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