Feb 28 2009

And winter is still with us. I did manage to run outside once....and was going to try again today, but during our walk with the dogs, I changed my mind.....cold, damp, sharp wind is not what I enjoy running in. I'm looking forward to going to Florida next week.

There are some days when I shouldn't even bother to turn on the torch, and I think today was one of those days. The bead release didn't want to stay on the mandrel, the bead release broke off the mandrel and decided to become entrenched in the bead I was trying to make....There may be a couple of beads that worked - will see when then come out of the kiln. This is a bead I made last week - still dots - There are so many combinations one can try out.

Feb 16 2009

More dots - it was a dot week. well, not really dots, but flowers and distorted dots. I hope to work with some Boro tomorrow though. My first couple of attempts with this glass were nothing to brag about, but I think that I am starting to get the hang of it. Alot of the effect I want to achieve is by using a really oxidyzing flame or a reducing flame - something I need to practise. In the meantime, a picture of more "dots".

Winter is still with us, and I still haven't had a chance to run outside. There was one day when I thought I would - but the morning greeted us with 3 inches of new snow. Bruce found a road route today, though, that looks promising.

Feb 11 2009

Well, I did start writing a new blog, and the power kicked off for a moment....just enough to kill the computer......OK, where did I leave off...As you may well know, I like "dots", and this week, I have been making more of them, along with flowers. I've come up with a couple new complex designs that I'm happy with...pictures attached. I'm also working with different colors than I normally use. They may not be shown here, but look for them on either the etsy sight, or the artfire sight. I'm really happy with how the "berry" transparent is working for my flowers, and will always like "pea green" and "leaky pen" - a couple of my favorites. Check out the hearts. These were re-used from beads that I didn't like. I've re-heated them and formed them into hearts....If anyone tries this, PLEASE be careful. Even though these were re-heated on the top of my kiln, at my first attempt, I introduced them to the flame much too quickly, and I had big pieces of glass flying.....