That my friends is the perfect title for this post and what I'm doing. :) I feel like such a newbie again with my bead making it's not funny. Well, it is kinda funny actually. lol ! I remember when I had it all together - all the confidence in the world when I pretty much quit making beads. I knew what I was doing even though I certainly didn't know everything. It takes MANY MANY years to learn it all and then I'm quite sure there is still more to learn. That said, after a week of no torching, I sat at my lit torch all ready to melt that rod of glass onto that mandrel and just started shaking. I have no idea why or where it came from but there it was. So I just continued on, shaking and melted that glass. lol ! As I finished up putting 3 so called discs the size of Texas on that first mandrel of the day, I decided it was because of the glass I was using. It is a much more expensive glass than what I had been using. Not only more expensive but also stiffer and doesn't melt as fast as some of the other brands but it is a GORGEOUS glass. The color is a luscious Olive Green that I needed and wanted. The color is PERFECT with all these earth tone colors I've been using and did not have. Once I figured all that out and adjusted the propane and oxygen, that shaking finally went away. I felt more at ease - even if the beads aren't all that great ! lol ! I'm still starting over so that's just how it goes. BOC will be getting a pretty big box of beads again in the future ! lol !
I got them etched and I love the colors ! All new colors to me except for the Olive Green. I'm sure you can pick that one out. :) The rest, I've never used before and I really like a few of them. I needed some orange colors so when I ordered more glass a week ago, I got several different shades of orange and wow, what a difference ! It's so much fun to experiment ! lol !
So the next photo is one of the two focals I ended up making.
The photo isn't all that great but at least you can see the beads and the color in them pretty well. I really like how they turned out. The one on the right is a little darker than I thought it would be but that's ok. I know I said I was going to stay away from focals and I intend to do that but sometimes intentional beads turn out to be something altogether unintentional. lol ! Does that make sense ??? :)
So now I can show a photo of all the beads I did end up making last weekend. I piled all the beads I made over the weekend into one photo and that's what you see here. I did etch them and love how they turned out. All earthy &/or fallish colors. More beads that will go to BOC ! :)
Yes, LOTS more practice is coming to be sure but again, I enjoy these very much. They are all a decent size as I am not one to make very small beads. Never have been. I so admire those that make tiny decorated or sculpted beads. It takes a special hand (and eyes !) to make those tiny pieces of art. I pretty much don't have the eyes ! lol ! Anyway, I love my beads reguardless.
I'm not quite finished with the disc shape yet. I hope to make more possibly later this afternoon and add to the group. I have "challenged" myself to use up any glass on my work table before starting something new. Since I added the new colors to the table yesterday (that was about 5 rods of glass) I have a little bit of a way to go. lol ! I was not suppose to add any colors either but I HAD to try out those new colors ! :) No more adding glass til what is there is gone.
So now I need to go set my clocks back one hour ! lol ! I didn't do it last night before going to bed so of course when I did get up at 5:00 am, it was actually 4:00 AM ! Great.
Hope you all have a great week ahead ! Thanks so much for coming by ! Please come back again to see what's happening. :)
