Iiiimmmmmm Baaaaaccckkkk

Yep, after a shamefully long period of time I am back and want to try and blog my glassy journey once again.  Its not a good excuse, but I honestly could not remember my password to google - I really am a lazy bugger!

Since my last blog entry, I have been absolutely insanely busy with my glass.  I often struggle to keep up with demand, but to be honest this is often a combination of factors the most common ones being:

1. Genuinely busy with glass work and family stuff
Yep, sometimes I have a hugely long list of things all those lovely people want from me.  I am a devil for saying yes to nearly everything, I really do need to start saying no or putting some sort of caveat on taking the order (eg. it might be 6 months and you will have to remind me again).  I have three girls and a husband and it can get really insane running around for the kids stuff, I often scam off for my glass, but I really do have to participate in my families lives sometimes!

2. Being distracted by other ideas
Very very often I will be working on something and come up with some mad idea that quite frankly, MUST be made or attempted immediately - not next week, not tomorrow, not after I have made the things I should be doing ..... RIGHT NOW!!!!!

3. Lack of inspiration/self discipline
Oh dear, very very often I get asked for a particular glassy item and even though I might really love making that particular thing, suddenly I don't really want to make it any more.  Its not a performance anxiety thing and I haven't really worked out why my brain is being such a massive pain in the butt, but I nearly always need to make the thing that someone asked for immediately or I end up slipping it to the end of the list repeatedly.... usually once I actually make it I enjoy the process and wonder why I was being a pain in my own butt!

The self discipline issue has been a big one.  Particularly whilst I have been off work (admin office work that is) and have ALL DAY to saunter out to my torch and fiddle fart around checking the TV channels and maybe occasionally even do some housework before I finally light my torch.  Many times I have turned the kiln on and then not even lit the torch.... shameful (bad for carbon footprint too).

Now that we have moved house back down to Canberra (a house we actually own) we are shortly building me a brand spanking new studio.  Unfortunately I have to return to the admin work full time to pay for it... but I am hopeful that a reduction in available time will result in me being much more disciplined and encourage me to utilise my time more effectively when I can.  I THINK it is likely that I will be getting more hours at the torchface than I did before and hopefully in a more organised fashion .......  Wish me luck kind people!!! 

I will leave you with a pic of one of my borosilicate glass dongle necklaces.  Glass chain with a short rod holding a small marble at the each end.  This one has a mix of colours and shape murrini, some are commercial and lots are my own home made jobs too.  I am very proud to say that this one won its section and was put into the "standard of excellence" display.  I got a second prize in the bead section too and all together a wonderful prize total from Affordable Inspiration of $250... I had fun ordering a huge glass fest!

2013 Sydney Easter Show dongle necklace

 

Beads... beads and more beads!

Its actually interesting the way my brain works (but scary no doubt LOL).  First I work hard to get beads made, then I flitter off and do some off mandrel work.... then I flitter off again and try out some strange "I had a dream in the middle of the night" sort of torch session.  I really do wish I could exercise some self control and settle down to doing just the one thing each day!!!!

Given my excitement at the fact that Creative Beading Mazagine has just done a profile on yours truly.... not just a wee little mention.... but a whopping three and a half whole pages!!!!  I thought I should actually put some stuff into my etsy store... specifically some beads... just in case anyone wants a Natalie Monkivitch special if you know what I mean!

Well, when I checked the pathetic stash, there was hardly a bead to be found, so off to the torch I have gone... with a mission.... to make a set.  Yep for those that know me well the word set usually sets my knees to knocking and causes a watery feeling the bowels.... Set allergy it might be called (but slack arse lack of self discipline it really is)!!

I am very pleased to say that I did manage not one set.... but two fairly big (for me) sets.  I also got right into the swing of bead making again, not that I had stopped or anything, but I had definitely been distracted.  I have had a real ball with it.  First off here is the first set I made using scrap twisties off my workbench, they are italian soft glass and using the bead press (another thing I am usually averse to).

Green Scrap bead set

After being so pleased at the success of the first set, and with the satisfied feeling that I had actually knuckled down and achieved something, I made some twisties for a second set in different colours.  I hope everyone notices that I EVEN made the spacers to match..... yahoo!!!

Pink, blue and turquoise twistie scrap bead set

Amazingly I have managed to photograph them and list them in my etsy, although I will admit to a fairly lengthy delay in removing them from the mandrels and cleaning them.... I seemed to keep walking past and thinking of something more interesting to do ..... as other glass bead makers will attest... cleaning beads is not the funnest part of the whole process!!!

Of course I went back for a second torch session and made some off mandrel cabochons for some more pocket watches.... I particularly like this dragons eye one.... I don't even know why, but it looked rather cool in real life.  It probably won't sell or anything, but that is part of the problem with making things only to your own tastes... I hardly ever make anything yellow or orange unless it is for a particular person, its time I branched out a bit I reckon!!!

Dragons eye cabochon on pocket watch

 

I can haz..... the flu! :-(

Yep, I have got it.... those dreaded lurgs that seem to be all over Sydney - aka influenza.    I don't want to spend my time blog whinging....(is that called Blinge-ing? LOL) but I have found it fairly difficult to get out onto my torch and actually melt some glass.  Interestingly enough it is not just due to incapacitation by illness.... it is my frame of mind and how being sick effects my creativity I think...... needless to say I have spend a fair bit if time in bed with the electric blanket set on 2, my ipad to play words with friends and pondering the great wonders of the universe... or my navel, whichever comes first ;-)

I thought I would share my experiences of lampworking when in different frames of mind.... sounds weird I know, but trust me - there appears to be a pattern here!

Good mood, kids well behaved and feeling fit
This is a conchatenation of ideal circumstances for me... I am happy and excited to be working, feel like I have almost unlimited patience and like to make really complicated objects de glass!  You can see from the examples below that I tend to use a lot of murrini when I am in a good mood:


aquarium focal bead



Back of burlesque bead

Feeling a little "out of sorts"
Hmmmm, you know that feeling when, well, nothing really excites you.  You feel fine, but just not terribly enthusiastic about anything in particular.  I often feel like this when I have an order to fill, I think the fact that I am somewhat constrained in what I will be making can sometimes stifle the fun out of the process.  I tend to feel this way EVEN if it is something that I really enjoy making, I am sure the psychologist types out there could easily research into what causes this particular reaction, but for me, it is just bloody annoying!  I do find that once I have made a start then it is all sweetness and light.... but 'till then, think Marvin the Manic Depressive Robot goes to work on the assembly line and you will have a closely matched thing to me walking out and lighting the torch!



Frog pond focal bead



Very badly shaped vomitus focal

Cranky or angry
Well, this is not the time to be torching for me, nothing good and NOTHING nice comes out of torching when I am in a bad mood.  The only advantage of Cranky torching for me, is that is can get the bad mood out of my system, unfortunately it is from punishing the glass somewhat though....ouch!    When I am in a bad mood, I slap the glass on, I try to force it to do what I want, when I want and how I want.... of course, it is an epic failure as a result.  To be honest when I cranky torch I could almost just get everything out of the kiln in the morning and throw it in the reject bin sight unseen, not because I am still cranky, but purely because it is ugly, unbalanced horrible stuff!

Cranky torching = beads barely safe for human eyes LOL

Distracted mood, is really thinking of other "stuff" not glass
Yep, I have torched in this stage and to be honest it is another one of those regrettable incidents that is only evidenced by more items in the reject bowl.  I have put eyes where eyes do not belong.  I have picked up the wrong colour and used it in the worse place (think murrini faces with a big birthmark) and have totally forgot to shape the base bead which means the end result is .... disturbing!


Fish..... sorta

Butterfly..... sorta

Sick... unwell.... think I am on the edge of death sort of thing
Oh yeah, most lampworkers have done it, and probably better than me, but when I am sick I am just incapable of taking any joy in melting the glass so I don't do it.  This is when I break out the dead bead graveyard  - clean off the shitty old soft glass rejects and whack then into a VERY hot kiln walk away and they into little puddles....voila, cabs!

Dead bead graveyard - cabs

Well, the only problem I can see with this journey of self discovery is..... how often am I actually in a good mood for glass.    Thank goodness I am usually in a good mood.... probably 6 days out of 7 I would say.... phew!  

There is one true exception to these observations of myself.... that is when, some middle of the night or heat of the shower bat crazy idea strikes.... all bets are off.... glass is melted in a frenzy - "things" are made!  LOL    All said and done, I think a positive frame of mind and approach to the glass will result in better work by yours truly.  I admit that it shows a distinct lack of self discipline, but that is how my crazy brain works and I like to operate on making interesting stuff... not production line work (even thought that would pay the bills, I hope my hubby Leo is not reading this one) !

Emergency Glass Mojination Kit...... kickstarting your glass mojo!

Dangly boro chain necklace with tiny frog at top right side

Hmmmm, well I am slowly making some headway on my backlog of glassy work which is a good feeling.  Finally knuckling down a bit and being able to tick a few things off the list really helps my morale!  Above is a sparkly pic of my latest boro chain necklace design, I quite like it and it has a little tiny frog on one of the dangly bits too just for fun - I just can't help myself!!! LOL

But..... speaking of morale, I have been trying to work out the best way for me to brighten up a mates day.  Someone who's Mum has been VERY ill and has given up her own social time and torch time to help out when her Mum really needed it.  Interestingly this very nice lady did not complain or whinge or really say much at all.... but she is the sort of person that you notice when she is missing, a very nice lady indeed.  I have heard her Mum is mostly on the mend and she is finally getting some torch time but is having some trouble kick starting the glassy mojo.... everyone needs a boost some time!!!

Well I have been mulling over stuff and have decided that I would do something proactive as a pick-me-up for her.  Today I sent off what I am calling an "Emergency Glass Mojination Kit".  I got a whole heap of different glass garnishes and interesting things to do with lampworking, wrapped them up in a small box and mailed it off......

Emergency Glass Mojination Kit... lots of glass related fun to be had!

..... I can't wait until she gets it, I just hope it makes her day a good one after a few dodgy ones lately!

Chained up on Maille.... all in glass

I know... I know.... I have ten million other things I should be doing right now.  I should be getting some stock for the local shop, making murrini for Affordable and packing to go to the glass studio for Loren Stumps classes, but nope..... none of the above!

I am feeling guilty and a bit naughty too, but I have had an idea perculating about in my head for quite a long time and decided to try it out..... Glass links Chain Maille.  I aware it has been done before (a lady by the name of Kim Edwards http://www.lonetreestudio.com/chainmail.html does some absolutely bogsmacking work in this style) but I wanted to try out some byzantine chain rather than my usual dongle-y ones.  Here it is... it worked quite well and was made in boro (because I am too much of a lazy slug to try this in gorgeous italian soft glass).  I just used 3mm glass stringers to make the links.... some closed and some open that I close in the flame after putting the pattern together.  It was fun, but fiddly as buggery as you can imagine.  I don't think this will be a common thing for me to work on to be honest, but at least I can know I tried it.... its all about the fun.

 On a slightly dissapointing front, my kiln has been playing up quite a bit over the last few days and after trolling about online and finally downloading the manual for the controller I have discovered the thermocouple thingo is stuffed....... aarrrgh!  I am really hopeful my extremely handy and helpful husband Leo can wave a magic wand and fix it up, or worse case go to the electronic shop and buy a bit of wire or something to sort it out, but we will have to see.  Lucky I have my new kiln to collect in about a month......YAHOO!

I have been playing about a LOT with my bead soup.  It is so gorgeous that I don't want to bugger it up and are probably trying to get a little too fancy rather than think about the form of the thing...... I am going to zen out, watch bridesmaids (the movie) and see what comes of some random beading then.....  Nat :-)

Buttoned down..... or up.... or just buttons!

Well apart from some secretive work on my Bead soup project I have been asked by a local bead shop to make some interesting lampwork buttons.  Apparently they have a visiting teacher who worked with button jewellery and they thought it would be nice to have some unique lampwork ones available too (and some beads from me as well....YAY!).

I haven't had my button mandrel holder out for quite a while (probably more than a year) and to be honest it was apparent in the few few lumpy jobs that came out of the kiln.  Getting the glass between the mandrels is quite easy..... getting it there evenly without leaving pointy holes to grind off later (and leave evidence too) is a whole 'nother kettle of fish!   The other challenge I had was, sitting at the torch, looking at the flame and thinking.... what the hell am I going to actually try to make.  I ended up coming inside the house, grabbing a notebook and writing a list of things that I would like to see as a button rather than just basing it only on my own bead designs.  After I put a few ideas down, I went back to the torch and things went rather more smoothly.  I tried each thing in order and that kept the momentum up.... Momentum is always good when working with glass, I basically got on a roll and made quite a few.  My main plan was to just make some buttons at the end of each session, but I thought I would try a heap out and then make more or develope the ones that worked out best.

Here is what I got out of the kiln and cleaned.... you can see a couple slightly dodgy ones there that have to be weeded out, but at least it gives me somewhere to start with!

I did some dichro fish ones a while back and might revisit those as well.  I made a rooster one, but dropped him on my kitchen floor and broke off a...er.... drumstick!  I am gearing up to finish my bead soup blog swap item, get ready to work with Loren Stump later this week for nearly a fortnight and get my murrini order up to date.......AAAAARRRGH  Sometimes there is not enough hours in a day.... sometimes there is not enough days in a week and as I am getting older, one day, there will probably not be enough years in a lifetime..... but its all part of the challenge and the fun!

Cab me up scotty! but throw some beads in for good measure!

Yup, I have made cabochons before, but mostly those cheating puddle of glass which I generally refer as my dead bead graveyard.  You know the ones where you clean your dodgy old beads really well then ramp the kiln up to "puddle-ising" temperature and then ramp back down through an annealing cycle.  Well, on my list yesterday was to make a few off mandrel more complex boro cabochons.  I figured it would be MUCH easier to make these off mandrel than to use a cabochon mandrel and then have the buggers fall off.  Generally speaking I find that working with boro is hard enough on the bead release and mandrel let along expecting it to cling precariously onto a flat surface... plus it is not really necessary.

I thought I would make a couple owl cabochons first off and after making the first one realised... woah, how would someone cab around the ears and head?  So to help out I popped on some clear in those areas so the back of the cab was basically oblong and at least rounded off somewhat but left the  owl sort of raised up a bit.  After this first one and the fiddling about with the clear, I figured I might as well try making a small flattish owl and then applying that to a flat disc of clear and see how that works out.... much better and easier to do as it turned out.  The large blue owl (with the slightly smudgy eyes after all my buggerising about with the backing) was the first one and the little white owl is the one I applied separately.

The other cabochons I worked on which could be fun for the seed beady types to play with was some eyeball cabs.  They came out well and were rather easy to make, but I am getting dangerously low on that lovely iris cane, so I might have to give them a break for a while I reckon. 

Here is a pic of some of yesterday's efforts, cabs and some beads.  I have popped a couple beads onto beadable pendant bars for selling at our local florist (someone I have been promising some stock to since May..... BAD Nat!) and since that is on my list of to do's I am starting to get them ready for her.

Have a lovely week everyone,

Nat :-)

Murrini then beads... then murrini again :-)

Well I have to say that I am a little bit pleased with myself today.  I exercised some self control yesterday and finally got the wing cane pull done for my next dragonfly murrini (the complex wings with transparent lobes types).  Today i will at least put the half cane together and maybe even the full dragonfly cane if I am lucky!  I am really happy with the component cane and did the same graduated transparent blue I did the first time, boy was I tempted to go for a green transparent, although I think next one might be purple which I reckon would look very nice.  One of the really good things about making the same complex cane is learning from past mistakes, the first dragonfly cane had a rather strange little bum cheek sort of arrangement going on, but this time I shall make the transition smoother I am sure.  I will try to get a pic or two later today if I can get some nice slices of wing.

The other thing I did with varying degrees of success last night was make a few beads for my Etsy store and a couple orders.  More of the burlesque ladies popped out of the kiln this morning... mostly not quite good enough, but one or two were ok!

About 18 months or so ago I did some experiments with fully encasing wheels and cogs from old watch parts.  I found that if I was very careful about not heating that particular area again after encasing then they turned out fabulous and looked just like cogs and wheels floating inside the transparent glass.  I thought I would try out some surface stuff (inspired by a lovely Australian Lampwork artist Sally Shepherd http://www.happilyeverartist.com/ who has recently been working with surface design using steampunk style parts) in addition to my usual encasements.  I used Aurae over clear and reduced a little for the strange little robot in the middle of this pic of last nights work!  The watch parts I used for the eyes had quite long protuberances on the back which came in handy for inserting firmly into the glass.... I quite like it, but I have seem MUCH better robot beads about I am sure!

The other thing I experimented on last night was using some enamels to make stockings on my burlesque beads.... I am quite happy with them on this purple lady, although next time I will use ribbons rather than the dots for studs on the suspenders.... please excuse the bead release residue on the mandrel, I was too keen to take a pic whilst the sun was out to wait and take them all of the mandrels and clean them first!

Oranges and lemons.... no bells ringing, but I like em!

Yep, I am a murrini "happy chappy" today.  I got my lemon and lime canes out of the kiln this morning.... they looked good (stable no sign of a crack) especially for using the yellow colours in there, always a bit of a risk.  My orange pieces look like they are going to come out fairly nicely as well and when I sawed the large diameter cane I had them sitting all together on my saw top and wow they looked good, so I grabbed the camera and took a quickie pic:

At the back is the orange component cane for me to make up today, you will notice that I gradated from a yellow to the darker orange on the outside colour and also made the wedges a bit thinner so I can fit four pieces in like the lime cane.  I think it looked better with the 8 slices.  You might notice too, that I made the pith a little bit thicker on the lemon before popping on the bright yellow rind.  After I finished that one, I decided to keep it a bit thinner on the lime cane and I do think the results come out a little bit nicer as well.  I am thinking I might slice some of these larger diameter canes up and polish off on my friends flat lap next time I go over to visit her (Gail at goglass studio that is).  I am looking forward to finishing off the orange cane too, it think it will look really cool with all three types mixed in together.... very bright!

Oh, and I thought I would try my hand at some wire coiled donut bails..... well, they are not the neatest job in the world, but I do think they look pretty funky myself.  I used some copper because I had a massive commercial roll of the thin stuff I got at a garage sale for $10 - the dude used it to wire wrap some sort of magnet or something.  I will put its previous use down to secret mens business, but at least it is coming in very handy for a real newbie wireworker.  The first one is a rough ivory doughnut with some of my coffee bean murrini .... I am calling it donuts and coffee!

 This second attempt is not an improvement really, but the boro donut looks quite good in real life on this bail and at least then its sellable to a non-jewellery maker!

I'll have a slice of lemon and lime with that ......

I thought I would pop on a quickie post about how my citrus murrini are going so far.  I made the lemon component first and after pulling it out and thinking about it a lot more, I decided to approach it a little differently on the Lime slices.

I made the lemon component as a triangle to sit 3 together for half of the lemon slice and tried to mix in different transparent yellows with some clear in there too so it looks like that little those membraney bits.... didn't really work out the same as the picture in my head, but ok I suppose.  I mixed some trans lemon with some of the CIM ginger to use as the colour for the pith and then straight cim ginger for the pith around the outside of each section before putting the together.

When I made the lime one I decided to pull a little smaller and to also make the triangles a little slimmer so I can fit four of them into a half circle.  I also decided to forgo the membrane effect and just graduated the transparent colour from light on the inside to a darker transparent green at the outside.  I did the pith the same as the lemon. 

Tonight I will put them together, stick on some more pith and pop on some bright opaque rind..... I am looking forward to seeing how it comes out.  I also reckon I might make an "orange" as well just for some fun and to make a nice mix of murrini chips to sell via Affordable Inspiration.

I can just see a tall glass of water with some lemon and lime slices floating in there as a bead!

Have to make some beads.... begone murrini..... NOT!

Well I do actually feel like its about time I made some ACTUAL beads rather than murrini.  It seems that every time I got onto the torch I have to discipline myself to knuckle down and do what I am supposed to be doing (read, promised orders etc.)..... and fail miserably!

I have so many ideas swirling around in my head that I end up thinking of everything, flitting like a butterfly from idea to idea and never settle onto finishing one project or concentrate and finish one thing off before starting another.  At the moment I have about four different complex murrini going in different stages of component canes..... I think I would gain a great deal more satisfaction if I could just finish one off and put it aside, but nope... I go off on a tangent AGAIN.  I can try to dress it up as "artistic temperament" to have and idea give birth to further inspiration, but if being honest it is more a lack of self discipline in my case.

Today I have unwrapped my new good quality whyteboard and shall endeavour to write a priority list that I can then have the satisfaction of ticking off/rubbing out things as I complete them. 

Stay tuned for the next murrini out of the kiln, lemon and lime slices.  I am thinking they would be really cool to make a cocktail or glass of water bead with a lemon or lime slice floating in the fluid..... just more ideas!

Here are some pics I took this arvo as some inspiration for some tonbodama style murrini and for my good friend Tezza (a lampworker down in South Australia) who makes the most amazing floral and blossom beads you ever saw!  I think these are off a Eucalyptus Ficafolia and the blossoms are HUGE!  Oh, I also discovered that bees really don't like camera lenses close up.... nearly got stung ;-)

Lampwork Royalty and a nice lady to boot!

Well, I have been off-blog-air for a few days because I was invited over to Gail's Goglass Studio at Sydney's Northern Beaches and had the distinct pleasure to meet one of lampwork's most famous beadmakers and author Corina Tettinger (http://www.corinabeads.com/). What a really lovely laid back lady, it was so fabulous having some time with her to sit and socialise (I wasn't on a course unfortunately, my kids cramp my style sometimes ;-).

I got to fossick through and drool over her gorgeous beads which are really just her practice and teaching beads, but still absolutely lovely. I of course showed some of my murrini to Corina who was very complimentary, but asked if I had a turtle murrini..... of course now my mission is to make a decent turtle murrini. I am thinking graduated colour on sections of the shell and of course sitting multiple component canes together then adding the flippers and head... Here's a pic of whats currently in my head! We will have to see how it all comes together, I really want to be able to give Corina some turtles before she heads back to the the US, so finger OUT!

Oh, not wanting to blow my own trumpet...... but, I managed to pull off a 2nd place at the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year..... SOOOOO PLEASED! Here is a pic of my entry so you can see what I submitted. My wonderful hubby Leo made the little stand for me very quickly, but it looked great!

And the Royal Easter show entry is sent....hallelujah!

Thank goodness I have finally sent off my Sydney Royal Easter show entry. This year I decided that I would enter in the set of five beads rather than the jewellery section. Last time I entered a necklace which was truly horrendous and slightly embarrassing to have my name against, but I figured it was better to support lampwork than not.

This year I have done my usual annoying job of proscratinating until I just throw 5 beads in and hope for the best at the last minute. Geeze I annoy myself with this, I could try and justify it by saying that I work better under pressure, but that would be complete rubbish... I was just disorganised and slack as usual!

I stupidly gave my set of beads a name "burlesque" because at the time I entered I was making burlesque beads with corsets and stuff on.... unfortunately I am a wee bit over them, but had to revisit to make a matching set. I ended up taking some inspiration from a lovely family friend who is a wonderful dancer (working at the Sydney Dance Company) and doing some of that fancy stuff on stage with feathery outfits.... hmmmm I though, why not make a couple of feathery dance burlesque-y outfits to include in my set.... so I did.

I don't want to show what I have entered, but here is a sneak peek at one of the beads, my peacock dancer one from the back view only..... now all you Sydneysiders can go along to the Royal Easter show in a couple weeks and see the set for yourself and have a squizz at the other lovely work by our talented Aussie lampworkers too. I know I am heading in the with the kids for sure!

Form, colour, technical challenge or all of the above?

Hmmm, yep I am in a weirdo mood from the glass perspective at the moment. I have been seduced back to boro in a big way but have been left feeling a bit like the girl who went to the dance with a date and left with someone else (only the date doesn't realise it and is sitting patiently in the corner). A little bit GUILTY..... probaby the right word to apply to the situation.

I had that "feeling in my waters" last night to go and melt some glass about 9pm and thought I might as well get into it and even though I had neatly lined up my coe 104 italian glass ready for a "dance"... I totally bypassed it and made a couple of boro pendants instead.... naughty girl!!!

On a less lampworky subject, I am off today for a lovely 3 day retreat with a whole gaggle of beading buddies (and a few lovely lampy girls too of course) and are left wondering how I am going to go. I haven't made any beaded jewellery for so long I think I have forgotten how to do it really and are worried that I will find it somewhat boring talking about something other than glass (yep, I am BORING in company unless they find glass interesting). Just in case, I have packed my snorkelling gear and figure that for a number of reasons, not the least of which it would be healthy and I enjoy it, thought I would sneak out the 10min to the beach and take a dip at least one day of the three.

Bring on the weekend everyone....... Lets hope the surf is not up too much!

Glass blowing & Pipe making madness!!!!!

What a fun week I had last week at Gail's Goglass Studio (http://www.goglassart.com.au/). A really fabulous glass pipemaker Dustin Revere (http://www.revereglass.com/) was out visiting Australia and Gail asked if I wanted to jump in for the week and learn some serious skills..... of course I did!! My head was spinning with the stuff Dustin could make - wig wag balls that he blew then opened and applied to blown articles, uplines, inlines and just AMAZING stuff. I definitely have somewhere to aim after having seen it done, but if you look around at the pipe makers stuff you will be shocked at the beautiful artistry mixed with the functionality of what is essentially a highly technical piece of equipment....... fun, fun FUN!!!!

Dustin showed us how to make our own coloured boro tubing using a vacuum stack method which was fun, but a little bit scary on the big Delta torch. Here is the finished cane and the left over end of the vacstack which I think I might heat up and make into a cool marble!

Whilst I was there I was lucky enough to also have some time with Justin Rossi of Imagine Creations (http://www.imaginecreations.com.au/) who specialises in ocean themed glass work with his gorgeous wife Amy who makes the most lovely implosion marbles and florals. Justin is the most precise technician I have seen work and one of the nicest blokes I have met in glass to date. Justin showed me so many of his techniques that my mind was spinning by the end of the week! Here's a pic of him at work.

Once I got home, here is a handfull of some of the stuff I have made this week. I have definitely been seduced back to boro at the moment and having fun with colour etc.

You may well be wondering "did you make a pipe" and well, the answer is yes (just a little spoon style one), which I managed to completely bugger up. aaarrrrrrggggh!

Dose of Molten glass for the lampwork addict please

Yep, I have been getting increasingly DESPERATE to lay my hands on some glass rods and melt them down into thier new life. I have unpacked my garage to the point where I can now step into my workspace and touch the glass rods in thier holders .....YAY .... but still not quite good enough.

So, whats the easy solution you might ask? Well, I drove over to Bilgola to my friend Gails studio and Halleluja, we melted glass together for a few hours. It is really on just feeding the craving, but like any addict, I am sure a small hit is better than none at all. I taught Gail how to make some complex murrini cane (which she did very well at) and she let me use her humungous torch (a GTT Delta for the afficioniado's out there) to make my first unsupervised paperweight. The decision to try out the stumpsucker and make a paperweight was a quick one and so I made a very fast and dodgy-arsed setup which took me all of 15 min to make..... bit of a shame, but better than an empty paperweight, or one with just frit inside. I made a couple leaves, a gumblossom, some aussie flowers (a bottlebrush that resembled a toilet brush and some non-sneeze inducing wattle) and the main feature of a red backed spider with one leg missing - fortunately in the preheating stage we managed to partially melt another leg so he is not lop-sided.

Here is a pic of the offending article.... please shut your eyes to the haze, the smudging and the REALLY shitty shaping job I did. This was the first time that I had made a paperweight totally myself...... yep, I was a bit scared to be honest, but it was really fun (not getting it off the punty) and hopefully they can only get better!

Collabaration - different glass, another butterfly

Hmmmm, a great friend of mine Gail is very VERY talented at fusing and slumping and we are thinking of forming a team and collaborating to make some really interesting glassy things. I will still of course be sticking to beads and murrini as my core business, but the idea of making some larger and more unusual glass bits and pieces really sounds fabulous to me.

At the moment we need some planning time to get all our ideas down and form some sort of a priority listing so we have some goals rather than just run about ooooohing and aaaahing about our combined wisdom and mad schemes (we are both a bit the same, the crazier the better and we feed off each others enthusiasm)

My part of the "collab" will involve me making some complex murrini and small componentry in 96coe which should be compatible with the glass sheet Gail uses and to be honest a lot of the real skill will most likely be how she does her end. Thus far my only slumping efforts have been restricted to some bottles to make platters and "cabifying" dodgy beads (melting a cleaned up bead into a cabochon). In the week leading up to the move and sticking with my comfort zone I made quite a nice orange butterfly cane which I left as a graduated large diameter rod so that different sized slices can be cut..... all larger for the larger project, but some variety of size. Here's the pic of a rough slice of the finished cane. The great thing is that if I saw up the scrappy ends we will end up with some really cool fusing slices (half and quarter wings etc.).

Interestingly enough, I found it quite difficult not to pull down some of the cane for bead-sized butterflies..... Just habit I am sure!

Now..... I MUST go sort out some of my lampworking garage space and search further for beads.......aaaaaarrrrrrgggh!

Half a dragonfly and its looking good so far!

Yay, I checked the kiln first thing this morning and couldn't wait to saw the rough ends off my half dragonfly cane..... what a charming way to wake the kids at 6.30am I was thinking!!!!!

Here is a pic of the two dodgy ends of the half cane I cut. Seeing as the lobes are transparent they are quite difficult to photograph unless you are looking up into the sky with some light behind. This morning is really foggy here which has been very handy, sort of like a natural version of a light tent! Anyway, as you can see I opted for a very fine thin tail with the thicker body and head. The gather was quite large before I pulled and I really struggled on my Minor torch to get the heat built up enough to pull, therefore there was a bit of distortion and the side that was supposed to be flat.... isnt! I may yet have some tears and swearing trying to get the two sides together neatly, but sometimes it just sorts itself out in the wash. One trick is to heat the first side quite a bit (making sure it is the more circular one) and pressing lightly on the marver to re-flatten the side prior to applying the second part. I will use the right side cane in this photo first and re-flatten it so it should fit together a bit better - will see!

I reckon that I will try to heat the tail end after the two pieces are together and bend it a bit to one side then refill the hole with clear. I think it will look more natural and way cuter to do it that way, but it will depend on how soft the clear is, I don't want a tiny hook on the end instead!

I am finding that increasingly I am listening to what Loren Stump told me and are leaving the final cane really thick. I am just slicing off a piece when I want one and pulling down to bead sized when I want and the good thing is that as a result I am now building up rather a nice stash of complex murrini canes in a more compact form rather than loads of long skinny rods.

I thought I might try another experiment with some of the large slices too. Once tumble polished I have some sheet 104 glass and I am going to try to fuse a slice onto that for a pendant.... might be interesting at any rate. Hopefully I won't end up with a marble on a plinth like I did once before when trying to fuse some tiny murrini onto scrap glass.....doh!

Half is better than none!

Well after the disaster yesterday morning with the butterfly murrini wing, in a fit of stubborn bloody-mindedness I went back for round two last night (about 10pm) . I sawed the remaining wing in half to give me two sides once again, ramped it up slowly and made my white/green butterfly. I got to bed about 2am but felt a bit less cranky about the whole thing. Its extremely irritating that I have ended up with half of the volume of cane, but that is much better than none at all....... I will admit the need to repeat this to myself each time I look at the cane! I also had to pull it rather smaller diameter than I would have liked because of the small volume at 1.5cm, but they will still be quite usable.


I have chopped the cane in half and thought I would slice one half up into slices to tumble to application to beads and leave the other little bit for pulling into small bead sized diameter later if I feel like it.

Next project: a Pink/purple and white butterfly with some playing about with edge colouring etc. and to stop being a wuss about starting the face of my complex fish murrini. The scales and the eye is done, but I keep putting it off.... just don't want to ruin the work so far I think!

Out of the kiln, through the saw and voila..... murrini!

I am so pleased to say that my final murrini pull on a couple of my recent sojourn's into the complex murrini world came out of the kiln this arvo....... thank the murrini gods (most likely Loren Stump) THEY WORKED!!!!! (insert lots of jumping about in relief here).

The butterfly cane is a graduated pink one (although the pic is a bit crappy) and one thing I was a bit annoyed about is the scummy clear. I know that if I want a perfect butterfly in crystal clear then I have to peel the rods but I just couldn't face all that peeling!!!!! I sawed up some slices and have them in the tumbler as we speak - I was going to have the tumbler going over the last few days, but if you don't fill it enough the contents just swoosh around one side..... now it is "fully loaded" and off and running. I hope it doesn't take as long as rocks do to smooth off though!!!

After my rather boxy attempt at a complex leaf cane I am very pleased with the second attempt sawn this arvo. I decided that I would serrate the leaves on this one and I think they look a bit more realistic that way (but a wee bit of a poop to heat prior to pulling to keep the serrations actually there) I am particularly happy with this cane, because even though Loren gave us the basics, I have done the veins in this way which was my own idea - I am hoping he would be proud of me! I was very happy with the graduated transparent green moving to the darker side in the middle of the leaf and using the Grass green opaque was a nicer colour effect too I reckon. I have sliced some leaves up and have got them in the tumbler as well, but thought I might slice some really thin ones and some of the dodgy ends of the pull, preheat in the kiln and try applying to the outside of a soft glass marble..... there's not much point in making all these murrini if I am not going to use the buggers!!!