Petal Progression: Glass Tabs and Lentils

When I say the words ‘floral beads’, what do you picture?

My guess is that you’re thinking of encased, plunged flower beads, or those pink cased stringer roses. Or maybe beads with raised blooms, pretty watercolour effect petals or even sculpted flower beads perhaps?

All of those floral beads are fabulous and I love them but for the past few months I’ve been trying to come up with different ways of decorating beads with flowers. I wanted to make floral beads that weren’t donut-shaped or round. I wanted them to be relatively flat and to incorporate a bold flower design.

In February I came up with these lentils featuring an hibiscus design.
Although I was pleased with them I felt the design could be more delicate. Also, the way the I created the pattern meant that I was limited to using just two colours of opaque glass. I’m sure that I will revisit this hibiscus design at some point and I’ll do a spot of fine-tuning to it.

A few weeks back I saw a fabric design that was bright red and covered in white outlines of flowers. I immediately knew that I just had to try and make a bead similar. I did a few doodles and came to the conclusion that the only way to get the effect I wanted was to literally ‘draw’ the flower outline onto the bead with stringer. Up until then all petals and flowers that I’d placed inside and on top of beads were done in an arrange-the-dots sort of fashion.

So I pulled some very fine stringer and set about drawing white flowers onto bright red lentils. It took me quite a few to get the geometry and positioning just so but when it comes to beads and fine stringer I have endless patience and will not be beaten!

I made more flowery lentil beads in several different colours but again, although I was pleased with the overall effect I felt that I could maybe take the design one step further. And that’s exactly what I did when I made these tabs last week.

The basic flower is the same as the one on the red lentils but this time I’ve added some stamens and I’ve given each flower a slightly raised centre. I’m really happy with the way they’ve turned out. I’ve moved the design along but I feel that there is still some mileage in it. I have some ideas that I’m going to try out in an attempt to take this flower drawing project another step further.

I’ll keep you posted . . . . .

Laura Sparling is a full-time beadmaker in Southampton, UK. She sells her beads through her website www.beadsbylaura.co.uk.

Can I Get a Do-Over?

Remember when we were kids, playing a game, and we messed something up, and we’d ask for a “do-over”? Most of the time, the do-over was granted, because who amongst us hasn’t goofed up at some point or other, and would need to ask for the same at a later date?

I apply the Do-Over Principle to making jewelry. It’s a pretty cool principle — if something hasn’t sold for a while, instead of relegating it to the bottom of the jewelry pile, it gets a Do-Over.

Take this necklace, for instance:

I really liked it. The dichroic glass has no stringing hole — only the center hole — so making a lark’s head knot with silk ribbon seemed a natural choice. Instead of knotting it to hold it in place, I used a large-hole silver bead, and then wonder of wonders, I found an orphan lampwork bead that complimented the dichroic glass beautifully. I finished the ends long, with two sliders, so the wearer could choose what length the necklace should be, put it over their head, pull the ribbon ends, and there you go.

It didn’t sell. Nope, nope, didn’t sell.

There were a couple of things nagging me about the necklace. One, the picture looks great as it lies there. But when you pick it up, the ribbon wanted to slide to the left, to the narrower end of the triangle, and nothing I did would stop that. It wouldn’t slide a LOT, but just enough. Second, the ivory ribbon, even though clean as a whistle, kept making me think, “that needs a wash”. Maybe because of the edge stitching? And maybe people didn’t understand, how the adjustability worked and just thought it was a complicated mass of string. At any rate, pretty glass, but it wasn’t finding a home.

Here it is after a Do-Over:

I changed the orientation of the triangle by gluing a bail on the back of the glass. I decided to pick up the pink in the glass by using a richer-color ribbon. The ends are finished, with a chain extender. I slid two sterling bead caps onto the ribbon to hug the bail to make it look less empty, and then added the lampwork bead back onto the ribbon. The hole in the bead is small enough that it will stay still unless you move it, and I like the Fidget Factor.

I have to admit, I still like the design of the first necklace better, with the lark’s head knot and all. But I’ve learned something important in jewelry design — sometimes the things you aren’t as excited about sell the fastest, and it’s important to make yourself experiment with things, even if they occasionally lead you into spaces you normally don’t occupy. You just never know what will happen — you may hit the ball out of the park with your next Do-Over.

Lemonade Stand for Art

There is a challenge I am issuing myself and I think I can relate it to a lemonade stand if I try. See if you can follow me with this…

What is a lemonade stand about? I usually had them when I was little. My Mom or Dad would take me and my sister to our grandparents’ house. They lived on a golf course, so it was easy to set up a little stand by the 3rd green that was in there backyard. I think we charged a quarter a cup. Most golfers would buy a glass and give us a big smile. Others were nasty grumps that would fill their cup at the water cooler on the next tee.

But then, why lemonade? I know for one, it is because it is tradition/cliche. But then again, it is/was because it was what was on hand. Personally, I can’t stand lemonade and in fact, it was the only thing that my Mom ever got sick on while she was pregnant with me. I have to choke it down. So my thinking is there was always lemonade around because I had drank up all the other flavors. It was the leftovers, lol.

I think lemonade stands are about making do with what you have to get something you want. I wanted to sell lemonade to earn money for things. I can’t remember anything I wanted to get off the top of my head, but I am guessing it was candy. We weren’t well off people, my parents couldn’t afford to give us allowance, so if we wanted something we had to do things to earn it. In hine site, it was probably very good we had to earn things rather then having them handed to us all the time. I think it is a lesson my kids need to learn (but we’ll save that discussion for another day).

A few weekends ago, while I was cleaning the garage, I did a lot of organizing to my glass desk space. There was a bucket full of rods I had been lazy about putting away. There is an overflowing tub of shorts that I saw I had been adding some not-so-very-short shorts to, too. As I was trying to put away all those rods, and sort through all those not short shorts, something dawned on me. I have a ton… a ton… of glass. Okay, maybe not a ton, but certainly enough to last weeks, if not months. I have gotten in the habit of ordering glass every time I run out of a color. No more transparent teal (one of my favorites), well, let’s put in an order… oh and while I am at it, I am kinda low and turquoise… oh and isn’t that a pretty shade of copper… might as well get some ink too… my orders end up costing me $200-$300 at a time (sometimes even more). And I place 5-6 of those orders a year. The result is my fully stocked glass rack and too many colors to count that are not getting used.

I really started to think I am being too wasteful. And the more I organized, the more I realized that I really need to start making do with what I have. The thoughts organized further and I started to think what a great artistic challenge it could be. Inevitably, I am going to run out of my favorite colors, just like I would drink up all the packs of Strawberry flavored Kool-Aid first. But what a challenge it could be to find inspiration in colors I don’t usually use. Like yellow… hello… doesn’t this necklace rock? And I can’t remember the last time I ever used yellow!!

Waiting as long as possible to reorder and making do with what I have will be helpful in other ways too. Being that we are purchasing a new house, my husband and I have put each other on extremely tight spending leashes. Absolutely NO unnecessary spending!! Now, glass isn’t “unnecessary”, it is a very obvious business expense. But I know I could be more conscientious about what I am doing. I could certainly use my “lemonade” colors (this by no means applies to yellow only) and earn some pennies for new things I want for the new house (like a new sofa!).

Do you think you could do it? Could you go as long as possible without reordering supplies? Could you challenge yourself to be creative with alternate colors you wouldn’t normally use? Could you be resourceful, penny-wise, and artistically inventive? Could you have “A Lemonade Stand of Art”?

Kerry Bogert is blogging about her glass art beads and jewelry from her home studio in Ontario NY. Check her work at www.kabsconcepts.com

My Other Studio

I have another studio that has nothing at all to do with glass. In this other studio I work with colors and flame to change, rearrange and transform an organic material into something all together different. Wait, no that is what I do in my glass studio. Well, maybe the two are not so different after all.

My other studio is my kitchen. It is one of my favorite places to be. I enjoy making people happy with what I cook and I love the process so much. For me, cooking is like glass, it is part science, part art and all passion. Previously I worked as a chef and although I do not do it full time anymore, I still love it.

I am catering a gourmet dinner for four this weekend and today I am playing in my “other studio”. I am doing some prep work for the dinner. Things that have to be made ahead of time for the best flavor. I am making soffritto today and I am making garlic comfit. The garlic comfit is not so time consuming but a good soffritto takes about 4 or 5 hours. By the time Saturday comes both of these should have full flavor and enhance the dishes I am using them for.

As with glass, in cooking the process is a huge part of what draws me in and keeps me intrigued. I love to watch glass as it reacts to the heat, to the flame chemistry, to items like silver and to other glasses that you mix with it. Today, with the soffritto I am making, that is what I am doing as well. The process is what is important and there is a reaction happening.

I am creating a reaction by applying slow heat, very slow heat so as not to burn it. Moisture is getting slowly driven out and sugars, acids and other flavors are getting concentrated and mixing together. I can see a very gradual change as the heat begins to caramelize the sugars. Heat control is of vital importance today.

I am also making an aioli with the garlic comfit I made. Again it is the process that intrigues me here. An aioli is an emulsion made basically with egg, oil, lemon juice and garlic (a mayonnaise). The acid in the lemon juice will help de-nature the proteins in the egg and that will allow the water in the egg and lemon juice to get caught up in the proteins of the egg and it will bind together with the oil. Sounds complicated but it really isn’t and it is very tasty.

The color pallet is also a natural draw for me. The stark contrasts of red tomatoes with the pale yellow and whites of onions or the earthen muted tones of garlic cloves against a sprinkling of deep green chives. There are so many possibilities.

The flavors again are part science and part art. I like to layer flavors so you get hints of different tastes as you eat. I like contrasts in flavor, texture and temperature. Of course you take the science, the art, the colors and the flavors and then add fire and who wouldn’t love it?

So, today I will play in my other studio and maybe go play with glass later. Somehow though I know they are both related. Creativity is often where you allow it to be.

Otter

Otter is a glass artist who blogs from The Pacific Northwest.

Tool Testing (aka A Great Way To Get New Ideas!)

I was recently asked by Amy O over at www.zooziis.com if I might be interested in testing a new top secret tool for her. She said she liked the new things I was doing with Mixed Media Art and thought the new press might lend itself to things I could use in my pieces.

First of all, I gotta say… I was totally honored to be asked. Secretly, in the back of my tortured-in-high-school-always- picked-somewhere-in-the-middle-for-dodgeball mind, I hoped that someday I would be “good enough” to be asked to test something. LOL… silly, I know. (hmmm… now that I have had that secret wish filled, I wonder what one will replace it.) Anyway…

The tool is fantastic! Amy came up with the idea of having interchangable word plates that allow you to press messages into the surface of glass. They work with the texture plate presses she already has out. She let me choose a few words that I wanted to play with. I chose LOVE, DREAM, CALM, CREATE, & JOY. I picked words that spoke to me. I think JOY is such an under rated word, don’t you? It isn’t used nearly as often as it should. Looking back though, I should have asked for LIVE and LAUGH to go with LOVE because that would make a really sweet bracelet!

When the new tool arrived, I knew right away what I wanted to do with it… off mandrel flat back discs!! (what? wasn’t that what you were thinking? LOL) I think one of the reasons Amy asked me to test the tool was that she knew I wouldn’t go for the “supposed to” way of using it. Paired with cabochon mandrels by Inspiration Toolworks, I was able to get out of my head just what I had in mind. I love these new clasps!! And I also used a couple in ACEOs that I have been working on (shown up top).

Eventually Amy gave me a gentle nudge and asked if I had tried using it on mandrel as it was designed. I was so excited by the results. I found that words came out really crisp and clear with opaque glass and more subtle in transparent colors. Both very cool, very inspiring findings. I love the texture of the word in the surface of the glass. You can run your fingers across the bead and feel the bumps of each letter. I love love love jewelry you can play with while you wear it, and these beads definitely lend themselves to that.

Anyone else ever tested tools? Did you find it inspiring? I would love to hear more about it. And if you make beads and get one of these tools, I would love to see the kinds of things you came up with for it!!

Kerry Bogert is blogging about her glass art beads and jewelry from her home studio in Ontario NY. Check her work at www.kabsconcepts.com.