Disaster zone....

Well today while I was on a roll with my cab making I found a chunk of lampworking left overs and thought I would melt it down. Anyways I popped it in the kiln and after 8 minutes it was all good so I went ahead with the 5 minutes on the next step. Well in that time the glass had fallen over and totally fused onto the base of the kiln. So I quickly got my pan of water and heated the kiln up nice n hot. I then scraped off as much glass as I could into the water.

Of course it all didn't come off so I had to pick off the left overs which then put divets into the base of the kiln. You can see that in the picture below but I also have pointed out cracks I was getting into the base from use.


There was also a little bit of glass stuck to the side of the kiln too which poo'ed me because I can't get that off!! But never mind, it's only small.


While I was scrapping off the glass I put the lid of the kiln onto the microwave dish thinking that it's heat proof and should be fine. Well 30 seconds late and I hear this massive smash...


So anyway I had to sand down the base of the kiln. I thought this would be pretty hard as I have to make sure I get it as level as possible otherwise the back of my cabs won't be flat or the glass may even fall to one side when fusing.

So here is my end result....not too bad if I do say so myself. Considering I was worried as all hell that I had screwed up my kiln and had to buy a new one. I got rid of the cracks and everything, which turned out being the hardest part to sand.



Now I am glad it's all over! But it sure was a good lesson to learn.

52 Creations - Week 4 & 5

Very sorry for the late update but here are some of my creations from the last two weeks. Not much compared to other weeks but I have been quite busy this week plus the heat doesn't help as I need to go outside to my glass. The black and white based ones are using my "rocky" homemade frit. I want to make some more of these cabs but they take a little more prep time because I am using the rod glass. The othe cab is actually made with ivory glass base which I soon learnt reacts with aqua/blue coloured glass. If you click on the photo you can see more clearly that the blue glass as a brownish outline to it. I have another cab getting ready with some solid aqua glass, the one above I used translucent blue glass.

So I will update with some more cabs over the weekend but I just have to make them first.

I have some bad news but I will do a seperate post for that which will be located ^^^ above once I have written anyway.

On a good note though my Facebook group has reached 70 fans! Absolutely awesome effot by everyone. I am hoping to get to 100 fans by the end of the year and I MAY just have a special give away ;) So if you know any friends o family who are into jewellery, glass or simply like handmade items then ask them to join!

Delayed

Sorry guys I haven't posted my week 4 offerings. I may have to combind my week4 & 5 creations seeing as it's a carry on project!

Will do it ASAP :)

52 Creations - Week 3

Well these are my offering for this week! First off I have my cabs which I have made this week. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Still having trouble with the firepaper but I always have my good old dremel to sand it off and re-fuse!


The bracelet and earrings are a present for a friends little girl who is turning 5 tomorrow. She starts school in Feb this year and since she is going to a Catholic school I imagine they have a pretty strict rule on what they can and can't wear to school. But she loves her jewellery so I'm sure she'll find sometimes to wear it.


This necklace is something which has been going around in my head for a while now. It is only simple but I really enjoyed making it and the style is really comfy to wear. Once I got a hang on doing those triple sliding knots of whatever they are called...maybe chinese sliding knots?? Something like that!


I have updated my website as well. I have added some new cabs to the gallery section. I will have a heap of cabs to put up for sale once I actually get them annealed which will probably take a couple of weeks still so maybe I should get to making some more!

Also for those of you who use twitter and facebook you can follow me on both of these. I created a page on facebook and an account on twitter. Click on the links below to go to each page.

FACEBOOK or TWITTER

Well I have been quite a little busy bee this past week! I think my course enrollment should go through soon so I am making the most of the time that I have!

52 Creations - Week 2

Week 2

This week I was a little bit more productive! I know I set myself the goal of at least making one thing each week but I was on a roll and thought why not make more! All of these cabs except one were experiments, some came out good...some not so good. The black one on the bottom right did and didn't work for me. I was trying to use balls of silver leaf and all of the balls did what they should except one which kinda chipped the glass a little around it and also is rough...grrr. Also the purple one in the left top didn't turn out too nicely and also got some firepaper stuck to it. But never mind!

52 Creations - Week 1

Week 1

Only made a small group a cabs. I had experimented with silver leaf once before but burnt it all off so this time I controlled it a little bit better. One has little strips of silver leaf and the other is one big strip with little holes made into it. I like both looks. The last cab was a mixture of two different translucent frit but it just made the middle really dark. The colours on the edge look nice though.

365 creations?? I don't think so!

Well a couple of the ladies on the Australian Beading Forum have set themselves a goal to make a creation a day which equals 365 creations! I think this is such a great objective and also quite rewarding if it's possible to do something like that. So far I think they have all stuck to their goals.

However I was thinking that I don't think it would be possible for me to make something EVERYDAY...I could probably make 7 items in one day which is a weeks worth but it really doesn't work like that. So I have set myself to make something once a week. Sometimes I can go weeks on end without even touching a bead or my glass so I am going to make an effort to do something at least once a week and post it up here between each Friday-Sunday. It all depends what I am doing and if I get good photos or not.

So I am going to call mine 52 creations! I know that doesn't sound as exciting as 365 even though I might end up with that many the way I am pumping out these cabs! I have something I have made last week and I have some more for this weeks so I will have to backtrack a little bit and post up two lots of photos for the end of this week.

Wish me good luck!

Website launch!

Well I finally got around to doing enough work on my website that I was happy with so I launched it!! It's all up on the interwebs being all pretty and website-ish!

Check it out! http://beadsbybree.yolasite.com/

Comments very much welcome!

Welcome 2010!

Well this is my first post for a new year. I have to say that I have been making some cabs but the light in the microwave has gone so it's hard to do stuff at night without having the light. I have to wait to do stuff during the day which is hard because I'm barely home.

I have started work on my website! It's looking pretty good too...just for a simple site. Yola is a really good service if anyone wants a simple site which is free! I haven't published the site yet so I can't show any sneek peeks or anything like that. I am hoping to get a few more products up for sale and then I will prob let it free onto the net to run wild!

In my 'normal' world, I go back to work on Wednesday which I am NOT looking forward to. I do need the money but I really wish I had taken the rest of this week off. I would do it if I knew I didn't already have some important appointments already booked in. Oh well, such is life. Thinking I may even take a week off during the year to give myself a bit of a break. Today I did buy a new TV though!! Excitement!! It's an LG 32inch Full HD LCD. I can't wait to get it hooked up and get my new Foxtel so that everything will look nice and clear.

Hope you are all having a good start to the year. I didn't make many resolutions..just goals which I would like to achieve this year but won't be disappointed if I don't.