Update - Storage and Cabs

Well I have been pretty limited with my time lately so I haven't got many cabs actually made but I do have four on standby ready to be fused so I should hopefully get some of them done this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

First up is a couple of cabs that I have made. The first one was my test to do my yin/yang cab but the sides didn't turn out as I wanted so I just changed it a little and added some little spots. I fused the spots down a little too far so they are only slightly rasied.
This cab was actually made from white glass and "frit" like glass I had from when some other glass broke and when I put it in the water it shattered. I kept the pieces just incase to see what I could do with it. The 'frit' was clear with little bits of clear blue through it so this cab actually has some depth to it, sort of layered effect. It was impossible to get a photo of it.
Now these are my new containers that I have bought for my frit! These are actually toothpick holders which are quite big so I can fit lots and lots of frit. I made the labels for each one with its details. The top bit is pretty funky because I can use it to pour the frit as much or as little as I want!
Hope to have some more photos over the next few days. Will update my flickr once I have taken more photos.

Yin Yang experiment


Well I have come up with a new idea today. It isn't really THAT original but I thought I might as well give it a go and see how it turns out in glass fusing. I wanted to try and create a similar cab to yin and yang but I won't be able to get the curves properly, at least not on purpose maybe by accident. I did a rough pic of what my 'before' piece of glass should look like.



However I am not sure if I should fuse the black and white base first and let it turn into a cab and then do the dots after that and fuse them in or if I should just do it in one big go. Hmmm decisions...decisions....


On another note I have found that the glue I used to stick my bails and that on my pieces doesn't seem to wanna stick. My cab just pulled off about 10minutes ago. For the earrings it'll probably be alright because I won't play with them as much as I do with the pendants. Looks like I may have to try another brand. Grr

Article on Annealing

One of the lovely ladies on the beading forum has got her article on Annealing published on Handmadenews.org. I had a read of it and thought it was really useful for those who are dealing with glass. I have quoted the first two paragraphs below but there is a link for the rest of the article if you are interested.


A to Z of Craft Techniques: Annealing

Posted by Jennifer Mercer on Wednesday May 20, 2009
If you work with beads, or buy beads, you have probably noticed that at lot of lampwork artisan mention that they anneal their beads. So you might be wondering exactly what this means, and why it should matter to you.


The process of making lampwork beads involves heating rods of glass up and manipulating them to make patterns and shapes. The glass then cools down. The heating up and then cooling of the glass puts a lot of stress on it. Even if the artisan is very skilled and attempts to evenly cool the finished bead down, the stress still occurs. This stressing of the glass can lead to it cracking or breaking easily.

LINK

New Cabs

Well I haven't had much time this week to be very creative. I have got my study back on track so my posts may be fewer over coming weeks. I hope not but just giving the heads up.

Anyway I have two new cabs this week. One kinda of went a weird shape because the base glass colours were different thicknesses. One of 3mm and one was 2mm but I think it still looks alright. The other one was just something I came up with and wanted to give it a spin. I'm going to post them both below because I like them so much!

This is the funny shaped one. The green is a bit more vibrant then in this pic, I didn't have the best lighting.



side view so you can see the white dots are raised

From Glass to Jewellery...

Over the weekend I decided to transform some of my pieces into jewellery. I must admit that all of these are for myself hehe I have another one from my other batch which I have claimed for myself as well but I guess I am allowed to do that!! Anyway here are some pics with the findings attached.

Pendants

Earrings

New Frit Experiment - Finished

Well yet again I am quite happy with how these turned out. I wasn't too sure on the one where I was using the two different types of frit and how the colours would look...however....

Grapes Galore small cabs
The test of using Grapes Galore and River Dance frit. I likey!! Very much.

For some reason we had a lot of little visitors today under our outdoor area where my glass is set up. Maybe it's too windy for them to fly around outside so they've come in for some shelter until the wind passes. Shoo fly!

WIP - finished

Well I am quite pleased with how my current WIP has come out. I thought I had fused it for a little too long but turns out it was just right! I suppose that means I should stop doubting myself.

Anywho, these are the finished photos.



This is my next experiment. using my new frit that I got 'Grapes Galore' and I have also thought I might try MIXING some frits hehe. Not exactly mixing the glass together but using different frit on the same piece of glass. I like both of these colours so I hope they go alright together!
Until tomorrow.....

New Experiment - WIP

I have had these piece of glass cut for about a week and didn't really like what I had planned for so I just left it and left it...and left it.....until now! I saw a pattern quite similar to this on a tutorial for fused glass except it use different sizes and more glass etc...

Anyway this is the before photos of my test. It is using three different coloured glass in purples and also 'Wildberry' frit.

I have looked at the end result in the kiln and I think I have fused it too much however I will see how it turns out when I get it out of the kiln later.

WIP Complete

Well this is the finished product of my Rods WIP posted below. I have linked the title of this post to the related post for easy access. The glass hasn't come out totally smooth. Where the purple stripe is across the middle of the cab it is a little dull and a little rough. I'm not sure why this has happened. Although I LOVE the way the top of the cab has come out and totally mixed the pink purples and white..mmmm! Might have to try this experiment again. I can always glue a metal charm into the front of this cab to cover up the rough patch.

Front view

Back view

Dirty marks on the glass - devitrification

Well after some searching on how to use the fire rope I recently got from Pearls Creations, I found out why I was getting those dirty marks on the glass after grinding it and firing it again.

It is called devitrification. Any grime left from the grinding process may cause devitrification in further firings. So it is important to always wash the glass throughly after grinding. I have found this out now! I thought I had washed it enough but obviously not. I already have another piece which I have used the grinder on ready to be fire so I hope that this doesn't leave any dirty marks. But we will soon see.

I have new photos to put up and some more experiments so I will post them up soon. Going to have some lunch now!

WIP - update

Well the firepaper came off fine! It did leave it a little bit rough so I have fused it again to smooth it all out. Funny thing was though there seemed to be all these brownish marks on the cab. I have no idea what it could be? So I grinded them away as well and the cab was a little rough but looked a lot better. It's all fused now however I think there were brown marks forming again when I fused it this time too.

WIP - Using rods again

Well today I thought while I had some spare time I would play with the rods that I had cleaned a week or more ago. These are in a pretty pink, purple and pinky/purple colour. The colours are a little hard to see in the picture below. I am using a different camera to usual plus dodgy lighting =


The edges of the rods were a little rough so I decided to use my dremel to grind the edge a little more neat. They aren't as good as I wanted but then again I don't want it perfect.
To hold the rods in place in the kiln this time I decided to make a little craddle type of thing with the fire paper. I didn't want to fold the edges up too much incase the fire paper fell in on the glass when its being burnt off.
However one side thought it would fall in on the glass. So this isn't the full fuse. I have left this to cool off and hopefully the fire paper will just wash off but if not then I will grind it away a little bit and fuse it again so it'll be nice and smooth.
Work In Progress

New photos ahoy!

Well I have updated my Flickr account with some new pics of some of the cabs which I got back on the weekend. I can finally start making some jewellery with this stuff now that it has been annealed! Yippee. Very excited. I am going to have another play with one or two pieces this afternoon so I may have some other new photos up soon too since the weather has been so nice.
Link To Flickr

On another unrelated note to beading I went to Taronga Zoo yesterday with my boyfriend and thought I would post up a photo or two of the cute little animals we saw.










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