Playing with fire

Bead making season is underway at last.  The optimum temperature range for  lamp working glass is between 65 and 80 degrees F, below that range and the glass is too chilled to melt properly, and above that range the artist tends to melt.

Spring and warmer weather arrived long ago but playing in the garden won out, the lawn needed mowing and the vegetable garden had to be planted.  Now with summer here I can finally make time for playing with fire.

Below are a few photos of bead making in progress:  you wrap an initial core of glass onto the steel rod and marver that into a cylinder, then add additional colors on top.  Here I am using a technique to capture a small bubble of air by making a dent in the glass with a sharp steel tool, and then covering the dent with clear glass.

Seattle has a new glass museum, the Chihuly Glasshouse and garden will be an inspiring place to visit.

adding molten glass to the bead

poking dents into the glass

cooling the bead away from the flame

Blue with hints of spring green

Seafoam blues with hints of green

The Vernal Equinox arrives, and today’s creation features three Aura Sun Arts beads strung with a range of blues and hints of green.

The handmade beads feature my favorite blue and gold glimmers, and tiny air bubbles encased in clear glass.  I add the air bubbles by making a mesh of glass strings and encasing over that.  Many glass artists view air bubbles as mistakes, but I find them to be really fun.  When you spin the bead the bubbles look like tiny planets in orbit.

Click on the photo for a closer look.  This one is 24 inches and needs no clasp.  It has already gone to a good home, but a similar creation might cost $95.00.

Black with moonstone

black, gold and blue focal bead with moonstone accents

This week’s handmade Aura Sun Arts creation features a focal bead with a black core, drifts of metallic gold and bluestone, and captive air bubbles encased in clear glass.

The lentil shaped moonstone accent beads along the necklace have their own mysterious hints of blue and gray.  So sophisticated!

It measures 18 inches; the balance of smaller seed beads are in colors of matte and oil blacks and gold.

Click to see it close-up for true appreciation.

To learn more about the optical properties of moonstone, you will find the Wiki entry on adularescence is most enlightening.

blue oceans of glass

Blue has to be one of my favorite colors.

oceanic blues and greens

Blue glass beads can remind one of the fabulous colors of the ocean.  Tropical waters are very clear, with little plankton, and the water is clear all the way down to the sandy bottom, showing off those gorgeous turquoise tints.  Northern waters, with richer plankton, are a dark blue green.

When you paint with watercolors, you can combine or layer colors to blend and mix until you achieve new colors.  Glass is much the same, so start with a sandy layer, then add pale blues and greens, deeper blues, some flotsam, jetsam, and a few bubbles, and you can almost imagine yourself snorkeling, rocking in the ocean to the sound of your breathing.

watercolor painted in Belize

Click on the photo to see more big blues.  Those with a layer of clear glass on the outside – “encasing” –  have an extra sense of depth.  This layer refracts and bends light just as water does.  Quite a few of these are matched pairs or sets.  See all the blue beads on the Blue oceans page.  Other new sets are featured on the Earrings page.