beads of courage

check out this clip, it's both inspiring and a tearjerker.  Many people in the flameworking community donate to this charity.  My heart beads will go here.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7143083n?tag=facebook



and this is last night's first attempt at herringbone wraps, I love the look and the way it really dresses up a plain bead, just need more practice, practice, practice

Santa's elves are busy

It's been a little while since I posted.  We had a little family drama for Thanksgiving and my heart just hasn't been much into blogging. But, my hands have been very busy in this little section of Santa's workshop.  Yes, Virginia, Santa has outsourced parts of his manufacturing operation to such far-flung places as Winters, CA.

I can't reveal a whole lot of what's been happening as it might spoil the surprise for a few people, but these latest goodies came out of the kiln this weekend.

Heart shaped beads

"Midori" earrings and necklace

 

I've just started to learn some rudimentary wire work do put all these beads to good use. 

Beads to Bangles- first attempt

The shiny, little beads are starting to accumulate and asking to be made into beautiful bangles.  Unfortunately, I do not have any beautiful bangle making skills (yet).  

So, off I went today to the local bead store in the Nut tree. The hapless husband manning the cash register was far more helpful than the shop owner and got me set up with a few basic items to do some wire jewelry.  A short walk to the bookstore to get some expert advice (a book on making wire jewelry) and at least 6 hours later, voila!

OK, not bad for a first attempt, however lacking any "ladies in waiting" I found that I cannot actually connect the clasp with one hand (required for putting on one's own bracelet).  It's pretty but also pretty useless.  Back to the drawing board and maybe some of the wire work can be rescued with an easier "one handed" type clasp.

I also got some leather cord and will see what can be done with this bead.  The Chinese character on it means benevolent, in this case kindhearted.

Beady eyed

I've been practicing making beads with soft glass.  It's quite challenging and good practice to make evenly round, centered beads.

I still need plenty more practice with this, but I got a little bored with monochromatic beads and played with dots and lines a little bit today. 

I messed the lines up on this one and then purposely swirled everything for a more abstract look.

this one was a little bit better from the perspective of laying down lines and dots (still a bit wonky shaped)

and my favorite of the day, it reminds me of a zebra

Homage to the Great Pumpkin, Linus

We revived the annual pumpkin carving this year. It was a pretty small turnout, but as usual the finished product was so better lit up with candles than I expected during the carving.

We tried something different this year, POWER TOOLS!!  Craig and I got these neat, warty pumpkins which turned out to be quite thick skinned and really hard.  I was planning on using the Dremel drill anyway, which was a good thing as this pumpkin was way too hard for hand carving.

 Mary and Jack were purists and did theirs the old-fashioned way and were still done in half the time it took Craig and I. 

 From left to right, Mary's, mine, Jack's (Chilean mineshaft) and Craig's

All fired up!

Woo Hoo, big day here at homestead, we finally got all the basics in place and FIRED UP THE TORCH for the 1st time, Yah! I'd be doing the major, highstepping happy dance if I weren't so darn sore from all the work.

 

We had to have an additional electrical line run out to the garage as the kiln draws 20amps all by itself and we knew the existing electrical in the garage was inadequate.  Craig dug the trench and I filled it after our contractor laid the conduit.  We also had the house windows replaced this week. Between sanding, painting, cleaning, assembling furniture and shoveling dirt all weekend, I am just too sore tonight to make use of the lovely,new workspace.

However, I did spend at least a half an hour walking around in glee that it's finally ready to go.

 Now I need to accessorize with lots of pretty, shiny glass, I can't wait.

The creativity will start flowing as soon as I come through this lovely, new glass door to the garage studio.

Studying at the school of fish

Arrow Springs finally got the GTT Lynx torch I ordered a while ago, I have been super excited about getting the stuff (torch, regulator, hoses, etc) and went up there Monday to pick it up in person.  I'm still waiting for a few more items to get hooked up in the garage, mainly the ventilation fan and hood, so cannot actually start running the torch at home, probably until this weekend.  The kind people at Arrow Springs could see how eager I was to get going and make good use of my vacation time and they let my use their Lynx in the open studio (for free, shush, don't tell). This is a picture of the beautiful little torch.

I know I shouldn't be concerned about looks, and truly I did choose this type of torch for the technical specs, but as an added bonus, she really is a beaut!

In the Arrow Springs studio I got all set up at the torch, carefully sorted all my glass by size and color, got the frit (small crumbles of glass, like breading) all ready to go, picked out some interesting tools and started making the first fish.  There was another lady there working on soft glass, she inquired what I was working on and what kind of glass it was.  I responded that the glass was borosilicate, she then asked about my safety glasses and of course I explained what I using.  Suddenly she muttered something to herself, got up in a snit and informed the people at Arrow Springs that they needed to move me as the color of the flame was hurting her eyes! Mind you, she didn't actually ask me to move, no, she simply demanded that the shop do it!  Argh, the nerve, I was halfway into fishy and quite happy thank you, when the shop dude apologetically talked to me and moved all my stuff. To his credit he did it all lickety split and with a smile. He also patiently answered all my dumb, newbie questions with a veritable wealth of glass color chemistry knowledge, thanks Joe!

After I got over my irritation, it was all good and we even struck up a decent conversation about what we each were making (but in my head, I still think she was a bit too much of a princess about the torch, I mean really, if the light hurts your eyes, DON"T LOOK AT IT!!)

So, anyway I had a grand time making little fishies. All of them are made from borosilicate glass (AKA Pyrex) using Glass Alchemy colored rod and frit.

First, I used clear glass to make the fish body, mashed it into the Exotic Red frit, then added the fins with Ruby Strike glass (strike means it changes color in different heat profiles).  I might try to strike this again in the kiln as the red came out kind of an icky liver color in a few small areas.  I had some trouble making the tail as the top and bottom fin edges got in the way.  Perhaps next fishy I make I'll try adding the tail fin first, then the top and bottom.  Also, this guy has huge and somewhat uneven bubble eyes as I had trouble getting them centered and kept adding glass to try to even them out.  The effect was kind of the opposite of a bad home haircut. Come on, you know you've all done it, cut a little more off this side, then, "oh damn, the other sides too long now" and so on until you're cropped like a Marine!

I dub this one "Whistling Dixie"

Mr. Dixie is your basic management type, you know the one who is always spinning the bad news to make it sound good.  His last "inspirational" speech at the office was about how layoffs were really a good thing as it meant production was getting more efficient, thanks to all the good ideas of the workers (and he didn't get the irony of that statement :)

At this point Joe came over the check on me and directed me to a cool tool that pokes indentations evenly on both sides of a piece, perfect for marking where the eyes should be! This next fishy was made with Multi-Color frit and Kryptonite color fins. I am pretty happy about his fins, I still had trouble with the tail, but I like the transparent color.

and, of course, he shall be named "Clark" for obvious reasons

Clark likes a good party, for sure, but he knows when to get serious and is a good guy to have around in a pinch.

And, finally this fish, he was a pain in the a**, for sure.  I must have been getting tired, because he was the hardest by far even though I used the same techniques. The Green Carnival fins were stiff and just wouldn't flow on like I wanted.  I poked a hole in him so he could be hung as a sun-catcher, then forgot to add eyes before attaching the punte (little holder rod), not a big deal, but when the punte cracked off unexpectedly he crashed to the table and the tail cracked off, aahh!!  So now I had to grip him tightly with tweezers to re-attach the tail, make the eyes and mouth while not burning the crap out of my fingers.  Mission accomplished, but in my frustration and fatigue I forgot where the hole was and made the eyes, etc. upside down.  Now he has a useless hole in his belly.

And so he will be known as Butch

Butch is an ex-con (did a dime for aggravated assault at Pelican Bay) who works as a carnie now for local Cirque Du Soliel wannabe outfit.  He runs the coin toss booth and feels no shame about consigning his goldfish buddies to an uncertain fate in the grubby little hands of the punky kid winners.

So long, happy swimming in the stream of life

The magic of etching

as promised, a comparison of the etched vs unetched glass I tested in my new Cheapo sandblasting rig

 

 Etching clear glass helped disguise the hole in the middle.  The sandblasting is quick and easy, but I wouldn't like to have to do too many at one time as it could get tedious going one by one.  I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I get too it.  I still don't have a torch so having too many beads is not even possible at this point.

Redneck Sandblasting Cabinet

After admiring innumerable beautiful glass artwork on the Internet, I realized that sometimes the pieces had been etched to create a frosted finish.  This treatment can be done with a chemical etching bath on soft glass (COE >80), but apparently borosilicate glass, which was developed for laboratory work, is quite resistant to chemical etching.  Thus, the only way to achieve the etched look on boro is to subject it to mechanical etching, or sandblasting.

What follows is the redneck/cheapster version of a sandblasting cabinet for small pieces of glass.

repurpose hubby's dusty, never used airbrush compressor (puts out about 40 psi)

 

purchase cheap "Air Eraser" mini-sandblaster gun from Harbor Freight.

 

purchase jar of 220 aluminum oxide grit from Harbor Freight

cut up an old plastic box from the garage to make a DIY sandblast cabinet

in the spirit of reduce/re-use/recycle, I found this empty plastic box in the garage.


using the trusty Dremel drill to cut armhole and a vent hole.


cut out a couple of "viewports" in the lid


insert a cheap (99 cents for 3 at Harbor Freight) dust mask into the vent hole to allow for air to escape box but not the dust.  

 

Redneck tip - the remainder of this process makes liberal use of ductape, the all purpose adhesive and "hidden treasures" AKA junky stuff that should have been thrown a


re-purpose some transparency film to cover the viewports on the lid (because who really uses transparencies anymore in this age of Powerpoint).


holey socks for the with the toes cut off for the handholes (I had no issues with "blasting my skin", this air compressor and grit gentle enough, even for a delicate flower like myself, to do with bare hands. The socks are just to provide a seal around the handholes to keep the dust inside)


and voila, a cheapo "sandblasting cabinet"


Air Eraser - $20
Aluminum Oxide - $7
household junk - $0
weekend entertainment value - PRICELESS

oh, yeah and it actually works. Later I'll post pictures of a glass stuff I actually tested this whole rig on. The finish is a beautiful, satiny etch!

Two Shoes Tuesday (any 2 will do)

Just a normal Tuesday morning, get up, get over the "oh my gosh, it's still only Tuesday" feeling.  Head off to work, all good and normal so far, and then mid-day I have occasion to actually look at my feet and what do I see??

yep, that's right, apparently in my "gotta go to work today" stupor I selected any two shoes that fit and have walked around the entire site all morning not noticing anything amiss.  So far, no one else has noticed (or commented anyway).

Happy Tuesday : )

Glass Studio Update

The garage is slowly getting transformed to make room for the lampworking studio.  We spent quite a bit of time this weekend clearing out junk, enough to fill the back of the truck for a trip to Goodwill. 

Another trip to Urban Ore, this time with the garage entry door dimensions in hand, yielded a nice, full glass door to replace the existing solid entry door to the garage from the yard. 

The idea is to let more natural light into the garage as there are no windows except the small ones in the roll up door.  I will probably open the roll up door when the weather is nice, but when it's rainy or windy that won't be an option.
Our contractor friend was able to come over and put in a gate to access the sideyard next to the garage so we can store the garden care stuff out there. We also got this little Suncast storage shed to protect the lawnmower, etc from the weather.

This is what we hope it will look like after we struggle through the 12 page assembly manual.

In addition to setting up the work area, I have also started getting tools and supplies for the actual glassworking.  I got a good deal on a slightly used kiln on eBay.  There are slight scorch marks on the outside, but the ceramic brick inside is still pristine white. 

This kiln, a Paragon SC-2,  is perfect for the beginner, it has a small door for putting beads inside and also a large door for putting in sculptural pieces.  Best of all it has a programmable controller that allows the user to program up to 4 recipes for annealing (heating up, holding and cooling down gradually for set rates and times).  The different recipes will be good to set up for small, large and colored pieces (some "striking" glass  actually turns different colors or shades depending on how hot it stays and for how long).

Arrow Springs is an excellent lampworking supply company up in Shingle Springs.  I took a class there last weekend and met the owners, Craig and Donna, who are good people.  Craig spent a long time with me discussing the pros and cons of various brands of torches and how well they work with oxygen concentrators.  Based partly his advice and the other reviews I have read, I bit the bullet and placed an order for a GTT Lynx torch and 15 SLPM Oxygen concentrator.

The class last weekend was taught by an incredibly talented, smart and funny artist from Germany, Anastasia. The class was targeted to people who already had some experience with lampworking, so I was totally out of my depth, but everyone was really nice and no-one gave me any grief for being such a newbie beginner.  Anastasia showed us how to make nature scenes, trees and such using hair thin stringers of black glass to "draw" on the surface of the bead and how to use enamel powder to add subtle colors.  The beads below are my inexpert and somewhat rushed attempts to keep up with the instructions.

drawing lines over 2 colors

more practice drawing lines

 bush with leaves and berries

another bush with leaves and blue flowers

bush with enamel colors

multi-color stringers for branches, colored with enamel

getting "handy" with heat control

a little bit of coral

fishy, fishy

I learned a tremendous amount and cannot wait to try some of these techniques again when I can really focus and take my time.

Laboring through the weekend

We were mildly busy beavers this Labor Day weekend.  We are slowly clearing out a corner of the garage so I can set up a lampworking bench.  We relocated the treadmill back to the house, mostly to get it out of my way in the garage, but I also still harbor fantasies of using it while watching TV.

I scored a super deal on a very sturdy kitchen counter, it's in great shape with a tile countertop, which is great  as it will be impervious to bits of hot glass, and it was FREE!  Gotta love Freecycle. 

Since I want to use this as a standing or sitting workbench, I had to do a little customization AKA "pimping the counter".  Ok, so my "pimping" skills are pretty slim, but I do so love using my trusty Ryobi cordless tools, perfect for a delicate flower, lightweight, a lovely lime color AND with matching lime accent gloves.

After some discussion with Craig we decided the tiled, concrete counter top was strong enough even if I removed the center front section, so I cut this sucker up!

The middle shelf is a solid piece that extends the whole length, I considered just making straight cuts to the back to open the whole middle, but then had a much better idea of cutting out a nice curve.

to create a cutting line, I put a nail in the center of the shelf, tied a Sharpie marker to it at the desired radius, then drew a perfect half circle.  Unfortunately, I couldn't actually cut it along the lines as neither the reciprocating saw or the jigsaw could quite get as close to the edge of the support as I wanted.  So, the actual cut is now an"imperfectly perfect" semi-circle.

The remaining area in the middle will make a very nice footrest when sitting on a bench stool.

The next, and most important, part of the workbench area is ventilation.  Melting glass, especially colored glass, releases potentially toxic fumes. My good friend Mary has some leftover 8" duct left over from her recent home renovation, which she has graciously offered.  I ordered a Fantech FG8XL Inline Centrifugal Fan and controller so now I only need the actual hood part that hangs over the bench.

I searched all over Vacaville for a reasonably priced hood, but all the cheap ones were too small.  I thought I found a good deal on a nice, but gutted (no internal fan or lights) floor model at Home Depot.  Unfortunately, the people actually working on the floor are apparently not empowered to cut a deal on the unmarked merchandise and the manager wouldn't come out to look at it and give a reasonable price, so there I was all ready to give my hard earned dollars to buy something at a place whose sole existence is for the purpose of selling stuff, but no one would actually enable me to purchase the item.  Go figure.  So, I went home empty handed after fruitlessly searching literally 4 different stores.

When I got home the proverbial light bulb went off over my head and I remembered this great construction salvage place in Berkeley, Urban Ore.  They were open on Monday, so we took a little field trip.  This place is huge and stuffed to the rafters with used doors, windows, appliances, fixtures, cabinets, etc as far as the eye can see.

  As soon as we hit the stove section I saw just what I had been looking for, a 42" stainless steel range hood with the fan already removed (secret bonus since I would have removed the hood's puny fan anyway in favor of the more powerful fan I already ordered).

For a mere $35, a little industrial degreaser, a lot of my own elbow grease and bam, it's going to be just perfect.