Lampwork beads on ebay

I have finally listed three sets of my beads on ebay. Yaaaaay!!! It has taken about 5 years for me to get from… my initial thoughts of how I would really love to make lampwork beads,.. to it actually becoming a reality and now selling them on ebay. Wow,.. I’m so gald I’m a patient person.

During these past 5 years, I gradually gathered lampworking tools, equipment and glass,..and then it would just sit there…..because as much as I really wanted to get into beadmaking,..I simply just had no time left in my days to learn how to do it.

Even now,. because working at a torch with molten glass is not something you can do when you are tired,. and my ‘windows of opportunity’ (which are not daily),… sometimes come at the wrong time, when I’m just too tired to work at the torch even though I have the chance.

So,. I’m not sure how many beads I will be able to get up on ebay each week yet,.. some weeks more than others no doubt, but I hope to get into the swing of things and list them regularly.

I plan to list on Sunday mornings here in Aust (which is Sat evening in the US), since I always have a few hours very early Sunday mornings before I am out the door at 10:45am. Every other day is impossible to set a regular task,..as I’m all over the place at uncertain times,lol.

I also changed my ebay ID from **remy** to **remy**studioheath .

It has also been 5 years since I was selling my jewelry on ebay,….feels like yesterday.. NOT! ,lol.. but hard to believe it was really that long ago.

Lampwork beads red set

and why not some in red?

As you can see,..I’m finally getting some beads made at long last. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years and have had all the glass, the torch and the rest of the equipment for years, but for one reason or another,.. I could never seem to find the time to get my lampwork beadmaking off the ground. I wear so many hats (like most mums do),..one each for mother, wife, housekeeper, cleaner, chauffeur, accountant, grocery shopper, cook, maintenance guy,..eh hemm girl,..councellor, tutor, jewelry maker, webmaster, and I’m sure I have missed a whole bunch more,… I just have so many fingers in so many pies,.. adding lampwork beadmaking to an already rediculously busy life was like bringing in another pie for my 11th finger…oh wait……. erm you know what I mean…I just couldn’t stretch myself that far, even though I really wanted to. So,.. I’ve thrown away the hats for housekeeper, cook, cleaner, maintenance girl (erm..edit: not true,.. I just spent 4hrs installing the timber slat blinds in my studio grrrr.. I need a handyman in my life) and shop for groceries online again. The house is lookin’ shabby, and my family are starving but hey… I’m making beads right?!…and maybe in a week or twelve….erm ok a week or two… up they go on ebay. Now,…I just need to find someone to drive my kids all over town every afternoon and evening to their sporting commitments,…and I’d have more hours every day to play at the torch.

More lampwork beads

…and a set in purple/mauve,…mmm purdy…

Lampwork beads

Another set. These remind me of the seaside,. aaah I can hear the ocean, smell that salty air and feel the sand between my toes…. erm….or perhaps I inhaled too much of the fumes off the silver foil that I used while making these. ;} I have good cross ventilation via two open windows and a door, plus a ducted extraction fan in front of my torch,.. but I’m not happy with it and I think I need to re-position the extraction fan and/or increase the size of it.

I was a bit concerned about how much of the fumes (especially from the silver foil) I enhaled while making this set,… so I raced out after and bought a very attractive (NOT) respirator to wear next time I need to play with things that produce those very nasty fumes.

More lampwork beads

I have been having a blast at the torch,.. erm..maybe that’s a bad choice of words.. nevertheless.. here is another set. I hope to get my ebay auctions up and running again soon and list these sets. I seriously need to employ someone to do all the admin stuff for me ;} ,… blearch.. it’s just not creative or fun doing all that stuff and takes me away from the torch and my jewelry making.

Lampwork Lemur bead

Here is an end-of-torch-session-mess-around-bead. Meet little Lemur bead. Or as my youngest daughter 11yrs and collector of Furbies calls him,..a Furby bead.

Because I don’t yet have a kiln to anneal my beads straight from the torch (buuuuut,..I’m finally picking up a kiln tomorrow yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!),. I’ve never attempted to make anything sculptured or anything riskier than the snowflake beads simply because they most likely would not survive and would crack during the vermiculite cool down. The other night at the torch however, as I trying to choose some colours for my last bead for the session, my 15yr old daughter was wondering around the studio chatting to me as I worked and I said to her “I’ll make you a mobile phone dangly, what would you like?” She chose to have a black bead with ‘Watercolours’ Frit Fusion.

She left the studio and I had a brain snap . I thought,..I might just surprise her with a little black and watercolour frit kitty. Whaahaahhaaaha…yep little Lemur was suppose to be a kitty ROFL@myself. Ok,.. well it was my first sculptured bead and maybe I overdid the eyes just a little LOLOLOL. Anyway,. I thought, if I keep it small..it might survive like the snowflakes did, and I will anneal it when I get my kiln,..so little Lemur was born,..all of 15mm high. My daughter loves him, and even my hubby likes him,.. he took him to work, (for three days grrrrr) to show him off *giggle*.

It is hard to see in the pic, but he has a pink and blue fritty body.

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Latest Lampwork bead set

Here is my latest set. I was not quite sure what these beads reminded me of as I was making them and it was really annoying me,.. I was thinking maybe kind of tribal but that still wasn’t quite it either. As soon as a dear friend of mine saw them she said Batik!,..and yes that was exactly what they remind me of,…gorgeous patterned fabric, created using hot wax masking…. oh wow that brings back some scary,..yet fun memories of my teen years. I can almost smell the beeswax.

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Blue Lava set

This set was made up over sessions 4, 5 & 6 back at the torch after my break. Except there is that olive bead from session three. The set is a result of quite a few uh..huh moments I had, both at the torch and away from the torch as memories suddenly came flooding back.

I decided to stick to a technique over a few sessions to see what I can do and what I can learn from doing it that way, as opposed to doing one of these, then one of those.. kind of thing. I really enjoyed this technique and process when I was making beads before so it was a no brainer to start with these and make a whole set of them. I love the effect on these beads with the turquoise, brick red and spiderweb reaction of intense black.

Click to enlarge

At the torch again

Third session back at the torch since my 20month break and my aim was again to get rounds and also see if I can get a nice olive shaped bead. I also wanted to play with a colour that I used to love playing with because of it’s colour reactions in the flame. The brick red & turquoise comes from the same rod of ‘turquoise’ glass. A reducing flame causes the copper in the turquoise to come out.

While I was having fun watching the interesting effects from the reactions,.. I forgot to make sure my ends had nice puckered holes, silly moi, so the holes in the olive shaped bead and one hole in the bead on the left,.. could have been better. *smack*

Here is the result of my 3rd session back at the torch.

Back at the torch

Back at the torch for the 2nd session since my return to beadmaking after a 20 month break *gasp*. Before I even lit the torch, I decided to first imagine what it feels like to get that molten glass blob to flow and find the balance on the mandrel. I was determined to get round beads again quickly and I think that thinking it through first actually helped. Practicing dots was also on the agenda for this session.

I was relatively pleased with myself after this session. I got the round beads that I wanted, and by the third bead, I got that ‘feel’ for the balance back again. The dots were meh,..not great but pretty much up to the standard I was at when I was making beads before, so I was happy with that.

Here is the result of my 2nd session back at the torch.

Lampwork Beads

Very recently I lit up my Bobcat Torch,.and tried to calculate how long it has been since I was last at the torch. It felt like a while and I guessed it would be about 10 or 11 months,.. but to my horror when I checked the date of the last beads I made, I discovered it was actually 20 months!!! .
Where did that time go? How could it have been so long? I know I have been busy as usual but gees,.. I feel ripped off,… like 10months has been stolen from me or something.

Anyway,.. so I continue my beadmaking journey 20months later *snif*…… The first session back at the torch after such a break left me thinking OMG,.. I have to re-learn everything,.. I couldn’t even get a round bead whaaahaahaha. I left the torch feeling like,..hmmm it’s not like learning to ride a bike then,..I had forgotten how to feel the molten glass and get the right balance of glass on the mandrel, the implosion bead was like an imploded implosion with carbon scum inclusions because I forgot how to adjust the gas and oxygen to get a neutral flame,.. why I even thought I could do an implosion bead in the first 5 mins back at the torch when I couldn’t do them well before is anyone’s guess phrrrt!,..so all in all, it was disastrous and I was a little disheartened after that session. I think I suffered a case of overconfidence and underskill,. probably due to the excitment and fear,.. followed by relief of actually lighting the torch again without blowing the studio up.

Here is the result of that first session back at the torch. Don’t laugh….oh alright..you can laugh,..I did.

Trip to the USA

It’s official. I will be traveling to the USA in OCT. I know we will be going to California, most likely staying in Los Angeles. Am 99% sure I’ll be there on the 10th & 11th of OCT and attending BlizzCon in Anaheim. At this stage, I’m not sure yet what other days we will be there, or for how long, but I’m pretty sure we will get to do lots of fun touristy things while we are there. That’s all I know for now,… and I am very excited. Whooooooohooooo! and nervous at the same time,lol.

Bead loop dangle lesson

I have recently added the first free lesson to the Beginner Lessons section of the website. Check it out here Bead loop dangle.

I will be doing ear wires next.

Beginner Lessons

I have recently added a new section to the website. This section will contain free jewelry making lessons for beginners. These beginner lessons will all be free, and viewable on site, not via downloadable files. I will be adding new content to this section at every chance I get, however as nice as it would be to have these lessons available for you now, unfortunately I’m very low on time and there is not much I can do about it, so getting these lessons done and uploaded to the website will take a little longer than I would like. I’ll get there though.

Drop by and have a look at the Beginner Lessons section. Please comment and let me know what you think, or suggest some more lessons that would be useful for beginners.

My mother’s pendant

Here is a closeup of her Birthday pendant.