Here are a few beads I made this weekend. I was rather pleased with the big bead, which is about the size of a quarter. Although I've acid etched a lot of beads, this was my first attempt at applying a resist on clear dots to keep them glossy while the rest of the bead goes matte as the surface is eaten away. I used a contrasting color nail lacquer to coat the dots. The cool thing is the different finish makes the dots look like they are glowing.
I thought you might like to see what goes into making one of these beads. I'm always talking about "silvered ivory" and here you can get some sense of what that process involves. The ivory rod at the top is the core glass of all these beads shown. With the stone-looking beads, I made the core roughly the size I wanted the finished bead to be, and then wrapped on scrolls of the two twisted stringers you see here.
The greenish stringer is two Moretti glass (from Italy, a soft soda glass that melts at roughly 1700 F) colors called Sage and Avocado. To make the other stringer, I took a rod of ivory and put about 1.5" stripe on one side of cobalt blue transparent and on the other side of the ivory I put an equal stripe of cranberry transparent, cobbed another ivory rod on the other side of the tip and then twisted as I pulled the molten mass into a stringer about the size of a pencil lead.
The cool thing about these colors is they are highly reactive with ivory - ivory is much more fun than white because the oxides in that glass make for a very unpredictable finish, which is more exciting than the expected. OK. Yes, I'm pathetic and very easily thrilled. Ivory goes bananas with turquoise blue (it makes little black rims around the blue bits) and other fun stuff I'll show you some other time.)
Anyway, after I doodled these stringers onto the core ivory beads, I wrapped a leaf of fine silver (.999 as opposed to the .925 purity of sterling) onto the bead burnishing it with a graphite marver to ensure all-around contact, and melted it in, causing further reactions with the oxides in the colored stringer and the ivory. On one of the smaller beads, if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see how this silver has turned into something of a dusting of minute silver balls. I love the way the silvered beads have a stone-like appearance, and now they are etched, they feel like smooth rocks, too. Neat.
Finally, I daubed a series of ivory dots onto the bead and then did a cobalt transparent nubbin. I love nippled beads - the texture is fun, and the form is pleasing.
The other bead is a core of ivory encased in clear transparent, and then spiraled with the avocado/sage stringer. I then put ivory dots around to give the clear green more dimension.
These actually look much better in person, though I am far from a master beadmaker. My beads are just a means to an end, and I make them solely to have something to my taste to swag on my jewelry. They are a means to an end, but they amuse me mightily, and the keep me off the streets. Somewhat.
6 comments:
Phlegmmy, I didn't realize you had to do so much work to make a bead. For e.g. I though the twisted bars came like that - twisted - and all you had to do was melt and attach. I'm also fascinated with the chemical reactions you narrated because it's not like attach small blue onto big stone - and now I know there are a lot of things (metals?!) I don't really see or are minute but you use to get those chemical reactions. Fascinating. So many steps, equivalent to spinning and dyeing my own wool before weaving - I'm too lazy for that for now.
Thank you for a short tutorial. Fascinating.
This is so fascinating! I applaud your craft and thank Meg for sending me over (I'm a little jetlagged, from Vienna via New Zealand to Dallas *g*). I will be back, love what I've seen,
merry Christmas from Vienna,
Merisi
If you ever get to the point where you'd like to sell individual beads, I'd be interested in seeing them....I too have trouble finding lampworked beads in color combinations that suit me and I like some of yours a lot.
meg - Thanks so much! I thought it would be fun to introduce the process a bit. It sounds more intimidating than it is - like so many things in life - it just takes getting in there and doing it. The time seems to fly when you're in the middle of it because it's fascinating to watch happen.
merisi - thank you and welcome! Nice to get a compliment from someone living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world - you must know an awful lot about beauty!
beadbabe49 - I'm greatly complimented, and I'd definitely be willing to sell individual beads. Once we are into the new year, I plan to put up a lot more stuff and a lot more regularly. Let me know if there's a color combination you crave, and I'll try and whip something up. Cheers, and Merry Christmas!
the ivory finish is just a miracle. its almost organic, like a found object on the shore!
you have GOT to do the glowing blue and the tiny silver balls on one of the clear frosted beads.
this rocks, fa. i work with beads in my embroidery and i appreciate the 'specials' i buy as tiny crown jewels. yours qualify.
Wow, first nations - you pay me a great compliment and I'm deeply flattered. I'll hook you up with some orphan beads sometime, ok? Thanks so much - you made my day! I'll try what you've suggested - it'll be cool, I know.
Post a Comment