What do you draw?

Recently another lampworker posted a request that each person share a tip. There are so many good ones and I plan to share them on a blog in another time. It reminded me I wanted to share my drawing ideas.

On wonderful days when I have so many new ideas I write them down on 3x5 index cards. I will play around with shapes and drawings. My Nannie would draw faces for me when I was little. Most of the women were made using squiggles and lines and somehow they emerged look fabulous. Once the face was finished Nannie would draw in a arm holding a cigarette and the smoke floating above. They were very elegant. I had been thinking about her a lot lately and thought maybe I could do that in glass. My drawing didn't quite make it completely into the glass but the general idea has. I plan to make a larger bead and lay the glass to show my complete drawing.

 

Since making the first face bead I have really exploded with design. This one has the basic idea and a little bit of decoration. I've taken the bangs, those squiggle lines, and have added a lot more to give a full hair look on other beads. The back of the newer beads are much more detailed.

I keep my index card on the base of my glass shield and held up on the folger's coffee container that holds my dipped mandrels. The key is to put your drawings were you can see them and where they won't catch fire if a hot piece of glass hits it.

It's always good to remember you are still learning each time you sit down to create. Even if you are doing repetitive work you might find a way to make things more efficient or it begins a new idea. Play, practice, play and more practice will always help maintain skills. Practice keeps your skills sharp. Play keeps your mind working and stimulates so many ideas. If I ever get into a slump I resort back to making ruffles or spacers. Those are easy for me to make and most times just getting started will fuel my creative process.

Problem Solving by Moving Dots and Lines

Many folks who are starting out in glass are learning to add dots and stripes to decorate your beads. You can do so many things with dots and stripes to create amazing designs. But what happens when you didn't get that dot or line just so?

I have problem placing my dots and lines evenly over a bead most of the time. I'm right-handed so I tend to work from left to right. If I place a line I think is in the middle most often it looks like it's leaning to the left. If I'm placing dots at the edge of the left side my right side dots look uneven. I actively try to make them even but usually I have to result to using heat to move my dots and lines.

Let's start with dot placement. Have you placed dots to far to one side or another? You can move it with a marver into position fairly well. If you need that dot to expand don't mash it into the bead completely - just move the dot. If you need a small dot go ahead and smash it with a tool. Just don't overheat your bead. Heat only the area around the dot you need to smash. If you need to go over it several times it won't hurt the design. It's better to work slowly in this situation especially if you've worked on the design for a while.

The other method I like is to turn your bead at a 45 degree angle from the flame and let your dots move to the correct side. Remember the glass wants to move to the flame. Therefore if you just heat the area next to you dots or lines the glass will move in that direction. Practice this method to see if it will work for you.

Do you ever add a stripe of glass and it's becoming too fat melted? Take your bead out of the flame before the line completely melts into the glass. You can heat a part of the line and use tweezers or another tool to smash the line smaller. Melt it in gradually so it doesn't expand or just heat and push into the bead.

Do you add dots that are too big and need them smaller? Pull your work out of the flame and let the bead cool a bit. Reheat the large dot and pull the appropriate amount of glass off the dot with tweezers, pliers or whatever tool you have. I use the same glass rod or stringer to take away excess glass. You heat the dot while making sure your stringer or rod is warm enough for contact and pull away the excess glass.

Several times I've added stringer and need to remove it. If you work cooler you can pull your bead out of the flame and use pliers to take off the glass if it isn't melted into the bead. Just be sure not to pull too much and break your bead release. If the glass is opaque enough just add a little more glass, melt in and start all over.

I usually heat and smash dots and lines with my marver when I'm working with white and black. The black tends to bleed into the white and spiderweb. To counteract the problem I will heat the black and smash it into the white or the white into black. If you want this effect ignore the advice.

New Year 2016

It's a brand new year and I have been more productive in 2015 than the last three years. It's gratifying to have my beads selling again and receiving wonderful feedback from customers. I've worked really hard on some new designs and having my own signature style. I guess every artist gets there eventually. I am the type of person who gets bored with too much repetition therefore I usually jet from one style to another. In the last 10 years I've been fortunate to have my own space to develop my skills daily if I so chose.

If you aren't finding your heart's desire with beads the market has moved to Facebook. There are so many selling and auction pages with many styles of beads, jewelry, art and more. I use it now to sell my beads on a page called  Artisan Lampwork Beads for Sale. Please take a look at the daily offerings and auctions.

One of my favorite style of new beads I've created is called a Kostka. It means square in Russian. The beads are built with a base of two separate beads and then four columns open on all sides. Here is a photo of a set I sold this week.

The New Year

Hello all. Last year blended into 2014 without any fanfare in my little world. I was in the studio New Year's Eve and missed the ball drop in New York. So at midnight central time I ran into the RV and gave Ray a kiss into the new year.

For Christmas I made some poinsettias for earrings, pendants and a few for change a bead rings. The rings are wildly popular. The bead you see above was red purple from Moretti. The color I like most is CIM Sangre because it has a little transparency and makes the flower glow. I'm going to work on more flowers for the bead rings. Any suggestions folks?

Since the owls are so wildly popular I've downloaded owl clip art and made owl beads. I enjoy making murine for eyes and for their owly behinds. Personally I like the two-tone owls. The first one I made didn't have any designs on the back. Since the first owl I've made sure to decorate the back in case it flips over as a pendant. There is a store close to Driftwood that would like to buy owls for their display case and maybe some glass flowers for the rings. Wish me luck. 

The studio is getting some decorations. I was lucky at an estate sale and found some hand painted fish by Mike Quinn. His webpage is http://www.fishwithattitude.com/index.htm. I found seven and they will be on two walls to make me smile in the studio.

Bundle of Beads

This is my first photo posting a piece of jewelry that was made using my ruffle beads. Patricia Young is the wonderful designer of this piece. I was pleased to see that I was wrong when I said these ruffles didn't look good next to the wood.

Things have changed over the past two years since my last post. I'm now in Driftwood, TX with the studio next to my RV. Ranches surrounding the RV and studio are amazing. So many animals and wildlife around. The sunsets are amazing and I get a daily show from my studio nearly every evening.

I have been playing with images of sea creatures creating beads from those images. For instance I have been looking at sea urchins for about a month. I thought I was so clever with my designs until I saw some other beads based on sea urchins. I should know by now nothing is new but I was happy to see other creative ideas.

The picture to the left is a recent pull of beads for earring pairs. I haven't cleaned them up but when I do I think I'll have an earring making marathon. Anyone is welcome in the studio to join the mayhem as long as we keep the number to two extra people. More folks can join in if we make it outside the studio. I have a table outside where we could play with the beads all day.

New Ideas & Growth

I was blessed to have been able to visit the McNay Museum in San Antonio yesterday. Seeing the paintings, carvings, statues and the many other objects on display fills my artistic soul. I spent quite a while making sketches of monsters being slain by the saints. There was a wonderful carving featuring vines that I sketched out. Now I need to figure out how to recreate it in glass. With this visit I am able to sit down and make out a list of what I need to do to create the items I visualize.

Because I'm ADHD I tend to forget what I'm working on or have little focus for the task at hand. The way I deal with this problem is to try and remember to take my medication early enough in the morning so I'm not awake all night. The second thing is to sit down and make a list of things I want to accomplish in glass that day. My list could be simple as making some murrini and stringer. It could be as complicated as writing out lists of supplies to make a bead or set of beads. This might include getting some photos and sketches ready to make these beads.

Sitting down at the torch with glass and no plan might be a waste of time. On days I might have nothing on my list I try and play with the glass. If I'm not being productive I have to sit back and think what I'm going to do. I might not have any inspiration and need to come back at another time. Then there are those magic moments. You have glass laying on your table. There are stringers everywhere. You might have a little bit of silver foil laying around. And then all of a sudden your hands are twisting that mandrel as the glass is layered to create that bead.

I came to the conclusion tonight that I'm on another growth breakthrough. I needed to make some presents and had one idea that turned into many. Without the classes I've taken through the years I don't think that this growth would have been so spontaneous. It's with practice, experimenting and education that develops growth.

I absolutely love this time of year. It's been so beautiful the last few days. We had a bit of rain today but the weather guy said we'll have sun tomorrow.

Over the weekend I took Caitlin Hyde's class at Blue Moon Glassworks here in Austin. It was a blast and I learned so much. I think this was my favorite class so far. I loved how we took an image apart and learned how to create an image on glass. I was taught how to move the glass a little easier although I'm still practicing.

I made this bead and image after drawing it a few times and I'm thankful when my boyfriend pulled it out of kiln this morning he recognized it was a dove. He woke me up and said I did a good job. He loved all the beads I brought home from the class.

Now I'm off to make more beads.