Fluffy Butts

This is one of my favorite pins from Pinterest:

 Fluffy puppy butt

Don't you just want to reach out and scratch that hienie?

I thought this pic was so cute, I decided to see if there were other cute animal butts out there, and before I knew it, I had a whole "Fluffy Butts" board.

PS - don't EVER Google "Furry Butts". Just ... don't.

Cutting and Stacking, Day 2: Glass is Sharp!

I spent most of yesterday cutting and stacking glass again to practice the techniques I "learned" in last week's webinar.  I say "learned" because the webinar flew by at lightning speed, and I took pages and pages of notes, and now am reviewing the session videos and my notes, and cutting glass to practice on.

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that one of these pieces is from yesterday's post,  meaning I actually completed only 3 stacks yesterday. But I also watched about an hour of session videos, and helped customers in the shop, so it's not like I was eating bonbons all day! Although, if I had HAD some bonbons ... just sayin'.

The glass stack at the bottom left isn't dichro - just plain glass. This one will be the test piece for the new digital controller I should receive next week - I want to see how the temps run in the kiln before I start sacrificing my dichroic glass.

It always amazes me how quickly you forget that glass is sharp when you are working with it - I was amazed that I made it through Thursday without a single cut (that's a first for me!) - so I wasn't really surprised when I started off yesterday by slicing a big (BIG) hunk out of the back of my right hand, right off the bat, reaching into my big rubbermaid glass container to pull out a box of dichro. The glass was so sharp I didn't even feel the cut, but when my hand came out of the container, holding the box of glass, I felt something wet running down my fingers - yep - it was a big cut.

It takes a lot longer to put these pieces together than I ever thought it would, so I think this will be it for the first technique we learned (engraving) - I really wanted to have 8 pieces in the kiln run for engraving, but I'm just not up to that much piecework!

The next technique is acid-etching. I haven't re-watched the videos yet on this technique, and the glass is handled very differently, so that's what I'm going to move on to today.

Cutting and Stacking

My friend Deborah and I participated in a fantastic webinar last week - I discovered the webinar on Deborah's blog, and am so glad I did! Thanks, Deborah!

The webinar was led by Tanya Veit, a fantastically talented glass artist, and covered advanced techniques in glass fusing, including Tanya's Picasso technique, as well as glass etching, decals, and many other exciting new things (new to me!)

As with any new technique, I had to buy some stuff before I could start creating - why IS that? Will I ever have enough stuff?

I am still waiting on one item - a pricey digital controller for my kiln. For years, I have been just fine with my analog kiln, but I used a very different firing schedule from the one Tanya recommends for her Picasso technique. The schedule I usually use calls for a fast ramp, and 2 brief holds (10 minutes each) - and so it was no big deal for me to stand by the kiln, babysitting the controller, to make sure the temps stayed on target during the run.

 Dichroic pendant, Picasso technique, by Tanya Veit (pic from Tanya's blog)

The firing schedule recommended for the Picasso technique involves a very slow ramp, plus 4 prolonged hold times - by my calculations, about 8.5 to 9 hours of firing. There is just no way I am going to sit beside the kiln for that long - I have stuff to do!! A shop to run! And my kiln is just too finicky to be left alone with glass inside, so I broke down and ordered a digital controller for it yesterday.

And speaking of yesterday - since I had all the other ingredients on hand, I got them out, organized, and set out to stack some glass.

First, I opened up my brand new, still-in-the-box, Morton cutting system. As a gullible student I was once talked into buying it, and then intimidated by all its parts and instructions, so I never used it. I spent quite a while on Tuesday getting acquainted with it, plowing through the instruction manual, and finally felt confident enough to give it a try (although I'm still not ready for some of the fancier things it can do).

Morton cutting system, set-up for 90-degree cuts (strips, squares, etc)

Morton, with my brand new piece of black glass

I only had a small amount of plain black backing on hand, so I had to order a piece. 

I cut lots of strips yesterday on the Morton - not just my black backing, which I cut into pendant size pieces, but also some glass I have had for years - huge, 24 inch square pieces of glass, some dichroic, some not - that I have moved around from place to place, trying to keep them from breaking. They were so huge, I felt afraid to try to do anything with them. Since the Morton was already out and set up, I grabbed these big sheets of glass and cut them into more manageable 8x8 pieces.

Next, I set about to created the stacks for the Picasso technique. This was WAY harder than Tanya made it look during the webinar! (imagine that!)

 the dichro I plan to use for my Picasso pendants (resting on my still-uncut black sheet)

After hours of tedious cutting of the dichro pieces, I had one (ONE!) pendant stacked:

So - it's more cutting and stacking for me today. My new controller should be here Tuesday, and installation is supposed to be easy (!) so Wednesday may be a firing day. Yay!

You glass fanatics out there should keep an eye out for one of Tanya's webinars - it was a wonderful learning experience!

Return to the Worktable

I'm posting a follow-up to yesterday's Wednesday Worktable post about the double spiral.

Let's put it this way - it was a learning experience.

Here are a couple of pics of my "finished" double spiral from yesterday:

Looks remarkably similar to the pics from yesterday, right?

But it's not! There are 2 (TWO!) more loops on this sample than on the ones from yesterday.

I don't know if you can tell from the pics, especially the 2nd pic above, but the core of this double spiral is extremely tight and inflexible. Wow - look how the spiral stands up, all on its own, in that first pic: it is stiff! I knew it was tight when I left it on Tuesday evening, because I had tried (unsuccessfully) for 10 minutes to get the needle into the core before giving up.

Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes trying to get the needle into the core, and finally succeeded. Yay! I added a loop, and spent another 20 minutes trying to maneuver the needle into the core - and made it. Then, came to my senses and gave up, because there was no way I was going to make an entire necklace if I had to spend 20 minutes on each pass. Plus, eventually the needle's going to break under that much pressure!

I decided to switch to a size 6/0 for the core (the tutorial had recommended either a 6/0 or an 8/0). I picked some more seed beads - subbing in an 8/0 for two of the 11/0s in the loop, because I didn't like the look of going directly from the 6/0 in the core to an 11/0 on the loop. I like to make more gradual changes in the bead sizes in my spirals.

I stitched up about an inch or so, and could have easily finished a rope - except that the 6/0 core, while it was plenty roomy, made the spiral too large for the design I had in mind, plus the loops were not as tightly compacted as on the 8/0 core, so I didn't really care for it.

Here is what I was doing on the original piece - which is exactly what the tutorial called for, by the way (and I add that for those of you that know me, and my propensity for deviating away from the beads recommended in tutorials, in order to suit my aesthetics!) -

8/0 core - 4 beads per loop
7 11/0 seed beads on each loop

OK - I lied. I used 6 11/0s and one 8/0 (in the middle) for each loop - but this could not, in any way, affect the core.

So for those of you that are familiar with double spirals - what beads did you use for the core and the loops?
I'm really curious, because I like the result I was getting with the 8/0 core - such a nice, dense spiral. I would love to make one, if I can figure out the bead sizes that will work AND please my picky aesthetic!

Yesterday was certainly not a loss - I would have stopped my stitching without finishing anyway, because I wasn't thrilled with that root beer colored 8/0 in the middle of the loop. It went great with the focal I was going to hang from the rope, but it just detracted from the design.

Drop me some comments - I'd love to hear from successful double spiralers!

Wednesday Worktable

I am a beadweaver, to the core. Love those tiny seed beads!

My first exposure to beading was a beadweaving class, and I fell in love. Spirals are my very favorite, but I love all the stitches. Although I probably won't be doing any twisted tubular herringbone again - a little too tedious and boring for me. But that's in the past.

I always turn to beadweaving when I find myself in a creative rut - I buy tutorials, or I leaf through the thousands of patterns and pics I have stored meticulously in various 3 inch binders - I just love starting with piles of pretty glass seed beads, and ending with a beautiful woven work of art!

As I said, I love spirals. The very first stitch I learned was the spiral rope, and I'm still making them.

I have watched someone else make a double spiral, and I found it fascinating. I always meant to try one, but I just never made time for it.

Until yesterday - I printed off a free tutorial I found on the internet, spend entirely too much time picking out (and rejecting) seed bead colors, and finally got started about 5 PM.

I got about 3/4 of an inch stitched before quitting time - Here's another view:

I'm not entirely sold on this combination of colors/design - I'll stitch a little bit more before I decide whether to abandon it and start over. There's a fine line between having not enough stitched to get an idea of how it looks, and continuing to stitch because you think eventually it will start to look ... better. And I am NOT going to cross that line today - I really hope I have committed THAT lesson to memory! If it doesn't look great at 3 inches, it is NEVER going to look great!!

Regarding the double spiral - the particular tutorial I decided to print was just the latest one I had pinned to my Pinterest Jewelry Tutorial Board. I know I have at least 4 different Double Spiral Tutorials on that board, but I didn't spend any time studying them - I was eager to get started. I just grabbed the first one I saw, and took off! I'm not linking to the one I am using because it has several mistakes in it - the author typed right when she meant left, and vice versa - and therefore the text sometimes doesn't match the diagrams. Making it hard for someone doing the stitch for the first time to know whether to go with the words or the pics!

The double spiral is a very tight stitch. The tutorial recommended using an 8/0 or a 6/0 for the core (versus an 11/0) because you have to make so many passes through the core - I chose an 8/0, and am not sure I am going to be able to get all the passes in there!

I haven't got a long enough piece yet to really see the pattern, and so I am not 100% convinced I am doing it correctly.

When it is a bit longer, I'll be able to see whether I like it, and if I don't, I'll hopefully be able to tell whether it's the stitch, or my color choices and design.

So, that's today's worktable - have a great Wednesday!

Copper and Sterling Silver Earrings

I cut and sanded the sheet copper, then textured it with the balled end of a chasing hammer. To highlight this hammered textured, I treated the pieces with liver of sulfur. A hole was punched in the top for hanging.

Next, I cut 2 pieces of sterling silver wire, and formed them into "squiggles" which were basically mirror images of each other, with a loop at the top for hanging. Then I hammered the squiggles flat with the chasing hammer, and they started to not match each other quite so well, but that's OK!

I used a jump ring to connect the squiggle and the copper rectangle to a sterling silver earwire.

Fun, easy design!

Seashell Earrings

I have collected seashells my whole life - and I love all things "shell."

These earrings were so simple, but I just love them:

After cutting discs out of sheet copper, I stamped the discs with a scallop design and etched them. I love how the stamp has a very vintage, deeply textural appearance, and I also really like how the surrounding copper took on some very distressed-looking stripes in the acid. Every piece behaves differently in the acid, so it's always fun to see what you have when you take the pieces out and clean them up!

I drilled holes for the earwires, and that's it! Seashell earrings!