Wavey Ribbon tutorial ...

I have been playing a bit around last week, trying to do something, but I could not transfere the brain picture into the glass at hand. Instead I created something new/not new. Just a few tecniques thrown together, and something nice popped out.

Here follows the tutorial that I had put together tonight while torching with one hand, the other trying to take pictures:


I used 3 rods of glass: Transparent Black, Clear (and clear stringer) and a silver glass stringer.


First I made a disk about 3 windings thick on the mandrel.

Melt the disk down to a fat doughnut.


Add 2 windings of clear in the centre of the doughnut. Just flash it in the flame, so that the new application of glass is 'glued' to each other.


Apply a row of dots with the stringer. Any type of glass could work. Want rainbow? Go for it! Do not melt if flat, but just gently melt the dots a bit down. If you have used a silver glass, reduce it now.


Add 2 windings of clear over the dots. Make sure your clear rod is very soft, and press down over the dots, as you want to cover the dots with the clear.


Hit the glass with your flame, but make sure that you only heat the edge of the glass; if your rod or the centre doughnut gets red hot, drop or raise your mandrel! This will allow the glass to melt and pull the dots into a line - old tecnique no 1!



To help the glass and the lines to pull to the mandrel/bead hole, focus heat first on the one side, and then on the othe side of the bead. Make sure that the other side is cool while you do it, as you only want to shift half of the bead at a time. You may angle the bead/mandrel at a 45 degree angle to aid the glass to flow. This will reduce the base colour that shows on the side, as that will be sucked into the mandrel, and your outer glass will move closer to the bead hole.


This is what the bead should look like:


Heat the whole bead to the base colour, and use your mashers/parrallel press, and press the bead gently, turning it in 180 degree turns. Shape it into a barrel. Heat it regularly, as you will damage the bead release if you try and shift cold glass.


Press it as long as you want you bead to be. Be careful not to press at an angle. Try to maintain the same thickness through out.


Heat the centre of the bead and either allow gravity to shape the flow of the stripes, or use your marver to drag the stripes. Technique no 2 - Gravity bead


Use a clear stringer to shift areas that you had spot heated to create more swirls. Experiment!


When you are satisfied with the look, melt the bead into a neat barrel again. I use my masher to aid me.


Encase the bead with clear.


Make sure that your ends are neat and straight.


Super heat the whole bead, and flatten it, should you wish. Decorate surface as you please.

Sorry, image dissapeard, but this image is not really neccesary, is it?


Pop bead into a kiln. If you do not have a kiln, and use Vermiculite or a fiber blanket, I would not advise you to flatten the bead, as this will increase the chance of the bead to thermal crack.


Disclaimer: This is not a new tecnique. This is just my interpretation of the encased stripy bead and gravity beads. By creating a clear portion of glass between a solid base and the waves I am able to manupulate the ribbons that I have created, without distorting the base too much.


Go well
Diana

Walking the dark side

I had never in my life imagined that I would enjoy working with Borosilicate. But after Ingrid gifted me some shorts I had to try it out.

Yesterday I sort of had a a horror day as a nursing sister. An easy short day shift at the Convention Centre turned into a very long day with a follow-up of a 12 hour nightshift stint at a hospital. 16 hours spread over 23 hours, and me only cat napping for an hour in between. Who is to blame? Boro ofcourse!

I have never attempted Mr Smiley's puffy heart either, and desided that that was what I had to make with the shorts at hand. And what a wonderful surprise I got this morning when I got home!

Thank you Ingrid!

Viking Knitting

I have been playing around with this method to create a flexible rope to use with my glass beads:

Up, up and away

A few weeks ago I had the most wonderful meeting with a wonderful buch of people. But oh, the dread before I went! Sleepless nights, Leo telling me that I mutter about glass in the little sleep that I do get, and me getting up tired and drained in the morning.

Thoughts of 'What if they laugh and chase me out of the building.' roamed through my head. Them telling that I am just not good enough for them to represent me, etc. 'I am a doomed failure' raced through my head every day leading up to 'the big' day.

Then I arrived - too early it seemed, and was asked to wait, as they were still busy with someone else. I wanted to make a dash for the door, but is was locked and the secretary had to open it. No sculking away like an invisible intruder. I just did not have the guts to ask her to open the door ...

What felt like hours later, I was invited into the boardroom. There the panel sat, all looking at me. I dress plainly. I do not wear make-up. But I do wear some of my work. After I unpacked everything, the grilling started. Who am I. What do I expect to get out of my work. Were do I plan to go with it. On and on it went. But they also ooh'ed and ah'ed over my work. One girl was just rolling a set of beads between her fingers, playing with it. Ideas rolled between us, me telling that it was possible or not, seeds were being planted. Now it is my job to nuture it, and bring it to life.

The next morning I got a phonecall. Those beads, and that ring, you remember? Yes, I remembered. Could I make a bracelet out of them, and could she buy the ring? And by the way, it was such a pleasure to meet someome of your calibre work that we can represent ...

I am gobsmacked. What? You must be joking! I make plain and basic beads. Nothing fancy about them. But someone LOVED them. And that is it. Plein en simpel. Accept it and go with your insticts. Something that I find very difficult after years of mental downgrading from those close to me.

So now I have a wonderful bunch of people who cares about what I make, and is prepared to showcase it for me!

Emergencies!

Every morning I tell myself that today I would make an entry in my blog, but by the end of the day nothing has happened. Well, actually nothing on the blog, but in real life so much have been going on that just took priority over me writing ...

For the past 2 weeks I have been doing mega shifts at the hospitals in and around Cape Town. I have now actually asked some hospitals to remove my name from their databank as a locum nurse, as I either live to far from them, or (well, I did not tell them this) I just do not want to work for them! Currently I work in 2 trauma units and our Convention centre. The hospitals is fun - busy as hell but good in a weird kinda way. the centre is dead boring, but the biggest draw point is their access to internet. So my days at the centre is spent browsing sites dealing with glass.

I was under the impression that Saturday and Sunday was going to be easy-peasy in a small trauma unit - not! I had one staff nurse to help me, a unit that I have only worked in once before, and a doctor with round hands. God, the days of nursing slaves is long gone and banned!

On Sunday the hospital matron tried to force me to go and work in ICU nursing a little prem baby. I refused. I was so tired from the previous day and the days before that working long shifts and trying to fit in a couple of hours at the torch, that I just did not feel competent enough taking charge of a tiny life. Instead I choose a chaotic day of non-stop drama with really sick people and emergencies. At 17:00 I got my second breath and skipped and jumped through the madness till 19:00 when I could go home.

Tomorrow is a big day on my calender. I have a meeting with an organization that help to promote art and craft in Cape Town, and all my work is done. All I need to do tomorrow is a last bit of cleaning and packing. Oh, and I need to get a photo taken of myself ...

The pics is some of the work that I have done in the weeks gone by. I will take photos of all the new stuff in the next day or 3 ...

Do I call it work, or is is just fun?

I have been busy these last few weeks practising new and old tecniques on my torch. So I saw these funky looking beads on http://www.lampworketc.com/, and decided to try and figure the methology out. After many hours and failed beads I had a group of improving beads until the last final perfect bead! And then, when I went online, I found a tutorial on the same bead! But I am still happy that I could figure the process out all by myself, and had overcome the troubleshooting all by myself!

Melvin, a local wire and paper artist, made the most amazing sculptures for my displays. I love the fact that I will now be using art to display my own art! And all it took was an initial meeting, a follow-up to check progress, and should he need to make changes, and 1 week later I have the finished product!

These last few weeks consisted just out of dashing from one point to the next. Work the day in the studio (or meetings), then a quick bath before I race to the hospital for a short shift from 19:00 till 24:00, then racing to Brackenfell and Liefie, a quick chat and me passing out in bed. A couple of hours later (05:30) gets rudely awaken by the alarm, rushing to get ahead of the morning traffic back to the city and my home. Unlock the studio, and start working ...

But then I love my current life so much, and do I really want to change it?

I got some silversmithing tools this week, and this will help me to make more finished jewellry at home, not try and race through it all on my favourite day of the week. Wednesdays is definately the best ever, and I really enjoy interacting with the other students. Brenda is also such a help and and her patientce with me is worth mentioning. I have learnt such a lot these last few months, and love the chalange that silver offers me.

6 months after my last entry ...

I have been busy - that's my excuse, ok!

Winter in Cape town is not always pretty. We have had a lot of flooding in the last few days, and the bitter cold is seeping through every fiber of my being. The only happy one seems to be Thomas. Electrical blankets is apparently made for cats own personal useage ...

I will start to upload pictures of my work during the next few days.