Last night I finished my pmc (precious metal clay) piece that I’ll be entering into the Sydney Royal Easter Show. I’m fairly pleased with it, I’m sure it could of turned out better if I took extra care with it in the beginning. But considering it’s my first actual finished pmc piece it’s pretty good. The only other thing I’ve done with pmc is to wrap it around a couple of my lampwork vessels, they were definitely a learning curve lol It’s not easy to get pmc to stick to glass!

For my entry I made a pendant with pmc and resin, and have finished it off with lovely garnets. I wont post a picture of it at the moment though, I’ll wait until the entries have been accepted lol that means you have to wait til Easter!!

Today I finally received some beads I’ve been waiting for. They’re for a custom order I have received for some earrings, cluster type with freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals. I’ll be making them up today, and will be sure to pop a photo on here when they’re completed.

Today has also turned out cooler than I expected, so I may be able to sneak some torch time in as well, and make some lampwork beads.  Fingers crossed!

Just got back inside after torching more heart beads. These ones are just lentil shapes with hearts on them though, not heart shaped like the previous ones. Some red with white powder and red hearts, and some using supernova with silver leaf and clear hearts. Will be interesting to see how the supernova ones turn out.

Supernova is a Lauscha silver glass, meaning it contains silver within the glass rod. Alot of people have been having trouble getting any reactions from this glass, I know my first couple of beads with it turned out horribly. This time I used it as a base, added silver leaf, which I melted in, then added some clear hearts on each side. After that I slightly reduced the beads to bring the silver to the surface.

After I made them I had a go at just encasing a supernova base in clear to see if I got any reactions happening. From the look of it before I put it in the vermiculite to cool, it looked interesting. I worked with the torch on higher, meaning that there was more gas coming out than oxygen which made for a slightly reducing flame. When you use a reducing flame, it tends to bring the metals in the glass to the surface, giving them a shiny appearance and/or getting some funky reactions, depending on the glass.

I also burnt myself today. Was reaching with one hand and the inside of my wrist on the other hand hit the edge of my torch top marver. A marver is a piece of graphite, in this case mounted on my torch, that you use to shape beads. My marver really heats up with the torch, and just hitting the edge of it burnt me. It hasn’t blistered thank goodness, I just have an lovely line going up the middle of my wrist. Hopefully it’ll fade otherwise people might think I’ve tried to do myself some damage roflmao. It’s amazing how such a small burn can sting though! Oh well, I’ll grab the burn cream and slather it on lol

I’ll add the piccies of the beads on here tomorrow after they’ve been annealed and cleaned.

Til then, cya!

Edit: To add photos.

- Love Through Darkness - These beads turned out nothing like I was expecting. I cooked them in the flame so much the white glass powder turned black in places giving it a marbled effect. The red hearts on these beads are only on one side, so if they’re made up into a bracelet there is no bumps to bother the wearer.
- Hidden Love - These are the supernova and silver leaf, the streaks on the beads vary from very light and pale to very distinct. The hearts are in clear glass so they are very sutble hence the name.

Well today the sun decided to make it’s comeback. We had two lovely wet days, that were cool enough to get some torching done, but today it was just too muggy again.

Hopefully, we’ll get some more cooler weather, as I really should get a start on the lampwork beads I’m planning on entering into the Sydney Royal Easter Show competitions. I’m also entering some jewellery, a chainmaille piece and a pmc piece.

I’ve almost completed the chainmaille piece, it just needs the beads added and a final polish. The pmc piece, still needs some polishing and a chain beaded up for it. It’s pretty much just a pendant really.
I don’t really want to give too much away at this stage, but I will take photo’s and have them ready for posting here later on. I’ll put them up after the cut off date for entries. LOL I just realised how paranoid that sounded! Oh well, hopefully it’ll be a nice surprise when I pop the piccies on.

When I think of some of the people I know of that are entering, I doubt very much that I will win anything, or even place.  They’ve been creating jewellery, etc alot longer than I have. In reality this pmc piece that I’m working on is only the third thing I’ve ever created using pmc. The first two were pmc designs on my lampwork vessels.

Ahhh, I’ve started rambling lol I’ll leave it here then. I really should go start getting dinner ready anyway.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Got a chance to torch some more today, woohoo!!

I made up a set of the black and white beads I mentioned in the earlier post, but they didn’t really end up black and white! The black enamel I used reduced and turned out silvery. I really like the effect. I’m not sure if they will stay silvery after being annealed in the kiln, I hope so!

I also had the chance to play with my new heart press. Basically the press shapes the glass into a heart. Had to work it so I added glass gradually otherwise it wouldn’t show the ‘bumps’ on the top of the hearts properly. I made two pink hearts with red hearts on them. Not sure if I’ll put them up for sale individually or as a pair.

While I was busy torching the black and white set, I was looking at my glass rods, and I had a bunch of colours sitting there together. I thought that they’d all look fantastic together, so I made a long bead with each of the colours. It’s rather freaky and psychodelic, looks like a circus clown threw up roflmao.

I’ll be sure to post some photos here after they’ve been annealed.

Edit: Here are the photos!

- Bronze Age - This is the black and white set, that reduced to a silver/bronze metallic sheen.

- Two Strong Hearts - I like how the shape of the red hearts turned out on these.

- Circus Totem - Decided to call it this as I didn’t think clown throw up would be very appealling roflmao

It rained most of last night and today, it is wonderful! I should of complained about the heat on here sooner, the rain may of come then lol

Because it’s cooled down, I got the chance to play on the torch today. I only made a few things as it’s still very muggy, but it was so nice to play with molten glass again!

I received the powdered glass I ordered today and couldn’t resist seeing what the heliotrope colour looked like on a white base. It’s a lovely colour, will be experimenting more with these powders.

I also had a chance to play with the Bullseye Lustre glass I got. I bought one rod of three lustre colours, specifically for vessels, and had a play with the amber lustre today. The vessel is currently cooling in the vermiculite with the other beads, so I can’t show you photos yet. When the beads are ready I’ll pop photos of them in this post. Hopefully everything turns out.

I’ve have an idea playing around in my mind at the moment for a simple black and white set. Basically a white base with black enamel racked over it. I’m not sure if the colours will be definite or if they’ll blend together and I end up with grey. So if the weather is still cool enough tomorrow, I’ll have a go at making them.

If anyone has any colour combo’s they’d like to see, just let me know!

Edit: Here are the piccies!

- Blue Jean Baby - The base of these beads is transparent denim blue, it’s one of the new colours I’ve gotten that I haven’t played with before.

- Monet’s Love - This is a set of three lentil beads, with a heart charm bead. Love the colours in these.

- And lastly is the vessel using the Bullseye amber lustre glass. Dont you just love the sheen on this! This is the Monthly Draw prize for January, plus a cork. To find out more about the Monthly Draw, just visit HERE.

I absolutely loved this photo! The swirl of the icy water and the colours. For this one I decided to make a vessel and some matching lentils. The swirls on the vessel are actually raised so it’s a very tactile bead.

I have several months that I have missed, but will be going back and working on beads to go with those photographs. There are some stunning images. I’ll be sure to pop pictures here when I’ve done them!

I decided to use baking soda with this bead, it makes the bead very rough and pitted. I also etched it to make it even more rustic feeling. I really wanted to represent the rust and age of the truck. The colours turned out a little brighter than I had hoped but I was still quite pleased with the results. I tried to mirror the colours in the photo, and the yellow lines on the bead represent the grill on the truck.

I was inspired by the wispyness of the fishs tail and added thin black lines into my bead to compliment it.

I’m part of another group, this one on Yahoo, that uses photographs as inspiration rather than themes. This group was initially set up for lampworkers only, but we have now been joined by people using other mediums, eg. polymer clay artists, jewellery designers, etc.

If you’d like to join this group, just visit this page and apply for membership: Lampwork, etc Challenge Group. A new photograph is posted each month and there is no time limit applied.

This one I use as inspiration for my beads. I may use the colours, textures, patterns I see in the photographs and design a lampwork bead or set around it.

This is the first photograph posted in May 2006, and my bead I made. I was not completely happy with this bead, as while the black trees and branches show up in the photo, they are hard to see in person.

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This heat!! I can’t torch in the heat!

January 23rd, 2007 by anne071974

The heat here in Sydney lately has been sweltering.  So much so, that I can’t stand to be torching and making lampwork beads.

Currently, I torch in a metal shed in the back yard, and it can become unbearable with the heat, not to mention the added heat that comes off the torch.  This is why I’m saving madly for the cabin/studio, the outside panels are insulated, as well as having extra insulation between the outer wall and the interior wall.  All money from my sales will be going toward it, so please feel free to purchase as many beads as your heart desires!  hehehe

In the meantime, I’m making notes and thinking of ideas and designs for when the weather breaks.  I have several whisps of ideas floating around my mind at the moment.

I have recently purchased several kilos of glass, some of the rods are new colours that I haven’t tried before, so I can’t wait to have a play with them.  I also have some powdered glass coming.  The colour pigments in the powdered glass is alot more intense than in the rods, and it works beautifully in the flame.  You can acheive some lovely effects with them.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me that the weather cools down soon!

Cheers!

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