Stock stock stock

Busy making things…

These lentils are part of my limited edition frit’n’murrini testing for Kaz – love them! The base is CiM peace and the silver leaf has brought out some sunset oranges and even reds around the edges. I’m making some more spacers to go with them and they’ll be coming to the GBUK Bead Fair with me.

I got round to putting implosions on ring toppers – I am very pleased with the result and will be making more. The goldstone and bluestone backings give them a lovely sparkle behind the flowers. I also made an implosion into an off-mandrel heart. More to be experimented with in that direction too, I think!

I got a 2-hole button mandrel and have been making 1 button per session. Am somewhat tempted to get another… These can be used as unusual closures on bracelets and necklaces, plus of course as statement buttons on handmade bags or clothing, or they can be made into fibulas.

I’m going to have a small section of my table for OCD-UK beads: all proceeds from them to be donated to OCD-UK. I’m making little flyers as well with some basic info on them. Because OCD is not all about handwashing.

I got my business cards today! Mini Moo cards, and they look great.

Hearts and more

[end of Oct 2010]

I got back from Venice and the first thing I tried out was using my Carlo Dona press.

Purple tornado heart

On a hot head it takes a long time to get enough glass on your mandrel to fill this press! He makes them in different sizes – I forget the measurements, but mine’s medium-to-large and the whole thing is a fairly puffy 3D heart. The tornado bead above I didn’t quite fill it fully and it’s a bit uneven, but I like the effect. I used transparent dark purple for the tornado so it was saturated enough that it would show up.

Ivory heart front

I made one in light ivory next so it would be faster to melt down. There was something of a washing machine disaster halfway through, which meant I had to stick it in the kiln when I was still building up enough glass. Washing machines are scary when the drum axle breaks when the machine is still on and has a spin cycle to go through… It was leaping about and shaking the entire room! I was rather shaken after that and just made a couple of fairly plain beads to calm down, so in the morning I still had my large ivory blob on a stick. Pat from FH reminded me that I could bring it up to temperature again in the kiln the next day, introduce it to the flame carefully and keep working on it, so I did just that. I messed it up a bit by using dark turquoise and getting the dots on the front too hot so they reacted messily, but I am pleased I rescued it! The back’s a bit neater.

Ivory heart back

I made an end-of-day heart next, using bits and pieces of green shorts I had lying around.

Green heart

It has a SIS shard on top. I did make the mistake of making one of the central colours be CiM kryptonite and it didn’t like being encased so deeply by the others. So this has a crack down the centre that only goes through the kryptonite and doesn’t reach the surface. I do like this bead and I like the slightly random way of using up shorts. You’re not going to get the same thing twice!

Here are some of the other things I made (the hearts do take a long time so I didn’t make very many at this point):

Sangre kalera

CiM sangre, encased and with murrini on top. This was going to be a tornado, but I made the wraps too thick and then when I pressed it the effect got too squished.

Red snake kalera

More sangre. This has a black, white and red murrini from Kaz, and a MCD + hades twistie design that looks like a snake.

Electric avenue tornado

Tornado lentil with CiM electric avenue and murrini.

Dizzy martini

A small set with a CiM dirty martini base and a Cheeky Frit Blend called Dizzy. Dirty martini works well as a base for all kinds of things.

Cool Colours and odds

Lastly, some spacers in a number of Cool Colours and odds. Back: blueberry marble, Vetro cosmic storm, Vetro purple plum with dirty martini dots. Front: kiwi. Cosmic storm is lovely and has little sparkles in it. Purple plum is incredibly soft and soupy. Blueberry marble and kiwi are two of the Effetre Cool Colours – pretty striations when you just use them on their own.

October Trees

[October 2010]

The theme of the month was October Trees and the colour was Effetre 460 yellow ochre.

I haven’t much liked yellow ochre when I’ve tried it before – it’s a bit mustardy for my tastes. I generally prefer pastel yellow or dark yellow. (Or CiM creamsicle – mmm, that’s a lovely colour). Anyway, I started with these, which I think are a bit of a mess:

Ochre dotties

Then I started making trees.

Branches

Vetro odd pale avocado over clear, with the tail end of a red and brown twistie used to draw the lines, which I then added twists to. I pressed it and added the leaves/birds (whichever you prefer – I think they’re a bit more bird-shaped) as dots of a MCD + hades twistie and raked them for a somewhat abstract tree effect.

Hippo tree

This is CiM hippo, rolled in silver leaf and pressed, with the tree done in hades stringer. I reduced it at the end. This bead was partly a test to see if the silver got the same effect as it does on African gray – it doesn’t.

Ochre with silver

Some more goes at the yellow ochre. I do like this one – it’s yellow ochre with silver leaf, then a dark ivory design and dark red brown dots. The silver leaf made it go blue!

Ochre with Cheeky Frit Blends

This pair are with more of Kaz’s Cheeky Frit Blends. On the right is Tobacco Road, superheated and with the tree in dark red brown. The other is the same, with Green Green Grass frit. Not quite sure about the result – they come and go with me!

Turquoise with spirals

This spirally bicone is a base of dark turquoise with yellow ochre spirals, then dark red brown spirals on top at another angle, deliberately pulling the surface a little.

SIS tree

This is dark ivory that’s had silver leaf melted in and given a twist on each side. Then I drew a tree on each.

Etched fritty tree

Etched fritty tree. It has Tobacco Road frit on the bottom and Ferry Cross the Mersey in the sky.

Etched pink tree

The last tree: etched pink and purple. I like the tree shape, but I wanted smaller blossoms on it :)

Ochre and amber

Finally, the last go at yellow ochre. For this I used yellow ochre stringer on amber for the focal, and I really like this set. The BHB is the same, but the stringer sunk in a bit more over the course of heating and shaping it, so it isn’t quite as clear.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Ferry Cross the Mersey

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Not a full test, but I played about with this a bit. Left is a white base with silver leaf, frit on top and superheated, the ends encased in clear and then it was pressed. Right is a white base, the frit was painted on with clear, then I added some silver brown dots that were reduced and dot encased, then it was pressed. Not successful since the silver brown is the browny-ambery areas…

The bird is made of clear dipped in the frit and painted on.

Nice deep blues in this frit, and lots of saturation for using with clear.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Afternoon Delight

Afternoon Delight

Blend 36: Afternoon Delight

Over white, over light pink and encased, frit painted, over straw yellow with twists, and on a light pink barrel.

A light and summery blend. Purty. I used light pink instead of white as the base for a couple of these since this blend has white in it. I really like the one with twists over straw yellow. It has a nice suggestion of roses. I imagine a set of those would look rather good etched.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Blend 33: Do Wah Diddy Diddy

First three: over white, over white and encased, and frit painted.

There’s a nice selection of colours in here, with the spring green and browns giving a foresty feel, then the deep blue and aqua add some extra zing.

The last two are superheated over white and with swirls over straw yellow. You can kinda see in the frit painting and the straw yellow nugget that there’s definitely a reactive glass in there that goes iridescent. Very tricky trying to capture it on camera!

Cheeky Frit Blends: Wondrous Place

Wondrous Place

Blend 37: Wondrous Place

First three: on white, on white and encased, frit painted. This has got one of the striking glasses that I’ve never managed to strike on my hot head in it, so some of the yellowy-brown patches will do other things if you can make them work! But it’s a nice jungly mix like this, and I really like the frit-painting one. The last one is over ivory with silver leaf. The photo is picking up more colour variation than you normally see with the ivory – it’s a bit blander in person and I think could have done with more frit on it.

Wondrous Place superheated

L: superheated over white. R: heated and swirled over pale green apple. Back: over straw yellow, encased in Reichenbach antique green.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Rock Me Gently

Rock Me Gently

Blend 35: Rock Me Gently

Again I start with the frit over white, over white and encased, and frit painted. This is lovely. I like it better encased as I tend to frizzle the pinks if they’re on the surface. Really pretty on its own, and the frit painting one is gorgeous. The heart is a base of CiM heffalump, and it’s encased in Effetre rose quartz. Hand-shaped as I don’t have a heart press… yet!

Rock Me Gently heffalump heart

Here’s another view of the heart.

Rock Me Gently BHB

This is a BHB that I encased badly (again in Effetre rose quartz). It has a little ink blue in it too.

Rock Me Gently kryptonite heart

Aaand I tried another heart! Over CiM kryptonite this time, encased in clear. The shape’s not quite as good.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Spirit in the Sky and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Spirit in the Sky

Blend 27: Spirit in the Sky

Mmmm, lovely watery blues and greens. Like before, over white, over white and encased, frit painting with clear. Then I have it over avocado and over avocado and encased. I really like the last one, a couple of the colours have developed faint outlines and I like the blues with the yellow-brown. The dark blue has a fuzzy brown shadow around it.
The bicone is ivory with cobalt ends. I wanted to see how much the greens reacted.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Blend 34: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

I was surprised by the amount of brown in this when I got them out. They are as above, then the last lentil is over avocado with random dot encasing. Er, didn’t work, it doesn’t go with the pinks. I need to think about background colours for this, now I know what it looks like. I’m not quite sure what I should use it with.

I then tried a few more different things.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da with silver and ivory

This is on top of ivory with silver leaf.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da superheated

Over white, over pale green apple, over straw yellow with antique green wrap. The pale green apple cylinder is meh and muddy.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Sea of Heartbreak and Morning Town

Sea of Heartbreak

Blend 38: Sea of Heartbreak

I also love this frit blend! It’s a lovely gardeny/sunset-on-water selection of colours. First three as before (over white, over white and encased, frit painting with clear), then over Effetre rose opalino. Which was half-and-half too far into the kiln, because one side has gone mostly opaque and the rest hasn’t! (I’ve had this before – rose opalino opacifies if it gets too hot while annealing, so I have to remember to keep it a bit closer to the door).

Morning Town

Blend 32: Morning Town

This one is fun. It looks mostly lime green and blue before you use it, and then the browns and yellows and a bit of purple shows up. First three as above, then over avocado. Finally over cobalt blue and reduced, which I have another picture of here:

Morning Town reduced

You can more or less see that bits of it go mirrored, but I imagine you probably don’t want to use it that way in general! Could do with more reactive experiments for this frit.