Getting those damn dots to behave ...

Dragged Dots

When in chat on Lampwork Etc this morning, I was asked how I get my dots to behave and evenly spaced around the bead. This is just a quickie tutorial that I did on how I get evenly spaced dots. For fun I also show you how to drag dots ...

1. Make your bead - I made a 20 mm hole to hole round bead, but you can choose any shape you like.

2. I start off with getting the correct distance between my dots by normally adding a raised dot the same colour as the base bead. The black would have been difficult to see in the pictures, so I did them in white. Please excuse the reflection of me and my overhead light in a lot of these pictures!

Here is the first raised dot. Do not squash the dot into the bead, and make sure that your bead is not glowing hot when placing the said dot. I will tell you in a minute or so why you need to leave the dot raised ...

3. Place a dot on the exact opposite side of the first dot. I normally eyeball the bead from the one bead hole side while I place the blob of glass on it, praying like mad that I placed it in the centre of the bead. NOW, if I placed that dot skew or in the wrong place, it is easy to flick it off the bead using a blade or other tool, because it is raised ... Once your are happy that it is in the correct place, you can give it some more heat, to prevent it from shocking off while you work on the other placements. Easy, huh?

4. Here I have added all my dots, and made sure that they are all equally spaced. Normally I melt these dots in till there is only a slight bump visible. To prevent dots from migrating and forming little groups of annoying dots, I have found that if I twirl my bead in both directions (i.e. forwards and backwards spin) I have less migration taking place. Some say to heat each dot individually, other schools say heat them all. I found the forward/backward motion really make them little buggers stay in place ...

5. (If I wanted to start adding decoration the the centre of the bead, I will use the empty space between the base coloured dots as my placement area. Just add your dots exactly in the centre of each space ...)
Now it is time to place my other dots. I will come back to these centre dots later on ... I start with the centre petal dot for each dragged flower/Fleur De Lis pattern. Add a drop of glass to dots that is not the same size ...

6. Now it is time for the rest of the dots/leaves. With the Fleur De Lis pattern I have found that you really need to add the dots in a perfect triangle pattern. If the side petals is to far away from the centre dots, you will really battle to catch them when you drag the glass. For most of these dots I have placed only groups of 3, but when you want to add another row, place them exactly below the first group of 2 dots.

7. Melt them all in, and regain a round shape of your bead. Again – use the forward/backward turning of your mandrel to make sure the dots does not migrate around the bead ...

8. Take a thin stringer of your base colour, spot heat the entire area of dots and the area where you want to drag your dots, touch the cool stringer to the black space between the 3 dots, as close as possible to the centre dot’s edge, and lightly drag the glass. Try not to push the stringer into the bead. (That takes a bit of practice to get right.) I do not always get all 3 dots to move, and when this happens, I just heat the area again, and drag it. No glass is gonna put ears on me!

9. Once I have finished decorating the one side, I move to the other side and drag them buggers! We will correct the wonkiness of the bead soon ...

10. Both sides done, so I added more white to the centre dots, to make them a bit bigger, and added dots of a transparent colour.

11. And some more white dots ... OK, I love dots, lol

12. So here is the bead, I am done with my decorations, but oh boy, it is seriously wonky. You can just twill it in the flame until your pattern distorts, or use my approach ...

13. First I just heat up the one side. Remember to turn the mandrel to both sides, otherwise you glass will start to float on the mandrel, and your pattern will become distorted. Once you are happy with the one side, let the bead cool down, and focus heat on the other side.

14. Normally the heat from the sides is enough to shift the glass a bit to create a nice neat round bead, but if you added a lot of decorations to the centre, you might want to focus some heat to the centre too. Admire bead while you continue twirling it around, and when it is stiff enough, pop it into the kiln!

Design and inspirations

This past week I volunteered (OK, I was actually paid to do it, ...) to work at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. And the carrot? One of the biggest and best Design Expo's in the world!

With my staff card (which I got late last year, and consider one of my prized possessions!) I have almost unlimited access to venues in the building. So some days I will just walk around looking at all the exhibitions, sometimes spend money on interesting stuff, and just absorb. But last week, oh last week!

Top trendsetters, designers, even a top chef, all gathered in the big auditorium for lectures. All the trendiest who's who from South Africa and abroad were walking around, just looking and taking the atmosphere in. So was I. I bought a few books on pattern and design. And of course I sat in on the talks, hehehe! The delegates paid almost $400 for the opportunity, I got for free while sitting open mouthed just absorbing!

On Thursday night the Expo opened, and moi was there. I was gobsmacked, to say the least. Fabric, wall paper, jewellery, ceramics, clothing, furnishings, you name it. The top names in new and innovative design in South Africa was well represented, and they were all busy with the lots and lots of foreign buyers who were clamoring to place orders.

What did this do to me as an artist and crafter? Major rub-off ... Inspiration seemed to drown me as I jostled with the crowds of people flocking to see beauty. On Saturday night I rushed home, said hallo to Leo and disappeared into my studio. An hour later I had made a couple of rings and started to prepare some 130 beads and stuff for ceramics. At about 02 Sunday morning both me and Leo crashed in our bed, fatigued, but me with a happy and content smile while I drifted off to unconsciousness. Sunday Leo and a neighbor joined me as I once again did the rounds in the Expo. We saw lots of friends, and knew quite a lot of the ceramic exhibitors. I wore my new cluster ring, and got stopped a few times by people who wanted to know who sold it at the Expo!

Not a lot of drama happened from a nursing viewpoint - one broken wrist, a laceration that needed sutures, another wound that needed daily dressings from me at the clinic, and a fainting lady. All in all a week worth working ...

A grand day out

Last week I was invited to visit our local Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront as part of a visual inspirational trip, that was organised by the Cape Craft and Design Institute. Visual stimulation, and the cognitive awareness of visual stimulation on Art and Craft is SO important, yet often neglected in today's race for financial gain. A day wasted and not spent at my torch turned into a day of awareness for me. Set with a camera emptied of all photos and batteries charged, I set off on my trip ...

Outside the seals lounged on a special ramp constructed for the pack. Afterwards, while viewing the photo's, I was more aware of the colour ripples caused by the water. But I really wanted to show you these beautiful animals, perhaps I will include the water pictures another time ...

I was bad, and never bothered to note the names of these fish, but I just loved the blue lips on this one!

And this evil looking dude was so well camouflaged, that even the inside of his mouth was patterned.

The something forest. Do not ask me - I have amnesia! I was so happy that I was able to duplicate the rays of the sun flowing through the water, making the picture almost grainy in appearance.

And of course I had to include a picture of the evil one ...

A sneak preview

Here is the first coffee cup from my new line!

After a week of horrors and initially not having a kiln to fire my pieces, I finally collected them all this morning. Will I bore you with the details? Nooo, to boring. Let's just say that I had quite a few sleepless nights and stress levels that went into the stratosphere ...

Let me introduce 'Red Wallflower Coffee Cup' to you (soon in my Artfire shop):

I have a painting ...

I had a young friend who's paintings always amazed me. Her parents house were full of her vibrant work, very reminiscent of Jan Vermeieren, an well known South African artist, whose work I also love.

When my dog, Johanna, disappeared in '97 all I had left from my dear dog, was a very bad photo. But Carla was able to make Johanna come back to life in this family study of us.

Where ever I have moved, it is one of the first items that I pack. And it always hang in a special place. Now it is hanging in my studio, where I can look at it everyday. I have over the years lost contact with Carla and her mom, but in a sense her spirit is still with me, looking over my shoulder at what ever I am doing, even now, watching me while I type this ...

2010 World Cup

I planned to do some Lampwork today, but got bogged down in a chat room, having a lovely time with some online friends, till the website froze up. Then I suddenly realised that I had an appointment in the city with the CCDI.

They were briefing art and craft people about the 2010 World Soccer Cup, and selling opportunities. We all got lists of do's and do'nts and just general information. I wore some of my jewellry, and got a few compliments! That is always good, lol. Now I have to work towards the 10 th of February, when we have to submit work for judging. From there on, the panel will work with us, and help with marketing. Apparently the big corporations is already looking for gifting, etc.

I have also made another appointment with their panel to discuss my ceramic line. I took some of the completed pieces with me, and got good feedback. I am to late for Design Indaba, but will still be able to take part in the Decorex Cape Exhibition. That will also give me time to make sure that I could get some media coverage to coincide with the exhibition.

On the way home I had a mental picture of what I want my coffee mug to look like! Poor Leo, he will be slaving away for ever on my work! At least I am learning a lot about making moulds, and slip casting.

the proof is in the pudding ...

I finally got my ceramic pieces back today, and spent some time drilling the holes clean, rinsing them with my squirt gun, and then took them all outside for a leisurely sun tan before I attempted to assemble everything.

Armed with my Vernier Caliper, and a lot of other stuff I started to measure, cutting bits of mandrels with my abused Jeweller's saw, and finally put all together. Currently the whole lot is resting with elastic bands around their ample bosoms, waiting for the bonding agents to cure, while I cannot wait to start using my pretties.

I absolutely believe in test driving everything I make. Whether it is a new ring design, or what. I must know that it will survive me and those around me before I will ever consider selling anything that I have made.