DragonJools

Video: Boro Basics - Brent Graber

2009-07-11T08:26:00.004-04:00

DVD - not video - sorry. We still tend to call 'em videos - even though I don't think I still have a functioning VCR in all the piles of electronic crapola I have jumbled around here. Just like we still "dial" a phone. And "cc" email. Oh my - I'm showing my age.

Anyway - this a DVD from Brent Graber - "Boro Basics - Volume One - Off Mandrel Techniques." If you've been reading Flow Magazine, (and if not - why the heck not? Call yourself a flameworker do you? ;-) ) - you will have read Brent's article about his struggle to come to terms with teaching and letting go of his techniques.

Well - I'm glad he wrestled that particular demon to the ground - as we will all be a lot richer for it.

I don't work boro - and if you read this blog on a regular basis - quite probably you don't either. However - I LOVE to watch boro (borosilicate = hard glass, i.e. Pyrex) workers play with glass. It is both so familar and so alien at the same time. The approach is quite different - simultaneously more theatrical and more practical than soft glass. It always leaves me whimpering - "I wish I could do that with my glass" - and then I haul myself off to see what I can adapt from their techniques.

And are the techniques from this DVD adaptable to soft glass? You becha! If you are hankering to make off-mandrel pendants and are struggling with A) punties, or B) getting the d4mn hole in the loop - then I highly recommend this DVD. Brent's technique is a head-smacking doh moment.

Oh, and make sure you have a tunsten pick and a pair of (Sharon) Peter Tweezers - or order them when you buy the video. Because you are going to want them as soon as you see this. In fact - you might not even wait for the end of the video.

Effetre Clear

2009-07-07T23:03:00.007-04:00

Well - it seems sorta weird to be talking about Effetre Clear - but here goes.

I recently acquired 2 packages of Effetre Clear - one is the 004 Regular Clear, and the other is 006 Super Clear. These particular bundles were handpicked at the factory - from a new batch - and air freighted here - so they have the advantage of not having spent 3 months tossing around in a container - getting all scratched up.

They actually arrived with their Italian labels still intact - the Regular labeled
591004 05 No Ordine 8000338
Cristallo 5-6
Made in Italy

and the Super Clear labeled
591006 05 No Ordine 8000248
Cristallo Speciale 5-6
Made in Italy.

Sighting along the glass - they are both very nice and clear and not showing aqua or green but a nice, brilliant clear. Perhaps a tinge to the yellow - but very nice.

I started by cleaning both types with alcohol for maximum cleanness.

These first two are the Super Clear. The top bead was made using the "build up" method - and the bottom one was made using the "full gather" method. I tried both, as someone once opined to me that the full gather tended to trap more scum.

Here they are again, in the same order, on the right - w a black background to show more contrast.

And here we have the regular clear. The wound beads are on the top, and the full gather is on the bottom.

On the grey background - they look the same, but on the black, you can see that the regular clear - does, in fact - have more of the tiny little bubbles we call scum.

But where does the clarity of the clear really count? Why, in encasing of course. So here are two encased florals. The top, egg-shape, is the Super Clear, and the bottom bicone is the regular clear.

As you can see - florals are obviously not my particular speciality!

However - these both came out pretty nice! The larger airbubbles are me - and not part of the glass.

Both these clears are really pretty good - although, for the minor price difference - I'll be taking the super clear.

Why bother with Effetre clear - in the light of the other, lovely clears on the market? Well - when push comes to shove - it flows more freely and you can encase faster with it, short of getting a thicker rod. Sometimes - that's just really useful. And for beads like these florals - which aren't exactly works of art - everybody makes this flower! - it's good enough.

BTW - I kind of like the clear spacers. I wonder how a strand of those would look?

Didn't I pan a batch of Effetre Super Clear recently? Yes - I think I did. These are from a new batch, obviously. If only hand-picking at the factory were an easier option!

Magic - the Frit-ering

2009-07-05T22:11:00.010-04:00

So - I have in my hot little hands - a baggie o' frit labelled "Magic." No other data. Other than it is medium size and there is 2 oz of it. All righty then. It appears to be an opaque chestnut brown. But - if I'm any judge of things labeled "Magic" - it would not be so simple.

So the first question I have when presented with some mystery glass is, does it strike or reduce? Or react?
So - for my first test - I make a basic bead in clear, rolled it in the magic, melted it in, and reduced it. 1 Pic, on left. It took on a metallic look, and looks better in life than it does in that picture. So - right first time - it reduces. And, we can see from the faint yellow marks on the mandrel - it looks like it fumed - so I'm thinking silver content.

What else will it do? Next, on clear, without reducing.

It looked creamy when it was hot - but out of the kiln - it now looks to be a sort of khaki colour with interesting red halos - that give the clear bead an over all reddish hue as they reflect around the inside of the bead.

Next up, on black. I tried striking it. This time - I see a faint bluish haze come up on part of the bead. Ok - the black background is a good thing.

On black again - this time mashed. Oh look - the colours come up all by themselves, without my striking it. Kewel.

How about on ivory? Not reduced. Ick. Ok, the lines around the dots are cool - but the dot colour is a sort of icky grey-green. Meh.

Once more, on black, this time, I waited for the colours to "bloom" (appear by themselves as it cooled) and then reduced it.
This one is pretty dark - and might have some devit happening too.

On turquoise - in this case, CiM Smurfy - We see some break up in the turquoise between the dots.

And so, finally - a big black bicone, w ivory swirls. Magic frit, then encased, then more frit.

So - what have we learned?

Magic
reduces
and
reacts.

Some reactions don't look so hot - i.e. on ivory. But on black - it has distinct possibilities. And I think it would be fair to say - a little goes a long way. ;-)

I suppose, at this point - someone will tell me that there is a tutorial for it somewhere and that I missed something - but I have to admit - figuring it out for myself is a lot of fun!

Hmmm - maybe I should have tried it with silver foil. ;-)

Colour Illusion

2009-06-30T11:37:00.002-04:00

Not really a beady post - but a wonderful example of "colours may not be as they appear"

Check out this article on the effect of adjacent colours - specifically amazonite/seafoam/turquoise green next to orange vs magenta.

How cool would it be to pull this off in a bead?

Colour I'd Like to See

2009-06-26T23:45:00.001-04:00

Hello - anybody out there making new glass colours and looking for inspiration?

Here ya go. Magenta. I'm sure that I am not alone in wanting a super-saturated opaque magenta.

Not just a red purple - but capital M Magenta. As in the three primaries in printers' ink (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow - CMYK - the 4th colour is the Key colour - generally black. How's that for trivia? )

The pic on the left is the a pair of pliers, and the wristband from the GAS wrap party - Glass Artists Society - that I was at - geez it was only two weekends ago. It seems like a lot more now! Anyway - I thought it looked like an awesome colour - and it looked fabulous w my turquoise beads - and I don't have anything remotely like that colour.

So - Magenta please. I'm sure others would agree!

Vote with your comments!

CiM 569 - Smurfy

2009-06-25T23:20:00.004-04:00

Apparently - someone at Creation is Messy shares my love of kids' cartoons. Either that or they have kids - which is probably more likely. Can we expect to see Barney the Dinosaur Purple anytime soon? "I love you - you love me - I'm going to eat your family."

This is an obvious turquoise - so I thought I would see if it does all the usual things that turquoise does.

It is a little streaky - but developed very little of the kiln induced "rash" - the silvery/lead coloured wash that develops on the Effetre turquoise after you put it in the kiln (which, btw - you can remove by soaking your annealed beads in CLR - Calcium Lime Rust remover - for 10-30 minutes. Or all week if you soak it in Coca Cola. Because at this point - someone is sure to point out that you can use Coke. Go buy some CLR and leave the Coke for drinking. Mine you - if that's what it does - why do you want to drink it?)

Anyhoo - in this regard - Smurfy is more like the Lauscha turquoise.

And, like the Lauscha turquoise - it is very reactive with ivory - more so than the Effetre.

Love that grey line that develops between the copper colours (opaque turq-blues and greens) and the sulphur colours. (Ivories and yellows.) (With a few notable exceptions. ) Have loved this effect from day 1 of lampworking. Some of my earliest beads were ivory and turquoise.

Another turquoise trick is to make it go brick red. For this, turn down your oxygen and work the bead from the start in a soft, bushy flame. Not so far as a reduction flame, just fuzz up the candles a little by turning down the oxygen.

This is a good indicator colour too - if you get red on your turquoise - you aren't using enough oxygen in your flame!

So - this is a Smurfy nice colour - very smurf-errific.

Smurf on!

CiM 570 - Grumpy Bear

2009-06-24T22:50:00.003-04:00

Grumpy Bear is a Care Bear - He's blue. And so - this is Grumpy Bear blue. But there's nothing to make you grumpy about the colour. This is a lovely, well-behaved blue.

It is slightly streaky - see the close up of the two beads on the mandrel by themselves. It reminded me of Effetre Periwinkle - and you can see, in the blue on blue spotted spacer - that the base colour is Grumpy Bear, and is a little darker than the Effetre Periwinkle spots on top. That blue on blue is a nice effect, btw.

The other dot bead is Effetre Light Ivory on Grumpy Bear. A little bleeding/fuzzing at the edges, but not much.

Very pretty blue.

Raku Frit

2009-06-20T08:12:00.006-04:00

Raku Frit - also known as Iris Orange - is probably one of the most used and most written about frits from the furnace glass world. Not sure that I can add much to that body of knowledge - so I'll just recap what I consider to be the most obvious features:

It looks dramatically different on different colours. Try it on black especially, and on ivory.
Rapid cooling brings out the colours - so a bead design that is mashed is particularly effective.
It does reduce - sometimes too dramatically - and may not be attractive.

OK - here are some of my test pieces.

Raku on Ivory (Vet 204).

Raku on Triton, reduced - Dragon's Breath. Dig the silver edges to the dots.

Raku on black, not reduced.

Raku on Ivory, mashed. Front and back of bead.

Yep - that really is an ivory base - check the far left side of the bead. The black apparent base is the reaction between the raku and the ivory.

Some nice colours here.

This cylinder is Light ivory on the left, black on the right,
roll in silver foil, melt in
add raku, marver, melt out the chill marks.

Also some nice colours.

And finally - this monstrosity - which looks convincingly like granite - is:

ivory
raku frit
clear
mash
raku
reduce
mash
silver foil, melt in
raku frit
Triton goobers
silver wire, melt in
reduce

Sometimes, all the work just doesn't get you any where. ;-) meh.

PS - in Canada - email Jean at Nortel for the Raku frit. In the US - try Frantz. It is also known as Iris Orange.

2009-06-19T07:30:00.004-04:00

Blooooo. What a beee-yooo-ti-ful shade of blue. And such a b_tch to reproduce on a computer monitor.

This is very similar to the Effetre Medium Lapis in colour, and also in other characteristic. It is a medium, opaque cobalt blue, and looks lighter on the monitor than it does in real life.

Slightly streaky, and the bead on the left is slightly darker in real life. The glass gets a little darker if you shape it and then work it w/o reheating to molten. The bead on the right I had to reheat to flowing as it needed to be rounded up again.

Dotted with light ivory. You can see there is a little bleeding of the colour - but it's not too bad.

This bicone is streaky, and is a little burned. In fairness, I think I had the oxygen just a shade too low, but I also marvered it with a graphite paddle - and I know from experience that the Effetre Lapis hates graphite.

Apparently - this glass doesn't like it much either.

This bicone was made with a bit more oxygen and marvered with a brass stump shaper instead. The colour is much clearer and has none of that smokey black trail.

Beautiful colour - CiM Cornflower. Stay on the slight oxidizing side, and keep your graphite tools away from it.

Fine Silver Bead Core - Holy C**p, it works

2009-06-18T08:33:00.003-04:00

A friend - knowing my interest in cored and lined beads - brought me back some fine silver cores and associated findings from Bead and Button. Imagine my surprise to learn that the point was to make the bead ON the core - hot - not to add it to the bead after!

So I dipped some mandrels and jammed the cores onto the wet bead release - this worked surprisingly well. I made sure that the bead release didn't get splashed up over the end onto the core (on the one that did - I wiped it away while it was wet) - but I wasn't too worried about it on the ends. I dried them flat - wasn't sure that they wouldn't slide if I stood them upright.

I was really worried about melting the fine silver - after all - look at what happens to fine silver foil when you hit it with the flame. Poof! Melted into the surface of the bead.

So I did step down the heat by switching to my top-fire mega-minor (mounted on the top of my midrange) - so as to work cooler. I also let the bead release dry overnight - rather than attempting to flame dry that big cone of bead release that backs up behind the core when you push it on.

BTW - I jammed them on 1/8 inch mandrels - that seemed to be the best fit for size - the next size up that I have was too big.

I googled the melting point of fine silver, and found this rather elegant table, and that silver melts at 1761 degrees F - so actually above the point at which we work the glass. This came as a surprise, but hey - now I know.

My biggest fear was that it would be hard to get them to flow and round out - without melting the silver core.

I started with some dichro - because, well - 1) I was going to be working cool, and 2) even an off-round dichro bead is a pretty bead, and 3) - it's me you're talkin' to here!

I warmed the bead release and the core a little - and went to lay down some glass. I discovered that I hadn't warmed it enough - as the glass did not want to stick to the metal - so I just kept warming it a little more until it did stick.

The first one went down a little wonky - I tried really hard to push the glass into the angle between the flare wall and the tube - and didn't get it entirely there. So after laying down the first couple of wraps - I gave it a little more heat and marvered it to push the glass out to the flare. This worked, and I then added another wrap to make it a rounder shape again.

I then realized that even if I didn't get it smack up on the end - it's not like it's going to fall off, and I was apparently not melting the silver - so perhaps this was going to work after all.

So I got more confident with each one - in the photo of the 4 mandrels together, they are, from the top, Numbers 3, 2, 4, and first in the sequence that I made them. You can see by the fourth, I was getting a little more adventurous - I thought I'd try some ivory - wrapped some silver wire on to it, and then melted it in, and marvered it to shape.

Way cool - I kept thinking - this actually works!

When I pulled them off the mandrel the next day - there was bead release, of course, in the hole - which I realized I did not want to take the bead reamer/dremel combo to - as I didn't want to scratch the heck out of the silver - so I used a stiff brush. Note to self - some sort of round, stiff brush would be ideal here.

In examining them, it became clear that I had gotten the silver quite hot in some places, as the metal surface texture was no longer as smooth and the profile of the flare had changed a little. See top left vs bottom right for the clearest illustration of that.

However, they still looked fairly decent - although in this brutally honest picture - you can see that they are not perfectly round. Ah well, c'est la bead.

pull off mandrel - bead release - didn't want to grind - used brush and scraper. Didn't tumble, but probably can. Instead - used foredom and polishing point to polish. Hang on earring finding and voila - done. Matched pairs easily - as the width is controlled.

Here's no 2 again, still on the mandrel.

Very nice. Must try this with a light, transparent dichro!

And no 3 - you can see - it didn't take long to get the hang of it!

And here are the finished earrings, hanging on the fat little flared posts of the interchangeable earrings.

I did hit them with a polishing point on the Foredom to bring back the shine that I cooked off - and I probably could have worked a little harder at that - but I just used the rubber cone with the impregnated polish to buff them up.

Earrings are a logical choice to make with these, as you are making beads that pretty much have to come out similar in size - due to controling the width. (Which - is a hint for those of you trying to make similarly-sized beads. Use a Sharpie(tm) to mark your dried bead release into regular lengths before you start - to get consistently-sized beads. Yes - a Sharpie brand permanent marker will draw on bead release - and stay visible after heating long enough to be useful. No idea what they make the ink with, but it's amazing stuff.)

These cores and findings are available from Metal Clay Findings now, and I'll go and nag someone in Canada into carrying them too, so I can get a steady supply of them!

Of course - this all taps into the whole Pandora/Troll/Biagi/etc. mania that I keep seeing - with boutiques selling single spacer size beads for $35 - $85 and Chinese manufactures selling them for $20/kilo.

There are "threaded" cores available too - the Pandora bracelets have threaded ends so that if you drop it - all the beads don't fall off and scatter.

So I believe these are sized to fit that style of jewelry. Next time I see one, I'll double check.

Anyway - I was completely, and delightfully surprised that this worked. Work it cool - and you'll be fine! I'm sold!

Trunk Show

2009-05-31T07:31:00.009-04:00

Had another trunk show at beadFX yesterday. What with all the dog stuff lately - to say I was prepared would have been a gross misrepresentation. ;-) However - it's fun to visit with everyone and do demos on the torch and eat cookies all day - and there is no booth fee - there really isn't any downside.

Here's a few pics - I did not get a fair representation of everyone there - so if I left you out - please don't be offended!

This is Deb Read - performing for the crowd (seriously - the onlookers aren't in the picture.) She whips off big, funky hollow fishies all day long at these things. Like me - she considers it to be more fun to torch than to babysit her booth. All the beads she made yesterday, she is donating to the beadFX Breast Cancer basket. (BeadFX keeps a basket of beads by the cash register - 100% of the proceeds of the sale go to Breast Cancer charities.)

Some of the artists set up in the main body of the store, surrounded by all the pretty beads.

While others are set up in the class room - with a little more room to maneuver.

That's Erin of AirWynn Glass in the background, with the short hair. She of the formerly long hair. She can tell you a good place to NOT get your long hair cut. A place I will be avoiding, let me tell you. The new do is very pretty and flattering - but speaking as someone who knows what it is like to have ~~ass-length,~~ sorry chair-length hair - I would have killed the stylist.

That's Peter - Peter Norton of Nortel Mfg - (inventor of the Minor torch and other stuff) - mugging for the camera.

After delivering shiny new bead presses!

We spent some time playing with the press - and I cored three beads with 1/2 inch holes. This is more like what I had in mind!

Deb told me about a device that is for holding tubing for cutting that holds it and gives you a straight edge to cut - which I either have to get or invest in a cut-off saw - because I just suck at cutting the tubing straight. Really! It takes me longer to square up the tube than to core the bead.

These are some of Kirsty Naray's drop dead gorgeous flower beads. Damn - that woman makes beautiful beads!

This is Julie Beverstein's rather clever display. Good for showing all sides of the bead.

While this display is more organic,

and this is the "traditional" ;-)
"beads on the table and in bowls" approach.

Jody and Shannon - they got the best natural light in their spot by the door!

I didn't get pics of everyone - but for more details on who was there - that was posted on the beadFX blog.

Twistie from Effetre

2009-05-28T11:42:00.004-04:00

Five words.

Commercially-made soft glass twisties.

Wow - just look at that! Is that not gorgeous?

Almost too nice to use! But, I feel that way about some of the twisties I make too. ;-)

My second thought was - right after "Wow" - was "Geez - that's so big and thick - That is going to blow up when I put it back into the flame."

Like the thick rods of clear for encasing - that lose a half an inch every time you start a new gather - I figured this was going shock into frit and leave very little to work with (of course, I only had a little bit to try).

So - imagine my joy that it did NOT shock! You can see from the end shot that there is a significant layer of clear around it. It worked just fine - no issues!

So - what does it look like?

I started by winding off two very attractive spacers on a 1/8 mandrel. Very pretty, but don't really capture the ribbony essence of the twistie.

So - to keep the twistie looking like a twistie - I wound off a single wrap on a big hole mandrel. (10 mm)

While I did not do an amazing job of the join (which I haven't shown here) - I also did not "tighten" the twistie as I laid it down. (Usually, twisties sort of relax and become less defined as you use them, so the usual practice is to roll them in your fingers as you lay them down to keep the twist looking tight. The key is to twist in the direction that makes the pattern tighter, not in the direction that untwists it and turns it into two or more wavy lines.)

This is another on a 6 mm mandrel - a double wrap. Also quite effective!

And finally - this cone was the end of the rod - a scrappy little broken piece, laid down over a core of white. Still pretty cool.

I'm pretty excited about this - it was fun to work with - more fun than I expected because I really thought that it was going to shock like heck - and even when the twistie is just giving you streaky colours - it's still pretty cool.

I can hardly wait to see what colours they are going to make, if they will be making more elaborate twists, etc. I hope they do make some smaller ones, I would like to see twisties that could be used directly on beads without overwhelming them. However - even at this size - it is still quite useable. I'm excite to get my hands on more of it. If nothing else - you can make very nice streaky spacers.

It's Time to Change

2009-05-24T23:11:00.002-04:00

OK - it's official. Time to stop calling it Moretti and start calling it Effetre.

A friend of mine just got back from Murano, and after visiting the factory there - would like everyone to know that the three brothers - which is what Effetre means - would really like to be called by their chosen name. ;-)

And as for the pronunciation - it's "eff - eh' - tray'." For those of us who have been pronouncing it as if it were French (eff - et' - tra) - Ahem! - it's Italian.

Effetre, Effetre, Effetre. We can do this. ;-)

More on the New CiM colours

2009-05-22T09:59:00.004-04:00

Well - I found the "preview" page on the CiM site - and their pic of Olive is much more of a yellowy green - so I thought I would just try the Olive/Commando comparison again.

Sorry - but I still can't see that much of a difference. This poor little froggy is Olive with Commando spots - and I still can't see a dramatic difference. Maybe I got mis-labled rods.

Apols to the froggy too - I let him get too cold and he has been shedding limbs since I took him out of the kiln.

I also said I thought a peach would be fun from the Phoenix - here it is. A mashed tablet, with Commando leaves.

And finally - as I suspected - the Adamantium makes a great horse - black is too hard to see the details after - this color works out much better.

The bottom pony has a Metallic Black or Dark Silver Plum mane - the other two have intense black manes.

TAG 104 - Green Dalai again

2009-05-21T00:10:00.003-04:00

Still digging the Green Dalai from TAG.

In this case, I was going for smaller beads (these are about 20 mm across). I super-heated the Dalai (but it never actually went clear). I wound the core bead, and let the glass cool to not-glowing. At that point - the glass looked black.

I built a gather of clear - about twice the size of the original bead, and got it very hot, and wound it onto the core bead. I made sure that the clear went down over the edges. Then it was just a matter of heating the whole thing smooth.

You can see they have struck to some interesting blues and greens. Very "planetary." I wonder how I can float some continents on there!

CiM Olive and CiM Commando

2009-05-20T22:58:00.006-04:00

Two new greens from Creation is Messy - and while the unworked rods look different - I have to admit - the resulting beads look very similar. The olive does seem a little lighter, and somewhat streakier.

The second pic shows the heated ends of the rod - same order as the first pic - the darker one is the Commando.

The top mandrel (with the small green marker) is the Commando. The bottom mandrel (with the red marker bead) is the Olive.

The bead on the center mandrel is half and half. The left side is Olive, and the right side (with the ivory dot) is Commando. Here's a close up of it on the right.

However, it does look like the Commando is more reactive with Ivory.

This dot on dot bead on the left is Command and Ivory.

This triple row of dots is the same ivory on the Olive - and there appears to be much less of a reactive line.

Interesting, no?

It's a nice shade of green. This recent batch of new colours is a nice addition to the color palette.

BTW - I also love the silky texture of these rods - they feel so nice in the hand when working them!

CiM - Tamarind

2009-05-19T21:55:00.002-04:00

The Tamarind is a tropical tree with a fruit that is used in foods from spicy to sweet. You might have encountered it in a dish of Pad Thai.

This CiM Tamarind is a warm brown, a real, soft mocha colour. It's streaky, and doesn't appear to react with ivory.

This looks like another great, organic color, good for natural stuff, trees, horses, dogs, etc.

A nice warm, toasty color.

Happy Hour Conflict

2009-05-19T18:16:00.002-04:00

I have a conflict for Happy Hour torching at the beadFX studio. (Thursday evening.)

If anyone is going - you are still welcome to - but there is ALSO a Lampworker's get together that evening at the Mill Street Pub, starting at 6 ish, down in the Distillery district. You are more than welcome to come to that instead!

Let me know if you need directions!

CiM - Phoenix

2009-05-18T20:45:00.007-04:00

First, CiM brings us Adamantium, now we have CiM Phoenix. Could it be there is a big X-Men fan at CiM? ;-)

Methinks there is!

Boy, was I surprised by this glass. This is a striking, opaque orange, with as wide a range as Jean Grey, a.k.a. Phoenix, and later, Dark Phoenix, herself.

Phoenix, is, of course, also the mythical bird that arises anew from the ashes of it's own funeral pyre.

The unworked rods themselves vary in intensity of color - but all seem to work up the same.

When hot - the glass looks white to grey, and cools to a light colour. If you put it in the kiln at that point, it will come out of the kiln a light peach colour.

However, re-introducing it into the flame (striking) will produce a blush of colour that gets darker the more times you reheat it.

See the bottom mandrel in the photo on the right - the right hand bead was struck, while the left hand bead went into the kiln without re-heating.

These two beads were partially struck, you can see the color has bloomed on one side - like a partially ripened fruit!

The strike is very easy to control - it might be fun to make some peach beads with one side riper! Or sunset beads - with the sunset deepening from pale to dark orange. Or maybe a phoenix bird - shading from dark to light?

And finally - we have CiM Adamantium in combination with CiM Phoenix. You can see that the Adamantium looks more brown than grey here. In fact, you could argue for some time as to whether it is grey or brown. Notice that the Phoenix has ranged from a pale flesh color to a deep orange, depending on how long it is struck.

Wolverine and Phoenix, Logan and Jean, together at last. ;-)

CiM - Adamantium

2009-05-17T19:24:00.005-04:00

Way back when - oh, about a million years ago, in a former life - my then-boyfriend headed out of town, looking for greener pastures. (He went to Toronto to look for work, actually.) He left me with one of his most precious possessions - 3 cartons of individually bagged comic books - all lovingly collected and preserved. Mostly Marvel comics - including a near-complete collection of the Uncanny X-Men. (And a list of things I couldn't do while reading them. Don't break the spines, don't eat, no liquids. But I was allowed to read them!)

So that was how I discovered Wolverine. AKA Logan - the Canadian lone-wolf beserker mutant with a super-healing ability, an implanted, unbreakable Adamantium skeleton, a mysterious past, and attitude to burn. The coolest hero ever to walk the pages of a comic book. I was a Wolverine fan looooong before the movies.

So - imagine my delight that CiM has a new color "Adamantium."

The unworked rods are a silky matte grey that actually doesn't look like glass to the casual glance. In fact, my husband was momentarily puzzled be the rod I handed him - "Is this glass?"

Adamantium is a dark, warm, slightly streaky grey. (A warm grey is a slightly brownish grey, as opposed to a cool grey - which is slightly blueish.)

It seems to get darker, the longer it is worked.

Notice, in this picture - the single bead (right, top) was reduced - and looks darker. (And in life too.) The two pairs of beads (lower two mandrels) - the beads on the right also seem a little darker (not much), and they were made first on the mandrels and so were heated, cooled and reheated more times than the beads on the left of the mandrel.

These two are Adamantium and Ivory (Moretti Light Ivory.) There is a little bleeding of colors - but no apparent reaction.

These two beads, indicated with magenta arrows, have melted-in clear dots.

In short - this is a silky, organic color that I can see being a very useful addition to the colour palette. I like the warm grey, and I can see using this for, say, my horse beads.

Hard to imagine as it is that I would get excited about a grey, this is a really nice accent colour and a good colour to use with other colors.

Unlike Wolvie's skeleton, however, I can't imagine that this Adamantium is unbreakable. ;-)

Pics of Shampoo Glass

2009-05-14T02:44:00.003-04:00

Pics of the shampoo glass beads.

I found a little about this glass online. Apparently - it has a lead content, and that is why it is so sparkly.

Even if you over heat it and it goes transparent - it's a pretty nice transparent. Which is probably because of the lead.

What the implications are for working it, I don't know.

Slowing Down

2009-05-08T00:10:00.002-04:00

I've had precious little time at the torch lately (but the good news is, Abby is recovering quite nicely - in physiotherapy now and I see improvement every day!).

So, for a change at Happy Hour torching - I thought I'd drag out the shampoo glass that I bought some years ago. If you aren't familiar with it - it has that pearly shimmer that shampoo has. As I remember - I need to work it cool - so I plonk myself down at a Minor torch for the first time in quite some time - fire it up, and the first impression I had was - "awww - what a cute widdle fwame. Isn't that adorable!"

Do NOT pet the flame. I can remember when a Minor Burner's flame was big and scary! And now it's cute. My, my, how things change.

And yes - I'll post pics of the beads when I get them back - but they are at the studio so I won't see them till I'm in next.

Used Kilns - What to Ask

2009-04-30T22:23:00.005-04:00

Should you purchase a used kiln for annealing your beads? Here's a few random thoughts on the topic.

A kiln is not really any more sophisticated than a well-insulated toaster oven. Sometime you see older kilns for sale - here's some questions to ask before you buy:

What what is designed for, and what has it been used for? A quick google may find that out for you. Ceramics kilns, kilns for enameling, etc, all can be used, with some caveats. Kilns for metal clay are relatively new - so unlikely to be too old or damaged. These may be sorta small - but they might work. Enamelling kilns may have some messy spills inside - but you can put a kiln shelf over it if you can't get the stuff out.

What voltage is it? 220 or 110. 110 is easy - 220 is faster to heat up and more efficient, but you have to have the plug for it (like a dryer plug.) Installing a 220 volt plug is non-trivial - it requires an electrician.

Are the elements encased? Bead kilns often have the heating elements in quartz tubes - this prevents you from touching them accidentally with metal mandrels. Metal mandrel on metal element is a bad thing. Alternately - the elements in a bead kiln may be recessed in the roof of the kiln where they are harder to stick a mandrel into. (But, not impossible. I know of someone who has done this.)

Top opening or front opening? A door on the front is nice - and if it has one - will it stay up by itself? Top opening - I know quite a few bead makers that prefer this. A pair of long tweezers helps a lot - put on the big suede welding gloves, grasp the mandrel below the bead with the tweezers, swing the door open (now you are losing heat) - pop the bead in, and swing it closed. You can practice with the kiln off and just mandrels!

How big is the inside of the kiln? Mandrels are often 9 inches or 12. Do you have enough room to get the mandrels in? Or, conversely - is it so big it is overkill? Heating that extra space will cost money.

How big is the outside of the kiln? You need space around it between it and the walls, etc. Do you have room for it? (Hint - if it takes more than one strong person to move it - it's probably overkill for beads.)

Is it old? It may be quite inefficient and leak heat through old, damaged firebricks or a poorly-fitting door. Ceramic fibre blanket can be replaced, however - especially around doors - where I think it is designed to be replaced on a regular basis. If the clips to hold this in place are missing - a couple of bent mandrels can replace them. Bend to shape. I use bent mandrels to repair all manner of things!

Are the elements in good shape? - not sagging or heavily corroded or kinked? Elements can be replaced - but they ain't free. Might be worth it though.

Is is controlled by a kiln-sitter? Ceramic kilns have a device that uses a cone melting at a specific temperature to shut off the kiln (called a kiln sitter) - a rather ingenious method of controlling the temperature but not accurate enough for glass. The usual protocol is to circumvent the cone sitter and install a pyrometer (a thermometer for high temperatures) to display the temperature and to manually control the temp with the control dial, or to install a digital controller. (Installing a digital controller is easy, btw. There is usually a hole in the kiln for the temperature probe. Pull this out - they aren't usually secured. Thread the one from the controller into the hold. Plug the kiln into the controller. Plug the controller into the wall. Turn the kiln to full. Set the controller. That's it. Done.)

If it's a very good price - it may be a good deal. (To me - I would want it to be under $200). Otherwise - kilns have come down a lot - and I do love having a digital controller! And a swing up bead door!

Of course - check out the cost of shipping if it isn't local - that may destroy any savings you were going to get!

Happy Hour Torching

2009-04-22T08:30:00.003-04:00

Announcing - Happy Hour Torching

Starting this Thursday - April 23rd - Happy Hour Torching at beadFX. Torch one hour - get the second hour free. 5 til 9 p.m.

I've found that - while it is wonderful to sit down in your own studio and make beads - it can also be a lot of fun to do with other lampworkers around - you can get a really cool energy going and lots of great ideas pop out.

beadFX is the studio where I teach. They also rent studio time, by the hour or in blocks of time (by the hour, $15/hour or a block of 10 hours is $12/hour - which you can use up in increments as small as 15 minutes.) Torch time includes annealing - dipped mandrels, use of basic tools and glasses, and the beads being pulled for you the next day (which, on some days, I feel is worth the cost alone!). Glass is available for purchase, or bring your own.

So the deal is: Torch for one hour, either on a studio card or at the hourly rate - and get the second hour free. (No credits, must use free hour immediately - i.e. no saving it up for later.)

I'll be in the studio also torching from 7 - 9 at least - possibly earlier - so if you have questions or need help with a technique - you can fire away with the questions! Or you can just fire away!

Come out and bead social! (Calling or emailing the store to reserve a torch might be wise!)

Update on Abby: I'm hoping to bring her home the end of this week! She's not walking or standing yet - but she is getting movement back in her legs. Her arthritis is very bad - which makes getting her moving harder - but critical!

Still Here

2009-04-17T11:05:00.003-04:00

I haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Last Friday - my girl Abby - pic - collapsed in the back yard - her hindquarters paralysed.

I rushed her to emerg (it was Good Friday, remember?) and they diagnosed a ruptured disc between L1 and L2.

She had surgery on Monday. She's still at the clinic - and I'm visiting her every day. This has taken up a lot of my energy.

I haven't gone away - I just have nothing particularly glassy to say - except - I need to sell a lot of beads.