Lots of dots...

I have not done these types of beads for a while. I missed making them but I have been doing a lot of boro lately. I may try making a bead like this in boro and see what I come up with. The thing about going back to soft glass after you have been using boro is the shockability of it and the soupiness. Boro is very stiff and takes a while to shape and get moving. Soft glass shatters in the flame and it feels like hot butter. Sometimes I have trouble keeping it off the table it is so soft. I love both types of glass and do not want to limit myself to either one. I think they both have their good points and bad. I also like the bullseye and coe96 glass even though I do not have a huge amount of either. I always envy other lampworkers that have the option of buying so many pounds of glass. I just never have the money so my glass supply is limited unfortunately. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything but it sure would be nice.

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.

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

I finally got the courage to list a couple of Pandora/Biagi/Troll beads in my infinitecharms Etsy store. I plan to try and list a few beads everyday. The thing I have noticed about Etsy is if you don't keep your shop current and list almost everyday, you don't get much business. I have heard that the secret to success there is listing everyday. I guess I will try that and see what happens. Wish me luck.

My New Workspace....

I spent the weekend making this "Barley" box. I made it from wood, stainless steel sheets, and metal tape. I tested out my Phantom inside of it and it works perfectly, even the outer fire. It seems to pass the smoke test even though my nose was kind of stuffy. I want to eventually replace the flexible ducting with rigid ducting, I want to put a permanent propane connection into the house using rigid piping, and I want to add a fresh air duct running from my basement bathroom to my workbench. My Blastshield will probably get here on Wednesday or Thursday. I love my new box, no one helped me with it, no male help, I did it all by myself. I sawed all the wood with the miter saw, nailed/glued it together and I attached all the sheet metal. It may not be perfect but I made it and I am proud of it. :)

Failed attempt of fumed implosion.

So I tried to fume a clear boro rod with silver leaf. I even put on the uncomfortable respirator. It didn't work, the silver leaf just burnt off. All I fumed were a bunch of bubbles. I think I am going to find a silver dollar laying around the house and cut a piece off of it. Maybe that will work better. I think the pendant is better shaped than the last one but it does have a punty mark and some dullness on the front of the pendant. I tried to make the bail without the mandrel but I was unsuccessful at doing that. So I made the bail with the mandrel and of course the bead release cracked and flaked off as usual. I bought fosterfire smooth and tuff and it is not working for me. I am going to order some bucket of mud bead release. It supposedly doesn't crack and flake with high heat, I guess we will see.