Monday 29 July 2013

24 little hours

What can you do in 24 hours.

Well a team of lampworkers can get together to make as many beads as possible for the Beads of Courage programm orgnanised by www.bechildcanceraware.org.

Many other lampworkers around the country joined in and fired up their torches to make beads in their own studios to contribute to the programme too.

Jo Wolfe (www.kitzbitzartglass.com) was the one who had this great idea.  For the second year she organised the team, glass, kilns and supplies to keep everyone going. Here are a few photos of what went on.




The first of the 2 kilns ready to be emptied. These are the beads that were made in the first half of the Beadathon.

Jo's (carefully) getting those beads out

Sandy seems happy with the loot.

                                              Time for a bath   


Ready

Steady

Clean!!!!!!






                                                              Hard at work

A totem pole bead by Heather Kelly.
 (www.heatherkellyglass.co.uk)



   
                                        Its a girl!

Lets find her a space in the second kiln.





That was fun.





Go and see the beads in all their glory at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitzbitz/sets/72157634190089029/with/9384452178/

Sunday 14 July 2013

Another test

My friend Pauline, another beader (www.jazzylily.com) gave me some Ossa, a silver rich glass by Double Helix. Its a purple rod, with little whitish inclusions.So the dots on the beads are Ossa, capped in clear glass to give a nice optical lens over the Ossa, highlighting the little inclusions, which now appear glittery. You can see them best on the bottom bead.



Testing testing ........

Back on the torch again, and tested out a couple of rods of glass I haven't used before, with two colours in each rod.
I think one is called Sunset, and the other is GiFu, so in that order


As you can see from th last picture, the GiFu bead on the right has been encased in clear. This gives a slightly less intense, more pastel colour to the bead. I cant make up my mind which one I prefer, they are both pretty. Now I wonder what the unencased beads would look like etched?

Monday 29 April 2013

Time for a bead fix

I have sat at the torch several times, wondering what should I do. Sometimes inspiration just doesn't wander in. So I went back to what I consider my roots, of combining dichroic and silver glass together. Here are some of the results.
Light amber, grass green, opaque orange/red, and a topaz base coloured bead respectively.



From the inside out.

From the inside, looking out at the garden while we are busy beading.

And as usual, my work space is pristine and organised!!!!!

Friday 26 April 2013

More sunshine and more flowers.

Just showing off a little with more pics from the loaned camera.

These pictures are taken in the little garden at the church hall where I meet my beading buddies.

In the summer, this garden is a perfect sun trap.

The tree in the bottom picture produces little orange coloured, apple like fruit in autumn, which the Reverend assures me, make a lovely jam.


Look what the sun brought out.

Well, a whole week of sunshine here in London, and its been so nice to have the sun shining down on us. I even had lunch outside on Tues. It wasn't quite sunbathing, but fairly close.
I know I have shown my magnolia tree before, but I took some pictures with a higher spec camera I have on loan to me, so decided to share.


Monday 22 April 2013

A little bit of sunshine

So after a bit of an absence here I am again. Not a lot of lampworking has been going on recently, but after a few things are out of the way, I hope to be sharing lots more glassy (and other) bits with you again.

So the sun has eventually shown its face, and the daffodils are finally open. I did a set of beads in daffodil / sunshine colours. Bright and eyecatching!

Wednesday 27 February 2013

When shards behave

I like shards. Here's one shard bead that behaved really well, look at all those gorgeous colours popping out. 4 views of the same bead.




Monday 18 February 2013

Looking good

Well someone else has been very clever at making my beads look very good.

See more of Belinda's work at http://belindasfavourites.blogspot.co.uk/




Sunday 10 February 2013

Four in one

One bead all the way around.

 
 

Thursday 7 February 2013

No kiln, but there's still an oven

So, no bead making recently as my kiln refuses to work, and I am waiting for a replacement part. So what do you do instead?
Having a surplus of milk, and not wanting to waste it, I decided to make something new, never before attempted by little ole me. A creme caramel.
Looking in the oven, is looked like to might have gone wrong. So I tentatively tuned it out into a bowl in case it collapsed into a custardy mess. So I was overjoyed with the way it turned out. It looks like a proper creme caramel

Simple things please simple minds. :-) Oh, and it tastes ok too.

Wednesday 30 January 2013

There's gold in them thar beads

Well, to be more precise - goldstone.
Here are some of the beads i have made recently with goldstone. Another way to introduce shimmer and bling.








Monday 14 January 2013

That's just plain weird.

OK, its official. I'm a little obsessed with glass!. I am seeing the potential for new beads in all sorts of things.
I saw this and started thinking of glass colour combinations.
Its a bruise on poor hubbys leg!


Thursday 10 January 2013

Lighting

Same bead  -  Another flash vs daylight.