Thursday, April 28, 2011

Royal Wedding Sale on My Etsy!

I am so excited for the Royal Wedding. It absolutely captivates me and fells like a real life fairytale being lived out! In honor of this event I will have my entire Etsy Shop on sale- simply use coupon code "ROYAL15" to get your discount! There's more!! To all my UK customers I will offer Free Shipping for the event! Enjoy the sale and Long Live Prince William and (soon to be) Princess Katherine! Sale Dates: 4/29/2011-5/01/2011

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dogs......................

Okay so my 92 pound dog Layla thinks she is a squirrel!! Every time I eat nuts she is right there next to me almost climbing on my lap to get at what I have. You would think I was eating beef jerky or something like that!

About 5 minutes ago I broke out a can of pecans and out of no where Ms. "I can smell anything" appears. After telling her to "get" for about 5 mins I gave in and let her have one ( I know bad Mommy) but she ate it and acted like it was prime rib!

I am almost reminded of how a cat acts on Catnip...... Are nuts a drug to dogs? I would love to know what your dogs like and how they behave to get it lol!!!!!!!

Hopefully they won't hurt her. So far I cannot find anything about them being poisonous on the web but if anyone knows differently please let me know!!!! Take Care!!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Glass Colors Galore!!

So I just my recent shipment of glass in and can't believe I have not had anytime to play with it!!! I was working on a custom order for a friend of mine who is starting a jewelry making business so that has taken up a good part of my week. This afternoon though will be dedicated to making some new beads to showcase on my Etsy site as well as some ready made Spring pendants and earrings.

Here is some glassy porn for all you color addicts out there- I am going to be doing a color study with the Tongue Pink and also a color study for Ghee. Let me know if there are any colors out there that you would like me to play around with and show off :)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

New Striking Color Glass Tests!

I love Striking Color Brand glass! I have only ever had the pleasure of trying shorts and gifted rods from very generous glass people who have so lovingly committed RAOGK (Random Acts Of Glass Kindness)

Well this last sale on Etsy forced me to purchase a whole pound of the CM-207 offspec glass. Now offspec means that this glass has not been fully tested for complete compatibility with COE 104 Glass, however it does not mean it is incompatible either. The COE is in fact so close that there should not be a problem in normal application. The problems generally occur when you are heavily encasing this glass in clear.

This color alone is just stunning and is super easy to work with. I am on a minor with 1 5lpm oxycon and had no problems with the striking cycle of this glass.



The first shots show beads made entirely out of the CM-207 with one of the beads showing an overstruck bead. For the overstriking I simply did the deep heat a second time and did not allow to cool all the way before reintroducing into the flame- the point of this, if you are having these same results it means it was not cool enough before you added more heat. The single donut bead was deep heated and allowed to cool to a medium amber glow then wafted in the back of the flame till the deepest colors appeared then I garaged the beads. The teeny pebbles were made in the same way as the donut but then I added enough heat after the cooling to shape and all sorts of yummy colors appeared! After shaping I wafted a bit to remove any chill marks and garaged the bead.




These beads have the color applied either by stringer approx 2mm thick or by "faux frit" (dabbing the tip of the rod over the bead much like frit particles) over a base of CIM Peace. This application is much thinner and results in the palest pastels with rich amber tones. You can acheive some brighter magentas with a slightly thicker application. I am definitely partial to the deeper brighter colors of this glass so I will use a thicker application in the future. I did not spend enough time reheating the chill marks out and as a result I ended up with thermal cracks on 4 of the 6 beads made using this method (I also admittedly took too many peeks at them when they were in the kiln)

The 3 images of the lentils show the glass in pressed applications. The first is thick stringer over moretti white heated, pressed, chill marks removed and garaged. The last 2 pictures are the same bead but different views. This bead has a base of Tuxedo and the glass applied by winding it around the center of the bead then heated, pressed, and silvered ivory applied, then I heated the edges till the ivory was melted in and the whole bead was warmed and re-pressed then the chill marks removed. I love this application!

On that note I will leave you with a couple more pictures of beads made with this great glass and I am off to clean the house and then torch and make more great beads with this glass!! As soon as my glass supply gets here I will be testing the encasing of this glass!!