Blown Hollow Glass Beads with Olga Alianova

The one bead I'm happy with

 

I am totally obsessed with hollow glass beads and have tried many techniques to try and make the perfect hollow beads.

Hollow beads are much harder to create than solid glass beads and there is much less room for error.

Last year I did make a couple of necklaces with hollow beads but while they look great and they are the best I can do with my skills right now (and I am happy with them) they are heavy.  So far all the techniques I've tried have ended up being quite heavy.

I continue on my quest....

Last year I saw this class come up at Tuffnell Glass, but by the time I got myself organised it had sold out!  I was gutted.  So when I saw they were running it again I booked it straight away.

Olga is a very talented bead maker and her hollow beads are amazing - and importantly very light.

The end of Day One

 

So I last weekend I drove all the way up to Yorkshire again and spent two days learning Olga's technique.

As with many things, it looks very simple until you try it yourself and then you find it is much much harder than it looks.  And I wasn't the only one!

So for much of Saturday all I managed to make were bubbles that were much too thin to keep and so went into the glass bin.  It was a very frustrating day.  I am used to having something to show for my efforts by lunch on the first day, but not this time.

The end of Day Two

 

However, by the end of the day I managed to make a couple of beads that weren't too thin and didn't crack when I put them in the cooling beads.  Maybe I was finally getting the hang of it?

On Sunday I went back without much hope.  However, I did manage to make some reasonable beads at last.  My main struggle had been working out when the first bubble of air was coming into the glass.  If you don't stop at the right time it just turns into shards.  So I was given a flexible hose to try so I could see the end of the blow pipe.  Finally I could see what was happening and stop at the right point.

 

I finished Sunday with a couple of beads I'm actually proud of.

And while I might not have the handful of beads I'd normally expect, Olga was very generous sharing her different techniques for decoration, so that's given me lots of ideas too.

Having two days to do this while frustrating was actually really good as it let me work on my techniques without having to worry about taking the dog for a walk or cooking dinner etc.  And by the end of it I could see an improvement.  But if I want to get anywhere like as good as Olga (yeah right!) it will take a lot more practice!  I mean days rather than hours. 

 

So a good weekend even if it was frustrating in places.  It was great to learn a new technique and it's always lovely to spend time with other lampworkers.

Stripy Fused Glass Dish

 

Instagram has a lot to answer for!

I saw a stripy glass dish on there ages ago and really wanted to have a go at making my own.

So when I was having a tidy in the studio and found some stringers (very thin 'strings' of glass) that someone had given me when I bought something else second hand from them, I decided to have a go. 

 

It's quite a simple idea; take a clear glass circle.  Lay lots of glass stringers across the circle.  Fuse everything together.  Lastly slump your glass circle in a mould.

I haven't done that much fusing and this is only my second go at slumping, but it all worked a treat! 

And I leant some helpful lessons - yes you can use broken stringers to make a full line, but they will separate at the break.  I think melting them together first would stop this happening. 

 

I also found out that cutting a big circle is quite hard.  I didn't have anything quite the right shape to draw round, so it's not quite a proper circle.  I do have a circle cutter, but it max's out at maybe 10cm.  So if I want to do more I either need to buy a circle cutter that will do bigger circles, or buy pre cut circles!

I also amended my firing schedule as it was set for a 6mm thickness of glass and mine is more like 4mm.  Reducing the time it sat at the top temperature seemed to work fine. 

So now I have a lovely stripy dish.  I love it, and I love how it changes in different lights.  Love when a glass project works out first time! 

Paper Flower Making Workshop - Icelandic Poppies

  Back in May I went to the Makers Barn for a paper flower making class.

I had a lovely morning, and as we were finished we were told they would be running more classes later in the year, this time to make Icelandic poppies. I signed up as soon as the class went online!

So today I was back at the barn to have a go at making paper poppies.

 

It was a hot one today, but not too bad in the barn.  But by lunchtime even just sitting and cutting was making me sweat. I was very glad not to be on one of the basket making classes outside! 

I very cheekily asked if I could make two as I'd found in the last class that I was quicker than many people and thought I'd have time to make two rather than just stare out of the barn door.  (I also wanted two more flowers to go with the peony from last time, rather than just one). Lovely Rachel said I could, so I just paid for the extra materials.

 

And it worked well.  Having done one class I had an idea of how these flowers might go together so it was just a case of listening to instructions and doing everything twice.  I kept up easily and didn't feel I was wasting time, or slowing the group down.

I'd had a look before class to see what sort of colours Icelandic poppies normally are so went with a lovely apricot colour and a peach.  Both will sit well with the peony.

 

The poppy has less petals than the peony, but there were a little more fiddly to shape. 

But once everything was stuck together they looked great!  I think the peony is still my favourite, but I am really pleased with how the poppies came out.  The papers that Rachel hand dyes are stunning and just give that little extra detail that finish the flowers perfectly.

 

Sirdar Design No. 10838 In Jewelspun Ombre Aran

 

 For months last year, every time I went into the village and walked/ran past the wool shop, this beautiful pink/yellow jumper in the window would catch my eye!  The colour was amazing, even on an early morning December run in the dark.

In January I was in the village with 'im outdoors and so I made a point of showing him and he sent me inside to buy the wool and instructions!

So I came home with the Sirdar Design No. 10838 booklet and two balls of Jewelspun Ombre Aran yarn in Rainbow Glow. 

 

I wanted to start right away but I waited until I'd finished the Powdermill Cardy. (Typical that I finish an aran jumper in the middle of a heatwave so can't wear it!)

Finally the cardy was done and I could get started.  I was a bit sad to realise this pattern was knitted flat and had to be sewn up at the end.  (I hate sewing up!) The only good thing about this was I was working on reasonably small pieces during a heatwave, rather than a whole jumper. So I didn't let that stop me and got my needles out.

The yarn is very soft and an amazing colour going from candyfloss pink to custard yellow and back again in one very big ball - 400g in fact!  (They have a whole range of amazing colours and it was really hard to choose!)

 

But I could have done with a bit more help with the pattern.  The body wasn't too bad, but the detail in the arms - while it looks lovely, took a lot of work to get right.  I think the first arm took 3 attempts while the second was more like 5.  So this has taken a little longer than it really should have.

While the detail at the bottom of the arms was tricky, working out the increases was also tricky and I really would have liked the whole pattern written out.

Maybe I'm just showing my inexperience or maybe I was over thinking it but personally I'm not sure I would mark this as an 'easy' pattern. 

 

Well it's done now.  The colour really is amazing (These photos don't do it justice) and it fits too (although I had to make the arms a little longer than the pattern allowed for). I also decided to knit the collar in the round, so joined the shoulders at the same time to allow me to do this.  If I could have worked out how to, I would have done the whole thing in the round.

So note to self, in the future, check the pattern before buying it - don't just fall for the colour! 

A Notebook For My Morning Pages

 

So something a bit different this post (meaning it's not about glass!).

A lot of people will have heard of the book The Artist's Way. (this is an affiliate link - if you buy it I will get a tiny sum.  You can see my whole bookshop here.)

 

I’ve been aware of it for years, but I’ve finally decided to follow the 12 week programme.

Part of the programme is writing morning pages.  3 pages of stream of consciousness at the beginning of your day, to get all the rubbish out of your head and give you a fresh start.

 

 

Again I’ve heard lots about morning pages but never had a go before.

 

So to show my commitment to the programme and my morning pages I made myself a notebook to write them in.

 

I haven’t done any bookbinding for so long!  

 

 

And while it did take me a second to remember how to stitch the signatures together, everything else felt easy.  And all my kit was where I expected it to be too!  Bonus.

 

I thought I was going to cover it with yellow paper, but changed my mind at the last second – having already used yellow thread to stitch the signatures together.

 

So I used yellow paper as my end papers and some off cuts of ‘leather’ wallpaper to cover it.

I didn’t want it to be too good to use!

 

I think it one of the chunkiest books I’ve made – but I did the maths to see how many pages I would need for 3 pages a day for 12 weeks, so hopefully it’s big enough.

 

If I decide to continue with morning pages after the programme I’ll have to decide if I want to make a book each time or come up with a different solution, but that’s something to worry about in a couple of months time.

 

 

It felt good to do something I haven’t done for a while and have a good result.

 

Now I look forward to seeing what I can get out of The Artists Way and how it might help me to improve my creative practice.

Making Marbles With Martin

 

 I've just spent the week in Scarborough with 'im outdoors, the dog and my in-laws.

It was a nice week away, but I think I bemused the in-laws by disappearing for a couple of hours on Monday afternoon so I could take a marble making class.

I've been wanting to try marble making for ages, but didn't have the confidence to do it by myself.  

 

I knew that Martin at Tuffnells Glass does a marble making 1:2:1 but at 2hrs it doesn't really justify the 6hr drive!  However, when I realised we'd be staying a 30min drive away I booked a session. 

Although the rest of the week was quite cool, I still found myself sweating away in a glass studio again!

 

Over the course of the 2hrs I learnt how to make a vortex marble and one with dichroic glass (a glass that changes colour in different light).  Two different techniques but with lovely results. I think my recent classes with Laura helped too.

 Then I had to wait before I could have a proper look as they had to anneal in the kiln.  We went back a couple of days later on the way to Bempton Cliffs (we saw puffins!!) to pick them up. 

 

So they are not round, and one has a dent where I dropped it while melting in the punty mark.  Oops!  But as first go marbles I'm very pleased.  I understand the concept and I'm pretty sure I could do this again at home, although they will probably be smaller with my little torch.  And I think if I had more time I could get the shaping better, but I didn't want to keep 'im outdoors waiting as he came to pick me up.

I can really see how each thing I learn builds on previous skills and improves my skill set as a whole.  And while it can still sometimes be frustrating when things don't work, over all I'm very satisfied with the skills I'm building. 

(They are really hard to photograph.  You can find a video of them on my Instagram.) 

A Lampworking 1:2:1 With Laura Quinn

 What do you do on the hottest day of the year so far?

Spend it with Laura Quinn doing a 1:2:1 lampworking session of course! 

We were due to start at 10:00 but moved it forward to try and miss some of the later heat.  I'm not sure how well that worked.  I was very sweaty - it's hard to do your best work with sweat rolling into your eyes and making your hands slippery.  By the time I left at 4pm it said 38c in the studio!

 

But it was a great day.  I'd asked for a 1:2:1 because I felt like I was really starting to get somewhere with blowing little vases but I really needed someone to just help me fine tune what I was doing.

We started by making 4 tiny vases.  You can see the improvement if you look at them in order.  So much better than what I'd been able to make by myself.  I'm really starting to see how hot I need to get the glass and the angles I need to hold things to get gravity to help me out.

 

After lunch we went up a tube size and I made a tiny glass.

I don't intent to make many glasses, but it was great for improving my technical skill.  Again how hot the glass needs to be.  The angle to hold the reamer.  How to use my diamond shears so I don't twist the glass.

I learnt so much I'm desperate to get into my studio to put it into practice and start to really memorise the different steps.  But it's still a little too hot.  Maybe later in the week. 

 

While a sweaty one, I was a great day.  Laura's a great teacher and so happy to share her knowledge.   

Note: I did manage to get into the studio and I made 5 more vases.  I still need to improve my necks but very happy with what I managed to create. 

But it's made me wonder if I need to upgrade my torch.  While I could work with this size tube, it was a little slow and I think I would struggle with anything bigger.  Something to think about. 

Casting Glass Half Sphere Paperweights

 

As you might have noticed I love playing with glass.  One of the techniques I've tried but not really mastered is casting.  So I was quite excited to see Warm Glass offering a casting class in their Glass School.

 

Casting glass half spheres with Silvia Levenson, took us through the whole process of making a mould, filling it with glass, adding designs and finishing it off. 

During 3 live calls over 3 weeks she shared her knowledge, inspiration and answered all our questions.  And with a week between each call we could, in theory, join in.

 

I did try, but work kept getting in the way.  But while I didn't keep up, I have now completed my first attempt and I really want to have another go as I have lots of ideas going forward.

 

I ended up making 6 half spheres as I had enough materials and a kiln big enough to take them.

Making the moulds and doing the first fire with glass billet was quite straight forward.  But then I had to cut some glass circles and it took me a little while to get the courage up to try that.  In the end it was pretty straight forward, helped by the fact I bought myself a circle cutter. 

Next step was to decorate some of the circles for each half sphere.  I would have loved to try a stencil, but I didn't have any and didn't have time to find any.

 

So in two I added one of my glass leaves.  In one I tried to make a landscape. In a couple I used decals.  I did add some gold stars but they burnt off which was disappointing.  (something to remember for next time).

 

I wasn't sure what to do with the last one, so I used some bubble powder.  I had no idea what it would do or how much to use (I think I over did it).  But I do love the result!

I have so many other ideas that I want to try now! 

 

I really enjoyed this project.  It stretched my but in a good way and I definitive want to have another go.  The only problem is how long you have to wait before being able to open the kiln.  With such large chunks of glass they have to cool very very slowly so they don't crack.  I hated waiting!