Silver coring pandora beads and boro heart

I have finally decided to put my expensive Jim Moore coring machine to good use. I have been coring my beads. I screwed up a few because of using the tubing cutter instead of the mini saw I bought at harbor freight. I also cored some unevenly. I don't know why, but when I use a tubing cutter to cut the tubing, it puts dents into the tubing and looks really bad. Even though I have to deburr and pull off some leftover silver when using the harbor freight saw, the tubing ends up looking perfect with no flaws. I deburred and even sanded when using the tubing cutter but I still get flaws so I am going to discontinue even bothering with it.

I also decided to hook my phantom back up to play with boro. I have been trying to make hearts like Mr. Smiley does from his tutorial. Also, I absolutely love encasing with boro, it is so much more pleasant than encasing with soft glass. If I wouldn't miss the colors of soft glass, I probably would stick with boro from now on. You can stick boro right in the flame and it won't crack and fly everywhere. A bead will not crack if you leave it out of the flame too long and then put it back in. It is just a wonderful glass to work with. You will be seeing a lot more boro stuff from me now on. :)

Dreadlock Beads

I have always loved dreadlocks and even wore dreadfalls in my hair a few years ago. I have been wanting to do it for some time now and I finally did it, my first dreadlock bead. It is over in my Etsy show here. I hope to make many more in the future.

Beautiful Dog Leads...

Ok, enough of me neglecting my blog, I want to share a talented artist with you. The artist's name is Laura and she takes lampwork beads and kangaroo leather and turns them into a functional pieces of art. She makes beautiful dog leads you could use in a dog show. She has bought quite a few of my pandora beads in the past. You must go check her beautiful dog leads in her Etsy shop. Personally, I would love to have one and I don't even show my mastiff.

Striking Color Glass is awesome...

Yes, I know it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy with school, so instead of torching, I have been studying chemistry and biology. Now that the end of the quarter is winding down, I need to start torching again. I miss it and think about it daily. I have torched a little bit sometimes during the day and I tried striking color glass that I bought on Etsy. I absolutely love it. Unfortunately striking color glass is not plentiful. You can find it here when it is available. Also, it is only sold in 1 pound lots, so it is expensive and once it is listed, it goes fast. Both of the following beads have been made with striking glass topped with diamond clear. There is something about diamond clear that makes it sparkle.

Back to school....

Sorry I have been non-existant in this blog. I have been taking a break from making beads since I started back to college. I have been working on my pre-reqs for nursing school. I have always thought about becoming a nurse and I finally decided to go for it. I decided to go for it because the economy is bad and I often worry about my husband losing his job. I figure if I have a job I enjoy and pays well, I won't have to worry anymore. I tried to make beads into a living but I realized that if I am forced to make beads then it won't be fun anymore. I want to enjoy making art and the part of it making a profit being a fringe benefit not something that is forced and must be relied on. This terrible economy has opened my eyes in many ways. Also, if I work as a nurse, I can work three twelve hour days and then spend my days off making beads. The only thing that troubles me about being a nurse is all the science courses I have to take. Science has never been my strong point but I think I am up for the challenge. I will make more beads eventually. I want to work on some murrini roses since I bought the tutorial the other day.

To everyone that got redirected to this blog...

I have redirected my polymer clay doll blog to this glass blog because that is where my interest is now. I no longer make polymer clay dolls, I just don't have the interest anymore. When I discovered glass I planned to continue making dolls but the glass won out. I could no longer force myself to sculpt dolls for hours and sometimes days to sell them for practically nothing. The last few dolls I made I decided to keep to remember the time in my life as a dollmaker. The dolls were on Etsy but I took them down because the wonderful economy created by the greedy corporations has made consumers scared to buy anything that is not a necessity because they are in fear of losing their jobs. Glass items are different, it doesn't take days to make one bead so you can sell them at a price that is reasonable in a bad economy. What I also love about glass is that I don't lose interest in making stuff because it doesn't take days to finish. When I was making dolls, many times I would lose interest in the doll and it would go unfinished. So I am sorry to the people that land here after being linked to my doll site but I will be working in glass from now on. Please remember that I can also sculpt in glass so in time there may be some Halloween or gothy type beads and sculpture. Sculpting in glass is going to take some practice though since it is a whole different medium than polymer clay.

So in the mean time, I will be selling off most of my doll/fairy making stuff on ebay for others to buy so they can begin creating wonderful things in clay. I have a link to my ebay on the side of this blog and here so please keep checking it to see if there are any dollmaking items you would like to buy:

Items on Ebay

If you still want to see my polymer clay dolls please visit my doll flickr page where I have most of them posted.

Doll Flickr

My mojo is finally back..

Well, after being sick for almost 2 weeks, I am finally back to torching. I have been playing with boro for a couple of days trying to make pendants from Mr. Smiley's dvd. Last night I decided I was frustrated with boro, even with the very hot outer flame of the phantom. I decided I would rather play with soft glass and one of the beads is ruined because I accidently used a clear boro rod to make accent dots. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't stick to the bead but then when I took it out of the kiln this morning I discovered cracked and smashed accent beads all over the bead. I try to keep the boro on one side and the soft glass on the other but unfortunately they got mixed up. The following bead luckily didn't get any boro mixed in with it, I used ivory, hades black, kronos2 and encased with marine wave. I don't know if I like marine wave that much. It tends to get scum on it and it gets all bubbly kind of like moretti clear. I tend to like laushca for encasing because it is so clean and pretty but I had to try Sarah's tip on hades and marine wave to see what would happen.