Happy New Year !

Just wanted to stop by and say HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all ! 
I have nothing new to show since we had a very busy Christmas week but hopefully back at the torch very soon ! 

So, once again, thanks for coming by and I wish you all a Wonderful New Year !  Be safe !

More Ornaments or...........................

.............how not to worry about overdoing it.  lol !  I mean, might as well go with what keeps one intrigued right - go with the flow as it were.  :)  I don't know about anyone else, but lately, I have a tendacy to stick with one thing until I'm bored with it or I just can't get it quite "right" according to "them".  Since I've been into making ornaments lately, that's what I'm still not bored with and I am getting them right.  :)  They might not be gorgeous or different shapes but I like how 90% of them are coming out.  

Some are large enough that I have to put them in thru the top of the kiln.  The bead door on both my kilns just isn't wide enough.  With the small kiln, I can only fit a max of 3 of the bigger ornaments in there.  That's kind of a bummer cause after making 3 there are days I want to make more.  If I could plug in my second kiln at the same time, problem solved.  Can't do that though.  So, right now, only a max of 3 at a time.  

Below are the last ornments I made last week.  Didn't get much done due to an illness.  Hopefully next week I'll be able to torch a bit.  Still alot of fun to make and I am experimenting with different types of glass and many colors. 

One BIG thing I discovered while making these fun orbs is that even the bad ones, the ones that turn out uneven or a hole pops thru or the colors of the frit just aren't to my liking - I have shards !  My colleciton of shards is now growing.  I've only tried shards a few times but making ornaments, it's a given.  lol !  There is ALWAYS something that will go wrong at some point and the shard pile grows because of it !  So one of these days, I'll try adding some shards to the ornaments to see how that goes.  :)    

 
Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope you come back again soon !  Happy Holidays !

Ornaments

My infactuation with making blown ornaments has taken me over at the torch lately.  I haven't made any beads the typical way, using a mandrel, in a while.  No, it's the blown ornaments that have taken all my attention.  

The ornaments I've been making were all made off the end of a hollow mandrel using bead release on the ends.  I then add the metal cap and hanger after it's cooled off.  Making the ornaments using this method, I could use the glass I had on hand.  No need to buy anything else which is always the goal.  lol !  Another method of creating a way to hang the ornament is that I could of melted the ornament off the mandrel, closed off the hole and added a loop but I had nothing to hold the hot orb so that was out.  lol ! 

I  also discovered another method of making these ornaments and had to give that a go as well.  More on that later.  In the meantime, the photo below is only a sampling of what I've made so far.  There is a variety of sizes that I've made.  I need to take a photo of all of them together in a bowl or something but haven't done that yet.  Right now, I'm hanging them all on metal "tree" I have. 

They aren't gorgeous and they aren't unique by any means but they are my firsts and I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far.  Of course there have been many that have landed in the water can but that's the beauty of learning - practice - practice - practice !  :)  

 

There will be more ornaments coming to be sure.  I'm into it now.  lol ! 

Thanks so much for coming by !  I hope you can come back again soon !