Bread and Butter

This is more difficult to write about than I thought. Every sentence sounds like I’m whining.

You see, I’ve had to put the really fun (i.e. “creative”) stuff on the back burner and get myself back to work making those “bread and butter” beads. You know, the ones that bring in the money so I can pay off my credit card.

I don’t mind making them but after a while the process tends to burn me out and then there’s nothing left but ashes. Then I spend about 3 to 6 months recharging my batteries by doing nothing. Not a good way to do things because then I get cranky because I’m not out in the studio making beads.

This time around I thought I’d try and stick to some sort of schedule. Make the B&B beads for 4 days and then play around with the fun stuff. That hasn’t worked out so well.

Yesterday I managed to get a few sets done then found myself looking at one of my failed beads again and thinking, hmmm. I wonder …

Failed beads are those experiments that didn’t quite go where I’d planned but have the germ of possibility nestled within. I keep them in a bowl next to my torch. I usually put one or two up on the graphite pad so I can keep part of my mind engaged with what to do with them. (pardon the mess)

Here’s another basket of lumpy class beads and other attempts at trying something new:

So yesterday I was gazing at this one attempt at encasing “Michael Barley” style and I found myself reaching for the twisties and a mandrel and a black rod and off I went. An hour later I was still trying to get the encasing down around the end of the bead and swearing under my breath. Then I noticed all the darned itty bitty bubbles across the midsection. More muttering. Well it’s a good exercise in REMOVING glass, I thought as I set to work erasing the bubbles.

I finally gave up. It had been about 90 minutes, it’s was 9:30PM and the kiln takes about 2 hours AFTER I changed the sequence to cool off enough to shut off.

I still think this has possibilities:

But for now, it’s back to the B&B beads cause Citibank wants their dough. darn.

Bes, Isis, and I Have a Creative Discussion

Bes is a funny little Egyptian god. Look at a carving of him and his squatty body topped with big round-cheeked face, and you can’t help but laugh. He’s also funny in the hard to figure out sense. Is he good or bad? Helpful or mischievous?

Isis and scarabs always distract me when I look up Egyptian art and artifacts. Bes, I glance at, smile, and continue browsing. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that he was more of a cute devil than a devilish cutie. . . so I’d leave him alone and go torch a scarab or an Isis or maybe even an ankh.

Yesterday, I stopped and read this caption under Bes’ picture in a children’s book, Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Leon Ashworth:

“Another god who protected women was the cheerful little god of the home, Bes. He watched over women in childbirth and kept the family safe from evil spirits, snakes, scorpions, and other harmful creatures.”

That was enough to convince me that I needed to sculpt a Bes bead. I’ll be putting him in my Etsy shop, but I just might have to make another one just for me. . . who couldn’t use a cheerful little reminder that someone is watching over their household?

AngelinaBeadalina cruises library books and surfs the net, looking for ideas to torch and sculpt with glass, hoping to find interesting themes to jazz up her blog her Etsy shoppers. and entertain

Working with Powders. . .A Gift of Inspiration

Recently a dear friend of mine sent me a gift of metallic powder that she had on hand. When I opened my package and looked at it, I thought, “Okay, I HAVE to try this stuff!” I’m sure that those of you that make lampwork beads have used your share of powder and frits, but for the most part I have avoided them. I think the main reason is because I have to wear a respirator. It gets so hot and stuffy inside of those masks and I tend to feel like I’m being smothered.

Her gift really inspired me when I most needed inspiration. I haven’t spent as much time as I’d like in my studio lately, as I have been chained to my desk with the renovation of my website.

The little baggie of powder that peeked out from beneath my helter skelter stack of papers on the corner of my desk, became a major distraction. I kept wondering what I could do with it, or better yet, what it could do for me.

When the powder and I finally made it down to the studio, it demanded to be used with opaque pink glass, transparent pale amethyst and honey amber. I wanted to create a trio of beads that looked as sweet as sugar and spice and everything nice. Of course there had to be flowers too and I wanted a great deal of contrast so that the look would be sweet, yet dynamic. I have some more playing to do at the torch, but so far I am pleased with the potential that this little packet of gold powder has to offer.

A special thanks to my friend Barb!!

Big Beads - Mission Accomplished - Done!

When I last made a writing appearance here, I wrote about making big beads. Since then, I pushed myself to make bigger beads than I had ever made before, and happily, the exercise took me into a new, unexpected direction.

The largest surviving beads that I made were just over the 3.5 inch mark. I seem to be able to make beads larger, but they are impossible for me to get them off the mandrel in one piece! I think I need straighter mandrels.

Here is what I wrote before:

• You might ask why would I even want to make beads that large. Well, for one, it gives a whole lot more of real estate to decorate!

While that was a good thing, it was also, well - a challenge. I finally threw all caution to the wind and made a bunch of multicolor canes. Instead of my typical method of meticulously documenting everything I did, I just grabbed whatever color I felt like to make these canes. I rationalized, “I want a green multicolor cane, does it matter if I have the exact same set of greens next time?” Will I regret this? I don’t know - ask me in a couple of months. It sure was fun.

I made beads with swirly loops and I made beads with flowers. Here is my favorite:

(Photo by Hayley Tsang)

For now, I’m done making those huge beads. Maybe I’ll make more in the summer, when I can sit at the torch longer without my toes freezing! I’m now moving on to using these great canes on smaller beads.

Rosemarie Hanus makes big glass beads in her home studio in Northeast Ohio.

I’m Stuck.

I’m stuck.

Heeeeelp.

I stepped in a rut and I can’t get out.

Wait.

Actually, if it were a rut, I could just follow it to its natural conclusion, and at least have some jewelry to show for it — same ol’ same ol’ jewelry, but at least SOMETHING. And it wouldn’t be so dark in here.

No I do believe I’ve fallen into a HOLE.

There’s nothing down here but a little note stuck to the wall with chewing gum from the last occupant.

Hang on, let me see if I can read it …… the sun’s going down.

Oh.

It says, “You can get yourself out of your creative quandry.”

It says, “Imagine a box. Imagine another box. Stack the boxes. Climb up the boxes”.

It says, “When you’re out of the hole, STOMP all over those boxes. This is called ‘thinking outside the box’. Now you’re free. Now go CREATE.”

I may be down here a while.

When not stuck in a dark creative hole, Lori Anderson designs and blogs from her studio in Easton, MD. You can buy her work at her website, Etsy, and craft shows, and read more about her at her blog.