Coaxing Color from Terranova and Luna

I’m continuing to practice with Terranova and Luna, the two new glasses from Double Helix. I’m finding that Terranova gets brighter color when it comes in contact with silver foil. I’ve used this technique in a set I made recently, and I’m really happy with the results. The Terranova turned light blue and green in the places where the stringer ran across the silver foil. They’re done on a base of Opal Yellow:

Most of my practice time has been spent with Terranova, though I’m moving now into beads that combine Luna and Terranova. In the bead below, I’ve mixed Luna and Terranova together in a stringer and applied it to a base of pure Luna. This bead was my first attempt at that technique. Jed from Double Helix mentioned that mixing the two glasses would produce a color similar to the old Terra. I’m not having that kind of luck so far, but here’s a sample bead:

Like with any new glass or technique, it takes practice and trial and error until you get that breakthrough ‘aha!’ moment. Yesterday I did some more experimenting with mixed Luna and Terranova, and I am starting to get better results. I don’t have photos of those beads yet to show you, but they came out a little darker than the bead above. I think that’s because I’m getting more color striking to occur within the glass, as I’m figuring out the level of heat and the best cycle of heating/cooling to use. I do like the honey and red colors I got out of the bead above, though.

Apparently Jed has made a new batch of old Terra, which I’m really looking forward to. Until then, back to the bead bench for a little more blood, sweat and tears! In a good way!

Luna and Terranova

I’m a big fan of Double Helix glass and use many of their colors in my beads. One of my recent beadmaking challenges was learning to use their Terra glass. I’d finally practiced with it enough that I was getting good consistent color, and I was loving the bead sets I made with it. Terra had become my favorite glass.

I now have only two 3-inch pieces of Terra left on my bench! I tried ordering more last month but was sad to hear that Double Helix had discontinued making it. Instead they’ve come out with two new silvered glasses, “Terranova” and “Luna.” I ordered a 1/4 pound of each to try them out.

So far I’m finding them tricky to strike, but then Terra was really difficult in the beginning too. Since I’ve practiced so much with Terra, I now have a little bit better idea how to strike color with these new glasses but it’s still going to take practice. Here are my very first experimental beads, first the Luna:

And the Terranova:

The large button focal is Terranova and Luna swirled together and encased. The white speckles on the beads are silver deposits that are part of the color of this glass. …okay and probably some dust too

I’ve made some more beads with Terranova since these photos were taken. I can understand now that I had not been getting the glass hot enough in these practice beads, and so the range of color is not as broad as it could be. The glass didn’t reach a good striking temperature, mostly because I’m used to working cool. Still, the translucent honey-amber color of the Luna is nice, and you can see more color in the Terranova beads when you look at them in the sunlight.

The color is not bad for a start, but the beads I made yesterday with Terranova really blow these practice beads out of the water. I’ll show photos of them in my next post.

By the way, my main inspiration to keep practicing with Terranova and Luna is that Double Helix has offered to make the old Terra again if we can make these new glasses “sing.”
Yay!!!

Back to the torch!
Have a great day everyone!

Working Large Can Inspire New Ideas

Linda Morrison’s post about “working big” was quite inspiring to me to because it served as a reminder of how I began to evolve my skill as a bead artist. Last year I started making wine stoppers for several of the wine festivals in which I had scheduled to be a vendor. Making those large scale beads not only opened my mind to new ideas, but it served as a much large canvas for me to work on. I was able to achieve techniques that frustrated me when trying to apply them to small bead bases.

Not long after I made the wine stoppers, I began making focals beads. Again, another large canvas, but a bit smaller and easier to manage than a wine stopper sized bead. After months of making focals, I was finally able to apply what I had learned to much smaller beads without the level of frustration that I was experiencing before.

This year, I won’t be vending at any of the wine related events. . .Wine stoppers are not a great seller on my site either and lord knows I have no time to try and market anything other than loose beads. Still yet, I wanted to explore the idea of the super sized bead all over again. I needed the creative stimulation as I feel that I have been stuck in a rut lately.

I was more than ready for a fresh, new concept and I think that my idea served me well because it provided me with other things to think about. I had been hording a bunch of brass hardware that my husband picked up for me a year ago at a trade show. My intention was to use them to dress up my wine stoppers and maybe make a few drawer knobs, but to my surprise I was able to put together an unique assembly that would serve as a fan pull, once a large bead was added. In the end, it also gave me a gentle nudge towards the design evolution that I was so wishing for.

The fan pull in the first picture has a Moroccan flare. When I was assembling it, I remembered how much I love Moroccan design. There is something magical and even, sensual about the style. When I made smaller beads this past Sunday, the inspiration from the Moroccan fan pull was still with me as I explored the design concept further. I made a bead trio, a vessel and large tube bead.

Thank Linda for the inspirational post!!

Lydia Muell is a glass bead maker who blogs in her studio from Lexington, NC. For more information please visit here website at ashtonjewels.com.

Learning to Make Disk Beads

My latest challenge has been learning to make disk beads. The shape looks simple at first, yet (for me anyway) the disk shape is taking a lot practice to master. I’ve made hundreds of disk beads over the past month or two, and I think I’m only beginning to get the hang of it!

Here’s one of my recent sets. I’ve started by making chunky disks which are easier for me than the really thin ones. I love fall colors, so I’ve blended lots of earth-tones together in one set:

The challenge with making disk beads starts with winding a very narrow “footprint” of glass onto the mandrel. I have to touch only the very tip of the molten end of the rod onto the mandrel when I start winding. If I can do that, then the bead is more likely to stay thin. Also, a wide footprint can leave sharp edges around the holes.

If I’ve made a nice narrow footprint, and managed to wind on more glass as evenly as I can, the next challenge is to keep the disk shape. The bead tends to collapse on itself and become wider as it’s heated.

There are a few techniques I’ve been using to keep the shape upright and narrow. One is running the edges of the bead along the flat side of my marver, which cools the glass and helps it keep its shape. I also use my mini-mashers and run them around the bead (very lightly so they don’t leave dents in the glass).

Even with these techniques I often end up with a bead that does not have a round disk shape. It’s more like a wonky square or triangular disk! I’ve decided that’s okay if I’m going for an organic look, yet I’d love to be able to make a nice round disk shape like a coin. Sometimes I have to add bits of glass on one side of the disk or the other to try and round it out. A little trick I’ve discovered is to lightly heat the edge of the disk that’s too high, and very gently use a cool rod to pull the hot glass towards the side that’s too low.

Here is another set I’ve made recently, this one is etched:

This is my latest disk set, made from Double Helix’s “Nyx” glass. I’m giving thin, textured disks a try. They’re not “perfectly round” but I think the funky look suits them:

I’ve always loved the beads made by our resident “Disk Queen” here on Watch Me Create, Kerry Bogert. Her beads are a big part of what inspired me to give disks a try. Nothing like trying something to gain a vast appreciation for the skill involved!

I think I’m obsessed with disk beads now. Back to the torch!

Ocean Focals, Building on Inspiration

In my last blog, I had written about revisiting the ocean-style focals that I had so enjoyed in the past. Although I was pleased with the focals that I had made a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t help thinking that I could do something a bit more expressive with the concept.When I was thinking of ways to evolve my ocean inspired focals, many things came to mind. . . Starfish, shells, waves, coral, cute little fish, scary sharks, ships and rusted old anchors. I decided that I liked the idea of a rope and anchor the best, but I wasn’t sure how to arrange them without over powering the beautiful ocean background that they would be applied to. This type of thing tends to be really difficult for me I am always so concerned about how the elements of my beads are ultimately balanced within a design. Admittedly I can be a bit obsessive-compulsive about even the tiniest of details. It’s exhausting!!

With an idea locked in to my mind, I hit the torch hoping for the best. I made a few twisties of goldstone, silvered rattan, silvered cinnamon and crystal clear glass, hoping that they would make a fabulous sparkling rope. Once the twisties were ready to go, I pulled some metallic silver glass to use for the anchor.

Finally, I was ready to make my bead. I started with a heavily reduced base of Kronos, wrapped with silver blue dichroic and eventually a thick layer of clear encasing glass. I liked it as it was so I was a bit scared to add anything to it. You know how that goes. . . Sometimes you can add too much and end up with a total mess, right?

Well, I gathered my nerves and began to apply the metallic stringer into what would hopefully resemble an anchor. Once that was done, I was thinking “Ah, so far so good. . .!!” and moved on to wrapping the twisties around the top of the bead, sort of letting them overlap a bit. Ooh!!! I was pleased!! So much so that I had to make two little friends for my focal and it grew into a trio.

Lydia Muell is a glass bead maker who blogs in her studio from Lexington, NC. For more information please visit here website at ashtonjewels.com.