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.

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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.