Krisit Bowman, Copper Big Hole Challenge REVEAL!

Hello friends!

Wow, well I had so much information and trials for this post I had to write an earlier post about the process of my silver glass beads just so you could actually get through this blog without your eyes burning out of the sockets from so much reading! lol.

Well I am so pleased with my piece I just don't have words for it. I did so many new things I have not tried before and had wonderful success with them(the best kind!)!

So I will do my best to keep things somewhat short. Please feel free to skim to the design, I know there are a lot of participants for this hop ;) 

My Copper Big Hole Donut...

 

My donut came beautifully wrapped!

Here is the one I received!

It looks like a flowery sun to me. I saw wonderful hints of pinks and oranges. I did my best to capture the color, but you can't quite see it all in the photo. So now to figure out the design and make beads to match....

 

A sketch for the pendant I wanted to create as the focal point for my necklace.

Making the Beads....

I started out with using some silver glass that I had. I only had ONE rod of this very expensive glass so I had to not only learn quickly how to make the glass SING, but also save some for my actual designs!

Lucky I was a fast learner and had some really great results. I took some notes and the next day sat down to make the beads and headpins.

SUCCESS again! What a lucky girl! Ooohhhhhhhhh the COLORS!

Now to create more beads to finish up the design.

 

Some smaller size "Spiral Fire Coins". OMG look at the color and luster!

 

A "Fire Flower" connector ring. Oh the colors again!!

Some signature "Wing Dings" "Fire Dings" to match! I used some wonderful odd lot glasses to get all of the best pinks, corals and oranges!

BUT... I still need more. How about FINALLY cracking open my Painting with Fire book from Barbara Lewis?!

The Enamel failure and finally SUCCESS...

 

Safety first! Protect your lungs from that fine glass powder and your eyes from the flame!

 

Crock pot, vermiculite, enamels.  They did just post in the forum that these "Annealing Bubbles" worked pretty well too.

Day 1... Kinda burnt? Oxidozed? They chipped too :( Maybe I need a crock pot and vermiculite?

 

Day 2... crock pot and vermiculite. Kinda better, but still chipping. *hiss*

I talked with Barbara and she was telling me she had great success using dark annealed steel wire(which I love to use for my lampwork glass heapins for its strength, color and lack of leaving fire scale everywhere).

I guess I will at least play with my wire ideas with the junk ones to see how they work up.

I just LOVED this new way Staci did her bails and wanted to give this same idea  a try, but Genea style....

 

 

 

I like this idea too. How can I work Karen's new patinated ring into my design??? Hmmmm....

THIS TIME, I wasn't taking anything but success! My days were running out to make my necklace and the weather was BALLZ HOT! I fired up my torch to make my beads and enameled my pins. This time I put them in the kiln with my beads.

Here's what came out!! :D:D:D

 

I can't believe how much better these worked and turned out! YAY!! Off to coat them in Renaissance wax and then wire away. 

Wire it up!...

 

I wanted to make some sort of "cage" to hold my "spiral fire coins". I made them pointy to match the flower/sun rays on my donut.

 

Hmmm now I need a clasp! I remember Staci had posted a link to Cindy Wimmer's clasp for our Alice Blog hop. I just LOVE how it turned out! Did you see I added some of Marsha Neal's silk cording as well? :)

Now to figure out how to wire up my focal and get the "spiral fire coin" inside.

 

Hmmm.....

Getting there....

 

Now THAT is more like it!!

 

Now for some wired loopy links to make a chain. Maybe some open hoops?

 

Some assembly of my wired pieces with my "fire flower" connector ring.

 

Some recycled Sari Silk.

 

TADA!!! The necklace! I think this is the most ARTISTIC piece I have EVER done to date! I am so pleased with the design and all of the handmade elements I used to create my piece! *dreamy sigh*

 

What it looks like worn :)

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my finished creation! 

Now go check out what everyone else created!

KristiBowmanDesign

Dragonfly Close

Karen Williams

Staci Louise

Teathered Cat

Pine Ridge Treasures

Jennifer Cameron

Karen Totten

GeneaBeads(You are HERE)

Linda Larsen

Barbara Lewis 

SueBeads

The Crafthopper
LamplightCrafts
Spice Box Designs
All the Pretty Things
Jean A Wells
Kristen Stevens

xo Genea

HOT, HOT, HOT- Kalypso Silver glass Discoveries & Tutorial

Hello friends!

Well it is HOT outside for sure! I guess that makes this a perfect time to post for a few reasons. 1. It's too hot to turn on a kiln and torch inside when it's about 104 outside. 2. These firey got glass colors are prefect for the hotness outside.

So you may have been seeing my beads pop up on my facebook as I have been making them. I was fortunate to have a ton of luck with the silver glass considering I don't really use it much in my work. The glass will run you about $100lb which is CRAZY expensive for glass. The glass is so pricey due to it's high silver content.

I ventured out on my silver glass discovery to match my  Copper Big Hole focal for Kristi's Challenge.

Here was the donut I received from Kristi. I didn't quite capture all of the gorgeous pinks and oranges in my donuts heat patina, but trust me, they are there.

 

Here is where my adventure began. I checked out a few quick notes from Double Helix to see how to work the glass. I had all of ONE rod to not only learn, but to create some special beads! Yikes! How's that for pressure?! Here is what I learned...

From left to right:

B1- effetre White, Rubino, super clear, Kalypso and super clear. 

B2- effetre Clear, effetre Orange, Kalypso.

B3- Messy Peace, Messy Cranberry, Messy Clear, Kalypso, and Messy Clear.

*B4- Peace base, Cranberry, Messy Clear, Kalypso, Messy Clear- I got these gorgeous results by layering all of the glasses to Kalpyso. 

You super heat kalypso as you melt it into the surface. The glass will somewhat look clear. You want it kind of hot and soupy.  Then you let the bead cool til the glow completely dies out. Check your bead under you work table where it's dark. I then turned down my oxygen to make a reduction flame. I flashed the bead in and out of the flame until the silvery luster appeared. Keeping your bead out of the flame, turn back to a neutral flame, and encase in clear, taking special care NOT to get your bead directly into the flame as you will burn off the luster you just added. When you have encased the bead, bring it to the back of the flame and gently heat. You will see an iridescent blue flash as you are melting in the glass. DON'T OVER HEAT! If you don't see those blue flashes in the glass you have melted off the luster even under the clear encasement.

Also *** Make sure to get your Rubino, Cranberry, and Clockwork covered in clear! If they touch Kalypso you will see black as the silver glass and other glasses have a chemical reaction.

B5-Peace base, Cranberry, Messy Clear, Kalypso, Messy Clear. 

*B6- Messy Clear, Clock Work, Messy Clear, Kalypso and Messy Clear.

I did the steps above and reduced again(turn down oxy flame til you get a bushy flame). You will see the blues appear as you reduce. Gently flash in and out of the flame until you get a nice sheen on your bead. Encase like above.

B7- effetre Sunny Mango Coral odd lot, effetre Transparent Orange, Messy Clear.

B8- effetre Sunny Mango Coral odd lot, Messy Clockwork, Messy Clear, Kalypso, Messy Clear.

*B9- effetre Opal Yellow, effetre Rubino, Messy Clear, Kalypso, Messy Clear.

Followed the same steps as above for * results. It seems like you could see the luster in the bead when you after it was worked and put into the kiln. So if it looks pretty going in, it will be gorgeous coming out of the kiln later! It's nice that you can see the results and know you got the glass to sing :)

 

Below you can see the AMAZING results I got from the * posts above. I think the Clockwork, Messy Clear, Kalypso, and Messy Clear produced the best results! Those are the first 6 results from left to right. 

For more of a golden orange results like the next to spiral coin beads, I used: Peace, Cranberry, Messy Clear, Kalypso, and Messy Clear. 

FOR BEST RESULTS:

To get the ULTRA blue/purple iridescence you want to reduce the bead until the sheen looks dark. It doesn't take long. It also looks like you may have over-reduced the bead, but as you encase the bead and re-heat it in the flame to melt down the encasement you will see it lighten and the blue iridescent flashes appear!

The bright pink flahes come from super heating the Kalypso when you first melt in the layer of glass. make sure to use a hot oxidizing flame to get the glass clear looking when you melt on the Kalypso layer!

I have found that using Clock work under Kalypso gives you the perfect mix of firey orange to go with the hot pink and blue/lavender iridescence. 

Want to see what you can create using those techniques???

 

Just look at all of that COLOR!

 

Look at those gorgeous flashes of iridescence on the firey HOT pink and orange!

Be sure to stop back to see how I incorporated this incredible beads into my desgin with Kristi's gorgeous Copper large hole focal!

See ya on Saturday!!

xo Genea