Bead bending success!!!

Those of you who pay attention to my meanderings may know that I have had a bee in my bonnet about bending beads for about a year. Though I was shown a method by what I'll refer to as the Holland clan (Tom, Sage and Beau) several years ago, I found it to be too hard and unreliable for me. That involved reheating the annealed, cleaned bead and bending it over the flame. Then I tried heating the beads to about 1250-1300 degrees in the kiln, taking them partway out and bending them- what a mess! I lost about 30%, got about 30% that were bent in a way I didn't like, and got a few that were good. Too much work for small results. A friend then loaned me a curved mandrel. I found that it was too shallow a curve, and it was hard to get my glass on evenly too. So my search continued to the lampworketc. forums. That was informative- people are trying all kinds of different things, but I still wasn't seeing anything that seemed easy and was curved enough to make a difference.

But THEN... well, I have to thank my glass fusing friend Judd. I've kept talking to him about this problem off and on for the past year, and finally the bee entered his bonnet and he decided it was time to solve my little problem for me. He made me a bead bender! Well, he actually made me three, but I already have a favorite- the one that has bead bender III engraved on the side. (Yes he even engraved these babies). I'm not gonna show you a picture of the actual bender as it's his own secret recipe and my secret weapon for the moment. But I will show you the amazing results.
And it's SO easy to use, even for me with my kiln that doesn't have a controller. You just slam those annealed, cleaned beads on this beauty, bring 'em up to slumping temp, crash cool and re-anneal. Yes, you do have to be careful not to leave them at slumping temp for too long or they will flatten. My second batch distorted a little on the ends as I left them there a little too long- it really takes just a minute or two. I'll be running more experiments in the near future, and then, hopefully, putting some of them in my etsy shop for sale. The next bead bender Judd makes will have a few modifications, and will have a just little bit more of a curve to it.

Judd Mann is a glass fuser who makes marvelous platters and pendants; he also makes some amazing stained glass. Meet him at the River Market Farmer's Market in Little Rock, or look at a few things here: http://juddmann.com/bowls.html

First Featured artist on the aretsy blog!

Here's a blog article about me and my beads- I am the first artist featured on the blog for the Arkansas etsy street team- AREtsy:
http://aretsy.blogspot.com/2009/02/aretsy-featured-member-glassbead.html

Glass, dance, movement

"Freedom, awareness, control"
When I heard these words together for the first time in my dance class, I just knew we were talking about lampwork! But no, it was all about movement and the Barbara Mettler dance method. What an amazing thing- two things that appear so different coming together so nicely. I couldn't help but apply these ideas to my years of lampworking.
Starting with freedom- when you first begin learning lampwork, your glass flows all over the place- whether you feel free or not, your glass certainly is! And I've seen enough students starting out with that freedom- their glass is all over the place, the colors are weird and crazy, and they are just sure of where they're going with that bit of glass. But you learn a different kind of freedom pretty quickly; the freedom to let the glass go where it wants to, and to let what happens happen- at least to a point.
Then it's awareness- well, this is where it gets fun for me! You become aware of what you are doing, what the glass is doing, what effect gravity is having on the whole mess, how the colors look together, how they react with each other, and a million other things- not all at once, but gradually.
And as you become more and more aware of what's going on, you begin to learn control- make that bit of glass do what YOU want it to! We usually start out with dots, then move on to lines and pulling the glass into different designs and patterns.


The glass dance continues back to freedom- now mixed with awareness of things you didn't notice last time, and tempered with control. A different kind of freedom results- a dance where the glass still performs the same way, but you move it differently for different results. and as you become more aware and learn more control. you may find yourself becoming more free with your glass. I often have dreams- or maybe they're visions- where there is glass moving in ways I don't know how to control. And it makes me want to just run over to the torch and give it a try! This is one of the ways that new ideas are born- by letting your mind run freely through things that may even be impossible.

For more about the Mettler dance method, go to the International Association for Creative Dance here: http://dancecreative.org/

Playing favorites with glass

Well, let’s see if I can explain this…
I was reading info about clear glass on a website the other day- Someone mentioned that the clear glass they liked (my clear favorites are either Moretti 006, or Lauscha) wouldn’t be available again until March or April. I remember the first time I heard this about a favorite glass color. My reaction was kind of – huh?? How can that be? What do you mean they only make it at certain times of the year???
That was about 7 or 8 years ago. Things have changed so much in the soft glass world in just that short time. There are new American manufacturers, the German glass companies have started making 104 coe (soft) glass, Vetrofond has come onto the radar ( I don’t actually know when they started making soft glass at the Venice factory), the ‘odd lots’ glasses have come to be available. The story I heard about odd lots glass is that Mike Frantz was at the Moretti factory, and saw some piles of glass rods sitting in a corner of the room. When he asked about them, he was informed that they were basically mistakes and not part of the normal color palette. When he imported them to the U.S. and offered them for sale, the color-starved glass beadmaking community went wild and a whole new, but limited, palette of colors was introduced.
So, what’s to be done? Well, we must just adapt to the vagaries of the glass makers. The Moretti factory on the island of Murano has been making soft glass for centuries (though the factory has changed hands once or twice). They now have to keep up with an artisanal industry that has exploded over the past 20 years or so. Before that, the demand for soft glass outside of Italy was not so large. And we Americans are used to being able to get whatever we want whenever we want it.
Now that I’ve gotten used to the idea, I actually love the idea of being part of such an ancient art form that is still based in some old-fashioned manufacturing techniques. And I just try not to get overly attached to any one color (though I can hardly go a day without my rubino oro). I try and view it as more of an opportunity to get out of my personal box and try new things.
It a bit of Zen and the art of glass beadmaking at work!

P.S. For those of you who not so familiar with glass beadmaking- getting a nice perfectly clear, compatible, glass is not always easy. There are constant discussions on the web about what is currently available, who has it, and how folks like it. Looking out my clear-ish window (which needs cleaning!), it seems almost impossible that I spend time wondering about this.