Autochthonous Evolved - Jewelry and Lampwork Beads

Julie At The Textile Center's Holiday Sale

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:04:00 +0000

So, it's been a while since I blogged about submitting work to be juried for the Textile Center's Holiday Sale. I did, indeed, get accepted and instead of blogging about it immediately set to work creating beads and jewelry for the show. But now it's been sent in and the show will be starting next Tuesday. I will have earrings, bracelets, sweater & shawl pins, and necklaces available and all feature her handmade, annealed lampwork beads. The show will be a great place to look for special handmade gifts that you might not have time to make yourself, and I certainly hope something of mine might be perfect for someone on your list!

Textile Center
3000 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414 (Map)
Telephone 612-436-0464

Holiday Sale November 1 to December 30, 2011
Free and open to the public
Gallery & Shop Hours are
Mon-Thu 10-7,
Fri & Sat 10-5

Grand Opening Weekend for Holiday Show and Sale
Nov. 11, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Nov. 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Nov. 13, 12 to 4 p.m.

The textile center says this about the sale, "If you love buying and giving finely crafted, artist-made work, this show and sale is perfect for you. The Holiday Show and Sale features high-quality fiber art by more than 150 artists from Minnesota and across the country. Artwork ranges from unique knitted mittens, felted ornaments and beaded jewelry to stunning art quilts, woven placemats and shibori-dyed garments. No matter your holiday budget, you will find plenty to give and treasure."

http://www.textilecentermn.org/gallery.asp

Jury Anxiety

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:46:00 +0000

Last Monday the 18^th I submitted three groups of work to be submitted for the Textile Center's Holiday Sale. It's a juried show, which means that a group of people sit down and look at your work to see if it meets their criteria for show worthiness. Normally, as I submit something, I feel pretty confident. But as I wait, during the days the jury is looking at the work and afterward waiting for the official notice (which will be mailed August 10^th), I start feeling increasingly anxious.

I learned about the sale from the MNArtists Newsletter the week before and immediately started drawing out designs and making components for the July 16^th (yup, the both dates in this paragraph are correct) deadline.

Other people may be more efficient than I am, but when I conceptualize or sketch designs that feature lampwork beads, I have to add at least three extra days to the production cycle beyond the time I need to plan and put the designs together. That's one day to make the beads, annealing during the night, then cleaning the next day. If those don't work out there's that second evening to recreate the beads, annealing again through the night, and cleaning the new beads on day three. That's assuming I have a clear idea of the beads I'll need and how I'm going to make them. Fortunately in this case I knew exactly what I wanted (borosilicate glass bobbins) and how to make them (I've been practicing disks a lot lately, so creating a smooth tube with disk ends was no problem). So, with six total days my schedule was really tight, but if nothing else got on the schedule (like work or family), I'd be okay.

Being the Textile Center, they were particularly interested in work that, "Honors textile traditions and promotes excellence and innovation in fiber art." Fantastic! I have several designs that (I hope) promote excellence and innovation in fiber art.

Three pieces from my I-Cord Jewelry collection. Notice that they do not match.

The sticky wicket in this case was that knitting up cuffs to felt or knitting I-cord takes time and I wanted to make new, matching, I-cord cables, and several cuffs to go with my new line of lampworked buttons. Did I mention I was on a tight schedule to meet the deadline? Plus, family and work are always on the agenda. Saturday came and I wasn't close to done, so I set the projects aside, making a mental note to work on them more for next year, and started working on other things with upcoming deadlines (like the Lampwork etc. silver glass murrini challenge that I needed to send out Saturday, too). I thought that was the end of the story.

Those of you who know me know that I think voicemail is pretty much the stupidest thing on earth. If you need to get a hold of me, phone is never the best method and voicemail ... you should just know you ought not hold your breath to hear back from me becase chances are it'll get deleted from the system before I check it. So Monday I was at work and Adrianne called for her morning check-in and asked if I got her voicemail Saturday.

Now that you're done laughing, let me just clarify that the answer was "um, no." More background information: The store where I work, Knits & Pearls is a bead and yarn store. As might be expected in a world that is becoming more interconnected every day, one of our fabulous regular customers, Terrie, is very closely acquainted with the manager of the Textile Store. Being that the Holiday Sale at the Textile Center was both beading and knitting related, I had mentioned to the group of ladies that comes to the store for the Wednesday Knitting Clinic that I was working on putting work together for the jury process. When Terrie saw her friend on Saturday (the day of the deadline), she asked if I had submitted my work. I hadn't. However, the Textile Center friend told Terrie that she would extend the deadline to Monday for me. Terrie called Adrianne, Adrianne called me, and if I had seen that she called and checked my messages I'd have had plenty of time. Something else to chalk up as a life lesson.

When someone extends a deadline just for me, I do my best not to totally blow it. Thus, Monday was chaotic. When I told Adrianne on the phone that I didn't have the pieces complete she said, hoping that if I become better known in the community the store will also, I should focus on getting my pieces ready to take in. While I was and am very thankful for that opportunity, doubt was born as I was scurrying to gather old samples and make new ones that would fufill the requirement that we have up to three categories of distinctly different items with a maximum of three examples of each. The I-cord pieces were very close to what I had in mind to submit. The two wire sweater and shawl pins weren't what I had thought I should submit, but it is a good supplement to the theme of fiber products. The wire jewelry wasn't, in the least, what I had invisioned submitting. On top of that, because I was hurrying, I didn't feel like I was producing my very best work. While the already-made pieces I gathered were fine, I had been hoping to have new, matching pieces to submit.

Jurying is based on the following criteria:
• General appeal
• Workmanship
• Price
• Relationship to Textile Center mission (Honoring textile traditions and promoting excellence and innovation in fiber art.)

I feel that, on general appeal and price, that I'm fine. On workmanship and relationship to the Textile Center mission, I'd have to honestly admit that I'm not confident that my work was able to stand up to the kind of scrutiny I'd expect it to and I'm very disappointed in myself for that. Granted, at some point you have to submit what you have and try, and let the competition do its work. But, in the end, I'd like to think I'm capable of achieving goals that are higher than settling for good enough. Is it wrong to hope the jurors thought I accomplished that?

Three pieces from my Wire & Lampwork collection

Please, please do NOT finish your ends like this!

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:33:00 +0000

As the jewelry instructor at Knits & Pearls, where I also work as a sales assistant, I do all of the jewelry repairs, redesign, and restringing projects that come in. One of our customers brought in a pretty garnet and sterling necklace today, made by a local Twin Cities designer, to be split into a two strand necklace.

If you're familiar with my blog you know I have a serious, serious beef with designers selling jewelry that looks like they just got out of their first jewelry making class at the big box craft store. Let me show you a picture of the necklace and explain what I mean.

No, I'm not going to let you see who it is. That's just not nice.

Component	Status	Analysis
Crimp bead	smashed flat with pliers not the crimping variety.	Arrrrgh! It looks bad, it leaves four corners to scratch you, and it doesn't capture the beading cable as efficiently as possible. Crimping pliers are specially designed (like the much-larger pliers designed for the industrially used ferrule) to minimize work hardening and stress on the metal, which in turn helps prevent breakage. Additionally, the crimping pliers bends the crimp tube in a way that creates redundancy in the way it captures the stringing cable, better ensuring that the crimp bead holds the cable without being prone to breakage.
Crimp cover	None	Why should you use a crimp cover? Besides covering the crimp bead to create a more polished aesthetic, it creates a buffer around the crimp bead by absorbing and diverting a lot of the stress caused by movement of the bracelet and clasp, helping prevent accidental breakage.
Wire Guardian or French Wire	None	Like with the crimp cover, this finishing component offers both an aesthetic and practical purpose. Most beading cable, unless you purchase the sterling silver cable, doesn't look particularly pretty, so it's nice to cover it up. In order to hide the cable many designers just pull the cable tight, tight against the jump ring (bad) or clasp loop (double bad), putting an enormous stress on the crimp tube, which often causes the crimp tube to fail. Third, it prevents abrasion of the stringing cable by the movement of the clasp, again preventing damage to the cable and increasing the strength and integrity of the bracelet. In this case the designer did not pull the loop particularly tight, but it is still less-than-attractive and susceptible to abrasion.
Beading Cable	Looks like SoftFlex 0.018	That's a good brand of beading cable with a really durable coating and in a heavy enough gauge to help prevent the natural gemstones, with their often-rough beadholes, from abraiding through the cable. However, look at the way the ends were cut - out in the open right next to the crimp tube. This is a problem, first, because those ends can rub against the skin and cause irritation; second, because cutting the ends so close to the crimp bead can put stress on the crimp tube if cut too close and doesn't give the wearer any insurance against losing the beads should the crimp tube fail. Whenever possible, you need to weave the beading cable back through several beads before cutting.
Jump Ring	Present	Hooray! It's there. It's small enough to be unobtrusive, yet large enough to easily accommodate the clasp and allow movement, which prevents stress of the clasp and crimp bead. It's also of a heavy enough gauge to minimize accidental deformation or opening. While some artists would claim it's much more secure to attach the clasp directly to the bracelet without a jump ring, I'd counter that a properly-chosen jump ring is just as secure, serves to absorb and divert stresses caused by the movement of the clasp and bracelet away from the crimp bead, making the bracelet much more secure, and makes alterations of the clasp and bracelet much easier to perform.

Why do I care? It's primarily self-interest. As a designer, I want buyers to feel confident when they look at a handmade piece of jewelry. I don't want those consumers to become jaded from buying my work because they've purchased other handmade jewelry in the past that has broken. It's the designer's responsibility to be aware of all the tools and findings at their disposal to make their work more beautifully finished and durable. While there are certainly very saavy buyers out there, they shouldn't need to do metallurgy research before going out to purchase a bracelet. Making jewelry to give away to your friends is one thing, but being a professional jewelry designer involves much more than being able to pick out pretty beads and assorting them in manner pretty enough for others to notice; it's about being able to give your honest, informed appraisal that the work you are selling will never physically irritate the wearer, snag hair or clothing, nor break from expected wear and tear.

Did I include everything a designer needs to know about jewelry design here? No. There are additional concerns involved with the mechanics of putting a bracelet together, such as making sure the distribution of weight around the piece keeps it in the orientation in which it's meant to be worn. I haven't even touched upon the principles and elements of art and design: rules that should be understood well before they're broken. Any design choice should be a result of careful reflection, not because you didn't know a different or better way to do it.

What Standards Do You Use To Judge The Quality of Handmade Jewelry?

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Have you heard that I'm hosting a design contest with my lampwork beads? If not, you should check it out.

I've just finished creating the detailed contest scoring rubric to go along with the basic scoring criteria that I originally posted for the contest. Even if you aren't participating I think its good to share what other artists think defines excellence and what separates that excellence from $@#$. I acknowledge that some of these criteria are project specific. In my case the point of the contest is to get pictures of jewelry that showcase even my B-Squad, Junior Varsity beads, so the prominence of those beads is weighted heavily. Additionally, since it's my website and because it will make it possible for me to judge projects more consistently, I am enforcing that the participants adhere more to my own aesthetic of clean design, balancing simplicity with interest.

The comments in the rubric reflect the thinking that would lead to the assignment of a particular score. Where I thought it might be necessary, I added some clarifying points on what would cause me to think such thoughts.

Whether the world will cheer this on as the standard against which all jewelry shall be judged, or cast stones upon me as a heretic, the rubric will stand for the contest. But I'm interested: what do you think are important criteria to consider when judging the quality of handmade jewelry? Which criteria do you think are the most and least important and how should different criteria be weighted? Let me know!

Criteria	Weight
Prominence of lampwork beads	30%
Creative use of materials	20%
Balance of simplicity and interest	20%
Refinement of technique	20%
Finishing	10%

Contest Rubric:What Julie is likely to be thinking as she assigns points ...

Prominence of lampwork beads weighted 30%

100% Points	The eye is immediately drawn to the lampwork beads and, boy, do they look g.o.o.d!
75% Points	You have to hunt a little to find all of the beads, but they are still well-displayed.
50% Points	Where are ... oh, okay. I see them. kind of.
25% Points	Okay, I think I see a lampwork bead or two in there, but where are the rest? They weren't THAT bad, were they?
0% Points	It is impossible to tell that there are any lampwork beads included in the design. Are there lampwork beads included in the design?

The main purpose for this contest is to obtain photographs of finished jewelry that feature my beads so I can post them on my website. While primarily selfish, the best designs will be the best ambassadors for my beads, so I would like the designs to be as close to professional in quality as possible with my beads as visible as possible.

Creative use of materials / Originality of design weighted 20%

100% Points	I never would have thought of that, but boy am I glad you did! That looks astounding!
75% Points	I've pondered that technique, and I've seen other people do something similar, but you really rocked it and made it yours.
50% Points	I've seen other people try something similar, so I'm glad you gave it a shot, too, but it's not particularly original, unfortunately.
25% Points	I know I've seen that before, almost exactly the way you've done it. However since I can't remember exactly where, I'll give you a break ... this time.
0% Points	Not only have I seen an exact copy of this design before, but I can name the artist without a Google search.

While I gave you the challenge of using my B-squad Junior Varsity beads, I do know that not every design needs to have the theme of bright and shiny. Pick a theme that suits the beads. Sometimes you need to go organic or industrial, for example, to make the beads really speak out. Once you pick your theme you want to pick materials that simply and accurately speak to that theme, but you want to do it in a unique and original way. (Plus, I don't want to get sued for copyright infringement, so I can't post an image of your design if you submit a design that copies someone else's creative intellectual property.)

Balance of simplicity and interest weighted 20%

100% Points	Is it possible to say that I love every component of this design best? I can clearly see every component and every component draws my interest.
75% Points	Yeah. I like it. You maybe went a tiny overboard somewhere, or could have added a little extra oomph, but that's just me wanting to see and appreciate every part.
50% Points	Okay. It's probably me, but I am a little confused about what you were trying to do with this piece. It's not bad, but it's not ... well ... good, either.
25% Points	Interesting start, though this piece is either too "simple" or too "interesting". (see comment below)
0% Points	The point of simplicity is so you can see the perfection of what you have done with the space, not what you have not. Similarly, the point of including embellishments is to draw the eye and have aesthetic purpose, not to drown the eye then poke it out.

Refinement of techniqueweighted 20%

100% Points	I am weeping with joy and envy at the perfection of your technique.
75% Points	You should be very proud of this! Only one or two barely noticible mistakes. Well done!
50% Points	Really excellent effort. I can tell you've been practicing and with a little more practice you'll be great at this.
25% Points	Well, okay. We might need to work a little more on effective practice. I can tell you're trying, but, well ... you are trying, aren't you?
0% Points	Interesting effort. Altering a technique because you can't do the technique doesn't count, unfortunately.

While I hope that I don't need to explain this, what I mean by refinement of technique is: that it appears technically correct in every way and that you could go to any other teacher of the technique and they would be impressed; that the piece is structurally sound, that you selected the proper materials for the job; that you took the time to care for the material as you worked with it so it didn't get worn, dented, frayed, discolored, kinked, or otherwise abused as you tried to manipulate it. Feel free to examine the tutorials or blogs of experts inthe technique you are using for clarification on the expectations for excellence (or the signposts of poor execution) in that technique.

Finishingweighted 10%

100% Points	Perfection! No sloppy or sharp edges anywhere, surface finish is consistent and fits the theme of the piece, all strings/wire are tucked where they are supposed to be and everything that should be covered is covered; this could be sold at a high-end boutique.
75% Points	With the exception of a couple of fingerprints or a slightly sloppy edge or two, maybe some bare material where some feature could have been added, I only notice because I'm a perfectionist! Your friends would fight each other to buy this!
50% Points	Okay, it looks like you might have been rushing a little to finish. Surface looks cleaned, but not polished or finished. Edges are sloppy, but not particularly sharp or dangerous. In a class Julie would have probably let this slide, but wouldn't have given praise, either.
25% Points	It's pretty obvious other things were on your mind. Most edges are sloppy and some are sharp, or beadwork strings weren't trimmed enough. Surfaces weren't cleaned. In a class, Julie would have made you fix this.
0% Points	Watch out! This piece is downright dirty and dangerous! Are you trying to kill me?

Finishing includes all of the little details that differentiate a practice piece from something I'll have to fight the Smithsoanian to photograph. It's the cleanliness of the piece, not just freedom from dirt but also freedom from loose ends that didn't get properly secured; its filing anything that might be abrasive on the skin or clothing; the finish - whether shiny or patinated, textured or smooth; it's also selecting closures and findings that speak to the theme and complexity of the piece, and not choosing them haphazardly from your stash.

I hope it goes without saying that I don't want to assign 0% points, or even 25% or 50% points to anyone. The comments are honetly meant to help you better understand what not to do, not to tempt you to deserve them, so please ask yourself if you have done everything in your creative powers to avoid that. I want you to be able to get those free beads from my Etsy store!

The End Of An Era

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:57:00 +0000

As you may have read in some of my previous Facebook posts, my sister-in-law, Stacey, is fundraising for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk this year. She's having a garage sale this weekend and I was thinking of what else I could donate to the cause. Two things I thought of were the coffee table and TV stand that were in my parent's living room when I was a little girl. Sentimental, to be sure, but not something I can think of a use for and so they should probably go. But, before they do, I wanted to document what has been somewhat contentious issue in my family: I was not the deviant 5-year-old grafitti artist that my mother claims.

You see, I've had artistic inclinations since I was a wee little girl. And, yes, there were moments when my genius was misunderstood. How was I supposed to know my parents wouldn't appreciate the crayon mural I created on my bedroom wall? I would also argue that lipstick is a perfectly legitimate medium for bathroom mirror art. Yes, I DID attempt to clean the furniture with rubbing alcohol at one point, which you can see in the photo, but THAT was well-intentioned. The ALLEGED incident in question was when I was kindergarten-aged and my mother had punished me, or something else I didn't appreciate, and so I took a marker and scribbled swear words on the bottom of the living room furniture.

I am innocent of the claim and I have the proof.

Does this look like profanity to you?

Or THIS?

Okay, so there is some original artwork ...

You're welcome, Stacey. Price accordingly.

... and what appears to be the plot sketch of an early work of fiction ...

I might have been a bit precocious.

... but not the egregious blasphemy of which I have been accused.

So now the tables go, and so goes, I hope, these undeserved accusations of a depraved childhood of reckless self-expression. So misunderstood. ;)

Staying Cool, Staying Busy

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:17:00 +0000

Here in Saint Paul, MN today, it got hot. Way hot. Over 100 hot with around 50% humidity H.O.T. So, Sawyer and I needed to find some indoor diversions. Normally, when I'm at home with Sawyer while Sean is at work, I don't get to work on my Work. Today, however, was unusual in more ways than the heat given that Sawyer seemed content to stay inside, to partake in independent play time, and he took an extra-long nap. It was a perfect storm of productivity factors and I felt like I got a lot done on the work-front today.

Since I have a lampwork trunk show scheduled at Knits & Pearls on Tuesday June 21 through Thursday June 23, I thought I ought to do some of my inside-tasks, namely photographing some of the focal beads I've been making.

The current iteration of my bead and jewelry photography setup.

Sadly, this is the best picture I got of my beads all day.

Unfortunately, while my current photography setup does a gangbusters job of lighting jewelry, it's hard to get my camera to focus on beads. Wanting to avoid overwhelming frustration I decided to move on to another project.

Playdough is one of Sawyer's top-three favorite indoor activities, so I decided to introduce him to my pasta machine, giving me an opportunity to try the Mokume Gane technique on polymer clay, inspired by Angela Design on Etsy. I found a pretty good tutorial on YouTube. I didn't make anything too fancy, but I was pleased with my first-try results. The take-away lessons were:

don't make the layers too thin; there seems to be a perfect layer thickness that I will have to play to find.

While it is easier to get deep impressions with smaller stamps (a 1x1" compared to, say, a 3x4" stamp), it is hard to get all of the individual stamps equally deep.

a very light touch is required with the tissue blade. You have to pay attention that you're only shaving off the raised portion of the design and not accidentally go underneath.

Interestingly, it turns out that the pasta machine was good for conditioning the old Playdough as well as the polymer clay.

Playdough ... less doughy than it should be.

Feeding the Playdough through the pasta machine.

Added a splash of water to the surface

Keep feeding it through until all traces of water are gone.

Repeat the last two steps until you reign victorious over the crustified Playdough.

And that is the fun we had while staying out of the heat today.

A Mother's Day Design

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:29:00 +0000

While I was at work I came up with a Mother's Day design idea for our customers looking for last-minute, personal gifts. I just wanted to share that with you all, too!

For this Mother's Day Birthstone Necklace you'll need the following tools and materials:

(from left to right) round nose pliers, chain nose pliers, flat nose pliers, and side (wire) cutters.

The quantities will depend upon the number of stones you'll be using in your necklace and whether or not you want to include spouses and grandchildren.

Crystals (or stones) in your family's birthstone colors

24" fine chain

Clasp

Small jump rings
a minimum of four are needed: two for the heart charm and one for each end of the chain. You don't need more if you're just doing siblings, but add two for each spouse/grandchild group you want to include.

Large jump rings
You'll need one for the chain end, one for the heart charm, and one for each sibling.

Heart charm

Headpins
one for each person.

Here is a table that shows the Swarovski birthstone colors with a chart of the birthstone names for each month:

January >garnet	February amethyst	March aquamarine
April diamond	May emerald	June alexandrite
July ruby	August peridot	September sapphire
October pink tourmaline	November topaz	December blue zircon

To make a charm, simply slide the crystal or stone onto a headpin and use the round nose pliers to make a ³/₄ loop 3mm above the crystal. Attach this loop to a large jump ring; if you are just including siblings you won't include the small jump rings and chain. Holding the loop with the flat nose pliers, use the chain nose pliers to wrap the tail around the wire between the loop and crystal. If you are unfamiliar with the loop and wrap technique, you can refer to this online tutorial Julie posted September 2010.

If you are including spouses and grandchildren, attach the spouse to either the large jump ring or the small jump ring attached to it. Attach the grandchildren to the small jump ring on the end of the chain connected to the large jump ring.

Slide the large jump rings with crystals attached onto the end of the necklace chain (which you can now cut shorter, if you wish). Open a short jump ring and pick up one end of the chain and the clasp. Open a second small jump ring and pick up the second end of chain and a large jump ring; the large jump ring makes it easier to close and keeps the charms from sliding off the necklace.

Have a great Mother's Day, everyone!

Lampworking Class Details

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:03:00 +0000

I neglected to provide these important details about Saturday's lampworking class in the last post:

Location: Knits & Pearls

Time:10:30am to 4:30pm with an hour break for lunch

and again, the date is Saturday, March 5th.

You'll need to wear close-fitting natural fiber clothing, like cotton or wool and, if applicable, have your hair tied back.

If you have questions regarding the class, please e-mail me. Finally, if anyone out there is interested in the 12th, please let me know today or tomorrow.

Lampworking Class This Saturday, March 5th.

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Julie is very excited to announce that we've gotten enough interest to hold a lampworking class this Saturday, March 5th, with a second class scheduled for Saturday, March 12th for anyone that can't make it on the 5th or wants a second practice session with help. We still have a couple of openings for anyone else who might be interested.

What is lampworking? Lampworking is the name for making handmade glass beads with a torch, glass rods, and a mandrel around which you wind the molten glass. You'll learn about safety, glass properties, and how to make beads that are symmetric around the mandrel in the morning, then in the afternoon you'll learn about using thin stringers of glass to decorate the beads. Julie will do several demos, but the class focuses on hands-on practice time with instructor-guidance when needed.

The class costs $30 and you'll need to purchase a lampworking kit for the class, which will cost $120 (call to ask about rental options). It includes everything you'll need to make beads at home:

4 Ounce Bead Separator

Hot Head Torch

Torch Bench Clamp

Dual Action Marver

Bead Hole Cleaner

10 Pc. Mandrel Set 3/32” X 9”

1/16” Stainless Steel Rake

Mandrel Rest

8” Tweezers

Fiber Blanket

12 Pc. Moretti Rod Pack (Mixed Colors Approx. 13” Long)

Safety Glasses

1 cannister each of MAPP and Propane gas

If you have any questions, Julie is working today, Wednesday, and Friday from 10-4pm. You can call the store at 651-282-0099.

PANTONE Fall Colors 2011

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:03:00 +0000

It does not pay to dawdle when you're a designer. At least I got one Spring 2011 post in before the fall colors were announced. But, for your visual enjoyment, here are the colors PANTONE has announced for Fall 2011

PANTONE Spring Colors 2011

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Since the PANTONE color forecast came out I've been testing glass colors. Until now I've just been trying to find and playing with individual colors to see how well they matched the forecasted colors.

I'm still not done finding and testing glass to match all of the colors but I did find some I was really excited about and, after receiving my new Beadroller sampler (which is perfect in every way), I was motivated to create a set with the colors I'm done testing.

This bead set was made with the colors:

Russet (Effetre Choco-lotta)

Coral Rose (Effetre Coral Mango Special)

Lavender (Effetre Periwinkle Pastel)

Regatta (CIM Electric Blue)

I'm excited about these colors so far, but stay tuned as I continue my pursuit of the best glass colors for Spring 2011, including tests with CIM Celadon, CIM Butter Pecan, Effetre Gray Pearl Pastel, and Effetre Butternut.

Dryer Lint Clay Buttons

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Today an old fencing friend, Sarah Gray from Gray's Fabric & Notions in Boston, posted a blog about making buttons from casein. The casein is made from milk and vinegar and forms a plastic-like (Cheese?!) substance. Of course the idea totally inspired me. While I was reading the comments on the Instructables page to which Sarah linked I came across another substance from which buttons could be made: dryer lint clay.

Drier lint clay, after a brief Google search, is a clay-like putty that seems to have two recipies: one with lots of water and uses flour as the binder and one with less water and uses glue and liquid soap for the binder. What I like about the idea of dryer lint clay buttons is that the dryer lint provides strength, like rebar in cement, is easy to make, and employs the idea of recycling something you normally throw out.

Since I don't particularly want to order any button molds, I think I'm going to try making some free-form buttons since I just some large buttons to use decoratively on my knitting projects or as focal beads. If you want to try making some molds for your buttons take a look at this post from Sarajane Helm.

Stay Tuned ...

Art With a Hammer

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:43:00 +0000

Lori Anderson from the Pretty Things blog is having a giveaway for this fantastic set of metal letter stamps.

If you haven't given metal stamping a try, this is a great opportunity to get some of the tools to give it a go. Otherwise, sign up for the Knits & Pearls newsletter so you get the February/March class schedule coming up. I'm planning to teach a metal stamping class in March to help you get a start thinking about great Mother's Day gifts.

A stamped pendant I made for my aunt with my cousin's name and birthdate.

Angles in Wireworking

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:58:00 +0000

I've just come off of my bi-monthly class-planning-and-scheduling frenzy. As part of that, I've been working on wireworking projects and classes. As reported in a recent post, I'm always trying to make my handouts more useful and readable. As I was working, thinking about how I would (re-)explain loop-and-wrap (a.k.a. wrapped loop). I realized that, having taken enough college math to be one class away from a minor, I think about art in a mathematical way.

I know many people avoid math at all costs. I think it's because it is often poorly explained and not because we aren't all capable of learning it. Despite the fact that learning math bores me to death, having survived taking so much math then going off to work in totally unrelated fields, I now see how useful math is in domains like the creative arts. If you don't know the ratios of chemicals in the rocks you're stringing I'm not going to call you on that, not now anyway, but there are times when a mathematical explanation is:
(1) the most universal (non-culturally-or-experience-based) way to explain something and
(2) the most straight-forward (least-explanation-required) way to explain it.

Even if you don't understand or can't stay awake through most math, I think you'll agree that sometimes it's better than a round-about verbal explanation. Even if we don't like math, we know that math represents the exact and precise. When we see math, and we understand enough to do it, we seem to naturally understand that we just need to do what the math says - no more, no less. Plus. Minus. Period. When something is described verbally, there are often many little details - things we naturally assume and understand in math - that need to be explained and clarified. As an instructor, sometimes it's hard to remember all of the little details that a beginner doesn't yet know. In that respect, math has an additional function.

So, let me give you an example. I teach a lot of loop-and-wrap/wrapped loop. It's a basic and often-used technique that every new jewelry artist needs to learn. It is hard to make a pair of earrings without it. It is, however, a technique that has a lot of little steps. You need to make a loop around the round-nose pliers - but how far do you bend the wire? You need to wrap the tail, but how much tail do you need - especially if you use different gauges of wire? If you want to use the method where you bend the wire before looping and wrapping - how far from the end should you bend the wire? There is a mathematical, precise answer for them all.

Here is the most recent excerpt from a handout, the handout I posted online for the Fringed Focal Necklace. Keep in mind, being the most recent one, I already had this blog post in mind, so didn't include parts of the explanation I included before. I'll list those additional directions below:

What I additionally explain for the looping part is that you want the wire to look like a "P". The first time people try to make the loop, half of the people get it perfect, but the other half. Some don't bend the wire end far enough around the pliers, often to the point where it only just passes the wire between pliers and the bead. Some loop the wire too far so it's like the pliers is in the middle of a wire loop-the-loop. I usually say to bend the wire 270°, but that often doesn't help.

That's really unfortunate because it's the most simple way of explaining it. So, even if you suffer from sever math phobia, bear with me and see if this makes sense. I want to remind everyone about how angles relate to wireworking. Even if you already understand how to make these bends, think about how you might use them to explain bends to a beginner.

LEFTIES: I apologize. These images are designed for the right-hander. The difference for you will be that the axis of rotation will go CLOCKWISE, and 0° and 180° will get interchanged because your working hand and stationary hand will be opposite than for a righty. Now back to our regularly scheduled message:

Imagine you have a big bullseye attached to your round nose pliers. The center of the bullseye is your pliers. I know that, unless you magically have three hands, you won't be working exactly like shown, but starting with a straight piece of wire, whether it's bare plain wire or a wire you've strung through a bead:

0° is the working end of the wire - the tail you're going to be moving around. So, on the picture you'll see a pair of chain nose pliers grasping the wire.

180° is the other end of a straight piece of wire, the part you'll be keeping stationary. In the image, that's where you see the hand grasping the wire. If you're going to do a looped wrap, that will be where the bead is.

Everyone: Obviously, you can't do three things at once: hold both ends of the wire AND the round-nose pliers. So with the thumb and last three fingers of your non-dominant hand you'll hold the pliers and using the index of that hand press the stationary part of the wire against the bottom jaw of the round nose pliers. However, I didn't want all of that to be behind the image as I was trying to clarify the angles.

A 90° bend is simply 1/4 of a full turn around the pliers. Holding the wire horizontally, the movement begins on the dominant side of your body and moves toward your non-dominant side. The bend works best going upward because it's easier to see than if you bend downward. Therefore, for righties, the movement through the angles will be counterclockwise (clockwise for lefties), and the wire will stop when it's vertical (and the stationary end is still horizontal).

That being said, once you know exactly how far you need to bend to make a 90° bend and you know how it's supposed to look, you can hold the wire in and position you want. 90° is still 90° when its upside down and backward. It's not the location of the ends you need to worry about, but the amount the wire moves at the center around the round nose pliers.

No picture for this. A 180° bend is pretty simple and I want you to try and imagine it. a 180° bend is, more or less, folding the wire on itself. You'll bend the working end until it meets (and is parallel with) the stationary part of the wire.

A 270° bend is a little more complicated to understand, but it's the bend you need to make for a wrapped loop. Righties are still bending counterclockwise and lefties are still bending clockwise. You're going to bend past horizontal until the wire is again vertical. The difference is that the working end will be pointing in the opposite direction as it was when it was at 90° when the stationary end is in the same place.

This is not to say that any explanation will ever totally solve the problem, though I certainly hope this helped you understand angles at least a little bit better. I know that some people just need you to show them one-on-one. The main point is, like mentioned above, long and drawn out explanations are not always helpful. They are even less helpful when you have to have two things explained in such a way at the same time. The point of learning the basics before more advanced techniques is so you don't need the basics explained along with a more complicated procedure. Taking prerequisites before another class is very important for that reason. The same here. It's hard to figure out the basics if you don't understand the vocabulary in which it is most simply explained. Notice that I didn't say most 'clearly' explained. 'Clearly' is a relative term and when math is a foreign concept using it to explain something will not be clear to you. So, take this time to become familiar with angles as they pertain to wireworking. It may take a little more time in the short term than you'd like, but in the long run your understanding of making bends in wire and metalwork will be much more clear because you'll understand it in the simplest way.

For anyone wondering - "So, if you were one class away from a math minor, why didn't you just finish it?" Its because I seriously dislike math. Let's say we have a scale from 0 - 10, with 10 being 'super stimulating' and 0 being 'puts me into a boredom coma.' I'd probably rate math as -3 since I'd routinely fall into several math-induced stupors before completing an assignment. I was a physics/astrophysics double major at the time. I loved (LOVED) astronomy and this was the more marketable than just being an astrophysics (or, gasp, astronomy - the liberal arts version) major, and (1) it was required to take that much math and (2) I thought if I took enough math to make the math I needed every day easy, that I could function as an astrophysicist. It turns out - there's no such thing as enough math to make multivariable vector calculus easy to someone who doesn't naturally think in a math-o-logical way. Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses. The plus side is that all that math did make the math I needed as a mere mortal extremely easy. Who knew?

Feng Frit Factory Frit Testing - Super YAY!

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:38:00 +0000

I wanted to give a shout out to Christina from Feng Frit Factory for four reasons:

First, because she makes amazing frit blends. She has a gift for making even monochrome blends POP.

Second because she and her business partner make FANTASTIC murrini.

Third, because she's a gifted lampwork artist - one that shares her observations and gifts.

Flickr

That after a conversation with her yesterday I get to be a frit tester for her blends!

Enara

Iara

Javan

I love my job! Feng Frit Factory Frit Testing. While you say that three-times fast, I'll be making beads!

Foe ... toes? Photos! I almost forgot what those were!

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:06:00 +0000

I would argue that, for people who are trying to make their living as an artist (versus as a business person selling art), the most challenging aspect of business is the marketing. Learning new techniques? No problem! Making things? Check! Taking photos, editing the photos, uploading the photos to Facebook, the blog, and Flickr? Uh ... I ... um ... what are foe-toes?

Saturday I set up a photography area in my studio. This is not the first time I've set up a dedicated photography area (nor the second). I know it's important. I know about diffused light, I know to minimize shadows ... even how to do it (to some degree), I know about full-spectrum light, and I know about the Rule of Thirds. But, when it comes down to it, in the limited amount of time I have to attend to business I'd really just rather be making beads.

Of course, to make more beads I occasionally need to buy new glass. If I want to attend to something called a "business plan", that means I need to occasionally sell something. I am very fortunate to have a couple of retail stores that carry my beads, but as anyone with any investing experience knows, it's good to diversify. So, putting some effort into building online sales is a good idea.

More regular sales = More sustainable purchasing power
More sustainable purchasing power = more potential growth.

Therefore:
Marketing = Good!

Okay. Excellent argument. Yet, why do I still avoid marketing - particularly the photography part of marketing? In the September 2010 issue of Art Jewelry magazine, Marlene Richey wrote her Business Savvy column about "Maker, Manager, Marketer: How to Budget Your Time." As a rule of thumb, she recommended spending 50% of your time making, 25% managing, and 25% marketing. That seemed like a sound ratio to me. My problem is that it seems like when I get to it, I spend way more time than that just with editing the photos, let alone the uploading, etc. I'm not talking about, what I would consider, extensive editing either - a little cropping, a little brightness and contrast adjustment, and save. Maybe I just need an attitude adjustment. Maybe it would go faster then?

All of that is a rather long and round-about introduction to my main point, which is to emphasize the impressiveness of getting my butt in the studio to take some pictures. The motivation was that these focals are a little different than what I have made in the past and was pretty proud of the results. I still need to tweak my setup because the image isn't close enough to get good detail. Nevertheless, I put this collage together so you could see the basic result. Now all I need to do is take some close-up photos, edit the photos, upload to Etsy, measure the bead dimensions, write up a compelling description with the measurements ... but I digress:

What do you think?

Interesting Follow-up to the Handout Post

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:37:00 +0000

I had just put Sawyer to bed and I began straightening up the living room when I saw this bead on the floor.

Golly, that looks just like one of the beads I used in the bracelet I photographed for the Jewelry Making Basics handout revision that I blogged about Wednesday.

I thought to myself, "Golly, that looks just like one of the beads I used in the bracelet I photographed for my Jewelry Making Basics handout revision."

I was a little more confused when I then saw this.

Um ... I did NOT have that many beads left over from that bracelet.

Since the bracelet was meant to be on display at the store I got the beads from the store, not my stash, and only took just enough to do the bracelet. One extra bead mysteriously appearing I could have shrugged off, but three beads? I did not have that many extra beads. I asked myself, "Did you see Sawyer by the table where you put the bracelet?" I ruminated. "ARrrrGh! Yes." So, now I was on a mission. Where are the rest of the beads? Worse - why did it break?

Why did it break? That was the critical question. I just posted a blog about why I was so angry about other people's work being substandard and the bracelet I photographed for the handout THAT I BLOGGED ABOUT broke. BROKE! Shite. Now, more than the rest of the beads, I NEED to find the stringing cable they were on. Where is the rest of the bracelet?

Important aside here: Sawyer is a bright little boy (note to self: thinking that marrying a smart boy with whom to have smart babies ... yeeeeaaaah. Not as wise as originally believed.). This bright little boy likes to play a game called Hide. Hide and Seek? No. Just, "Hide". Finding the beads, then, was a mixed blessing. I was relieved to win this round of Sawyer's game, but was very nervous about examining the find.

I found it! It wasn't a crimp!

I did a prayer of thanks to a blasphemous number of Beings to both find a small pile of beads and the stringing cable together. Most importantly? The clasp was still connected, the crimps and jump rings were still in tact. The stringing cable was cleanly broken in the middle. Culprit? Badly drilled natural stone.

The fact that the bracelet broke is not good, but I was relieved for two reasons. One, the ends were well-finished and not at fault. Two, in the class I did (and do) tell the students about the dangers of natural stones from the fact they are drilled from two directions. The half-drilled holes don't always meet perfectly in the center of the bead, leaving a jagged spot in the middle of the bead's hole. Since I so rarely encounter a serious problem with this I don't routinely ream out my stones. So, when I told my students that, if their bracelets broke, they should look at where the bracelet broke and ream out the offending bead, it was perhaps a tad too optimistic.

Still, I think it is an important lesson. Natural stones can pose a danger to the integrity of your stringing cable. The bracelet in question was on coated 19 strand 0.018 diameter cable. Using a different thickness of wire wouldn't have prevented a break, it just would have happened at a different time. Owning a set of bead reamers is a must if you use drilled beads. If you want to be totally safe, ream out all of your beads. Definitely ream out the beads used in expensive designs. Mostly, just remember that it isn't really a matter of IF a stone will cause a design to break, it's more a matter of WHEN. Be aware.

Motivators for Class Handout Evolutions

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:19:00 +0000

I started teaching classes on various jewelry making techniques around five years ago. At first, when I'd make a class handout, the format was different for each class. They generally had the same sections, but they would look different. The Tools & Materials lists might be boxed off or be one column instead of three. The instructions might be listed in paragraphs, they might be listed in bullet points, or they might be in tabular form with photos and commentary underneath.

The first real evolution of my class handouts was redoing everything I had written about two years after I started teaching. When I rewrote them I created a template so that the format of each one was the same: a header with class title at left and contact & copyright information at right, a brief introduction, an image of the class project, tools and materials, safety and preparation, and instructions with images.

Now, five years in, I find that I spend most of my revision time refining the way I explain different points in the handouts. Refining the way I explain things is usually grounded in one of three motivators. One is based on common questions I get from students in the class. A second motivator is simply that I learn more about a topic and, in my own experiences as a continuing student, gain a better understanding of what information a student needs to be in the best position to progress to a more advanced understanding of the technique. The third, and for better or worse - strongest motivator, is seeing the work other people try to sell and judging that the way it was put together left something wanting, and thinking to myself, "Are they kidding?"

Arrogant? Yes. I'm sure that if anyone more experienced looked at my work, I'm sure I do something that would elicit a similar response. So, yes, I do try and take a step back, breathe a little, and ask myself why the particular something makes me upset. I try to think of it as an opportunity to develop my otherwise subjective left-brain creativity in a more objective right-brain analytic way. It seems that the issues that stick with me are choices that are made because someone saw an easy way to do something, saw that it worked, and failed to ask if there was a better way to do it. It's the repeat violations. The people who use a sloppy technique, not just with something organic, but with pearls and crystals, and everything in-between.

This took center stage today as I was preparing to teach my Jewelry Making Basics class. Some of the work I've recently seen, and been disappointed in, made me take a mission. I felt like it was my solemn duty to make sure that whatever crimping or finishing technique they chose to use - even if it wasn't the one I taught and even if it was one I showed as a whatever-you-do-don't-do-this example - they would do because they had thought about it and evaluated it against other possibilities. Additionally, that they would think about said choice in terms of whether it contributed to both the beauty and strength of the finished piece. So, I spent the whole afternoon taking new pictures and added new (shaded and outlined with fancy bold and colored titles) notes boxes to try and convince my students that the following are not okay:

pulling the stringing cable tight against the clasp or jump ring
leaving the stringing cable at the ends bare
attaching the clasp directly to the bracelet
just using a pliers to squish the crimp bead

Not just that they weren't okay because I felt like the Queen of the Jewelry Police, but because there were really good reasons not to do them because there were better techniques. See if you agree:

Why do I need to use a Wire Guardian or heavy French Wire?

To make sure that your loop is large enough so that the jump ring and clasp aren't putting stress on the crimp tube.
To prevent abrasion on the stringing cable (from the part of the bracelet that moves the most).
So the ends of your bracelet or necklace look 'finished'.

Note: I know that there is a commercial product known as heavy French wire, but I don't mean that. I am referring to something I make myself using 28g wire wrapped around 18g wire as a mandrel.

Why don't we string the clasp directly onto the crimped loop?

A properly chosen jump ring is very secure and gives you the option of changing clasps without restringing the bracelet.
Using a jump ring allows more movement when trying to secure the clasp.
Using jump rings to attach the clasp to the bracelet reduces stress on the crimp bead holding the bracelet together.

A corollary to the last point: If you attach the clasp directly to the crimped loop, the forces on the clasp go directly to the crimp bead (not so with a jump ring, which can move and redirect the force), and when the crimp bead fails (unlike a jump ring, which additionally has less chance of failing), you lose the whole bracelet and not just the clasp.

Is that totally unreasonable? Because, let me tell you, the jewelry that motivated me to this class handout revision - it still feels like a burr under my saddle!

Eight Hundred Dollars: Part II -- Stones

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:21:00 +0000

Car repairs are a superb slimming regimine for your bank account. I did some first hand research and proved that conclusively today.

What? You're not shocked or surprised?

I know. That's life. But, as the cliché goes: when life gives you limes, make mojitos. So, I tapped deep into the psyche of my business philosophy and pondered some possibilities and gained a little inspiration watching my little boy greedily enjoying the outdoors. I remembered a design that looked a little something like this:

I like many things about this design:

It represents the heart of my business philosophy. Take something straight from nature and tweak it in a way that helps emphasize its value.

It's simple and focuses on the artistic elements of line, shape, and color.

It doesn't take long to make, doesn't cost a lot to make, and can be priced inexpensively.

Stones, by their very nature, represent strength and endurance. As such, they are the perfect metaphors for all the personal traits that help people prevail in difficult situations including perserverance and fortitude.

In the quiet moments between tending my little Sawyer and working/teaching at Knits & Pearls I'll be feverishly making these, and as I hold each stone as I carefully wrap it, I'll be thinking about the lessons these stones have to teach me. Some stones are weathered, but whole; broken, but they survive; pitted, but strong. Simple? Yes. The best lessons often are.

Eight Hundred Dollars: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:03:00 +0000

That's an every day experience for some people ...

What do you have in YOUR wallet?

... but not me. Sadly, that number does not refer to the amount of a recent sale or commission, or an exciting contest prize value for my readers, but the amount we will need to pay the mechanic once he rebuilds our main car's air conditioning system, which had caused a short in the idle air valve and stalling in our car; something we discovered on a 120 mile trip to visit Sean's parents on Friday. On the plus side: thank heaven for AAA and not having to pay for the tow.

So, why post this in a blog dedicated to my business? Because, as some may remember better than I do, the two worlds of business and home often collide, sometimes painfully so. I had been having dreams of a new lampworking glass press or two or taking an advanced jeweler class with a local artist around my birthday. Back on the waiting list they go. Not only will all of my forseeable income be going to pay for this (because much of our savings had already been earmarked for a September East Coast wedding to which we are committed), but I'll have to push out a lot of product and work on a marketing whirlwind to try and make up the balance. Sean makes decent money and takes care of all the normal expenses, but since he's salaried, all of the fun and surprises necessarily fall to me.

Queue positive thinking.

My business name, confusing and unpronouncable as it might be, is strongly rooted in my business philosophy: we are all beautiful and valuable the way we are found, the way we are made, but additional meaning can be infused by tweaking the natural. That's what autochthonous evolved means: taking things from the place we find them and doing something with them with the purpose of growth and beauty - both for ourselves as well as for the things which which we adorn ourselves in the effort to evolve our image.

Today, while watching Sawyer play outside and pondering our options, I remembered an old jewelry design of mine. It's one I developed for a class, a design that embraced my business philosophy in a more direct way than other designs of mine. It's a pretty simple design, fairly easy to make and therefore one that can be produced and sold for a very reasonable price. What is it and where can you buy one? Stay tuned for a few hours ... I think you'll like it.

Did I mention? I got published!

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:41:00 +0000

It's true, my Ocean Waves bracelet was published in Beadwork Magazine's What Our Readers Did (WORD) feature in its June/July 2010 issue. I was extremely excited to see my work in print for the first time.

If you want to peek at more images of this bracelet, you can to to my Etsy store where I have the bracelet for sale.

This definitely inspires me to keep working toward getting one (or more) of my designs published as a project in a magazine. In fact, I'm working on an idea for Step by Step Wire, so keep your fingers crossed and eyes peeled! Yay

New Bead Series

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:18:00 +0000

I've often wondered what other beadmakers' inspiration was for new bead lines. More often than not, I make individual one-of-a-kind beads, just to practice my lampworking skills and to make whatever felt inspiring at the moment. Sets? I can make sets. Sets are getting much easier. But, a series - where I had the technical ability to carry out the vision - has eluded me until now.

In a completely unexciting effort to use up the half-used glass rods that were (are) littering my torching workspace I thought, "I'm just going to use these scraps to practice drawing lines." I've previously made beads with graphic lines and liked them, so it was a pretty simple choice. However, since the glass scraps were a mixture of stable and not-so-stable colors (colors that bleed, separate, or sink into other layers) I thought, "let's just let these flow together and see what we get".

I've done a few beads similar to this in the past and really liked them. With blues on the bottom, greens in the middle, a little brown and gray layer, with a little more blue on top, let gravity work some magic and - voila! Instant landscape. These new beads have the same look, but different colors that make me wonder what the landscape on a distant planet might look like.

Until I run out of scrap glass, I'll be working on these and exploring the glass: what thickness stringer of particular colors works well (for example, yellow stripes ... not so much - bright and spreads out), how different colors react side-by side, how the base color affects the stripe colors, how heat affects the degree of reaction taking place between the colors, and other new properties of the glass that I haven't noticed yet. Man! Beadmaking is fun!

P.S. If you are wondering why I might want to practice drawing lines on a bead, take a look at J.C. Herrel or Dora Schubert's beads. Yeah. I'm working on it.

Boro Recipe Book

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:20:00 +0000

I've started a project this week creating a boro recipe book for myself. Since I've gotten some new Glass Alchemy rod and frit I wanted to have a more concrete method of ensuring great results when I make beads with the new colors. The process starts relatively arbitrarily. I'll pick between one and three colors of rod, and one or two colors of frit. I'll make between one and three beads on a mandrel, all the same with one permutation of the rod and frit selection I've chosen. Once I finish with the bead I write down the process I used - how many wraps, if the wraps were the size I normally make them or not, if I added frit and when, whether I encased the bead, and if I applied any decoration to the surface. Then, I repeat the process with a different combination of rod and frit. After several sets, I select new frit and rods and continue.

Summer Sunrise

Cooking time: 1 ¹/₂ hours
Temp: 1075°F

7mm Northstar Orange opaque rod
#70 Glass Alchemy Triple Passion frit
5mm Simax clear rod

Take the orange opaque rod and, pulling the gather thin, wrap around the mandrel twice. Melt smooth and, while hot, roll the base in frit. Melt the frit into the base, cool slightly, then encase with two wraps of clear.

In order to be efficient with my kiln time I spent two days making beads and cooling them in my fiber blanket so that I could batch anneal them, keeping my kiln at the garage temp (for working, cooler than the annealing temperature) while I made a final set of beads.

Out of this first attempt I got 35 different recipies. I would say about half are decidedly lackluster. Some of these were intentional. For example, I have some plain base-color beads and simple encased beads whose only purpose was to demonstrate whether there was a cracking risk. Some beads I thought would change color in the kiln more than they did, or the frit was too small to give a good visual field of the color. For other beads the color was too sparse. Some of the recipes are pretty good and bear repetition. Some can be repeated as they are and some need a little tweaking or suggest new frit and rod combinations. All in all, I'm excited with the beginning of this project.

The end goal is to pick out the stand-out recipies and be able to replicate them on demand. Having a consistent, quality line of borosilicate beads will help increase my reputation, repeat business, and thus, revenue. Also, with the accumulation of enough stand-out combinations, there will potentially be some demand to purchase the recipies by other lampworkers so they can begin to build consistency in their own commercial work; recipies being a benchmark from which you can examine how your torch skills compare and allow you to improve.

So, what is a great get-to-know-your-glass exercise for me in the present, could become avenue for revenue both in the intermediate future and long-term. Hopefully, I'll learn my lessons well enough to make the information available to others. Good for me, good for the world! :)

The Fantastic Field of Fritology

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:41:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the things that I've been purchasing in my recent Supply Stock-up is frit. Today I got a shipment from Dragonfly Glassworx. Thank you, Julia! I LOVE it!

Frit is perfectly good glass that has been smashed and sorted according to size. Powder is, well, powder. Size 00 is tiny but visually recognizable as chunks. Size 5 can often be the size of a bead, so is often attached to a spare hot rod of glass, melted, then pulled into long, thin fiber-optic-escent strings called, um, stringers. Stringers can actually be anything up to about 2mm in diameter and are used for surface decoration on beads. In between 00 and 5 are, as you may have predicted, 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4; 0 and 1 being the most likely suspects for bead use.

One of the pioneers of frit use in beadmaking is Val Cox, who, looking for a vibrant pink, found the awesome range of COE 96 colors that were used by glass blowers. She began making frit and frit blends available to other beadmakers. Over time other "fritologists" began to make frit and frit blends available. Some vendors began to produce COE 104 frit, since the majority of beadmakers work with that type of glass, but the advantage of COE 96 furnace glass remains: the concentration of color within the COE 96 matrix is much higher than in COE 104 glass, so using small shards of frit won't result in muted colors on the bead. COE 96 frit just looks more vibrant than COE 104 frit. So, from this point forward, when I say frit (unless I'm specifically talking about borosilicate glass, which also uses frit) I mean small glass fragments with a COE of 96.

Let me briefly revisit a point I made in my last post: bad things happen when mix glasses of different COEs ... usually ... sometimes. Remember that the COE stands for Coefficient Of Expansion, where expansion is 10^-7inches/°F. In reality, when you're talking about COE 104 glass and a lead-rich (read: pliable) COE 96 glass and the COE 96 glass is only a little bit of frit on top of an otherwise substantial COE 104 bead ... well, often nothing bad happens (though I do find that I increase my chances of making it work by putting it directly into a garage-temp kiln to await annealing). The point being that many COE 104 beadmakers use frit that is (often exclusively) COE 96 and by using a small amount of frit they get away with it. Wanting to reduce my own risk for cracking, which tended to happen too frequently for my taste, I purchased COE 96 rod to use with my frit. Mixing COE 104 and COE 32-33 is still a WAY bad idea.

As of this writing I've purchased frit from five different frit blenders: from Robin at Glass Diversions, from Sabrina at Val Cox Frit, from Christine at FenG Frit Factory (who also makes and sells her FANTASTIC murrini), from Leslie at That Frit Girl, and from Julia at Dragonfly Glassworx. There are other vendors, too, but my budget is not, unfortunately, unlimited.

All of the small frit providers carry at least two container sizes of frit, usually a sample size then a production size. The sizes of the containers and the prices vary from vendor to vendor. For example, what I like best about Glass Diversions is that Robin will let you choose a "sampler" of six colors in 1.5oz containers for $28; I find that's a really great value for fairly large sample sizes of frit blends. Val Cox also has "Ample Samples," with pretty labels in heavy 2x3" resealable plastic bags for around $3.00, Dragonfly Glassworx has a similarly-packaged similar size sample for a little less than $2, and FenG Frit Factory has her samples available for $1.50USD (USD because she's in The Netherlands). Dragonfly and FenG also have borosilicate blends, which I think is fantastic since some days nothing seems quite as satisfying as seeing the delicate rainbow of colors only boro can produce.

Dragonfly Glassworx sampler

The friendly folks at Olympic Color and Hot Glass Color also sell the individual frit (and cane and rod) colors that come from the furnace glass manufacturers, which is nice if there's a color you really like or use a lot of like, maybe, white, black, clear, or Reichenbach Multicolor ... but the minimum order is a half kilo (about 1.1 pounds) - at least at Olympic Color, where I purchased my last bunch of frit.

N.B.: If you decide you want to buy some "rods" from them (since that's what lampworkers generally call their glass), understand that glassblowers' rods are something like 1.5" in diameter. To use furnace glass in the same manner that you use glass rods in COE 104 glass what you'll want to purchase is labeled 'cane'.

That Frit Girl carries reasonable priced 1 and 2oz packages of pure frit color for those beadmakers not wanting to buy that much. Additionally, if you want to make some beads for the program Beads of Courage, Leslie will send you a free sample of any colors of frit you want to try, so long as you send her the beads back to be sent on to the program. Briefly, Beads of Courage provides beads to hospitals for children undergoing treatment for serious illness. After each treatment, the children are given a bead in a color representing the specific treatment, to string on a necklace. This helps give ill children something to look forward to as well as help them visually document their progress.

So, in my effort to better document my artistic process, I will come back to frit, showing you the different colors I've tried from different vendors and report what I think of their ease of use, what kind of application method best makes advantage of their colors, and other tips I find or confirm. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with this. These beads were made with Zoozii's Chunky Crystal Duo (love it!) that I got an opportunity to use in Lampwork Etc's Press Game (a major secret I'm letting out!) and some of the newer colors I've acquired, including the most recent set of frit that I got from Val Cox and Olympic Color:

All COE 96 unless otherwise specified.
Top Row, from left: I don't actually remember what the first one is made with - probably Reichenbach Multicolor rod on a clear base, Gaffer Blue Chalcedony rod probably also on a clear base with some other color mixed in, Reichenbach Multicolor frit on Rootbeer transparent base.
Second Row, from left: Reichenbach Multicolor frit on base of clear and a layer of Zimmerman Purple Rose Special frit, (another) Reichenbach Multicolor frit on Rootbeer transparent base, Zimmerman Purple Rose Special frit on a base of clear with Val Cox Fairy Dust frit, Val Cox Fairy Dust frit on an encased base of Gaffer veiled gold lustre/white cane, (COE 104)Double Helix Olympia Rain on a base of black.
Third Row, from left: Val Cox Ferrari Red frit on base of clear, Val Cox Mood Swings frit on base of clear, Val Cox Enchanted frit on base of clear, Val Cox Fairy Dust frit on base of clear and Val Cox Violet Storm transparent frit, (yet another) Reichenbach Multicolor frit on Rootbeer transparent base.
Bottom Row: all Zimmerman Purple Rose Special frit on a base of clear and Reichenbach Enamel White frit.

From one of my history professors I learned that N.B. is an abbreviation for 'nota bene'; Latin for 'pay attention or else ...'

Like Christmas ... But More Glass!

noreply@blogger.com (AutEv) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Today was a red banner day when it comes to getting shipments of exciting new things. The stars have aligned in my supply-buying world. Money from classes, I made another sale, tax refund, and supply SALES! So, I've been ordering glass, tools, and frit blends (frit is little glass shards used to create organic patters).

[COE 32-33] Glass Alchemy borosilicate order, now with SHARDS! Oooooh.

[COE 96] Glass Alchemy order: Zimmerman (no-longer-in-production) z-77 Avocado cane, z-850 Lilac cane, and z-851 Lilac Rose Special cane, z-99 Purple Rose Special rod . Look at those rings of color. DELICIOUS!

It's strange, really, to get so excited about a colored glass rod ... or is it? Take a look at this:

The end of the z-99 Purple Rose Special rod.

The side of the z-99 Purple Rose Special rod.

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?

Glass isn't monotone. It's reactive, it's multidimensional, it's amazing. Plus, you get to melt it with a torch. Come on! I don't know why you aren't all signing up for my lampworking classes right now. Torches! Alright, maybe I'm the only one with a borderline torch disorder, but I'm comfortable with who I am. But the glass ... well, if you don't see the fascination, I just don't think the issue is on my end.

So, glass. Why do you have to spend good money on it when it's in Prego jars, lightbulbs, or window panes? It's because of something called Coefficient of Expansion, or COE . When glass is heated it expands (for the techies: [COE]x10^-7 inches/degree F). There's a little more to it than this, but more or less, if you melt together two different glasses that expand at different rates everything's good when the glasses are molten, but when they cool ... that's a different story. Of course, exploding glass might be your thing, but it's hard to sell. Because of that, companies spend a lot of time in research testing their glass to make sure every color is compatible with every other color it manufactures. New companies usually choose one of the COEs on the market and make their glass compatible with that. When glasses are tested compatible you can use them together. No one has tested the Prego jar yet.

The main COEs on the U.S. market are 104 soft, soda-lime glass; 96 Furnace Glass; 90 soft glass produced by Bullseye; and 32-33 Borosilicate glass, which is the same as the commercial brand Pyrex. I use them all and each has their charm. 104 is easy to melt and use, has a huge range of colors and brands that are easy to obtain. 96 has uber intense colors, and some of those colors just aren't available in 104, like a wide range of intense pinks. 90 was, I believe, originally formulated by the Bullseye company for glass fusing; whether the rods were originally made for lampworkers or not, we certainly use them now. The advantage of Bullseye's line is the colors are amazingly stable with very little changing or bleeding after heating or applying on or next to other colors. Borosilicate glass ... well, Boro merits a post for itself. It's a metal-rich glass that is highly reactive. Many 'colors' of rod can actually be coerced to produce the entire rainbow of color in a single bead (or sculpture). It's hard to melt, but it's less sensitive to temperature fluctuations, so it's more forgiving in sculptural use than other glass. Beadmakers just love the colors.

Since I have classes this weekend that I still need to prep for, I can't go out and make beads with all of my new, beautiful glass yet ... at least not more than the couple of test beads I was compelled to make. But when I do, wait until you see the pictures! I know you're not as excited as I am, but I hope you're more excited than you were before!