An Eventful Week

Yep, a week filled with making jumbo blown beads !  lol !  Some good, some not so good.  A fun week playing with a glass color that has been reborn.   It's a silver glass so it takes some learning to get the colors to show but when they do, they are gorgeous.  And a week filled with just learning and figuring out when to blow into these beads and when not to blow.  :)  It's so much fun learning new things - figuring it out by yourself or getting some tips and tricks from those that have been doing the same thing but for MUCH longer.  


Every day this past week I was at the torch for at least an hour, usually longer and made blown beads.  I need to photograph most of them but I did get a few pics done and will show those below.  Every day I tried something just a tiny bit different.  Testing the water so to speak to figure out what works the best in what situation.  I have learned a few things to be sure !  lol !  One thing for sure, you can't keep melting and blowing numerous times in a spot.  It just won't work.  :(  Oh it could work if you don't mind getting a big hole.  At least then you could make some sort of creature.  lol !  Like the one below

I haven't given it a name yet but yeah, it has a big mouth !  lol !  I was going to add some apendages but the bead release started giving way so it had to go into the kiln.   Oh and it has some of that reborn glass on it that I was talking about above.  :)  This bead measures 30x37 mm.  

If the spot is just short of being blown open, you have a very thin walled bubble.  lol !  That bubble will break VERY easily so really the bead can only be "admired" and not used for anything like hanging from a necklace.  Like this one pictured to the left.  It's the bead in the center.  It's a biggie alright measuring in at 28x53mm or 1"x2" !  I guess you could put it on a necklace and wear it but I wouldn't trust it.  lol !


The decoration I put on these beads was a first for me as well.  It's called fuming and I LOVE the look.  Very organic.  I will be visiting this method again and getting a prettier finish.

Basically what I'm trying to say in a long drawn out way is that the walls of the blown bead need to be as thin as possible without blowing thru or making it too thin.  If it's going to be used it jewelry, it needs to be lightweight enough NOT to weight down one's neck.  :)  If it's just for viewing pleasure, the skies the limit.  lol !   Since I've shown you two what NOT to do beads, here's one that is good all around.  Perfectly light enough for a necklace and no thin nearly blown out areas.  Made with that new glass mentioned above and if you look close enough, you can see my camera !  lol !  I wasn't able to get the full color to show thru but rather ALOT of the silver that's in this glass came out.  Still, it's very pretty I think and so far one of my favorites.  :)  This one measures in at 27x37 mm. 


Thanks so much for coming by and having a peek at my blog.  I hope you come back again soon to see what's happening !  :)   


         
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