Blown Hollow Glass Beads with Ikuyo Yamanaka

For the last couple of months or so I have been following along with the International Society of Glass Beadmakers - online learning for making blown hollow glass beads.  

 

With 7 different modules it covered how to blow a glass bead then different ways to decorate and shape them.

I've been fascinated by hollow beads forever, but have struggled to improve mine with no real guidance.

 

The online course has meant I can watch the videos in my own time before attempting my own beads.  I also have the option to ask Ikuyo questions too. 

 

While I have found some techniques quite hard, for instance stretching or twisting the beads, it has definitely improved my glass handling skills, and I finally know how to add an additional hole to my beads, something I struggled with for ages.

 

And while my twisted beads didn't come out all lovely and round like her's, some of them have a lovely sculptural quaility to them that I really like. 

 

I've really enjoyed the course and learning new techniques which I'm sure I will incorporate into other projects.  It's also been really nice to have a focus for going down to the studio each week, even if I only made a couple of beads each time.  

 

Maybe if I keep practicing I'll end up with something as beautiful as Ikuyo's beads.

 

Small Sculpture in Flameworked Glass

 This weekend I was back at West Dean.

The weather was so nice it was nearly a shame to be stuck inside all weekend, however what we'd be learning was too exciting to worry too much about the sunshine.

 

As you might have seen, I do some lampworking (flamework) in my spare time in the studio 'im outdoors built me.  I work in soft glass which is pretty easy to make into beads but has to be kept hot until you are done then straight into the kiln to anneal.  If you don't keep it warm it can crack and break and be a pain in the ass.

This weekend I learnt how to work with hard glass - borosilicate, which is much more forgiving.  It's less likely to explode than the soft glass and you can put it down and cool it while working on a project before annealling it when you are done.  It makes it very good for creating sculptures.

 

The class was taken by Andrea Spencer a very talented glass maker who came all the way from Northern Ireland for the class! 

I was the only person in the group with any hot glass experience, but while some things were similar, like the tools and how the glass moves, it was also quite different, with it being stiffer than the glass I normally use and there being no need for mandrals (or bead release! Yay!).

 

I was quite happy to watch and listen and learn everything about this 'new' type of glass.

We started by making some leaves, which suited me just fine.

Then we learnt how to make the leaves into a 3D sculpture by using a framework of glass to hold things in place while we melted them together.  Then we learnt how to make a little bird.

 While waiting between things while Andrea helped others, I manage to create a pair of sycamore seeds, based on Andrea's demo from Friday night.

On the second day we learnt how to make flowers and I embraced this and managed to make 3.

 

It was all so different from the other things I've done with glass and I loved it!

It was very satisfing to come home with a handful of lovely glass things, that I made and I could make again if I bought the right glass.  I just need to stick them all in my kiln tonight and set them to anneal and they should be pretty robust. 

Definitely worth missing the sunshine for...