Uncategorized «

True Value in Lampwork Beads

A recent blog post by fellow bead maker Mallory really made me stop and think about the value of the beads we create.

If you have any interest in beads you have probably come across really inexpensive glass beads in your travels.

If you don’t know much about beads you might be fooled into thinking they are great value, and might also be wondering why beads such as mine are so much more expensive. I’ll explain why!

Many of the inexpensive beads come from China where they are

mass produced,
created from low quality glass
not annealed (an essential part of the process) and
not cleaned

Each bead I create has come from thousands of hours of learning and practising.

My first torch and accessories cost approx $150
studio-002w

That kept me going for a little while, but I soon needed to upgrade to my present torch that uses both propane and oxygen.

New torch, Nortel Mega Minor $150

p5209466

Oxygen Concentrator to create the oxygen needed $550

t_9342

Hoses to hook it all up $40

t_8623

Regulator for the fuel $100

reg1

Kiln! For annealing glass $760

p5127459

And we haven’t bought any glass yet!

Ventilation – $700

vent

That is just the equipment! Add to this the cost of fuel for the torch, electricity for the kiln and supplies such as mandrels and bead release.

Tools!! We all need tools – prices vary from under $10 to over $100

Eye Glasses! Needed to protect our eyes from the flame – $150

THEN comes the glass – this can range in price from $7/lb to $100/lb depending on the type !

Add to this

time spent learning this art,
cost of lessons which can be $200 per day
the little bit of ‘me’ that goes into each and every one
time spent creating and cleaning each bead by hand
days wasted when Muse is on vacation and beads are horrific!
other incidentals that go along with making these one of a kind pieces of wearable art

Each bead that I offer for sale is the very best of what I make. I’m very critical about what I consider to be a sellable bead and many just don’t make the cut for one reason or another.

: Lampwork bead with murrini – $38

You’ll soon realise that Lampwork beads are PRICELESS!

When you consider purchasing a bead or set of beads from any lampwork artist please take a moment and reflect on what is included in that price – you’ll soon understand why these beads are truly a remarkable value. You are purchasing one of a kind pieces of art that can last for generations to come.

What happens when the 1800′s meet the Middle Ages?

Controversy and Conquests!

Yesterday we went to -

untitled-1

One of my favourite places to go, you step through the gates and all the noise and stress of the world we live in slips away as we slip back in time to the 1860′s.

imgp0014

As you stroll through the village you expect to see scenes like this

imgp0006

And this-

jflour

imgp1130

jcarpenter

WOOOAAAH!!!

What was THAT??

imgp1130

THEY don’t look like they’ve stepped out of the 1860′s!!

And there the controversy begins. Sadly, the once thriving village has fallen upon hard times. The scenes like this

jstore

and this

imgp1158

that used to bring in the crowds are no longer doing so.

It’s a sad reality of tody – people want MORE, they want EXCITEMENT, they want to be THRILLED! And that poor old pig just isn’t doing it.

Lately there have been big lay-offs and did it seem to me that the grass was a bit longer in the yards of the homes? That the village folks did not seem quite so happy?

Do I wish Upper Canada Village could stay just as it is? YES!

Do I think it will? NO!

Do I want it to survive? Most definitely!

Last year was a first for the Medieval Festival, held just outside the grounds I guess it upset a lot of loyal UCV folks who want to see the village remain as a living museum.

Pageantry and Pioneers just do not mix!

This year the Festival is being held right inside the grounds! Imagine the controversy! And yesterday we went.

We were in the longest lineup we’ve ever been in at UCV – hundreds were waiting to get into the gates! The Medieval Festival was being held at the far end of the park, out of site of the Village and the pioneers.

Here are some of the sights we saw!

Entertainment!

Re-enactment!

Medieval Machinery!

Knights in armour!

Pageantry!

imgp1129

imgp1133

Our brave Knight in the jousting competion

Birds of Prey

Red Tailed Hawk

Swainsons Hawk

Young Falcon

So is this a good thing for the Village from the 1860′s?

From what I saw I would think yesterday was one of their busiest days of the year. Thousands of people walked through the village on their way to the Medieval Festival – people who might not have been through the gates before, and people who just might decide to come back for a second look.

Yes, the Medieval Festival was more commercial than UCV BUT it was also an educational experience, it was something I hadn’t experienced before and I’d certainly go again.

I hope that Upper Canada Village can overcome it’s tough times, and it just might mean having events like this on the grounds. It’s all about History is it not? And learning more about where we all came from.

If you want to learn more about Upper Canada Village click here to visit their site – if you are close enough for a real visit PLEASE go! You won’t be dissapointed and you just might come away feeling a little less stressed and ravaged by the noisy, ravaged, world we live in today.

Artistic Inspiration from the bank??

David was reading his mail the other day. He had something from his bank. Imagine his surprise when I yelled ‘STOP!’ – ‘Don’t throw that away I want it!’ – or words to that effect.

He handed the sheet to me with a rather puzzled expression on his face, while I grinned with glee!

st_marys

Inspiration??
Well opening a kid’s account wasn’t exactly what was on my mind – but THAT dog spoke to me! All at once I saw how I could construct a dog bead I truly liked!

And I did!
p5306452

I truly like him! He makes me smile! Not least of all because I’ve struggled so much with dogs.

p5306451

Like my monkee’s he’s made with a nice big hole running horizontally through his head. This means he can be worn easily on a chain or cord AND that he’ll always face the right way, he’s not going to swivel round on you while you are wearing him. He’s a decent size too!

I was so delighted I made another!

p5306446

I changed the colours up this time so he looks a little dobermanish.

p5306447

I don’t know how I can translate this into other breeds at the minute – but I’m happy with this starting point.

Thank YOU St. Mary’s Bank!!! Or more precisely thank you to the artist who drew the original pup!

Fun using Murrini in beads – how to do it!

Every now and then I use murrini in my beads -

Murinni chip in a bead

I especially like to add a dot of clear glass on top of the chip to help magnify the design.

my favourite murrini bead

The bead above is one of my favourites because of the unique shape, it’s fun to hold – the hole runs horizontally through the middle of the bead in this photo.

Of course, sometimes murrini can be melted into the bead -

p7306286 p7039002a

And sometimes you can REALLY melt it into the bead!

p7039002b

I love the way this one came out looking like an Eye Bead.

So – how do you make a bead using murrini/murinni/murrine/millefiore ?

Here’s a how to -

before you make your bead choose your murrini and lay it out where you can get at it easily – include a few extra chips in case you need them.
when you’ve made your base bead, use a pair of fine, long handled tweezers to pick up your first murrini piece – grab the murrini by it’s sides not the ends!
while you keep your bead warm, very slowy introduce the murrini to the flame – wave it in and out of the flame – if it gets hot too quickly it will crack and part of it will probably go flying off (that’s why it’s a good idea to have a few extra on hand).
Once the murrini is hot but NOT soft (you don’t want to squish it!), spot heat the part of your bead that you are going to place it onto.
Carefully place the hot murrini onto the hotspot of your bead – if they are hot enough the murrini will stick!
Heat the stuck murrini gently and you’ll notice it starts to round up – at this point I very gently flatten it a little to keep the design as large as possible. If you allow it to continue to ball up the design will shrink as the outer layer of the murrini creeps up and in.
Continue to heat the murrini until it’s melted in the way you like it.
At this point you can heat your clear glass and add a dot to the top of the murrini if you like – melt this is as little or much as you want.

Murrini extras!

White in murrini tends to devitrify (go rough at the surface) – to avoid this you can

reheat well one last time when the bead is complete or,
put a dot of clear over top

What’s the difference between murrini and millefiore?

From what I have read millefiore (shown in the above beads) is a name for a particular type of murrini that often looks like flowers – hence ‘millefiore’ – ‘thousands of flowers’
Murrini encompases much more than this and includes incredible designs that include faces, animals, words – pretty much anything!
Murrini can be created with hot glass by shaping and layering different colours or, by using cold glass and arranging many different stringers into a bundle so that a design is created when you look at the end of the bundle, this is then fused into a cane of murrini.
Murrini by Brian Kerkvliet

Find Brian’s amazing murrini here

Vickie Hallmark shows how Loren Stump puts a murrini face together here

See a YouTube video of murrini being made by the Corning Museum of Glass

For more tips on adding murrini to a bead here’s a Lampwork Etc. tutorial

Do you like murrini? Have you got any tips to share? I’d love to see what you do with it!

Feeling Neglected?

It’s been a while since I posted and for that I’m sorry. I do have a couple of excuses/reasons – the first is that we had one of **those** weeks when one thing after another went wrong, but more importantly is the second reason -
I’m working on a new site that I’m pretty excited about, I’m hoping it will be of interested to lampworkers and other glass artists. At the minute I’m going through a steep learning curve trying to get everything lined up the way I’d like. I wont say much more for now, but stay tuned! I’ll be starting to reveal it in the near future ) ….if I can summon my courage!

Silvered Ivory Stringer

I just read Rosemarie Hanus’ wonderful tutorial on how to make Silvered Ivory Stringer or SIS as it’s known for short. She gives a very clear description coupled with great photographs to help the process seem easy and foolproof. I am going to try her method as I hadn’t had much luck pulling SIS before and use another method that I found online (see bottom of this post).

If you are not a lampworker it might sound quite exotic. There is something captivating about the name and believe me, the results of using it can be very captivating also!

Here are a couple of my favourite beads using Silver Ivory Stringer -

SIS and Cobalt Blue

Cosmic Storm, Ivory, Triton and SIS

The first of these two has a very small amount of Silvered Ivory at the meeting of the cobalt and ivory glass. It’s creating an organic line between the two and causing reactions within the ivory.

The second bead has more SIS in it and really shows the wonderful reaction that can occur in the adjoining colours.

Ivory glass and silver do some beautiful things together!
Wanna close up of that reaction? Here’s a snippet of another bead -

Silver and Ivory glass closeup

Depending on how long you work the stringer (or even silver foil/leaf right on an ivory bead) the reaction can spread. This bead, using the same colours as the orange one above shows the reaction being spread as gravity has pulled the glass downward while I shaped the bead.

Sorry it's sideways!

I love the reactions in this bead – it makes me think of a butterfly wing.

Another thing that can happen with silver and silver ivory stringer is called fuming! This is when some of the silver burns off and ‘fumes’ adjacent parts of the ivory – or other colour that is used in the bead – causing a change in colour. It can be very beautiful.

sis fuming ivory

You can see the results of fuming in the above bead, the silver ivory stringer has turned the ivory glass next to it a wonderful honey colour –mmmmmm……

If you melt glass and haven’t used Silver Ivory Stringer/ Silvered Ivory Stringer/SIS – you might want to try it!

As I said at the beginning of the post when I first tried to pull SIS I did not like the results I was getting so I searched online for instructions and found the method I use, it is not my invention and I wish I could remember where I found it. I make mine an entirely different way to Rosemarie, so there is no right wrong way to do it.

Silver Ivory Stringer for challenged stringer pullers!

Here’s how I create SIS.

You can use pre-made commercial ivory stringer or pull your own. I always use dark ivory. Like Rosemarie I prefer silver foil to silver leaf.

Using COLD stringer I take my silver foil, lick the ivory stringer (you KNOW you always really wanted to LICK your glass!!) and wrap the foil around the stringer once.

This gives me a length of stringer that is now covered with the foil, I repeat the process and work my way along the stringer covering it with foil. The little bit of licking helps the foil to stick to the stringer. Once I have a suitable length of stringer covered with the foil I quickly pass the stringer through the flame of my torch. This helps the foil to adhere to the stringer – be quick! You don’t want the stringer to melt, or the silver to burn off.

Voila! That’s all there is to it. I’ll try and find out where I came across this method and if I get a chance I’ll add a tut with pictures to my tutorials page too – stay tuned!

Thanks to Rosemarie and to whoever it was that posted the info that allowed me to make my lickable SIS – I am so proud to be part of a wonderful community who learns and shares from/with each other.

FOUND IT! The recipe I use came from Amber’s (Naos) thread on making dragon scale beads on Lampwork Etc. Thanks Amber and everyone else for all the tips in this thread – it’s a great read!

Welcome!

Hi, I’m a glass artist living in Ontario Canada, my passion is lampwork. This is an ancient artform that is enjoying a resurgence, at the moment I’m busy making beads.

Please take look around my site and feel free to contact me, I’d love to hear from you!