Yes more practising and I think I'm improving ---- slowly!!
Wanted to use a nice Red glass because I had a few new ones and hadn't had a play with them yet, mostly CIM glasses, my favourite type of glass, this one is called Radio Flyer its opaque on the rod but when I pulled the petals -- Wow it was gor-ge-ous!!!
It turned transparent and started to 'strike' fairly quickly! Most red transparent glass has to be 'struck' which means you have to cool the glass then reheat it to bring out the true colour!! I've always had trouble with 'striking' reds especially, they never seem to stay a good red, they can go a semi clear which can be quite annoying, just my own inexperience and lack of patience mainly!!
This one was a dream, I LOVE IT!!!
So I will be using it more often, me thinks!!!
I also had a go at a sort of tulip which didn't really work, but the more I practice the more I learn!!
Also made some spiky pod headpins with my 'confritti' decoration on (this is frit - tiny chips of different colours of glass), which I leave slightly raised, basically its not melted all the way into the base. I made these a while ago as a set of three and one cracked so I thought right I'll make more to complete the set ........
Spot the mistake!
Yep!! I used the wrong green for the base colour, so now got to try and find the right green for the darker one and make more of the lighter one too. Ha ha!! Thats the trouble with artificial light, can't always tell!!! Think I need a daylight lamp up in my workshop!
Til next time
E x
OOOO look at me 2 posts inside a week!!!
But I was itching to show you my new goodies, I've been looking to have a go at them for weeks now and finally got going!
Here they are
Yes they are glass headpins for all you jewellery makers out there!!
The main problem was how to successfully make them without burning me! So the first go was with the red berries/rosehips and the red heart, I thought I would try tapeing them to a bead mandrel with some duck tape. It did work but was very messy and sticky.
So then I decided to try a different idea and thought why dont I just wire them onto a mandrel and that worked a treat, it was good as I could spin them just like making a bead and didnt burn my fingers which was great!!
The bluedrops I also added some frit and then pulled them into a lovely pointy drop shape which I think are so pretty. So I will definitely be making more. These aren't annealled yet as I decided to batch anneal them, then I hope what will happen is the copper wires will darken as they will get annealled as well. I will need to hammer them to harden them but they will look antiqued, these then could be used as earrings by using the wire as the earring hook all in one piece.
I will show you how that goes once I have annealled them so you can see what I mean!!
I have lots on this week as its my daughter Billie's School Prom on friday and still haven't made her tiara yet along with some bobby pins for her hair. And I am writing the next tutorial for Bead magazine as well ~~~ what am I doing now ~~ well writing this of course!!!!!
So better fly and get cracking with the tiara ~~~ like now!!!!!
Right bye for now
E x
