Silver Lined Big Holed Beads

I've finally had a chance to make some silver cored beads! I started by using brass tubing before using more expensive silver, and the first couple I made went really well. I used some reject beads with dents and imperfections on them. Once polished up the brass was really bright, they almost look gold! The hole through the middle is about 4.9-4.7mm, and the metal is put in after the beads have been made and cleaned.

I also tried some copper, but it was much thicker and I kept cracking the beads, but I'd got more confidence using the press and so switched to silver. I had some breakages, I seemed to go just a little too far at the end as one broke into three bits. Typically it was a really nice bead too! The next couple came out ok, then I had two nice ones chip, I guess I was getting too over confident at this point! Both were made with blood red glass with purple lusters and sparkles, I will certainly make some more of those as I really liked how the effect came out. I took some photos of them before I have to smash them up to get the expensive silver back out.

Finally I got three nice silver ones made, including quite a chunky one with some nice green swirls. Oddly even though I used the same silver tube the hole came out a little smaller (about 4.4mm, the others are between 4.9-4.7mm which I am told fits alot of the bracelet chains made for these beads) I guess as there was more silver in this one.

It's been quite expensive buying the press, silver, mandrels and bits and bobs, but overall I really like the effect, and boro really lends itself to these sorts of focal beads. I should have tried doing these years ago, especially after prowling around shopping centres this weekend. I am so spoiled looking at some of the amazing handmade ones from other UK lampworkers, I didn't realise how boring the mass produced ones are! I am certainly going to make more of these, I am going to have fun dreaming up new colour combos, so please let me know if there is any you'd like to see!

The Plague!

My plans to get stuck into lots of projects over the Xmas break really didn't go to plan. Just before Xmas we were wiped out with the flu/cold bug that was going around this year, and still haven't really got over them even now. It did rather put a damper on the festivities too, as we didn't go anywhere but alternated between lying on the sofa or bed! We got in a few treats to nibble on, but a lot of the nice rich food has gone to waste as chicken soup was about as much as we could manage. Unfortunately it seemed to go to my chest, and next trip to the bottle bank won't see me taking lots of post new-years champagne and beer bottles but cough mixture bottles!!!

This has put a delay on working on the shaver handles and big-holed silver cored beads that I wanted to have ready in the new year. I did manage to get this little bit done on my Steampunk radio project before I got too wiped out. The paint effect on the brass plate has been drying for about two weeks, and needed a little bit of touching up where I took the masking away, but it's looking quite good. I originally was going to have it flat, but couldn't remember how I did that so went for this stippled texture which I think makes it stand out a bit more. There is green and blue in there to give a slight peacock iridescent effect.

The box will need a few more coats and rubdowns to get it right. I am using ruby shellac varnish, which I mix up myself. It needs gently rubbing in with a cloth, followed by rubbing back, then re-applying. The more layers I can add the better to give that feeling of age and depth. I need to leave the plate at least another week now for the touch ups to dry, so it'll give me time to keep adding layers before I start assembling it. I am not sure I am yet up to sitting over a hot torch with large lump of hot glass to make shaver handles so I think the next job will be the silver cored beads. I've got some test beads made, so now I need to anneal then core them, then hopefully I might be up to getting back to glass!

Evil Ruler of The Kiln Galaxy

Small Blue Worlds
Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

It seems at the moment I am at my most productive on a Sunday. Saturday seems to start slowly, plus this weekend I was completely shattered which is not great for being creative. Sunday was a different matter! I cleaned down my work desk and decided to leave the boro flowers for a while to use up my soft glass stash. This was about the time I realised how much I’ve come to love off-mandrel working! Twiddling around sticks of bent metal that are covered in potential harmful dust is not ideal (although I still love the smell when first heated, reminds me of my first time bead making.)

Second bead and straight in with 101-stupid-mistakes! ‘Putting hot sticky bead into kiln and touching other hot bead.’ Not a good start, although I think I saved one of them, albeit after having to reshape it again.

So enough with normal beads, thought I’d make some more of my ‘little worlds,’ which I’ve had some nice comments back about this week. I’ve been meaning to make some more for a while, and to try out some new colour combos as well. Suddenly it all clicked again, and from having mandrels sitting around gathering dust, and bead release hardening in the pot, I actually had to raid my drawers for any more I could find – even some part bent ones! I’ve filled the kiln before, but never this much! The kiln turned into a little galaxy of Planets!

I’ve done a good few with the classic deep blue, (as per the picture here) plus more of a nice pale green peridot colour. I’ve not listed any of these yet as for some reason I can’t seem to get any of these to be a close size match yet. I have had a go with some more ‘Mars Red’ and some fab ‘Indigo’ – yet more new colours I have yet to unveil! However I left the best to last, and think I have come up with some of the best little worlds I have EVER made! Even ‘The Boss’ was blown away by them, and that takes some doing! I am really excited about the way these are going now, the three hours for the kiln to cool was torture last night! The only problem I have is I only have a tiny bit of this glass left, and when I checked this morning found out because of the high silver content it’s about 12 times the cost of the normal blue!!!! Ekk!!!!! I will have to ration this stuff!

I will get these cleaned up later this week so I can make some new earring with them, keep a look out for the pictures as these really are worth seeing, until then I’m going to be mean and leave you wondering about them - after all I seem to be Evil ruler of my very own universe of little planets now!