this tutorial is pretty much how I do it, and whats the point in me making a tut when Lori has already made such a fine job of it? nice one Lori!

she has made other great tuts too…subscribing, suggest you do too!

enjoy!

another thing that set me back a few days was my kiln breaking , most of one day spent just running the program and writing down what the errors are, what it does, then doing it again and seeing if the error is the same or different each time, once figured out whats wrong have to wait for the part to arrive and fit it, and then finding that the thing you went to the torch to make the day the kiln broke has completely escaped your mind.

I have ticked the big studio tidy off my list now though, theres only a few little things to do left in there now, and it should stay at a level I can cope with. Oh, here it is, since you’re dying to see!

My Studio

My Studio - other end

My Studio - another view

My Studio - jewellery assembly area, with bead display, work by many talented artists!

Chickens! My original chicken form Les at MadCatGlass now has a friend!

once again I cleared away my inspiration with all the mess, well thats not strictly true, I have one new idea, thats really a group of complicated ideas, that need to be researched, and then I need to spend about a solid week at the torch, just working on those things, and I know that once I start, I won’t want to do anything else, so I’m not starting yet, cause I have a fair few something elses that are higher up the priority list!

I’m rather liking the idea of Sharon’s creativity challenge, that links on from her creativity sourceboook I mentioned in my last post.

I’ve made a start on getting back into gear today, I made bunny beads & ring tops yesterday for some custom orders, I made lots, so that when my customers have chosen, the others will be available,  I’ve now photographed and uploaded them, heres a few,

Double amber purple bunny

Multi Dark Bunny

Ring Top Bunny

hopefully, I will be back to normal soon, producing lots of lovely things and sharing them with you on a more regular basis!

must be time to get the studio in order, and get started on those things I said I’d do this year (oh how uncomfortable to say that)

these things are…

making some tutorials. for this I need photos, and for those I need a blank background, not a pile of rods, frit, stringers, tools, bits of leaf and other junk. I’m not kidding when I say I actually could not see my desk. it was covered in a thick layer of glass!

on a similar vein I’d like to produce some more videos this year, I made some last year, but they were for showing how I make my glass work to people at craft fairs, and I never edited them down to fit on youtube. this year I’d like to do that.

I’d also like to do some teaching. I have a guinea pig in mind, for the first student in my new studio, although I’ve taught before, its never been in my own space. still have a couple more things to put in place before offering tuition, but it will be happening!

every year I say, this year I will be more organised…well I manage on some levels and completely fail on others, but sometimes a system you think will work well, just doesn’t, or the items in the system outgrow it for whatever reason. usually its some form of glass storage, and as we lampworker types all know, glass breeds and fills any space you give it!

I’d like to be more efficient at making, and more productive, its all very well having manic periods of super-productivity induced by looming deadlines, but it tends to end with creativity disappearing altogether for a week or so, and then I don’t even want to go into the studio, and when I do find a little time and creativity, I go out there and the place is a complete tip, glass, beads, silver findings, bits of cable and thread, pliers etc, just all over the place. very bad, I’m not making a habit of it. ok?!

speaking of which, thats kinda where I am right now, no creativity, no looming deadlines, and the studio was a tip!

I keep thinking, ooh I could go and melt some glass…but thats just it, I wouldn’t know what to do with it once I’d melted it. no beady ideas, no creative juices flowing right now. haven’t made a bead since christmas eve!

however, I have spent today cleaning and tidying the studio (not done yet, but both torch benches are clear and clean) so that when the creativity comes back I can run out there and not fall over all of the mess of non stop making at the end of last year.

I have managed to find a bit of bench I havn’t seen in months, quite a number of now empty pots and jars from condensing my stringer and twisty pots, space in my drawer from organising my frits yesterday, a bunch of escapee murrini pieces, oh and a spider. I evicted  him to the cold and wet outdoors, does that make me mean?

I’ve also divided up my part used rods into shorts and longer than shorts, so I can actually get at the shorts when I want to!

yesterday I got the wire baskets I bought months ago attached to the walls, and fillered some holes that have been staring at me for nearly a year, now if I could only find the paint to cover them…

tomorrow I am to reclaim my sink, and tackle the jewellery assembly area. then if that doesnt take me all day, the bookshelves that never got properly moved into, just dumped stuff on, will be organised. I want to make a Sharon Peters style creativity resource book
and I have a whole magazine holder full of sketches, printouts and doodles, all just begging to be organised into such an item!

I have had a teensy bit of time to play with new ideas, I thought it was about time I attempted another animal design, something thats not a rabbit!  I saw a fox the other day, he turned and looked at me as if to say ‘what are you doing here? its midnight.’ so I guess foxes were kind of in my head after that.

I find a ring top an ideal thing to experiment on, because its finished, its not a bead asking to be made into something, or waiting for friends to make it a set, it just is.

so, fox ring tops, I’m not showing the first two experiments, because, well they’re a bit pants, and I’m not entirely sure where I’ve put them, so heres the second prototypes

foxy ring top 1

foxy ring top 2

I rather like his wonky ear, it looks like hes listening out for something!

and just for fun, whilst I was looking for some fox images it struck me that the firefox logo was rather a nice fox, and then that he was conveniently wrapped around a circular base shape, so I had to didn’t I?

firefox

firefox face

I used an opaque turquoise shard on the base, so as not to add to much bulk and to get the right quality of planet-y ocean-y feel to it. the colour was a blended stringer with various oranges in, think I mixed it a little too much though.

I think I’d like to stylize this a little more my way, somewhere between my fox and firefox, to just suggest firefox, but with my own stamp on it, and also not to come into any aggro with copyright type issues, that wouldnt be any fun would it?

if you can’t make it, there are some pictures on my Flickr! heres a couple:

Polka dot flower necklet

Pink and Teal Bracelet

Firstly, The brand spanking new Glass House Gallery and Restaurant in Middleton, Nova Scotia, opening Early November. The Newest Venture of Glass Artist and Ceramicist, Sally Tully.
Here is the facebook page, and their blog

And a little closer to home (for me anyway!) than Canada, Glass Designs and Gallery in Bedminster, Bristol, run by Stained Glass artist Claire Dadswell, Here’s the Website

Just one more, I’ll also be sending work to Toe in the Water Gallery, Fowey, Cornwall very soon! Artist Max Harrower is the owner, another website for your perusal!
I have been such a busy little bee lately! with all these new galleries now stocking my work, its a wonder I have any left for my craft fair…but, there is still plenty, so don’t worry!

A couple of things have been keeping me rather busy! firstly I went to spend a day absorbing some of the Genius of Lucio Bubbacco at Di East’s wonderful studio (more on that in another post soon, and pics of what I made on my flickr)

The other thing is several things rolled into one, I’ve been asked to supply jewellery to three new galleries! yes three! oh and all of them want it at the same time! not only that but requests for top ups and Christmas stock (Oh no, did I just use the c word? aaaaarghhh!!!) are beginning to filter in from my existing galleries (ever wondered if my work is available near you? check out my stockist list here)

so, amidst being distracted trying to clutch frantically at any skills I might have fleetingly got hold of whilst watching Lucio, practicing away at some very odd figures, oh but two years of life drawing are paying off! proportion is a lesser worry on the figures…well mostly, theres still an element of the glass doing what it wants!

I have been making ALOT of jewellery. As an absolute minimum I said to myself 6 pairs of earrings, 3 pendants, 3 necklets and 3 bracelets per gallery, some of them are also wanting silver cored beads, of which 25 is the minimum I like to send.

For once I have actually taken proper photos of the jewellery, and they’re not bad! and further to this I’ve actually edited them. and uploaded them! well some of them, I felt as if I was going to be stuck to my chair if I edited anymore and left it at a mere 64! added to the ones I did a little while ago, thats 104! the rest of the pictures are on my flickr, but heres a few highlights:

oh, and I’ve also created a new ring top design, morphed from two other designs I’ve been doing, the daisy style (see buttons) and the polka dot rose beads

Rose Ring Tops

Thats all for now, keep an eye on my flickr for more photos, and here I’ll be announcing where the new galleries are when they have my stock!

its just easier and quicker to get them on centre and that lovely shape, and the encasing nice and smooth.

I looked at a bunch of BHBs I made not long before I got the shaper, and I rejected so many more from that batch than from the newest batch out of the shaper.

obviously there are other benefits, like consistency of size, though with as many holes as this its easy to make lots of different sized beads!

I noticed that someone had searched for ‘how easy are pegasus beadshapers to use?’

well, how about a little review I thought? and while I’m at it I’ll review my CG beadroller, and compare them, and chuck in a few tips along the way!

first these are the ones I own,

from Pegasus:

~ rounds 8
~ ovals 8
~ egg combo
~ stubby barrels BHB

and from CG beads the disc roller in the wand style.

Rounds, well, this was the first one I bought and I use it all the time.

it doesn’t take that much getting used to, you just start with a cylinder slightly narrower than the cavity you want,I use my flat marver and roll the edges so they are straight, then warm and roll again so the ends spread out onto the mandrel slightly, making the nice ends, then add discs around the bead until I have about the right amount of glass, and roll.

I have found that making a smaller one, then marvering the middle section so it forms a fat roundy ended cylinder, then adding a fat twisty, and melting it in, marvering and re-rolling in the next size up, makes a bead with good holes.

on all the rollers you can also use the outside edges to straighten up the bead holes.

Round Beads

The ovals

not one I’ve given a full test yet, but initially I was finding that I wasn’t filling the cavity, I was using only the ends of it and producing a bead that was shorter and stubbier than the actual cavity size. and I couldnt use the smallest two much at all, its such a small amount of glass, but this could be because I just don’t like to make small beads, I’ll give it another chance and let you know!

ovals

now that I’ve taken a break from it to play more with my lentil presses, I think this will be much easier for me to use, I am refining my knowledge of exactly how glass moves.

Bear in mind that although I have been beadmaking for some years now,I have not owned a beadshaper/roller until April of this year. I also have not owned a press that I could use until about May of this year.

Now I have become somewhat addicted to both types of tool, and need to curb this spending habit! (just this morning I was thinking to myself, something squarish, like a nugget press would be a great bead to design jewellery with! oh dear… )

anyway, back to the point,

The egg combo,

Another that I’ve not yet given the full test to, what I will say is that the  two biggest cavities takes ALOT of glass, so hothead users who are impatient might want to stay away from this one! these lead to making a very big, heavy bead, with not as many design possibilities as I’d like, though I havn’t tried them squashed yet.

The other cavity sizes are much more managable and have lots of jewellery design possibilities,like the smallest ones for simple earrings.

I found the slimmer ones a real challenge, theres not alot of room for error in shaping the original bead, and I can get a shape thats just as nice and quicker by normal marvering or marvering with a curved marver. however, if you want consistent shapes, then its the way to go.

I found the easiest way to get the shape (which is still somewhat tricky, need more practice!) is to make the small end first, shape it up in the cavity, then add the rest of the glass to the fatter end.

I think I’ll come back to these two rollers, and review them some more in another post.  I am of course determined to master them , I wont be beaten by an inanimate object!

update 7.09.11 – made these yesterday, I think I’m improving with it, but this is definitely a  ‘practice, practice, practice’ shaper! particularly these slim shapes. but as I mentioned, making the slim end first, then adding glass along the length, getting a good end on the other end,  then fattening it out works reasonably well.

slim egg beads

rainbow slim eggs

So, my newest addition, which I am somewhat biased towards, being as I designed it myself (see here incase you missed it), the stubby Barrels BHB shaper.

I love this, I can’t tell you how much! this, along with the round shaper, now lives on my desk, it doesn’t get put away!

The first few beads I made I had some issues with bead release, it cracked off whilst making, a couple of the mandrels had been sitting around having been dipped for a while, and my current pot has been diluted a few too many times I think, but it helped to really warm the whole of the bead release up, not only the bead section, and to keep it good and warm throughout making.

once I’d got that issue under control I was away!  the current design of beads I’m doing involves marvering a wig wag down onto a base bead, so the beads are very nearly the shape of the beadroller already, but it saves loads of time smoothing and rounding up, and produces a uniform shape. its also handy to use just the ends of the cavities to straighten up a bead that is narrower than the hole, and to curve them down slightly.

I’ve yet to try this shaper out with a smooth surface design,other than a couple of simple dotties which when rolled at the right temperature did not drag.

these make a fantastic shape for coring (if I do say so myself) because they are a little straight sided, and I personally think they look fab on the charm bead bracelets.

Stubby Barrel beads

and lastly, the CG beadroller disc.

I loved the idea of the wand style, and I love this shape, but its not actually the easiest one to use until you get the hang of it, and getting the hang of it did take a bit longer than the rounds.

you need to start with a really narrow footprint, and build outwards. however, if the hole goes wrong, melting it down into a plain donut spacer means the glass isn’t wasted!

it took me even longer to work out how to use it the way its meant to be used, for making more than one bead on the same mandrel, theres a trick to that too, make one bead, shape it and finish it, then make the second. and either dont touch the first with the flame or be sure to keep it warm, whicehever is the most successful for you. I was trying to juggle them at first, make a base donut, then make a second, then go back and add a bit to the first…er no. that doesn’t work. again I find the smaller cavities hard to use, this bead relies on making a narrow footprint first to get nice holes, but you’d have to be using stringer to get a footprint this narrow…now theres a thought!

the thing about this size and shape, is that it really is only any good as a spacer bead, there really isn’t much room for decoration, maybe a few dots or bits of stringer, but you can’t get enough layers into it to encase anything, at least not right to the edges. potentially you could make something layered and stripy. but you have to think about how it will look threaded up, and you dont tend to see much of the design unless you do something cool and thread it so it is displayed end on. the good thing is though, because it is such a pretty and unusual shape, just a single colour, or a simple dotty looks pretty cool. Like these black ones, and the following coral and turquoise ones

Disc Spacers

flower lentils & spotty discs

CG rollers and Pegasus shapers comparison:

well, theres not much of one, they are both excellent quality graphite, and very well made. Personally I have a slight preference for a tool manufactured in the UK, that isn’t going to incur high postage costs, customs charges and take weeks to arrive, and I also have a slight preference for the Pegasus simple dowel handles, they are lightweight and feel good in the hand, easy to flip over and use the back as a flat marver. the CG handles look pretty cool with their flame design, but the thickness of the handle is a little too big for my little hands, but that is purely personal preference! Then of course theres shape availability, and sizes too, I chose the Pegasus rounds over the CG ones because the size range I wanted was on the Pegasus, to get the size range I wanted out of a CG roller, I would have had to buy two. though the range of different shapes available from Donna at CGbeads is vast, both her range and Bev’s range are growing all the time. I am aware this is not the fairest of comparisons, being as I have 4 of one to test and only one of the other, and of course there are other manufacturers who make similar items, but I can only test what I have, but I’m certain that ease of use is down to shape, not who made the tool, unless you particularly favour the chunky handle over the slim or vice versa.

Some words about beadrollers/shapers:

these are not a quick fix for bad bead shapes/holes. they do require learning how to use them properly, if you havn’t quite got the hang of marvering, and you’re rolling whilst too hot, you will simply drag your bead into a lumpy mess which can be tricky to re-round. and if you had a design on that bead…well now you have a smerged design.

however, it is fairly quick to learn how to use some of the shapes, round for example.

and some shapes are not possible, or at least not very easy/fast to make any other way, discs for instance

I love these tools, and they have made a real difference to my beadmaking, for instance I can now make a set of beads without wanting to scream, infact I think I might even be  beginning to like it!

and on that bombshell…

beadshaper beads

beadshaper

I love this new tool from Pegasus Lampwork tools! its very easy to use and of course produces a shape I love!

I have beadshapers and rollers (to be precise 3 Pegasus ones and one CGbeadroller one ) I love them all, but they are all for small mandrel sizes.

The ones that Bev (Pegasus) does for BHBs are combo ones, which although I love the idea of, my favourite favourite of the shapers I have is the mixed size rounds, because if you go too big or too small, you just go up or down a hole and you still get a lovely shaped bead.

I would want at least 2 sizes of each shape. and the shape I would want doesn’t really exist. These are beads I’ve made without rollers, that are approximately the shape I want, a sort of straight sided barrel meets donut shape. Although I can make these shapes without a specific tool, they aren’t terribly easy to make matching sizes. and they take quite alot of messing about to get the shape right.

BHBS - stubby barrels

The reason that I love this shape is you get a bead which has more room for decoration and pattern, without having to add diameter, which when worn on the wrist is uncomfortable if too big, and doesnt sit well with other beads (branded or artisan), nor does a cylinder for that matter.

so, I decided that three widths would be a nice starting point, each of these beads has different measurements, so the effect of them looks graduated. so the beads would look fantastic together, or among other beads from other artisans or those branded ones I mentioned!
so…I said I wanted at least two sizes of each, well, three shapes, why not three of each?

oh, I forgot to mention, at this point I had emailed Bev of Pegasus lampwork tools, and asked her about custom beadshapers, because of course she is a member of the wonderful Frit Happens Forum and also a UK based manufacturer of these great graphite tools! She asked for a sketch of shape and sizes.

so, on to my design drawing.

yes, it took me a few attempts to get to this stage, I knew I had to get the measurements right, vague isnt good enough for this, I want to be sure I get exactly the shape I meant, not ‘nearly’ right. these drawings are to scale (1cm on the drawing for every 2mm on the tool), so that I know my measurements will add up in the real world!  it also makes it easier for Bev.

design sketch

I started with the mandrel size and the width of each bead.

I then had to work out how much I wanted for the ‘straight sided’ portion of this shape. it has to take into account the size of the groove in the tool, rather than just the mandrel size. I didnt know what Bev’s tolerances are, so I just added 1mm to either side. then of course I’m going to need some beyond that to actually get the look of it being straight sided.

so, next I needed to know the finished outer diameter of the bead, I marked that on, and from that I could work out what was left over to create the straight side, and also accommodate  the curve I wanted.

to achieve the graduations I added 1mm to the diameter of the straight sided section, for every 1mm that I increased the outer diameter by (are you still following me?)

there was a fair bit of trial and error in these last two steps, drawing and re-drawing, but I achieved what I set out to do, which was to prove these would work at the sizes I wanted, and to illustrate to Bev exactly what I want.

and because I didn’t want to draw this another few times, I did a measurements sketch and a list of all the sizes I wanted.

sizes

so….we will see how it goes, and hopefully I will get my ideal beadshaper, and will be able to show you some lovely beads I make with it!

Bev has got back to me with this, the design for my shaper! excited? me?

BHB STUBBY BARREL by Pegasus Lampwork Tools

isnt it fantastic? she’s even had space to add another set of larger sized ones!

can’t wait to make some beads with this!

one last thing to mention…dont forget to check out Bev’s Gorgeous beads as well

I love acid yellow! however, I have made a small discovery.

In my glassy stash I have two batches of acid yellow. one looks normal, the other is mixed, with some of the rods looking paler.

I thought nothing of it, glass in the orange red yellow spectrum often looks different in the rod to when its melted…but this is not one of them, those rods that look paler, ARE paler.

and I rather like it!

lighter yellow lower part of the pic

acid yellow comparison - the ring top Im holding is the 'normal' acid yellow

huge lentil

huge lentil - other side

while we’re here, this is the latest in my line of beads where I’m trying to use tecniques from the course with Lorna Prime, but trying to do designs that are my own, and not Lorna’s! hope you like it!