Catalina Glass

Blogging Gets Delayed

2012-01-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in ages...

But I've been busy learning metalworking.

And enameling on copper.. and embossing and etching.

So that's why you haven't heard from me, I'll try to do better!

Packaging

2011-01-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've gone through trying different packaging for my beads, from re-purposing wallpaper from big sample books,to sewing little packets with recycled upholstery samples, to leftover dyed wool from my spinning. Now I've ordered a lot of little boxes but have put off using them because of their dull light brown color. Not content to put my bright and sparkly beads in the dun colored boxes I've begun painting little watercolor gardens on them- such fun! I am not a painter but am enjoying filling these tiny "canvasses!"

Murrini

2010-12-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am in the mood for labor intensive beads.This is a new design I've been planning since I ordered a metal prong device for forming murrinis. These are the first raku murrini I've made with it and I'm very proud of them! Making the murrini takes a bit of extra time in itself but I decided to do a two layer white heart bead and then etch it for that wonderful glow. Now comes the labor intensive part! I applied a liquid mask to each murrini to preserve its shiny surface while the bead is dunked into the etching bath. Then I had to clean the mask off. The dots are metallic black.
I'd had this image in my mind of how I wanted them to turn out, but they exceeded my expectations!
Here is a picture of the nifty gizmo that begins the forming of a murrini. Several layers of glass are rounded up into a fat cylinder and then plunged into the center of the brass rays. Cool a moment and pull out and use another color to fill the slim channels. Heat again and pull to a diameter of 4 to 5 mm. Cool and cut with glass nippers into small sections about 3-5mm. I'm going to have to make and sell A LOT of murrini beads to pay off this $ little gadget!

Disaster Strikes!

2010-10-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

Every bead in the kiln was melted off its mandrel into spreading shiny puddles across the kiln floor! Usually, after the soak cycle ( gradual cool down) I turn the kiln off and let it cool slowly overnight. This time my husband went out to the studio to do it for me. He accidently turned the control dial past " off " and it went into a super heating cycle. This is a bit of bad kiln design, ( it's an AIM) as the red light was off but the heat wasn't. Fortunately he went out into the dark garden about 2 hours later and noticed a strange glow from the studio window. Extreme heat met him and he quickly unplugged it.

I thought the kiln elements would be ruined but it runs fine. Getting the sheets of melted glass off the fire brick bottom was another story.

I waited two days and then grimly remade the 50 or so beads...

Here is a picture of a remade set I especially liked.

Saying "Goodbye" is so hard to do.

2010-09-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

From the song, "Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do", to letting go of favorite bead sets! I made this set over a month ago, it has traveled in my pocket, purse, and decorated my computer desk and photography light box. I just couldn't bring myself to offer it for sale not knowing if I could make it again. For a while I decided they were "my" beads and I'd make myself a necklace with them. Then I had to face the fact that I have way too much jewelry and have had a self imposed moratorium on making anything for myself. I listed them at bedtime last night, they were sold when I woke up this morning! Packing them up to mail off I feel sad to see them go..... Some buyers send me photos of what they design with my beads- I'm hoping that this buyer will too.

What else can I make with beads?

2010-08-26T14:57:00.001-07:00

I had saved up my lumpy, bumpy, beginner beads. Some went in between bricks in the garden but some I epoxied around the edge of my license. One day I pulled into a gas station and a car pulled in right behind me. A woman hopped out and said"I've been following you. Do you make beads?" I gave her my card and later she did buy beads from me! I've been thinking of getting a personalized plate...... what should it say?

GOLD!!

2010-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have a package of gold leaf but its high cost has made me hesitant to use it. I like the gilded flash look of gold and just discovered that by starting with a layer of silver foil and quickly encasing it with the right transparent , presto! it looks like gold. These nuggets are hand shaped with a little brass palette knife(once a mustard spreader). This creates a faceted surface with much more light bouncing off it. I SO much want to make myself a bracelet of these.... but I've taken a vow not to add to my excessive supply of bracelets.

Retro Socks

2010-07-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

If you are not a knitter, you might think these retro socks have some complicated color work going on.

Ahh, but if you are a knitter then I can't fool you. All the color changes are in the ball. It is "cheater yarn" because it is easy to do knitting but has an interesting color pattern going on. It makes knitting plain socks not so boring, I keep waiting to see what color round is coming around the bend. I'm using size 0 needles for longer wearing socks. I am heading down to finish off the toe where I'll face the dreaded kitchener bind off. (You knitters know what I mean.)

Now that our daughter has moved to the cold environs of Chicago I can knit up warm things for her- Yeah!!

Yes, it IS a dog bed!

2010-07-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

After throwing out our dog's old bedraggled bed and replacing it with a cushy clean one we have yet to convince him it is a bed. He will sit in it if we give him a cookie but never looks at ease. Maybe it doesn't smell right, maybe it seems too plush...... ah but to the cat, Whisper, it WAS a bed upon first sniff.

Beads Don't Have To Be Jewelry

2010-07-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

I keep finding new ways to use my beads. My mailman appreciates the change to my mailbox.

Hollow Beads

2010-07-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been trying something new, blowing glass. These are large shell focals but are light because they are hollow. They make great simply wired pendants and I like wearing one just slipped onto a silver cable choker necklace.

This black shell is dusted with reactive raku frit and a gold powder which gives it a subtle metallic shimmer.

Signs of Summer

2010-06-27T06:21:00.000-07:00

I know it's summer when my garden pathways get shouldered out. The warmer nights push everything into a growth spurt . Plants tumble into the walkways and slow our progress walking through the garden. The fragrant white nicotianas are over 7 feet tall, the old fashioned triple orange daylilies are everywhere, incredibly bright. From the shady spots spread plate sized clematis. And my most favorite flower for June - the gardenia! The large bush has hundreds of buds, every day I pick a dozen to bring into the house. The other plant that makes this a most fragrant month is the Easter lily. I always buy a potted plant at Easter and later tuck it into the garden and forget about it. They return every year and multiply happily. I just have to remember to cut off the pollen on the plants that lean out to greet us- what a stain it makes!

A Fun and Fragrant Day

2010-06-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Since I spin, I end up with lots of extra dyed carded fleece. I've seen a UTube video showing how to felt wool around a bar of soap. It looked fun and easy and hopefully would use up lots of wool. These are two batts I'd made as samples but didn't like well enough to continue carding more. I used a bowl of hot water, one of cold, and a bamboo sushi mat for a textured surface to rub it on. The bars turned out great though it hardly made a dent in the heap of fleece. I also made a ball cat toy. ( I used a ping pong ball with a slit cut in the side so I could insert a bell.)

My second fragrant fun today was weaving lavender wands. I have a plant that produces really long stems perfect for weaving a satin ribbon through the "cage" formed when the stems are bent back. When they dry they get put in my lingerie drawers or in with pajamas. Just a little squeeze refreshes the sweet smell. One picture shows a wand in the half finished stage.

Playtime

2010-05-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Most often when I sit down at the torch I have a plan in mind, sometimes even on paper. But the best things happen when I begin without a preconceived "to do" list. I've found this go-with-the-flow style works best when my work surface of gigantic clay tiles is covered in a drift of glass rods. I just start with a playful attitude of "what if" and the only rule is to try colors and styles together that I've never done before. The new beads I invent aren't always keepers but I have some favorites I love that I'll share a few pictures of. Click to enlarge.

Color Experiments

2010-05-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

Dyeing always brings out the mad chef in me- a dab of this a bit more of that! No following recipes- it's way more fun and this time brought happy surprises. I had a gift of a sock blank to use as my canvas. If youhaven't tried one before,(I hadn't) they are ingenious. It's a machine stranded double knit long rectangle. There's enough yarn for a large pair of socks. So when it's unraveled it will make two perfectly matching socks. The smart thing to do is to get enormously long circular needles and knit the 2 socks at once. The directions boggled me, I'll have to get someone to actually show me how that's done, so my husband helped me unravel it into 2 balls. I am knitting one at a time and finding that it's creating a sort of blurred faux fair isle look. I used Jacquard acid dyes set with vinegar, rolled the blank in plastic and steamed it for 30 min. As I squirted on the dyes I had No Idea how it would turn out- just random fun! Can't wait to try this again. Because you're dyeing a knitted fabric it takes the color in soft uneven depths of shade- very pretty.

Garden Tour

2010-04-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've gotten behind on beadmaking, spinning, knitting, and weaving. So, what have I been doing with my"spare" time? Our garden will be on the spring garden tour that benefits the local Children's Hospital. I go on this garden tour every spring and am inspired by the beautiful ,( and perfect) gardens. Now I'm having this feeling of panic about cleaning everything up, ( how to camoflage the compost pile?) trying to guess what will be in bloom in two weeks, (will those roses bloom? will the iris be all finished?) and the long to-do list to be crossed off before The Day. This garden walk has become more popular every year, last year 800 tickets were sold!! Here are some garden pictures if you can't come to visit!

So... what do you have on your loom now?

2010-03-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

The question asked by a fellow weaver, " What do you have on your loom now?" is really a loaded question. There is a very guilty feeling I get looking at my empty loom. Beadmaking sucks up all my extra time now so it seems. But looking at my forlornly vacant loom yesterday the answer came to me, "My cat is on my loom right now." This is the time of year the warmth of a sunbeam moves over the loom and she slowly shifts with it. Whisper is a Ragdoll breed and is as much like a dog as I've ever met. She follows me from room to room, and chair to couch,napping on the bed with me, tucked against my spinning wheel, or under the loom. She can't follow me to the studio and sits curled up by the back door waiting until I come back in, hours later.

Icy Cold Blues

2010-02-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

These are size 0 needles which I like for long wearing socks. I had fun dyeing the yarn by laying it on plastic wrap and using small squirt bottles. Then I rolled it up and steamed it to set the dye.

Is it just coincidence that the icy shades of blue in my newest bead set are reflected in my hand dyed sock yarn? So many times a color preference shifts from one art to another without me being aware of it ... until I see it in my Photoshop file .

2010-01-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

As I wrap packages for mailing from sales at my Etsy shop I enjoy thinking about the buyers. The most exciting are the international sales. I savor the thought of my beads traveling where I'll never go - Russia, Singapore, New Zealand, Finland , and many more destinations I'll never get to. But people will design and wear jewelry there made from my glass. When I started selling on Etsy I never dreamed I'd sell all over the world! I have a world map on the wall of my studio and mark with a pushpin each new country I've shipped to.

Dessert with NO Calories!!

2010-01-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

What is better than whipped cream?? whiter, fluffier, creamier, AND lo-cal?? It's my Cormo wool! I got a full fleece from a covered Cormo that is a spinner's dream come true. These locks are washed once in bags in my top loading washing machine. This fleece is so clean I don't need to pick it and there are no short cuts at all. Now I'm totally spoiled, any fleece I buy after this one can't compare.

Spinning

2009-12-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Now that the weather is cooler, even here in Southern Calif. I get into the mood for more spinning. It's the perfect evening activity after a day of focusing on making beads, soothing and relaxing. I can get so intent on the drama that is hot glass, I tighten up my shoulders and neck but feel the strain ebb away as I spin. These are some new yarns curled up in my project basket now. The blue was a gift batt from a Ravelry exchange I participated in.

Mixing Color in Fiber

2009-12-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a luscious pile of recycled sari silk. It has been fluffed into a cloud that I've added to a fine, soft wool called Cormo, blended slightly on my drum carder and then spun into a fine singles. In my knitting, random bright silk flashes show up. I'm encouraged to knit just one more row, just one more..... to see what colors will
appear next.I like thinking of all the beautiful Indian ladies who have worn these elegant saris for many years and now their fabric has a new life. All the work of those silkworms goes on!!! I have raised silkworms for their silk and appreciate the life connection to this remarkable fiber. Click the picture to enlarge.

Mixing color in hot glass can create many surprises. When I blend colors in fiber though, the results are much more predictable.

Color Inspiration

2009-08-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

The best color combinations exist in flowers ,I do believe. I enjoy bringing the blooming color theme into my spinning or my lampworked beads. Purple passion flower is one incredible blossom! Click on the photo to greatly enlarge it and study the flower structure. I've been carding some wool, mixing colors to get that glowing purple. I may ply it with some red toned yarn, or maybe green .... who knows! But what fun to play with color. One picture is the single ply yarn skeined onto a niddy noddy and the other is the fluffy batt waiting to be spun.

The "Magic" of Manganese

2009-06-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

The chemical makeup of glass and the interactions between one element and another makes a fascinating journey of discovery. I've recently learned that it is the element manganese that creates the metallic surface that I love ,with flashes of purple, blue, green and pink.At first I thought it was only a result of changing the flame chemistry by using more or less oxygen and propane at the torch. But I've found it is much more subtle, it is finding the correct spot in the edge of the flame that brings out the colors.It is a delicate dance between gently heating and cooling repeatedly that brings success. But just a bit too much heat and the surface goes back to shiny black, all suggestion of color gone. The two glasses in these pictures are dark silver plum and a new glass named "metallic black". They look very ordinary and unassuming in the rod form. Enjoy the "magic show" !!

2009-05-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

So, what IS frit????????????

Some lampworkers jokingly say ,"I have a box under my table where I throw my dirty shorts." This just refers to the collection of stubs of glass that are too short to use but are crying out to be transformed into frit. I've always bought frit,( see PART of my collection of little jars) but have recently starting crushing my "dirty shorts" into great glass combinations. I hold the stub with tweezers into the flame, melt into a blob, the plunge into a bowl of water. There's the fun part! the sizzle, crackle, kerpow and the glass breaks. I use different sieves to separate the sizes and break the large chunks up further with a few whacks of one of my heavy brass tools.

Color Inspiration

2009-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

A vase full of burgundy and purple sweet peas nestled into an orange climber named Sunset speaks of one of my favorite color combinations. Purple and orange create a vibrant partnership. I have knit a pair of socks in these colors and have recently created a frit mix for my beads in this pairing. I can't quite explain why I'm drawn to these colors, I have no purple and orange clothing.... yet! I was surprised by a pot by my back door that suddenly began blooming, and without planning it, there were those colors again!

My Fibery Pursuits

2009-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Finished scarves and shawls, some knitted, some woven.

Samples I've dyed and woven, click to expand size.

This is the warping reel I use to wind a warp, this is a 4 yard warp of linen for towels.

This is my loom with stacks of batts I've carded and some yarn I've already spun in the colorway. (And a beret I knitted in the yarn!)

This shows my loom with some completed fabric for a jacket draped over it - and the ever present companion, my Ragdoll cat, Whisper.

I wanted to add in what other color addictions I have- anything with fiber! I buy raw fleece, scour it,dye and card it, often blending gorgeous custom batts of mixed fibers and colors. Then I spin it on my trusty Ashford Traveler. I knit and weave with my yarns. I have a Schacht Mighty Wolf 8 harness loom.My new adventure is in trying soysilk, bamboo , and seacell for spinning.Here are a few pictures of my fiber travels.

Can Beads NOT be jewelry????????

2009-04-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

I have made some tiny hummers to hang as light catchers in my breakfast room window and on the mirror in my car.

Here are some tiny decorated eggs I've made for an Easter "egg tree" table decoration.

My beads are destined to be jewelry... no, not always. Here I've made some mini narcissis wired up with copper and a tiny bead center for this spring bouquet in a miniature frog vase ( 1 1/2 in. high).

Sculpture tools

2009-03-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Sitting at my torch with my pointy little tools at the ready I feel like I'm in the operating room readying for surgery. "Scalpel please, knife please, scarey pick please.....) Only I have no one to hand them to me. The Very Best Tool is the little brass knife. In its other life it languished in a kitchen drawer as a mustard knife- a very useless existence. Doing hot glass sculpture means lots of tools and there are still many I don't YET own. Here are some more pictures of sculpted glass.

Moving on from "round" beads

2009-02-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

Starting out, beadmakers focus on round beads and learning to work with gravity to make that perfect roundness happen. Then it's on to pressing beads in a brass press shaped like a lentil, button, or nugget. So what follows? usually it's doing sculptural work with the taffy like hot glass. This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities! I'm adding some pictures of my forays into sculptural glass but I have many more ideas yet to try.....

2009-02-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

This is Gaia glass.

This is an experimental oddlot no longer available.

This is Terra, no longer available.

This is newly released Aurae.

This is an experimental oddlot no longer available.

95% of the glass sold is imported from Europe- Italy and Germany. But in the past 2 years American glassmakers have begun producing silver laden glass that has zoomed in popularity despite its' high price- $100 a pound!! Glass composition is all about chemistry and silver is one metal that reacts to heating and cooling cycles as well as increased propane to produce some incredible and unpredictable colors. Double Helix is the big name here with new colors introduced every few months.

The heartbreaker is that many named glasses have one release and if you don't manage to "invest" in some of it initially ,you miss out. Some glass formulas they can't seem to replicate. The price goes up way past $100/lb. for the rare glass.....

2009-02-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here is part of my glass supply. I must have over 200 colors. I use transparent and also opaque glass. These cost about $40 a pound. But I also have been "investing" in silver laden glass that is $100 a pound. Almost all glass colors are imported from Italy and Germany but now a few American glass makers have started up.

This is my lampworking space, AFTER cleaning up all the dozens of rods, stringers and tools. This is one artistic endeavor that needs lots of gear! I work with a 2 fuel torch that uses tanked propane and oxygen supplied by an oxygen generator.

This is the "before" picture. When the used rods get this deep I'm forced to clean up and put away. I sometimes use brass tools for pressing beads into a lentil or square nugget shape. You can see one set with the wooden handles facing up.

2009-01-27T18:08:00.000-08:00

I've just taken my first workshop from a very famous beadmaker, Kristina Logan.She is justly called the queen of the dots! I'm inspired to try a new look, lots of dots.

I haven't taken a workshop before because I am ambivalent about being affected by another lampworker's style. I usually work in a solitary fashion making the beads that come into my imagination. With these new beads I see them as "Kristina" beads and quite unrelated to my style.

But they were fun to make, she helped me with heat control and the idea of multiple layers. She was a delightful personality and her beads reflect it. I will try to find a picture of one of her famous and expensive beads to add later.

2009-01-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've discovered that I most enjoy the fine detail work of using "stringers" to create my floral beads. Both sides of the beads have different flowers and in a set I don't repeat a flower.In the box lids are some of these finely pulled strands of glass. They are thinner than spagettinni!!! To make them I pull a very hot blob of glass with tweezers in opposing directions until it is as thin as possible.

These miniature garden beads have become my trademark. Now I only make a set each month because they are so time intensive.

2009-01-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

When making beads almost daily I have ended up with lots of extras. I realized I've created a ranking system without realizing it. Rank 1 beads go into sets to be sold in my Etsy shop, (or for me to wear). Rank 2 beads go into my bead bowl to be sold in destashing groups, usually by color. Rank 3 beads I give to my daughter to take to the beach when she's surfing to toss along the shoreline. Rank 4 beads go into my garden between the bricks in a walkway. Rank 5 beads are those that turn out ugly so I take my tweezers and pinch and pull out noses, ears, mouths, then add eyeballs. These I call My Mad Monkeys ,( after the first one I made looked like an infuriated monkey.) I string them up casually on clear stretchy elastic and wear them for fun. I especially like looking at them when I'm stuck in traffic or a red light- ALWAYS brings a smile to my face.

2009-01-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

This shows some very simple murrini I made. It's something I want to do more of and learn more advanced methods. There are some glass artists in Italy who ONLY make murrini.Theirs will show detailed scenes, faces, animals, and butterflies.

Here's how they are made.. many layers of encasing with transparent and opaque colors, slowly building up the design. Then the bundle is heated until soupy soft and slowly pulled to a length. When cool it is cut with glass cutters into thin slices, it is the cross section you see applied to the bead. Those little murrini slices in the white spoon are about 3.5mm in diameter .

Murrini

2009-01-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

2009-01-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

Trying out new possibilities in glass is intriguing. The element of chance is the excitement, the open-ended "what ifs" are compelling. I have been making my own simple murrini slices to add to my beads. Now I've started to buy complex murrini made by steadier hands and am having fun trying out different ways to use them. Here they are floating surface design elements and then they are flower faces growing in a garden.