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. :)

Spreading Colors!

I was playing around with spreading colors by following Sarah Hornik's tutorial. They never come out quite as nice as hers. :(

Finally, a bead I actually like....

I finally made a bead that I like and would wear on a bracelet if I had one. I made a couple others too but they were wonky. One was made on a 1/4 inch mandrel which I think is too big for a Pandora/Troll/Biagi bracelet. The one I made on the big mandrel, I tried to core with copper just for practice but I had to order some more tools because the ones I have are just not making it easy. I made the big mandrels out of metal rods I purchased at Lowes. I don't know why but the big rods get hotter and I have to hold them further back when making a bead. I am hoping I will be able to sell some beads soon since they are looking much nicer now. Hubby keeps telling me that I am spending too much money and I need to make some with what I have got so I guess I will try. :) I wish I was rich and had an unlimited amount of money to spend.


I forgot to mention, I love Fusion bead release. It is my favorite of all of the bead releases that I have tried. It is smooth and strong and never cracks or flakes off like some of the others. I also had to start wearing a respirator while beadmaking because my lungs were feeling sore afterwards even with a 1000 CFM exhaust fan and a lot of makeup air. I even have a blastshield which keeps the fumes away from you but there was still soreness. I wore the respirator for the first time today and once you get used to wearing the thing it isn't so bad. I used to hate it because it made me feel claustrophic and I would hold my breath. I kind of got worried about the sore lungs when reading a thread on lampwork etc about this lady that had bleeding in her lungs so I think I prefer the respirator to bleeding lungs. I made beads today and since I wore the respirator, I don't feel at all sore. It seems as I get older I have become sensitive to more things than I used to be. I don't think everyone needs to wear a respirator, just people that are sensitive to the fumes and people that fume metals a lot, you don't want to turn grey like they say you will. I also bought a creation station and I absolutely love it, no more resting my elbows on my knees. I highly recommend it to everybody and it is worth the $89 I spent on 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.

Back to bead a day or a marble a day!

I have been gone for a few days from this poor blog. I was sculpting and I got asked to do a painting commission. :) I originally planned to sculpt and paint throughout the day and then torch at night but that doesn't seem to be happening. I start a clay sculpture during the day and then I just can't seem to put it down until it is done. I know I probably sound like a bad mother saying this, but I can't wait until my 3.5 year old starts school. I can't wait to have time totally to myself where I can do what I want during the day. Right now the only time I have time to myself is to stay up until 3am. I know this sounds selfish but it is just how I feel. I couldn't even imagine having another baby and having to start all over. I feel bad about this but my son is going to have to be an only child just like I was. There are just too many things I want to do with my art so I do not have the time or patience to have another child. I see people in the stores with 2 or more kids and I just don't know how they do it. Also, I still haven't totally lost the weight I gained when I had Sebastian so I couldn't imagine putting even more on. Oh well.

So from here on out I am going to try and post something of glass that I made each day. It may be a bead, marble, or sculpture but I will make sure it will be here. I also want to start making youtube movies for beginning flameworkers. I know I am a severe newbie and still have imperfect and wonky beads but I think I have mastered just the plain bead. They come out absolutely perfect, it isn't till I decorate or encase them that the wonkiness comes in.

The following bead was an attempt of one of Corina's step by step beads out of her Passing the Flame book, a favorite by the way. I highly recommend this book to any beginning lampworker. :) The bead didn't come out like hers which is what usually happens when I try to do her step by steps. I added some rubino oro dots to make it look at least a little cool. :)

I bought Sarah Hornik's tutorial Think Pink and I decided I would try to make one of the beads the other night. I knew it would crack if I didn't put it directly into the kiln after I made it so I preheated the doll kiln since the mandrels are too long for the paragon I have without the bead door. The doll kiln kind of sucks as an annealer because you have to open the top door and lay the mandrel on the kiln shelf. I used some kiln furniture so it wouldn't roll onto the floor bottom. A bead door would be so nice so I could just slide the mandrel right in without having to put on the huge oven mits. I guess that will be next. It's like you always need something new. Well, here is the bead, I think I overheated the rubino oro a little too much but otherwise I am happy with it. It isn't too bad for someone who can't even do swirlies with a stringer yet. I burned my thumb the other night while trying to do swirlies the way Corina describes it on her dvd. :(

If you don't know who Sarah Hornik is then you must check out her blog, after I discovered her beads I had to try lampworking.

Sarah Hornik