Yesterday's session

Feeling time pressure yesterday, so some things didn't go well because I rushed. Ended up with a lot of little bland slightly off spacer type beads, six to be exact, that might have a bit of frit on them or something but certainly aren't noticable as anything at first glance.

Two green whiteheards. One is a little wonky and has some bubbles, the other was seriously wonky so I encased again in clear and then made a cube. It would actually be pretty neat except it ended up with one slightly sharp hole. I may keep it out for inspiration later anyway.

Made another heart for the contest. It too is ugly.

Played with stringer a bit. When I was driving up I thought that was going to be my focus for the day, but I got distracted between deciding that and actually firing up the torch. Still getting catepillaring when I try to do straight stinger but I played with scrolls anyways and got one bead I'm going to keep. it isn't pretty by anyone's standards, but it is my first real scrolls. I was using stringer in colours that change colour when they get warm, like red and yellow, and that really helped. I'll beat this yet.

Finally I made another fish. This one hasn't broken yet. Not the best fish on the planet but I'm quite pleased.

The other day I finished something I was working on for an exchange. It was a struggle to come up with a workable idea, and I had to ditch my first effort mid-way though, but in the end I'm very happy with what I ended up with. I've been playing around with circles a lot recently and this has circles, and repetition, and is very light - both in the hand and visually. I am so happy with it that I have started a similar necklace to keep for myself, but in green peruvian opal, not the blue.

Update, Thurs Feb 9th

Haven't been able to take photos yet because the camera isn't at home. I hope to tomorrow. I also have to take pictures of a necklace and earrings that I finished for a jewellery exchange I'm participating in. I had major creative block on this one - and then when I did have an idea I ran into technical difficulties and had to abort that attempt. In the end I'm quite pleased with the piece though - enough so that I will be making other variations on the theme and will be keeping at least some for myself.

Yesterday Katie pulled herself into a stand in her crib. I had a little panic and then lowered the mattress. Despite knowing she is doing things younger than Shannon did she still surprises me.

Sat Feb 4th played with fire

I am starting this up as a means of recording my sessions. I need to get in the habit of photographing the work I do, for when I get good at it, and I also need to stay focused on progressing or I may not.

Saturday was the first torching session since my daughter was born six months ago. I've been obsessive lately. I dream about glass, spend far too much time surfing lampworking sites, have spent too much money on glass, and books, and other people's beads... Don't get me wrong - I don't regret the purchases - but I wouldn't have gone as crazy if I wasn't desperate to get back to it.

I played with some of my new Lauscha colours, and used prepulled stringer only. Didn't stress over sticking to my "things to practice" list (I did mention I've been obsessing recently) but also didn't take all the time just to play. Twelve dipped mandrels. Two and a half hours. Eleven beads - the Lauscha transparent red didn't get molten enough before I tried to put it on the mandrel and pulled the bead release off - had to abort that one before it even started.

Right off the bat round beads seemed to escape me, so I decided not to stress over it. After all I won't be using these beads anyways, so why fight something I don't care about today, when I know it will come back another day.

Two scary hearts for the heart contest on lampworketc. The first one, red, turned out better but the gravity shaping got away from me and I ended up with a sharp hole. The second, trans purple, isn't nearly as nice and I got sick of working with it and just quit.

One triangle bead and one "rainbow" bead following corina's instructions in Passing the Flame. Purple and light green don't work as rainbows. The triangle bead had some good and some bad points. I fried the light blue (sooty) , and didn't completely cover all the white dots with the transparents, but the triangles got nice and pointy, and the encasing didn't smudge anything.

A couple of small beads with stringer around the belly. As usual I got caterpillaring with my stringer except for one time. It was thin red stringer and it just went on smoothly. There's hope! I tried again immediately but no luck.

Two small round beads to try the "fast and furious" one step method of making a bead - get all the glass into a molten gather and just wind it onto the mandrel in one fell swoop. I actually thought it went pretty well. Neither bead is perfect but neither one is horrid either. No sharp edges, mostly round (well, donutty), and if they are uneven I didn't quite fight to get them perfectly round anyway. One was the light transparent red from Lauscha which is a striking colour. I didn't strike it enough and part of the bead is red while the rest is a rusty orange. Kind of neat looking actually.

Two white hearts. I tried to pull the encasing layer down over the side of the white on the green bead, and I kind of botched it. Smeared the white a little bit, and ended up with sharp holes (plural). Probably could have fixed it by adding another layer of encasing but didn'tfeel like it so didn't. The peach whiteheart is much better! Almost a keeper. I blobbed on the tranparent, didn't wind it, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. There is the nteensiest bit of a sharp hole on one side, and there isn't a pucker on either hole, but it is nice and round and the white didn't smear at all.

The bead I was most pleased with, until it broke, was my first attempt at a fish. I think I squeeze beads too thin, since so many of my squeezed beads break, and although I was conscious of it with this one and tried to leave it thick, I think it must have thinned while I continued towork with it. He's not perfect, and I forgot lips - although after the fact I decided I quite liked him that way - but I would have annealed him if he hadn't broken. Despite expecting him to, in a way I think I'm pushing it doing anything remotely sculptural without a kiln, I got hopeful when he wasn't broken coming out of the fiber blanket. Then he did when I tried to remove the mandrel. Ah well... Next time maybe.