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 ! 

 

      

Something New

Well it's about time I updated here.  Geesh.  I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday ! 

Since I haven't been at the torch in so long I finally got to spend a little time there yesterday.  Only about an hour but I had a whole bunch of fun in that hour !  :)  I tried something new to me - a blown ornament.  I have been researching this type glassy fun for several weeks now and there are a number of ways to do it. 

I decided to go for it using what I have on hand - soft glass (104 coe), frit and a hollow mandrel.  Since this was the first time doing such a thing, I did have to melt it down and blow it out several times before I was able to get the round shape.  I was surprised I didn't close off the air bubble doing that so many times.  Still, in the end, it turned out and I still consider it my very first try.  

Pictured below is that ornament.  I borrowed a cap from an ornament already on the tree so I'll have to find a replacement.  No biggie.  :)  Remember to click on the photo to get a bigger and better view. 

 

Not too bad I think.  I'm going to play some more today and hope for the best.  I have 3 mandrels prepped and ready to go.  I did place an order for glaskoben to do it yet another way.  I'll get into that more when that arrives and I've had a chance to use it.  Hopefully before Christmas.  :) 

 

I did make a few other beads as well.  Just to get back in the swing of things since it's been so long I actually made beads.  I used some glass & shards I've had for a couple years and it's just been sitting.  Figured it was time to do something with some of it and these are the results.

 

 

Thanks so much for coming by !  I hope you come back again sometime soon.  I'll be back as usual now.