16 posts tagged “beads”
Even though I have an intense aesthetic preference for smooth, round beads, today I used some tools to play with shapes, pinching, smooshing, pushing and smoothing. I used some of the newer colors I stocked. The hearts need a little work, but they're still cute.
Then I tried the "owl eye" type beads my drawing instructor described to me. They were fun to make, though I'm not very happy with my color combinations. I did one in brown, orange and yellow autumn colors, but the yellow melted enough for the brown behind it to tint it a little and it looks green. The other I did in Halloween black, orange and white, but again the black behind the white gave it a light blue tint. I'll have to try a lighter base color. Still, they were fun to make. That's my first star bead too. I want to do another one, but fill in the gaps with more layers of colors so it winds up being a disk made of staggered layers of colors. Maybe tomorrow.
Drawing class is going extremely well after only two classes. In the second class we learned to use the shapes we'd been taught to draw with in first week in a series of layers. It's amazing how quickly and accurately I can sketch relatively simple things now. I'm really thrilled.
Craig is doing extremely well and having a good time too. I think this is his first real drawing class of any kind, though he's always had a natural talent, especially for drawing schematics and mechanical things. We're both feeling very competent, which is lovely. As he phrased it, "If someone set an apple down in front of me, I could sketch the hell out of that apple!" *L*
And yes, we're still sketching produce. This next class should be interesting and comical though, because we're going to be learning about proportion and we're supposed to bring in ...yes, more produce, but also a knife and pins. We're going to be building produce creatures and then drawing those. :D Total play time!
Our homework this week was to practice and maybe work on a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is supposed to help get the brain more in a visual mode. Sadly, my puzzle table is too covered in crap right now, but at least I have some extra motivation to clear it off ASAP.
I'm quite fond of our instructor too. When making the rounds, she wound up talking to Craig about his woodwork, after realizing he looked familiar because she taught his scroll saw class well over a year ago. After talking woodshop with Craig, she turned to me, briefly discussed my sketches, and then we found ourselves talking about making beads and knitting. She's quite fond of both. She was telling me her graduate advisor had to nag her to choose a focus for her studies because she's a dabbler and a craft collector and, like me, enjoys doing it all. We talked knitting patterns and websites, and then she told me about a bead tutorial she'd read recently. If I can wake myself up enough to fire up my torch today, I'm going to try making one of those beads we discussed.
The happiest thing about our last class though was that I got back into that mindset where I lose time. I only ever seem to get there when drawing or painting, and it's a state I really love. I love being so very focused that normal brain functions seem to shut down. I lose awareness of things around me, sounds, movement. I don't feel heat or cold or hunger, nor am I even aware of the passing time. I get completely absorbed in my work, and then I come out of it to notice 30 minutes, sometimes hours, have passed in what feels like an instant. I remember nothing but the work, and the utter feeling of joy and contentment I had while doing it. I haven't had that feeling in a long time. In fact, I can remember what I was drawing the last time I had that experience, and it was years ago, and many, many years more still before that. I need to get back there more. Maybe I can use drawing as a meditation, use therapy as an excuse to work it into my day more often. I'd be an idiot not to make the time.
I did get to speak with my high school classmate briefly after class. I'm still a clod though because not only did I forget, in all my nerves and excitement, to introduce Craig, but I completely ignored the gentlemen she was with, even when he held the door for me. I got back to the car and my adrenaline started to normalize and only then did I realize how rude I'd been to that poor guy. argh. Well, what can I say? I do try, and with the best of intentions. I'm just NOT a social creature. I guess you have to get to know me really well before you realize that I'm just awkward and not really a totally rude bitch. *sigh*
I made a handful of ugly beads yesterday. That's ok though, I didn't really have a plan and wasn't really trying. Mostly I just needed to clean up some rods that were left messy and get reacquainted with my small torch after using that fabulous $900 torch on Saturday (WANT!). I pulled out the dirty and pointy rods and practiced mixing, swirling and striping. Most beads came out either kind of boring or out-right ugly and misshapen, but I wound up with one "perfect" bead, and by "perfect" I mean it came out looking exactly like I had intended, which for a newbie like me doesn't happen often. I made one with zebra stripes. It's slightly lop-sided, but the stripes came out *perfectly*!
I'm going to be doing a lot more of that this week. It was stupid of me to let so many weeks go by without making torch time. I get my priorities screwed up a lot.
Yesterday Craig asked me, "So, this is your Big Birthday *Month*, right? Can I give you one of your presents?" then tells me he installed new speakers in my car for me! *SQUEE!* He'd been outside "fixing my loose door handle" (or so he said) and already installed them,. :) YAY!!! I can listen to Muse again without having to turn the base almost completely down!
My bunny girls are finally getting along. I'm not sure I'd say they're bonded, but this weekend I've started leaving them out together without having to constantly watch over them for fear that fur will start flying. There's a wee bit of mutual grooming going on, but mostly they seem to ignore each other, which is a HUGE improvement over the months of aggression. Not quite bonded yet, but I do get the impression they're starting to enjoy each other's company, for the most part.
Ok. Time to get the day started. This week needs to be very different from last week.
Ok. I'm feeling much better.
We went to the farmer's market and stocked up on fresh, locally grown produce at fabulous prices, then we went to the museum. It's in the same part of town as the farmer's market, plus today was their "Glassfest" and I just kind of wanted to stop in and poke around. I'd read up on the Glassfest and knew it was mostly a bunch of kids' activities, but they were supposed to have a few drop-in classes too. Originally I'd wanted to go first thing in the morning and reserve a space in a class, but my stomach has been giving me issues since yesterday, so I'd sort of let go of my ambitious morning plans and was just willing to stop in real quick and see what was going on.
As it happens, not only was there room in the 2pm class (the last of the day), but Craig and I were the ONLY people in that session! It was *perfect*. I was blissed.
The guy giving the class was a really cool guy from the area who'd gone to school there (so I got to briefly grill him on the art school I occasionally daydream about attending), he spent six months in Murano, Italy studying with a glass artist there, *AND* is in the process of setting up a studio in his house (something we have in common, and another thing I could pick his brain over).
It was so awesome having that hour class to ourselves, and having such a knowledgeable and laid back instructor. I really got my money's worth out of that! :) The class was $15 per person (because we're members, $20 otherwise) and really my sole motivation for taking it was to experience flamework on a professional torch. I just wanted to see how much easier it was to melt glass with really good equipment (and it was SOOOO MUCH EASIER!), but I really lucked out on having the instructor all to myself to throw all my accumulated questions at for an hour, for only $15! ...Well, $30, because I dragged Craig in there with me. :) It was extremely educational and a complete blast! I loved being able to talk glass with someone! ...I'm still giddy.
As for the torch, it was a total dream! They had Bethlehem torches, which use a dual gas set-up and burn huge and HOT! Oh, I WANT! Aimen (the instructor - I hope I spelled his name right) told me they work well on natural gas too (we were using propane there) which is good to know because that's the fuel I've been leaning towards. It was really quick work though, because in that flame the glass flowed like honey in just a matter of seconds. Gods, that was nice! Exquisite! ... I had planned on setting my torch up and working this evening, but I might wait until tomorrow now. I think I'd just be frustrated trying to work with my smaller, cooler torch after just having worked with such fantastic equipment.
As for the kilns, they had Chili Peppers, which I was familiar with from my own research but have never actually seen in person. I wasn't crazy about the fiber insulation, but it was still quite nice to get to use a piece of equipment I'd read so much about, to be able to see it, feel the air around it for heat, open it up and put some mandrels in it. It's not a bad little kiln at all, but I'm all the more excited about the AIM CR413 I ordered now (near the bottom of the page), which is lined with brick rather than fiber. Aimen was impressed with my choice of kiln too, and that was nice, to get some reassurance that I made a good purchase from someone far more experienced than I am.
I also got to see how they stored their rods in the flamework lab, in stacked PVC pipe, which is an idea I've been toying with myself. I really need to build a rack for my rods which are kind of a storage nightmare right now, albeit a lovely, colorful nightmare!
It was fun working with someone else's glass too. There was a lot less thought about exploding glass, lots of quick in -n-out of the flame... and of course glass flying everywhere as a result! I didn't feel too bad about it. Aimen was telling me the guy he studied under taught him not to waste much time in the flame, and it was kind of fun not being so careful with the slow pre-heat. Most of the time it worked out ok, ...but there *was* quite a bit of glass flying. heh.
OMG! GLASS-TORCH-GLASS-KILN-GLASS-GLASS-STUDIO-GLASS-GLASS-GLASS!!! *BOUNCE!* That was a total blast, and just what I needed. I think I am going to get my work space ready now, though I may still opt to wait til tomorrow to sit down and work. I'm still too stoked about those swank Bethlehem torches to screw around with my wee HotHead right now. What an awesome way to spend an afternoon! Yep. Just what I needed.
I've had a new project cooking in my head all week, so Craig very kindly took me to the bead store yesterday, and I totally lucked out finding not only the exact beads I'd imagined in exactly the right shape, size and color, but the strand I bought was normally $23 and on sale for $4! Some things are just meant to bead. :D Sorry. I couldn't resist. (Meant To Bead is actually the name of the bead store.) :)
I tried not to shop too long (Craig stayed in the car reading on the Kindle), and our next stop was a coffee break. Mmm. Then to the gaming store to browse Wii and PS2 games. We picked up "Heavenly Guardians" which is a co-op campaigning game that looks cute and was priced at a very reasonable $15 (which probably means it sucks, but we'll see).
Then it was off to our main reason for the drive into town: Hellboy. Eh. It wasn't a bad movie. It was very flat though. It wasn't as pretty as the previews had lead me to expect, and it only made me giggle once. It was also hellaciously corny, something I used to expect from comic book movies until the latest Batman and Ironman movies. It wasn't a waste of time, but it wasn't a ton of fun either. Both Craig and I enjoyed Wanted a whole lot more.
We stopped at the grocery on the way home and bought enough to restock our pantry. (The cupboards were bare.) By the time we got all the food home and properly put away, it was just after 8pm, which is when they stop serving chicken dinners at the Chicken Fest. :/ I really didn't want to get some food back out and cook, so we walked down the to festival anyhow, determined to eat whatever carnival-type food we could find.
We walked down and watched the elephant for a while, then we grabbed some typical grilled foods and called it dinner. We walked over to the beer tent, but they wanted $5 admission, and then you had to buy beer in addition to that! I know it's all for the park (the festival is a fund-raiser for our very nice park), but we're cheap, remember? And there was beer in our fridge just a few blocks away. Craig said we could walk back over and stare at the elephant for a while longer, so we did that and then walked home.
At home we watched "The Exorcism of Emily Rose", which wasn't as spooky as I'd hoped it would be, but at least it was still more interesting than the Hellboy movie we'd seen earlier.
Craig and I just put some hooks up in the house and garage that I can string a clothesline on as needed. It's a small savings, not running the dryer for everything, but it's getting more and more to the point where every little bit counts, so it'll help. Better for the planet too, drying with wind and solar energies. Next weekend I want to build a solar oven. ...Though I admit that one has more to do with having homemade cookies in the summer without having to heat up the house. Yeah, free solar energy is better to use than the piped in gas and electricity, ...but COOKIES when it's too hot to turn on the oven! :D Cupcakes too. :D
Craig took the day off Friday, and we started our day by having a nice breakfast (egg and biscuit sammiches) and spending some time walking around the neighborhood checking out the community garage sale. We picked up some goodies; I tried to stick to only buying the immediately useful things, but *shrug*. :) I got a nice stockpot, some really nice pilsner glasses, a couple of heavy vases for my glass rods, a few candles, a CD, a PS2 game, some nice planters and a basket. I wish we would've got the golf clubs too, but... *shrug* Some day. Someone is ALWAYS selling their clubs.
We then set off for the Antique Mall in Maumee to dig through even older crap. :D Craig was looking for some old hardware for a new closet door he just bought (trying to match the look of the rest of the house), and I was just looking for treasure. And boy-howdy! Did I find treasure!!! I got a vintage ViewMaster viewer and some lovely green-stemmed wine glasses, but the best find was the baggie filled with watch parts! See, I have this thing for watches. I collect them, not necessarily nice watches, nothing worth displaying (for the most part), but I have this box full o'watches that's my secret little treasure chest. They make me happy. Fair warning too: I'm not above stealing your watch. I've done it before. If you take it off and leave it lying around, I will put it on, and if neither of us notices at the end of the day and it goes home with me, it usually ends up staying with me. I'm just saying. So I found this little baggie with almost 50 (47, I counted) broken watches in it for only $10!!! I squeed with joy and carried it with me the rest of the day. Check out my loot:
I don't know for sure what I'm going to do with them. I'm torn between wanting to bust them open and harvest all their pretty little gears for jewelry and crafting, or just wanting to add their fabulous carcasses to my box o'watches so I can open it up and lord over my treasure every once in a while. I'll probably do a little of both. There's certainly enough there. *squee!*
After antiquing, we stopped for tea and scones which, while enjoyable enough, we both agreed is a far more enjoyable snack in Ireland along the Atlantic. *le sigh* Then we stopped for clothesline supplies and some fresh tanks for my torch, and came home to straighten up for a nice visit with my Dad.
Dad came over for pizza and chat. We gave him his belated Father's Day gift, chowed my favorite pizza, and sat out on the deck talking and watching the sun get lower in the shy. It was a very enjoyable visit.
I spent all of Saturday at my torch making fugly beads and frustrating myself with new-to-me skills. It was still a really good time, despite the fact that none of the beads turned out anything like I was trying for! heh. It's all good. I need the practice for sure. Some day I'll be able to create the most amazing beads, but I have to get my lessons and practice in first.
As soon as I finish my entry and my coffee here, it's back to the torch for a while. Then I'm probably going to do some gardening, take a nice long bath, and who knows what then? Dinner and some tv/movies/Wii most likely.
I do so love the weekends!!!
Some beads I made a few weeks ago. Just getting around to taking photos tonight. I love these colors.
They aren't *fabulous*, but then I still have *A LOT* to learn. These are the best of the bad I made this weekend though.
There are scorch marks, color drips, bead release I'm going to need solvent to clean up completely, and massive amounts of lop-sidedness, but *shrug*. I'm have an amazing time learning to work with glass. ...Besides, I don't want to make anything too perfect until I have a kiln and can do it properly. ;)
(Photo credit: Craig)
I just managed to make my first bead with trapped bubbles in it. :D *is fighting the urge to peek at it while it cools in the blankie*
There is no doubt that I need to save up for a kiln. There's not much you can safely do with beads that haven't been properly annealed, because there's little structural integrity. You sure can't ethically sell them, and I'm going to eventually need to start selling my beads just to support my habit. I have a kiln I'm considering right now that's just under $600. It's kind of a shame that we have that stimulus act money ear-marked for our vacation (and yet, WEEEEE! VACATION!!!), but I'll swing it somehow.
I'm also now 100% convinced bulk fuel is the way to go, even if it is kind of creepy to have something so potentially explosive sitting up against the house. heh. Those wee, 1lb disposable containers are frustrating as hell. The canister tends to freeze up the longer you use it, and the flame gets a ton cooler as the fuel level gets lower. I had a heating pad wrapped around the last canister this afternoon, trying to keep it from freezing so I could use up as much of the fuel as possible. PITA! I was really frustrated with my efforts so far this season, but I just hooked up a new canister, and it's a night-and-day difference. The glass heats up fast now and flows like honey. It's SOOOO much easier with a full canister. From what I've read in the forums, people who really enjoy this craft refuse to screw around with the 1lb canisters because of the unreliable flame temperature, and I totally understand now. I found a welding supplier not too far away. When we get back from vacation, I'm going to get my hands on a 30lb refillable canister of propylene.
...Some day I'll have an even hotter propane-oxygen torch!!!
...*sigh*... This is the part where my dumb ceramic blanket is filled with beads and I just have to wait for them to cool before I can make any more. I'll have to be very careful to purchase an annealing kiln that will hold as many beads as possible. I hate the waiting.
I took my torch out yesterday for the first time this year. It was a little windy yet, but I just couldn't wait any longer. A little frustrating trying to keep the glass in the flame when that flame is blowing to the side, closer to your hands, but so nice to be melting glass again!
It seems that any skills I'd learned were lost over the winter months, because I made some *BAD* looking beads yesterday. I lost the feel for keeping things turning to fight gravity. I was impatient and not melting enough glass before trying to wrap a bead. I was overworking them and pulling bead release into the glass. I was even so excited to put one down and start the next that I put a few of them in the ceramic blanket too hot and they came out squished and covered in fiberglass. Still, a damn good time. :D
There's supposed to be a decent chance of rain today, but I might keep one eye on the radar and try to get some more practice time in today.
I also need to put a glass order in and get some more inspiring colors.
And the next time I buy MAPP gas, I think I'm going to splurge on a larger, refillable canister. Eventually, I'd like to move to an oxygen-propane setup, but obviously not until we've rebuilt the garage with a wee little studio for me. (Did I mention that garage requirement to Craig yet? heh) Brazing fuel will have to do for now though, what with my setup needing to be portable. ...Mmm, studio...fire-resistant environment, ventilation, heat for working year-round, storage, ... Ah, someday!
I do want a bead kiln some time soon though. I hate that ceramic blanket. Pft. I have to find some way to encase it in the mean time while I save up for a kiln. I can't even stand to touch that thing (itch), and I hold my breath every time I have to mess with it because you can see the sparkly glass fibers flying around in the sunlight. Definitely something to keep down wind.
But yes, I definitely need to practice as much as possible so I can justify these future investments in this craft. :D I do loves me some glass! *off to place a glass order and check the radar*
