Cold Worked Beads!

No I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Although it may have seemed like it. 

Every once in a while a passion or new technique will take hold of me. I immerse myself in it. I have to go with it until I feel it in every pore of my body. Here are some of my Cold Worked Glass Beads.

So coldworking had become my new obsession. I have traveled all over the country teaching my class and adding on coldworking. I even taught a week long class at Pittsburgh Glass, where their coldworking shop is a dream!

I use several different machines to make my beads. A belt sander, glass lathe, wet saw etc. I do not use a dremel. No coldworker would even consider a dremel a  coldworking tool! I wish it was that easy but alas it's not. These beads take me a long time, up to 3 hours! So here is some eye candy.

And more...

And more....

Thanks so much for stopping by!

SNOW DAY

Finally a snow day. I love snow and I prefer winter over summer. I would love summer if I lived on a lake or beach but I don't, I live in St Louis where last year we had over 100 degrees for over 20 days.
So how better to celebrate than to load up the Etsy store! I have all kinds of goodies like pods and some coldworked disks. 
 

 

Hey Look at my Butt!

Well here are the results! I totally need to work on perfecting it even more. So that means more time on the torch and thinner stringers of glass. 

 I adore the pattern on the end of the dome/pod. If I could figure out a way to make it and wear it like that, I would. Of course I will give that a try but so far I am stumped.

I love when a new obsession takes a hold of me. It's like I have no control over it. It is going to do what it needs even if I don't have time for it. It will invade my dreams, and make me antsy for the torch. I end up making excuses for unfinished projects just to get on the torch for a couple of hours to relieve the creative energy.

I am going to stock up the Etsy store soon. I promise!
 

 

Success!

I know I have written about this before. I also know I am not alone.
Obsession about how to accomplish a look, a finding, a style, or in my case these fricken Russian Onion Domes.

I of course obsess about the shapes, linear motifs, and the texture.
I have used these domes as a jumping off point for a lot of my work. I keep going back to them and to this one in particular.

See those lines. They are dreamy. Wrapping themselves around the dome like ribbons.  Guess how hard it is to do those with thin strings of glass with a flame and spaced just so. I got pretty good at it, but never to a level that I felt really good about.

Well today on the torch....I kind of figured it out. 
Going to post the finished product tomorrow!

 

NEW POST!!! Finally

Ok I admit it. I have been remiss is posting on my blog for a while
So first things first. 

I have a give away for the stinkin cute podlets! 

 It is on my blog home away from home Love My Art Jewelry .  I post over there two times a month. Please visit me there.
Anyway if you want a chance of winning these buggers go over there and read all the details.


Ok so second here is what the wonderful Kristi Bowman did with the podlets that we did the trade for. Genius. Cool huh?

And here is what I made with her one of her pieces.

 I had such a great time figuring out what I wanted to make. That is what's so nice about being able to make your own beads. You can get wonderful pieces or a cool outfit and make the beads to compliment them.

Ok so the finally here is why I have been MIA from the blog world. It's that dang coldworking....(process of cutting, grinding and polishing glass after it comes out of the kiln)
Yep I got the itch, and I HAVE to itch it. 
This area of soft glass ( the kind of glass I use to create my beads) has only a handful of people coldworking their pieces. Most of the coldworking is done with blown or boro (the other type of glass used for flameworking)
So because of this I feel like I have a whole world available to me and tons of applications. 
So I have plenty to blog about and I promise to update more and let you in on the process and journey I am traveling.

Anticipation

Well the other day I had a great Cyber Monday sale. It was wonderful and a big thank you to all who participated. 

Because of that sale I got a message from an artist that I have been poking around on her Etsy site. Her name is Kristi Bowman and I am sure many of you already know her great designs. 

Well she had been visiting my Etsy site too. So we decided to trade!
 Here are a few of the wonderful things I will be getting.

I have made several beads that I hope will compliment her designs so keep posted to see what goodies I make! 

Cyber Monday Sale!

I am a member of Love My Art Jewelry and we are having a great Cyber Monday sale with tons of great  artists. 
Here is the link to the blog Love My Art Jewelry.
Make sure you look at all the artist participating because they all have very unique and different things. 

My Etsy site has 20% off. There are some great things to see and buy. Great deals!