)- essential~it’s great for a background and can make the colors pop. And there are other things you can do with it too, like overmelt goldstone frit into it for an interesting stone like look (there’s a little more to it than that, but not much. I need to find my old notes as I haven’t done this in years.)

*  Bright red (9840)~ great for a nice, stable red red. If folks ask me for something red and I am thinking clearly, I virtually always use red enamel.

*  ‘New’ purple #9740~ a nice, clean purple. Dark purple is OK, but this reads more true to me.

*  Light or dark orchid(9760 or 9780)~ wonderful pink either way~ also essential. I don’t know if I can tell one from the other. Reacts nicely with raku and iris gold frit.Also lovely with a line of rubino running through it.

*  Oxford blue (9650). There are several blues that are all very similar. Medium blue or blue green are OK, but I prefer oxford. There is also something called just 'aqua' I think which is quite nice.

*  Transparent aqua( might be #9452)~the only transparent I really want to have around. It’s a nice light aqua blue, not dark like all of the ones mentioned above. Probably best backed with white enamel.

*  Melon yellow (9830)~ kind of halfway between orange and yellow. I’m not a big yellow fan, but I do like this color.

*  Green~ I’m pretty sure it’s apple green (9330) that I like. Moss is a bit too grey and dark for my taste.

I have not tried orange red (9835) but it looks intriguing.

NOT black. I’ve gotten it and it just seems to turns kind of dark grey and takes over. Then again, maybe some folks know what to do with it!

Caution, Beads May Contain... Wanderings of a Torch Addled Mind

For the time being, I am making beads in a garage- with the door open. This, of course, means that there is wind, so things blow in.  There's also the possibility of bugs flying around (and they do!), as well as chipmunks wandering through. A couple of days ago, I pulled a mandrel out of the mandrel holder and managed to sling dirt across the table- right into some enamel. Not wanting to toss it, I scraped out most of the dirt and used the remaining enamel up on a couple of leaves (leaves are my give-away lagniappe beads for online orders).



Then, yesterday, I noticed that it is cottonwood season. I can't imagine that one or two of those babies didn't find their way into a couple of beads. I mean, they were flying all around!

So, my archaeological friends, does this mean those beads can now be traced right back to where I am now, just like in the high tech crime shows, or is it likely that it was all burned out? Do I need to put a note up in my etsy shop? Here's what it might say:

CAUTION: Beads may contain dirt, cottonwood, hair or other unknown objects

National Button Week 2018

 Well, I'm late to the party as usual~ it's now close to the end of National Button Week, 2018! Yup, it's a thing- who knew? It was begun in 1989 by the National Button Society and occurs in the third week of March. This year, it is from March 18-25. In honor of this, I have put my lampwork glass buttons on off 25% sale for the remainder of the week. Find them all here!

For more about glass buttons and some links to interesting button stuff, check out my earlier blog 'The Technology of a Glass Button'.

How to Get Clean, Clear Holes in your Lampwork Beads

Here it is, the post you've all been waiting for, where I reveal how to get really clean bead holes! Woohoo!

Once a lampwork bead is finished and taken off the steel mandrel, the sludge inside has to be removed. Folks use a reamer of some type to do this- sometimes by hand, sometimes with a dremel tool. But no matter how it's cleaned, the inside of the bead hole can look pretty gritty and almost chalky at the end of the process.

Fish hole before sanding

In a small holed bead with a solid core, this might not be a really big deal- who can see down in there anyway? But if your bead is clear or the hole is large enough that someone might be looking at it closely, it can be an issue.

Fish hole after sanding

So, what can you do about it??? One solution is to sand the inside of the beads. Here's how.

First ream the bead well and make sure all of the sludge is removed. This can be done by using diamond reamers by hand or with a dremel tool. Make sure the bead and tool are both wet when you do this.

Reamer with sandpaper

Take a tiny rectangular piece of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, place the long reamer (or mandrel) in the center lengthwise and fold tightly around it. Get the bead and sandpaper/reamer wet and rub back and forth lengthwise all around the hole for a minute or so. It could take a little longer if the bead is really messy inside. If that is the case, you may want to start with 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper.
Next do the same with a piece of 600 grit sandpaper. That should do it for the inside of the bead. If you would like it to be even smoother, go up to 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

End reamers with sandpaper

If you want to sand the opening of the hole, take a small square of 400 grit sandpaper and place it at the tip of a small conical reamer. Rotate until smooth, then do the same with 600 grit.

At the end of this process, your bead will have a lovely smooth satin finish.





A couple of final tips ~
Use the smoothest sludge you can find to start with. For my money, that's KRAG Mudd. You will need to call them to order it. Yes, it is kind of pricey (mostly because of the shipping cost). But it will give you a decent inside surface to start with.
Air dry your sludge over night. This will also help the sludge stay strong while you work on the bead.

Black bead before sandpaper

Black bead after sandpaper

Clear bead before sandpaper

Clear bead after sandpaper

Lampwork Glass Ornaments for the Blog Hop and How to Make Them

Ah, so, the other day I was inspired to make some glass bird beads. Yes, I've tried this before and not been completely pleased with the results. This time I came up with a couple of different styles that I rather liked. Some were turned into earrings, others into ornaments~ all ready for the ornament blog hop! Click here to see other wonderful artisan made ornaments.

These are so easy to make~ you just need a rather heavy weight, long headpin and some complimentary beads. Line 'em up, make a loop and Bob's your uncle, you're ready to roll!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying making loads of cool things!

Handmade Lampwork Glass Pins! For scarves, shawls & sweaters

The other day, while showing off a couple of felted scarves on facebook, someone showed me a nice pin that she'd made with her own lampwork beads, which got me thinking about the different types of pins I make with my beads and why.

First is the fibula pin, which your leg bone was named after, not the other way around (or so I've been told). Mine are made on 16 gauge brass wire, which is pretty thick~ so that it won't bend out of shape easily when used. Brass is nice because it doesn't patina like copper and it is cost effective. Because these pin wires are so thick, they should really only be used on loosely woven things like shawls or sweaters. Otherwise they might make big old holes in your lovely scarf! Fibula pins are rather time consuming and tetchy, so I've come up with two different options.

Next came the fork, which can also be used to hold hair back (mine works best when put in while my hair is still wet~ I have the thin, slippery kind of hair, so it will slide a bit as the day progresses otherwise). I was happy to find that these had two good uses. They are also quite thick as they are made on 14 gauge brass wire. So, again good for loosely woven items.





Then came the simple bent stick. Really cool because it is so simple and it works quite nicely! This is very similar to the hair stick option, but with just one wire to thread through the shawl. Another 14 gauge choice, so still not great for a scarf.

Once I started making felted scarves, I got serious about stick pins again. The pin part of these is quite slender and, after searching high and low, I found some hat pin blanks in stainless steel that were nice and strong. The bits and pieces to put these together come from about 4 different companies~ yikes! I find it easiest to insert the stick pin in and just leave it there, putting the scarf on and off over my head.

Pink and purple lampwork memory bottles

I recently had a request from my daughter for a friend of hers for a 'memory bottle' in pink and purple. I love making things in this color combo, so I jumped right in. Made three before it was all over (and I could have kept going with this for a while)! This is why, when someone asks me to do something in a particular color combo, I ask them to look through the beads I have to see if something looks about right. Or send me pictures of something in the right color, or something fas a reference point.

Because there are a lot of colors out there and many of them are swirling about in my brain all the time~ whether I have them in the form of glass rods or not...

Hope one of these is just right.

Finding New Color Combinations for your Artistry; Keep Your Mojo Workin'

The original photo

  A couple of years ago, I began thinking about making a presentation called 'Keep Your Mojo Workin' about some of the many ways I find inspiration when things just don't seem to be clicking. I ended up with pages and pages of notes and more ideas than seem able to fit in my wee pea brain, but here is one that I find extremely cool.

Hue at +40

Hue at +62

Hue at -97

  Find something you've made (in this case a bead, of course) or even a photo whose color combos you really like. Put that photo into a photo editing program such as photoshop and modify it. In photoshop, go to 'adjust color' in the 'enhance' drop down menu, then go to 'adjust hue/saturation' in that drop down menu. Then go to town moving the 'hue' bar up and down. From subtle color differences to radical changes, I guarantee you'll find some color combos you never would have thought of! Now to match the colors with glass rods....

Hue at +180

Hue at -47

Wild Horses

It came to me the other day that I had only ever made a few horse beads and they always seemed to be in different styles. So it was time to try again. Thing is, I can't seem to decide how I'd actually like them to look.So I made a sampling.

From left to right they are:
* The Swedish style Dala horse
* 'Rocking' horse without a rocker
* A more realistic horse, with a bit of aqua blue
* 'Southwestern' style horse






I think I like the Dala horse and realistic horse the best of the bunch.Tried another in the realistic style and transparent amber glass. There is still work to be done to make these be 'just right'!

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

Handmade Lampwork Glass Bead Suncatchers and Kits

Been making suncatchers and sun catcher kits with a new style of beads lately. A little something to cheer up the winter scene.
Here are a few of the beads on their own- lots of layers of transparent glass, which looks really sweet when the sun shines through. The flowing bead style is so much fun to make- pulling, twisting, trying to get the feel just right!

 

Here they are in action!      

 

Making a Wrap Bracelet with Lampwork Beads

Here you go! I've made a few wrap bracelets lately and wanted to share my easy as pie method. It's adjustable and does not require the wearer to tie it on. One thing I have learned is that the hole size of the beads matter immensely. A 3/32 hole is not really large enough for one of these silk ribbons to fit through. If it goes through it's great because it is a nice snug fit and won't go off in its own direction later. But it will not always fit on the ribbon. You're on your own with that!

A focal bead that fits snugly on the ribbon is a good start. Put it on the ribbon and center. This is the hard part! You might need to use a wire to push the cord through, and it might even help to put one of the end threads through the hole at a time.



Then you'll need a couple of beads with a little larger holes for the end of the cords. These were built on a 4 mm mandrel and fit just right.

Put a bead on each end of the cord.
Put other end of the cord through each of those beads going in the opposite direction form the first cord. You now have an enclosed loop.

Tie end of each thread end and cauterize with lighter.

 Tie a knot in each end of the ribbon.
 To wear- wrap around wrist four times, pull tight (you may need to use your teeth for this!), then pull small beads to the ends of the ribbon. For me the small beads end up at the bottom of my wrist- this will, of course depend on your wrist size and how you like your bracelet to lie. Finito!