Here's the finished, fused pretties! I now have the findings on these and the glue is setting. I still have seven pairs of earrings to finish if the findings get here in time. ;)
I'm back to my "grueling" work pace. Rolling out of bed bright and early and getting right to work. As a result I have already fired a load of pretties to apply 22K gold decals and now have a "low fire" load cooking.
While the these have been/are cooking I have been busy gluing stuff up. Not only did I get the bails glued onto these I have also glued up a bunch of inexpensive adjustable rings and basic post earrings. So I now have those all restocked for this weekend.
My ex has cut one table down to 24 inches wide. Turns out they weren't 36 inches wide but 30 inches. And the legs are about 26 inches at the feet. Argh. Can't a person have some decentm sturdy tables without paying an arm and a leg?
Here's a sneak peek of what is cooking in the kiln tonight! A whole bunch of pendants and earrings. Most of these are for my new "Modern Bold" collection!
I have hit full blown "busy" mode. I have so much to do to get ready for my show season which starts this Saturday & Sunday with the opening weekend of the Central Oregon Saturday Market here in Bend. In the past I have had all my jewelry cleaned, re-priced and ready to go. And the majority of the prep work done. Between getting all that glass and other uncontrollable events I am a lot farther behind than usual! I had hoped to have an updated booth display. At this point I'll just be grateful if they can be trimmed down size-wise before then.
I have been up to more etching of designs into dichroic glass! The first picture shows two hand drawn, cut and etched designs. They are the pink and gold pieces. The gold is a salvage piece. I didn't leave the etching cream on it long enough the first time. This time I used some clear resist to re-do the pattern. I used clear resist and some dot stickers on the pinkish one! I used stars and dots to create the designs on the blue and silver pieces. I am really beginning to love stickers! I still have to finish cleaning the sticky off some of these before I fuse them.
The second picture is of a piece where I have tried a different technique of resist. My good friend Deronda thought of it. This is the resist technique used for etching metals-copper, brass, silver and I presume gold. Deronda sent me some ready to use resist transfers she printed. Notice the fine details! I think she had a great idea. I look forward to doing more! All these pieces are one inch by one and a half inches. You can find here beautiful beads and gorgeous etched copper pieces in her Artfire and Etsy shops, Deronda designs.
I have also came across something else I find quite interesting. It appears if I invest in the right kind of printer I will also be able to make my on decals for fusing! This will take more research though.
Other news-I'm sorry I haven't blogged for the past two days. I have just been too tired. Had a safe trip home from Hoaquim.
I finished this pendant last night. I sold it before I even got the bail on! A hand drawn and etched swirl design. An original piece of art. I look forward to creating and sharing more of this style.
Other news-My uncle passed away yesterday. So I am out of town until Saturday. I got all excited to get the chance to visit the little stained glass store up here that is only open Thursdays & Saturdays, 1pm to 7pm. So guess what-they are doing inventory. Bah humbug. I want more gold decals. I guess I will have to break down and order them online somewhere. Being on the west coast of the US I really, really hate ordering from the east coast. I'm too impatient!
Just wanted to take a moment and post. I have been doing a lot of necessary physical labor the last three days and feeling it. This is the third night in a row that my hands have been stiff and a bit sore. Mostly just stiff, slow moving and tired with a pinch of soreness thrown in. I guess I'm going to have to get one of those thingys the guys use to strengthen their hands. I thought I had pretty strong hands but after all handling all that glass Friday, the weeding yesterday and today have just kept it going, oh and doing the Sunday morning papers. Actually I don't think it's a lack of strength so much as a lack of stamina!
I came home to a pleasant surprise yesterday. The templates I ordered and did not expect to receive until after next weekend are already here! Tomorrow I'll be getting my order from Rio Grande. We will also be returning to the competition's store for another load of glass. This time Urorboros and Bullseye.
And now that I'm feeling about three weeks behind I will lose a couple of days to recovery from having two teeth pulled on Tuesday morning. Hoping I will at least be able to sit and wire wrap. Or clean and re-price my stock. Next weekend is my last "free" Saturday until after Labor Day Weekend next September. I will be putting my shops on vacation once I start cleaning and re-pricing.
Well here are the results from last night's fusing. I'm not sure I want to do much more confetti cabs. I have a red/orange/amber mix that shows well and a blue mix. I think that the purple and amber one looks good too. As for the others-I think they are to soft. We'll see. Upon a second look I've decide 3 out of five aren't too bad. And of course I forgot to mention how lovely the pink & green turned out!
Now the pendants turned out nicely and I LOVE how the etched pieces turned out! I've even sold the purple one with black swirls. Before it's finished. It will be getting a silver bail. What do you think?
Other news-We ended up with three truckloads of glass. I have managed to price and put away about a 150 pieces so far. It will take several days before we can get it all put away. I don't feel like I've accomplished much since there is SO MUCH! WE also ended up with all their Kokomo, Armstrong & Yougheny. But what a great deal we got!
Also I now have insurance *does little happy dance* Dad got me on to his.
I wanted to share a picture of what the glass looks like prior to firing into a slab!
The last of the custom cabs are in the kiln getting a final fire polish as I write!
I've managed to have a busy and productive day today. From housekeeping to running the Marketplace route (weekly store ads), shopping, picking up an unwell son to getting glass work accomplished. For me getting some of all these bits and pieces done is a very good thing. I tend to be very one tracked. I'll put in an ten hour day working with the glass, but I won't get anything else done either.
Here are the finished cabs. Upon closer examination I had to re-channel about two thirds of these and treat them as if the had devitrified. I etched them and have applied a boraxo solution to correct them.
Also note to myself-Do not EVER mess with my favorite fire polishing cycle. I may use a digital control box on my kiln, but the temperatures and holding time have been determined by my experience over time.I etched the "doodles" I had ready. Here are the results. Unfortunately I didn't leave the etching cream on long enough on two of my favorites. I like the hearts, green fern and the swirls best. I definitely think some of my doodles are better off done using some resist paper.
I have more glass fusing into slabs in the kiln too.
I'm cookin' tonight, glass that is!
This shelf of beauties are cooking as we speak. This is the final stage in the process. A trip though the kiln to give them a nice smooth, polished look and feel. The bottom picture turned out blurry, but the color of the white cabs is good.
As of tomorrow morning they will be taken from the kiln, wiped off and all ready for packing! Some will be sent off for others to have fun with while others will go into my supply shop and the rest into "The Hoard". I plan to have the completed orders ready for shipping by Monday.
BUT I'm not done making cabs yet. I have more slabs yet to fuse and more cabs to cut! Still haven't cut into the big piece of rainbow ripple on black! And then there are the confetti cabs I plan to make and some out of that lovely pink and green glass. ;)
It has been a long, busy, work filled day. Started at seven with getting up and taking Miss Lacey to the vet to be spayed. Then some breakfast and off to work I went.
I finished grinding the little square cabs and then I started on the channeling in between helping customers. I took a half hour lunch break about two pm then went back to it.
At three we took Brutus in for his vaccinations and picked up Miss Lacey. Here she is later feeling more herself, but very sleepy. She is falling asleep on my son and you can even see her naked belly!After we returned from the vet's office I went back to channeling cabs, took a short break for dinner, then back at it again until about six. Then it was time to get ready for class. Finally at nine fifteen I could relax! I still have more cabs to channel!
I've been working on some new pendants. Four are free hand, three are stickers and the last one is off a collage design.
The glass slabs are the rest of my work from yesterday. Now these are all ready to cut into cabs!
Today has been a very busy day. I also found out that I will be getting up at three am on Tuesday mornings along with Sundays to help dad with a paper promotion. Fifty extra papers that have to be bagged and given out to people on our paper routes. For the next two months.
And here are the results from last night's fusing batch! Some pendants to go with the sample earrings I made. These pieces are all cabs that I will be using Anaraku bails on as I feel they give these pieces a sleeker, more modern look.
But not the glass slabs. I will be cutting cabs out of them to wrap and/or sell. Now I can make some pendants in different colors to match the earrings I've made. I still need to fuse up a slab of turquoise, but I ran out of room. .
