Dotting and Crossing My Eyes

Dots all day are enough to make one cross-eyed! I made a medium sized disc covered with dots, not perfectly round or evenly dotted, but definitely the best fine detail raking I've ever done. The photos above show Kristina making her giant disc bead. You can see the detailed raked dots around the side.


This photo is fun. It shows all the class beads made after Kristina's big disc bead demo, with her bead lying flat on the right side. Our class was talented!

The big bicone project seemed like a breeze to me, since that's a size and shape that I make routinely. I did use Kristina's method for building it, which is much different than mine, but then I diverged and played with stringer more, drawing spirals and leaves rather than Kristina's lines and ladders. That bead stayed in the kiln and needs to be collected, so I'll post it after I return from Europe.


The silver coring demonstration had a few little tidbits of information that will be useful in the future, although I'd rather use my Jim Moore press than do it by hand. I am looking forward to Kristina returning next year to do a metal work class, where we will bring our own beads and learn to set them as rings like these or other jewelry.


Here are Kristina's beads from yesterday, three on the left that we made in class and her big Fireflies demo bead.


These are my corresponding beads, including the one from the second morning. Comparing the two makes it obvious how detailed, precise and tiny the dots are on Kristina's beads. Good thing I'm not a dot bead person, or I'd feel the need to improve! As it is, I'm relieved to think I did that well. ;-)

You never know when one of those little differences will be the perfect solution for some future, so I really enjoyed adding to my bag of tricks.

I'm most excited about Kristina's admonition to me to go order a bunch of wax and carving tools to carve bird rings and other goodies, to then have cast in sterling or bronze. What a mind boggling idea!! Bird rings or cuffs, anyone?

Jealousy alert! I got to hold these class, oft published pieces in my hands and pore over the perfection. I hope some of that rubs off on me!