Moving!

Some of you may have noticed the lack of recent posts. Well, there is a reason. We're moving! All my time has been spent in looking for a new job, new house, planning, packing, etc. So it may be a few more weeks before you see any activity!
laura

Woodworking

So, Judy was here for an entire week. What else did we do during that week??? Well, we took on another project in a completely different material - woodwork. We've been making quilts together for several years, and Judy needed a place to store/display hers. She hasn't been able to find a ready-made quilt rack that she likes. So we scoured the web for designs until we found one she liked. The boys made a trip to the lumberyard, and then we spent a few days covered in Cherry sawdust. The first picture shows the end pieces after glue-up. Our hero Norm is right, "you can never have too many clamps."

















The next picture shows part of the team with the finished product (well, Judy is taking it home for final sanding, stain, etc). In an amazing feat, this is the only known photo with Judy looking directly at the camera with her eyes open while everyone else is not paying attention!

New Goblet

New goblet I made this afternoon. Trying a few new things here. The bowl is encalmo, with blue and striking red tubing. The clear is actually part of the striking red, but I liked the look with the clear section. Its been a while since my last boro work, so the foot isn't quite as good as some of my previous ones. I also tried the loop for the stem for the first time - think I can do it better next time. The sculpture is some of the technique I learned in the Lucio class, torso only rather than a full body. I think it turned out fairly well and I liked doing it in boro rather than the soft glass.

A Full Week of Activities

Judy is visiting Laura for a whole week! The adventure has begun. All of Judy's jewelry has made the trip so we can start taking photos of it to post on etsy. At least 2 of the items pictured in the previous post have already been sold before making it to etsy!

Today was spent trying out some glass fusing (still waiting to see what comes out of the kiln), doing some silver fusing, a little metalsmithing, and other things. More updates as the week goes on...

Judy's June Jewelry

Judy has been busy working on some new jewelry pieces. Here's a preview of some things you may see soon on our etsy site. The preview pictures aren't great, because, well, she doesn't have one of those fancy photo studios described in a previous post! But this should give a good idea of what's coming.

Naked People!

I heard from my mother last night that my niece was helping her look at the latest photos I posted. She is apparently quite concerned that the people are not wearing pants! No shirts seems to be ok, but pants are needed. This reminded me - if you are easily offended by naked people, naked angels, or devils doing "devilish" things, use caution when going to Lucio's site. If you are open to all sorts of art, by all means proceed there!

Lucio Class!

I just finished a two day class with Lucio Bubacco! He is amazing! Simply the best human figures in glass. Just getting to watch him work was a treat. Then we got to try things out for ourselves. Here are the 3 complete pieces I managed to create. Most of the work ended up shattered in little bits all over the table. Sculpture with moretti glass is a real challenge as the smallest mistake causes cracking. These are all about 3-4" tall. His of course are much larger, plus he adds goblet feet and bowls to them. His also have far more detail. You will notice that 1 of my figures has a sort of face to it, but they kept turning out quite badly so I went for more abstract heads on the others. He demonstrated a larger version of the face for us, so I think I know what I was doing wrong, but haven't had a chance to try again yet. These are nowhere near his quality (or even very good), but I sure learned a lot and got some great ideas and tips to use on my other work!

A figure with wings.























Another figure with wings. This one doesn't have a great face, but the hair is good!

A figure in a more active pose.

Chalcedony Fail? Win? Unsure?

I've recently been trying out some new glass called Chalcedony from Gaffer Glass. Many people have been getting gorgeous results from it. I have unfortunately not :(

At left are my initial experiments. The two beads in back used a base of Moretti sky blue. The one in front is Moretti white. The back left bead has Chalcedony stringer. The other two have Chalcedony shards.

From what I've seen and read, the trick seems to be repeated cycles of extreme heating and extreme cooling. However, no matter what I did with these, all I can get is transparent, the light/pale yellowish color, or the dark red brown. hmmmmm.

At the the Bead and Button conference I got some tips that the Chalcedony works better when used with other Gaffer Glass rather than Moretti. Granted, I know they are different COEs and that if you use them together you have to use just a little of one and the majority of the other rather than a 50/50 mix. But I had seen other people get good reactions with Chalcedony shards on Moretti base. Luckily, I also picked up a lilttle sample of some Gaffer at B&B (THANKS!!!!). So this attempt is a base bead of black Gaffer with Chalcedony applied over it. I did a lot of reheating and gravity shaping before it finally turned colors. It turned out quite nice. However, some issues/questions remain: when I made this, I applied Chalcedony over the entire surface of the black, but the black "sucked" in the Chalcedony and I had to apply multiple layers of it before it stayed on top. Also, I applied the Chalcedony over the entire surface, yet it seems to only be visible in the middle. I wonder why it didn't turn colors on the ends as well? Or did the Chalcedony gather up in the middle and the black snuck out from under it on the ends? Perhaps it only changed color in the center because that is the part that was heated and cooled the most times due to gravity shaping on the ends? or because when heating the ends the center was right at the edge of the flame, which may be better for getting the desired effect than reheating in the center of the flame? hmmmmm. What if I want a "normal" shaped bead, and not something long and tubular?

And here is the final bead I tried. This is a base of Gaffer clear with a shard of Chalcedony over it. Again, the shard covered the entire bead when applied, but now color is only visible at the ends. No amount of heating and cooling could get color in the middle. And again its mostly the yellow/orange/brick red. There is a bit of pink at the ends but not much. It doesn't seem that the clear could've "swallowed" the shard, because I can't see it "inside". Perhaps the Chalcedony needs to be applied quite heavily in order to get reactions, though I don't know how people are getting results using it with Moretti then. Apparently more experimentation is needed. Luckily I have lots more Chalcedony. Not much Gaffer though so hopefully I can get it to work on the Moretti.

More results hopefully coming over the next few weeks...

Photo Tent Win!

Those who know me well know that I hate to pay full price for anything. Especially if I think that full price is overpriced, or that I can easily make it myself. This is the case with photography setups. My glassy friend Bette recently bought a photo setup. I will admit that it is VERY nice and includes everything you could ever possibly need. It also cost in the hundreds of dollars, as do most decent setups. I would have to sell a lot of beads and jewelry to pay for that! After much research (that IS what I do in my "real" job anyway), I built my own setup. It does not include quite so many parts, but it has several features I think are very nice. Here are the details.

Photo Studio in a Basket, ready for storage

The most important part of a photo setup is the lighting. This is therefore the part I spent the most on! In this case I am using 5000K daylight bulbs that put out 2000 lumens. I got them from Energy Superstore (www.energy-superstore.com). I cannot say enough nice things about this place. I talked to them a couple times on the phone after placing my order online, for various reasons, and they had great customer service. Also, their prices were the best I found anywhere, no minimum purchase, and free shipping if you order over $50 (get some friends together for a bulk buy!). I have only dealt with them this one time, so I hope everyone else has the same great experience that I did. I put the bulbs into worklight reflectors that I got a Lowe's. I got the smallest reflectors - if you are planning on a bigger tent for bigger objects, you might splurge on the larger ones. The worklights clamp onto whatever you have around. You can see that I have a handy plant stand that I use, but I'm sure you can find something creative around your house (empty boxes from all your glass purchases perhaps?). Also, since they are fluorescent, they don't take much energy and don't get terribly hot. Cost per light = $13 total for bulb and fixture. Total cost = $39.

Next, the photo "tent". You can buy these from about $20 to $30 and on up depending on all the options. To build mine, I bought a $10 basket at Lowe's. It has a metal frame and the fabric attaches with velcro, so its easy to remove. Then I draped some fabric over the frame. This particular fabric is a sort of nylon-y stuff. It feels a bit like a cross between paper and thin plastic. It does a great job of diffusing the light while letting plenty through. I found it at WalMart for $1.50 per yard. Its extra wide so 1 yard was far more than enough. My favorite part about the tent is that you can slip the fabric back on the frame and have a basket that stores your whole setup in a nice little package that doesn't take a lot of space! (see first photo for the packed setup) Total cost for tent = $11.50.

The full setup!

Bette's setup came with 2 acrylic risers, one black and one white. For white, I have found that a piece of glossy photo paper for my printer works quite well. I haven't found a replacement for the black yet but I'm keeping an eye out. I also had sitting around a scrap of black velvet. I can drape it over the top rear of the frame and down across the bottom (see photo below). This makes a nice backdrop for clear glass. This is the setup I used for the goblet photos taken in the post 2 posts back. There are lots of other things you probably have just sitting around that would make great backdrops, and plenty of places online to print out free ones. You can also see from the following photo that at one point I just used some extra tissue paper to drape the outside of the tent. It didn't diffuse the light quite as well, but it was pretty good and it was free. Total cost of other "bits" = $0.


Cost for my whole setup: $50.50

I am not including the cost of the camera or camera tripod as Bette's setup did not include those. However, the camera I am using is a Minolta Dimage G600. You can find it on Amazon for more info. It is not an SLR, not a super high resolution, and not top of the line. I did not want to buy a new special camera just for glass photos! This is the same thing I've had for several years that I take on vacations. It turns out that getting the lighting really good makes it much easier for the camera to do its thing. This is just a nice little camera with a good macro setting and the ability to adjust the exposure a little. The only thing it won't do that I sometimes wish for is manual focus. The little camera sits on a mini tripod with legs that extend to almost a foot tall, and a nice swivel head. I already had one for the camera anyway, but you can get them new at most any Wal-Mart/Target/whatever for about $5.

I hope this helps those of you who want to build your own inexpensive photo setup for glass! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

ps. A big thank you goes to Bette for letting me use her fancy setup until I could get my own built, and to Lisa and all the others for their help and advice!

B & B

Well, its Wed already but it seems like just yesterday we got back from the Bead and Button conference. Here's the gang. We had a great time talking and shopping and eating and meeting friends, both old and new. I have tons of new ideas and glass to explore!

Goblets on my own

So the studio is back up enough that I was able to get out there and do a little playing a few days ago. Its not fully operational, but the ventilation was up, which is the important part. I made these 2 goblets all on my own with no instructor supervision. The first one was an attempt to recreate the yellow one made in Mickelson's class. He had to help a lot with the shaping on that one so I wanted to try to do it by myself this time. Not too bad. The stem has twisties of the new boro glow-in-the-dark glass from Glow Glass (http://www.swirlees.com/) and Origin (http://www.originglass.com/). Shane says I pulled the stem down too thin. I think he is probably right. I just love TALL goblets though :)

The other goblet is a shape I haven't done before. I'm not sure if it would be practical for drinking from, but I really like it anyway. There is a thin line of pink around the rim, and 2 shades of green twisted into the stem. Again a bit too thin, but nice and tall!

I must remember to take them back and anneal them - that part of the studio was not operational yet!

Pretty in Purple

Shane took this picture today out in our front garden. There are a whole bunch more blooms yet to open, but just this much has me inspired to go make some purple beads like my friend Dawn does! The local studio has been down for some upgrades, but it should be operational again soon so I can go play!!!

Final Goblet

Here's the last one from class. Isn't it fabulous??? Perfectly symmetrical, nice proportions. ok. Its not really mine. I mean, it is mine, its just that I didn't make it. Robert made it. He made one for every student in class. How cool is that???

Smaller Goblet

yes, this one is the smallest of all the goblets, but it has the best shape of them all. I think it is my personal favorite of all the goblets I've ever made. Plus, it has blue and what's better than that??? Granted, the blue is a little hard to see in the photo because when I put the twisty in the stem, I made it extremely thin and whispy. So while it is a solid line in real life, the camera has a had time picking it up.

Encalmo Goblet

Here's the 3rd goblet. The first one that has some color in it. This was made with a technique called encalmo, where multiple sections of tubing are joined together. In this case, its two sections that are both clear tubing, with a ring of yellow in between. Unfortunately, when I joined the sections together, I forgot to make sure that 1 of the ends was open. This means the entire length of tubing was sealed off, which causes the heat inside to expand, until the tubing pops - in this case, right at the seam, making the yellow ring bubble in a couple spots. Remembering to open an end would give a much cleaner look. Guess this is one of those mistakes you only need to make once and then you will always remember!

2nd Goblet

Here's the next one.

Goblets have arrived!

Yes, my goblets from the Robert Mickelson class have arrived. They all survived the shipping without damage. I'll try to post a new one each day for the next week or so. I'm starting with the worst one, hopefully you will see them gradually start to improve each day!

Thanks again to Bette for letting me play with her photo studio to take these!

Studio Setup

Its spring cleaning time and earlier this week Shane went out to clean the shed. I found out last night that while he was out there he rearranged some things and assembled my glass bench and hood! We started looking at what would be involved with getting ventilation going out there. For starters, it seems that the fan that came with the hood is not sufficient for that size hood. I would need 3 of those fans! I don't really want 3 big holes in the shed. Or one really big, loud, expensive fan. hmmmm. It sounds like it is possible to partition off part of the hood in some way so that I can get by with just the single fan, but we're not too clear on how to do that so more investigation is required.

We have a spare window we can install in the shed and Shane has a plan on how to set up some ducting from it to provide the makeup air. Will have to do some more checking to figure out if the window would be big enough to support both a small A/C for summer and ducting for makeup air. A small space heater on the floor should be sufficient during the winter if I direct the makeup air in the hood area rather than the room in general. The final hurdle will be getting power. This could be the most difficult as I am guessing I will need at least 3 circuits, one for kiln, one for oxy generator, and one for the rest of it. Probably is going to involve professional electrician which could be pricy :(

Safety Gear

Since I have recently started working more with boro, especially large pieces of boro for goblets and such, the heat coming off the piece has started to increase. I've found that my upper arms in particular are suffering - one day I came home and discovered a nasty heat rash all along the inside of my arms. I decided it was time to invest in some heat gear. I bought a pair of kevlar arms sleeves. They look like this:I like the hole on the side for the thumb to stick out so that the sleeve can actually cover the back of my hand and part of my fingers. However, the hole is too big, so the whole back of my hand around the thumb and into the palm gets really hot. Also, the sleeve is 24" long. This is the largest size I could find anywhere. Unfortunately, my arms are longer than that, so the sleeve leaves several inches of bare skin at the top. So, I bought another chunk of kevlar and did some custom modifications. Sewing had to be done by hand and was not easy. The results aren't particularly pretty either, but the sleeves fit great now and solve the problems I had with them before. I still wish there was a way to have the fabric cover more of my index fingers as those are closest to the torch and still get too hot. But I can't figure out a way to cover the side of the finger to protect it while still leaving the pad free for maniupuating the glass. Trying to spin a glass rod while wearing gloves just doesn't give enough control...
Finally, working with boro, especially colored boro, requires some additional eye protection. I haven't had good luck with the clip on lenses that go over the regular glassblowing eyewear, so instead I've been using a welder's shield. Plus, this blocks some of the heat and UV from my face. Here I am all dressed up and ready to go. Next step, full body silver space suit!

Steve Sizelove Goblet Class

So, a month or two ago I took a one day goblet class from Steve Sizelove. Here's the 1 goblet that I managed to make. It took the whole day (actually it took another hour or so beyond when class was supposed to finish). The goblet in front is mine. The much nicer one behind it is the demo Steve made us. That foot is actually clear glass, it just has some sooty stuff on it from flame annealing, but it will wipe off. That is by far the best goblet foot I ever made. It was worth the whole class fee just to learn to make the foot!

Vacation Almost Over

Well, I haven't posted recently, because I've been on a bit of a vacation. Today I finished up goblet class with Robert Mickelson(www.mickelsenstudios.com) at the GlassCraft studio in Golden, CO (www.glasscraftinc.com). Class was excellent and I managed to make a couple semi-decent goblets! Pictures to follow soon I hope, though I am having to ship everything home, so I won't have them right away...

Bette's Photo Studio

My bead buddy Bette came over this evening with her new "photo studio in a box" and we played with all the different toys and options. Here are a few of the better results. These were all taken with my little pocket size camera. The setup sure does help that camera take good pictures. The ones taken with Bette's super nice digital SLR should be even better. Green and yellow beads are mine, bluish one is Bette's. Bette even cleaned several of her beads! Those who know Bette will realize this is a major accomplishment!

Now that I (Judy) have joined - let the fun begin.

Marbles

Today I went out and retrieved my vessel from Thurs evening. It is unfortunately cracked also. Since I am using some "seconds" for practicing, and I have already discovered it has compatibility issues with clear boro, its possible (though unlikely) that the cracking problems are due to the glass rather than me.

Here are some marbles made in the past week. They are NFL themed and going to a couple lucky guys that have no clue they are coming. Determining which back goes with which front is left as an exercise for the reader :)

Spring!

Yes, spring is here. The weather outside is far too nice for me to be stuck inside on my computer... Shane snapped some pictures of the front flower garden. He refers to these as our weeds. I wish he would do something about those little yellow flowers though.

I have been thinking recently that I should do some flower murrini. Now if I only knew how... I have tried one in the past from a back issue of Glass Line but it turned out really terrible. I think there is a relatively new tutorial for sale out there. Perhaps I shall have to add it to my wishlist on Amazon. Although I noticed the other day that google now has some sort of wishlist or shopping list or something. I wonder if there is a way to hook that into this blog... Then I could hook all of my glass wants into this!

Spent today updating my blackberry to the latest operating system. So far I'm loving it! Also, I have figured out how to post to the blog from the 'berry, which I'm doing now.

In glass news, I made a boro vessel tonight. It went right in the kiln so hopefully this one will survive!

Getting Started

ok, here we go! Here's a few of the things I'll hopefully be covering over the coming weeks and months:
-the goblet class I recently took from Steve Sizelove
-the goblet class I'm hoping to take in 2 weeks
-my efforts to acquire and create some protective gear for myself
-setting up my home studio

and of course, the latest creations that the moms and I come up with!

Laura