Keeping Busy . . .

I have been torching every day recently, keeping myself busy and doing what I love to do.  I have been working on inventory for my shows starting in early January and of course, I started with the hardest and most time-consuming pieces that I make (just to get them out of the way!).  These are my Dragon Eye pendants and they take several stages to make as well as 2-3 hours for each one.  Needless to say, I usually cannot make more than 2 per day, but sometimes I am extremely productive and make 3 or 4 (those are looooong torching days!).
I am running out of the clear and black I use for the bases of these guys, so I might have to move onto other things, at least for now - - but I have quite a few done, so I am happy (I have a few more that are not in this picture, too!)  :)

Tis the Season . . .

to get busy!!  YAY!
Been working on production pieces for my upcoming shows starting in early January, but got sidetracked with some orders (always welcome, especially this time of year!) and also was playing around with some boro tubing and making some ornaments for the holiday.
I have been taking a boro class at the Mesa Art Center here trying to learn a few things, mostly about tubing and blowing, which I don't have a lot of experience with (yet!), altho I do know the basic concepts.  It's nice to be able to work on tanked oxygen and really rage my torch.  I am limited at home by the oxy-con's pressure so I cannot go as big or as fast as the tanked oxygen.  It was still much fun making these ornaments at home, tho, and gave me a lot of experience with tubing, blowing and shaping.  These above are just a few of the many (probably over 30) ornaments I made.

Now, back to my production . . .

Not the Greatest Day . . . {{sigh}}

Well, yep - - at my title explains, I didn't have the greatest day today.   Tried doing a special, custom Dragon Eye for someone and it didn't quite work out.
I had high hopes, too, since the first eye I created for this year's shows turned out pretty dang good . . . (above picture).
So . . . I was confident and ready to go.  But, alas, the universe didn't feel the way I did.  My first DE cracked right at the end of an excruciating 2 hours at the torch.  Not to be deterred, I took a break and then tried again.  The second one came out alright, it's a keeper, but it didn't look "superb", which is what I really wanted the eye to be.  Oh well.  There is always tomorrow. . .

Production Season Begins . . .

Woohoo!  It's finally getting a little cooler here in AZ, so now is the time I start working my butt off in production for upcoming shows.
But, I haven't been just slacking here.  I have been torching almost daily, but not for full production days and not for specific pieces, mostly just making whatever comes to mind at the time, which is nice.
I have also updated my webpage with upcoming shows for 2014, and I also added a tutorial page which lists all my current YouTube tutorials with links to each one.  Here's a link to that specific page . . .
http://www.jeansbeads.com/tipstutorials.htm

I have started production for the 2014 year already, and decided to start with my most time-consuming and challenging pieces, my Dragon Eye pendants.  These are what the final pendants look like, in case you haven't seen them before.  They are large pendants, averaging about 2.5" long.

I make these pendants in a variety of background colors and with various eye colors, too.  I have been working on the eyes recently, which are made first and then later embedded in the pendants.  I am trying some new swirled and varied color backgrounds in some of them this year, so hopefully I will get some really unique-looking and enviable eyes this year.  Here are the eyes I have made so far . . .

Hopefully all, or at least most, of my pendants will come out well, and I hope to be posting some of the finished pendants in the coming days and weeks.  Right now, I am still focusing on the eye parts, but am hoping to start work on the pendants by this weekend.  Like I stated previously, these are very challenging and time consuming to make, so most days I can only complete one or two of these pendants, but hopefully they will be worth the wait!

Almost time for high gear . . . waiting . . .

It's almost time for me to get into my high-production gear again.  Well, actually, it's past time, but I am still waiting for this Arizona heat to calm down a bit.  Pretty soon the temperatures will plunge, like they seem to do each year here in October, but so far, it's still been in the 90s during the day.
I have been torching in the evenings/late night/overnight here when it's cooler, but just can't get many production hours in yet.  But soon, really soon!
I have several shows coming up early next year and am running a little low on stock - particularly Dragon Eyes, Dragon and other heart pendants and marbles -- some of my best sellers.  Need fresh new batches to handle next year's shows and maybe even try to develop some new designs, too.
Here are a few of my butterfly implosion pendants I was playing with the other day - hope you enjoy!
These may go up on my site soon, but wanted to make a few more, first -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/JeansBeads?ref=seller_info

Oh boy, haven't posted in a while again.  Mostly, that is because I haven't been up to much lately.  In Arizona, it's too dang hot in the summer to really do anything, let alone working less than a foot behind a 2000 degree torch while there's a 1000 degree kiln also spewing heat about 3 feet behind you.
I finally started up again just recently despite the heat.  One, because I have had a few orders (YAY!) and two, at least the daily temperature dropped to around 100 degrees versus the 110-115 degrees it was just a short time ago.
Been also thinking about Halloween and trying to come up with a new design to kick-start my muse back at the torch.  Came up with this design - - the bloody heart, bleeding heart?  Not sure, I might just call them dripping hearts since I have made several more with other colors besides red.  Those are in the kiln annealing right now, so I only have the red one at this time - enjoy!

Hot, Hot Summer!!!

Yep, it's hot!  Especially in Arizona!  We are now entering monsoon season, so it's getting humid, too.  My worst time of the year here, but luckily it only lasts a couple/few months.  The rest of the year in AZ is just beautiful, sunny and warm (well, in winter it can get quite chilly!).
Since it's so hot here, I haven't been torching.  I am getting that bad itch to torch often but it's just not viable right now.  I am hoping some good rains might come through and cool it off for a while so I can jump back on the torch - - there's still so much I want to do and learn - even after 7 years!
Here is some eye candy (literally, haha!) of a pendant I have up for auction now.  The auction will end Saturday at midnight.  If it's not sold, it will be heading up on Etsy, probably with a few more items.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Wasted Torch Time

It happens to all of us sometimes, but man, it can be so frustrating - - wasted torch time.
This happened to me last night.  I was going to work on more turtle beads (which I must post later, they're so darn cute!) for Beads of Courage, but I decided to make another complex flower murrini instead (big mistake!).
Everything was going fine until my last petal layer when I heard the distinct sound of glass cracking.  You other glass artists out there know what I mean - - that high-pitched, make-you-cringe, tinking sound.  Ugh!  Yep, my huge (about 3" round) murrini cracked in an underlayer.
I proceeded to heat the begeezus out of it and was hoping it would heal.  If anyone out there has made murrini before, they know the whole mass of glass needs to be heated to pull out into a usable rod size anyway, so it was heated thru-and-thru for that part also.
I pulled it into a 4-foot long rod of about 8-10mm thick, and everything seemed fine, until it cooled.  Then the cracking began - - little tinks here and there.  I was working on a turtle bead then, looked over, and half my murrini rod split in 2, lengthwise.  Oh boy.
I decided to test the remaining, un-cracked rod, and proceeded to make one test murrini bead which seemed fine.  I went to test a second bead and the rod just kept exploding in my flame, pieces of pretty pink and yellow flower murrini glass all over my workbench.
So much for 3 or so hours at a hot torch, what a waste of time, glass and electricity.  But, it happens sometimes, to all of us.

Here's a picture of the little glass chunks all around my torch and 3 pieces of split-in half murrini - ugh!

Working Diligently . . .

Been working hard lately, getting ready for the Glass Craft and Bead Expo, in Vegas, which is only in a month's time.
I have produced many Dragon Hearts and my new wig-wag hearts for this year's event, along with many blown vessels.
Now it's onto my Dragon Eye pendants since I just received my new order of glass.  I just hope I have enough time to get everything done!

I finally have gotten a new YouTube tutorial out there for soft glass lampworking.
It is a mini tutorial on Intense Black/Webbing effect which you can achieve with certain colors and a dense black, not the regular transparent black.

Intense Black/Webbing Effect

This is a really neat effect I learned when just starting out with bead making, and I still use it often today.  It can supply a unique background to decorated beads and also makes cool, organic-looking beads which looked laced like natural stones/rock.

In the video, I use dark ivory and Hades black from CiM.  You can also use Intense Black from Effetre (altho it might also be called Dense Black).  This also works on a variety of different color bases besides ivory.  You can try it with periwinkle blue, Canyon de Chelly (CiM), medium or dark gray, Stone Ground (CiM), and some opaque greens and purples will allow the effect, too.

I hope you enjoy!