Beads, yes, beads!
A few things have been keeping me from the torch lately. Way, way too much work (don't get me started!), cold after cold, and other commitments. But this weekend, a combination of feeling a bit better and having a bit of time allowed me to dive into the basement and create.
Another incentive was that I just put together a piece of rolling furniture to store my beads in a more accessible fashion. I bought the pull along from Collectors Cabinets. While in the end it is very nice to have, it required a lot more assembly than I expected, including driving many screws, gluing, hammering, and more. It was quite a workout! But it was worth it in the end.
Another thing to note about it is that the "trays" are actually 11x14" acrylic picture frames. It might be possible to purchase them cheaper elsewhere, but I'm glad to have them now. I have the watchmakers' cases from elsewhere, though I need to buy more. I label them using an inexpensive Brother label maker, identifying where I purchased the item and the per-unit cost. This allows me to price my pieces accurately.
Back to the beads. I made three beads last night. Fortunately, they all turned out nicely. In my last torching session, that wasn't the case, so I was a little discouraged. I liked one bead so much (the one at the bottom) that I had to make a few more like it this morning!
This is another "snowy day" bead, sort of like a snow globe bead. We have been having warmer weather lately, with no snow, but snow is expected tomorrow. It felt sort of seasonal to make this one. It was also the favorite of an artist friend of mine who said that of all my beads, this one showed the properties of glass the most. You just can't make a bead like this in another medium.
This one is an attempt to capture the sense of mother-of-pearl inlay. It uses silver foil and clear glass over ivory to make the effect. UPDATE: Since photographing this a few hours ago, it has suddenly developed a bunch of cracks in the colored side shown. I don't know why. I thought the glasses were both Moretti, but it looks like I may have been wrong. How sad.
How to make a bead like this: Start out making a kidlet head. Fail abysmally. Paint onto the surface with a bunch of striped stringers that are lying around. Add turquoise around the top and bottom to see the cool ivory/turquose reaction. Put a few drops of goldish dichroic on the surface of the bead. Melt until liquidy and hope for the best. In this case, it happened!
Another incentive was that I just put together a piece of rolling furniture to store my beads in a more accessible fashion. I bought the pull along from Collectors Cabinets. While in the end it is very nice to have, it required a lot more assembly than I expected, including driving many screws, gluing, hammering, and more. It was quite a workout! But it was worth it in the end.
Another thing to note about it is that the "trays" are actually 11x14" acrylic picture frames. It might be possible to purchase them cheaper elsewhere, but I'm glad to have them now. I have the watchmakers' cases from elsewhere, though I need to buy more. I label them using an inexpensive Brother label maker, identifying where I purchased the item and the per-unit cost. This allows me to price my pieces accurately.
Back to the beads. I made three beads last night. Fortunately, they all turned out nicely. In my last torching session, that wasn't the case, so I was a little discouraged. I liked one bead so much (the one at the bottom) that I had to make a few more like it this morning!
This is another "snowy day" bead, sort of like a snow globe bead. We have been having warmer weather lately, with no snow, but snow is expected tomorrow. It felt sort of seasonal to make this one. It was also the favorite of an artist friend of mine who said that of all my beads, this one showed the properties of glass the most. You just can't make a bead like this in another medium.
This one is an attempt to capture the sense of mother-of-pearl inlay. It uses silver foil and clear glass over ivory to make the effect. UPDATE: Since photographing this a few hours ago, it has suddenly developed a bunch of cracks in the colored side shown. I don't know why. I thought the glasses were both Moretti, but it looks like I may have been wrong. How sad.
How to make a bead like this: Start out making a kidlet head. Fail abysmally. Paint onto the surface with a bunch of striped stringers that are lying around. Add turquoise around the top and bottom to see the cool ivory/turquose reaction. Put a few drops of goldish dichroic on the surface of the bead. Melt until liquidy and hope for the best. In this case, it happened!
posted by Susan at Aspiring Arts at 12:31 PM
2 Comments:
Snowy day bead is super cool. Also like the bits of Dichro in the other beads.
Nice !
Thank you! The other organic beads that I made today came out nice too. I'll be posting a bracelet made with them soon.
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