Matching Clasps to Necklaces

Sunrise Birdwatching
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
lamp worked glass, sterling silver, fine silver

One-of-a-kind necklaces deserve one-of-a-kind findings. The first Birdwatching necklace I assembled used an off-the-shelf toggle closure, but I knew I wanted something more fitting. One day I noticed the bird and birdhouse toggle I'd made for a workshop proposal on clasp design. All this time it was right in front of me.

Sunrise Birdwatching, detail
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
lamp worked glass, sterling silver, fine silver

Using Sketchbooks: Making a Vision Come True

One of the things I love most about my ever present sketchbook is that it preserves ideas for later inspiration. Sometimes bringing a vision to fruition can take a while.

I first drew the treetop beads on October 15, 2009, almost two years ago. I envisioned a necklace of various soft colors with unifying silver glass stringer. Of course, I found that I couldn't make those beads, because the process of reducing the silver glass stringer would produce metal fumes that would change the color of the base bead. I struggled for ages, trying every color I could reach. Sky blue and copper green were less susceptible to the fuming, while a few other colors transmuted to something tolerable, but most just turned sickly brown.

Finally, after probably a hundred beads, I stumbled upon a way to finally make the beads of my vision. And the necklace looks remarkably like what I drew! I didn't take a very good photo, but there is a bird on every bead (at least one). I sold many of the best treetop beads during the ISGB Gathering Bead Bazaar on Saturday,  so I need to make a few more to put the necklace together in the way I desire. Colors available: goldenrod, apricot, peach, orchid, lilac, gray, kiwi, lime, sky.

I think I'll go revisit my sketchbook for more good ideas long past due.

Make a Bead Display from a Shadow Box Frame

Since I'm heading off to the Gathering this week, I've been working on new displays for beads. I'll have a half-table at the Bead Bazaar on Saturday. In addition to a collection of treetop beads in all colors, I'll have copies of my electro-forming book, electroformed beads and vessels, bird vessels, and a few koi beads.

The new displays are made from shadow boxes with hinged magnetic covers. I removed the glass panes, cut slots to hold steel mandrels, then mounted the beads with tiny o-rings at either end so they don't slip off. It's pretty easy to open the cover to remove a rod of beads, then slip the o-ring off and select the appropriate bead. We'll see how this plays out in real life. Of course, vessels are a different matter altogether.

I'm trying to keep my display minimal, since I have to transport it all to Louisville and checked bag fees really eat into the profits. Of course, carrying the merchandise is mandatory, but displays, table cover, lights, packaging, and so forth (not to mention clothing) really add up to an extra bag very quickly. This display can be set up in my room the night before, then transported to the show hall intact and quickly placed on the table. Back home, it'll make a nice display for in my studio.

Now, I want to make a necklace to wear from some of these treetop beads, but I need it to be simple because I'll want to disassemble it to sell the beads! If only I'd made more...but there's nothing to do but take what I have.

Treetop Beads for the Gathering

Interspersed (widely) with the kitchen remodel, I've been making a few treetop beads out in the broiling hot studio. I've narrowed the focus down to just this one style. The only variation I allow myself is the color of enamels I use, as I experiment with various combinations. Naturally, they are all one of a kind, as each branch and leaf and bird is unique. The freedom of having a formula to follow is rather meditative.

Destined for my half table at the Bead Bazaar in Louisville, KY on July 30, and then my Etsy shop after that if unsold.

Treetop Beads -- Better Colors

Finally, I had a bright idea regarding the colors for my treetop beads. Since the enamel on the beads from earlier in the week didn't react as badly with the silver glass, I switched to clear beads with only enamel for the base color. I'm totally in love with the pink and flesh colors. Yum!

Of course, this raises its own issues with rough enamel edges on the bead. I guess I need to learn to deal with that next. But at least I can see that necklace coming together. Now I'm dreaming about spacers to work with the treetop beads.

Now I just need to play around with all the luscious colors available. Back to making my own set of color sample beads, or I can just refer to this one online from bodaciousbeads.

Treetop Bead Collection

My collection of new treetop beads is growing. I'm still having issues with color interactions. Poor choices of base colors again, with the pinks going peach-tan, even with encasing. And can you believe that top one is  blueberry? My favorite of the new batch, a pale spring green casing over white, broke coming off the mandrel (I overheated the end of the 1/16" mandrel and left it marred, just enough to crunch the end of the bead as it got to that point).

So I'm unhappy with the colors still, but I like the concept of making enough of these in various colors to make a necklace.

This is the sketchbook drawing from a year ago, yet to be realized.

Treetop Beads Revisited

Yesterday I felt the urge to work in glass. Of course, since it's 100 degrees plus outside, that makes it the prime time of the year for going out to the sunroom to turn on a torch and kiln. Yes, I have AC, but it's not nearly enough. It keeps the temperature about a balmy 90 degrees.

Even so, I had fun making a few treetop beads. I've decided to limit myself a bit, in the hopes of getting something to show for my efforts. It seems sometimes that I go out there and try a zillion variations and nothing is good enough to keep from the junk bowl. I know I can make this basic bead style, but I'm not happy with the coloration, so I'm just going to play with variations on a single theme to get more data.

Procedure:
1) Opaque base.
2) Enamel around the center.
3) Stringer wrapped ends + branches.
4) Leaves, trying to get a better handle on the color variations I see with the silver glass I use.
5) Bird, only one per bead to keep the time down.

Questions to address:
1) How fast can I make one?
2) What base colors do I like? Does the silver glass react differently on the different colors?
3) Opaque, opaque + transparent casing, or transparent base?

I didn't make many yesterday between the heat and other chores (some gardening, beginning to pack up the kitchen for the remodel starting next week, laundry), but these are the first three that I like. More detailed images available on Etsy.

Surface Exhibit at the Bead & Button Show

I am pleased to announce that one of my multilayered beads has been juried into the Surface exhibit, to be shown at the Bead & Button Show in June. When I read the call for entries, I thought it seemed written for these beads.

"ISGB invites its members to create a bead that answers one of two questions: What lies beneath? When is it actually what is on the outside that counts?" 

Koi Pond is an electroformed enamel bead, with multiple layers of hand-painted enamel and a wrap of carved copper.

Here's the process for its construction:

1. I drew the black outlines for the fish onto a flat tile of clear glass with finely ground glass mixed with oil.
   
2. I did the same for a second, smaller tile of glass, drawing water grasses, sand, a snail, etc.
   
3. Both pieces were kiln-fired to make the enamel permanent.
   
4. I painted colored enamel onto the tiles in reverse (the enamel is buried under the clear glass in the finished bead) and then fired again.
   
5. To a base bead constructed on a mandrel with a lampworking torch, I added a wrap of dichroic (metal-covered) glass for a little sparkle in the depths.
   
6. Next I wrapped the grass tile around the bead.
   
7. Finally I wrapped the fish tile around the bead, then heated the bead to flatten and shape it.
   
8. The bead cooled slowly overnight in my kiln to remove stresses and enhance durability.
   
9. I added a coat of conductive paint to the bead.
   
10. Suspended in a vat of acid solution, copper was electrically moved from a sheet of metal to the surface of the bead.
    
11. After many hours of deposition, the bead was rinsed, polished and patinaed.
    
12. Voila!

Getting the Lampwork Back in the Flow

Well, this weekend has flown by with no artwork, due at least part to taxes (ugh!). At least last week I got two days of work on the torch. I'm posting a few more of the beads with backgrounds that I liked.

I guess I need to experiment with different leaf glass now, since it's not so exciting on this background. Totally different color than usual!

One step forward, one step back...

I placed an order last week for my favorite glass from the experimets, because of course it was something I only had two rods to try. It arrived on Friday and I'd hoped to indulge over the weekend. Maybe soon.

Treetop Beads

In my play time over the weekend I experimented with new backgrounds for treetop beads. Interesting how the reactive glass for the leaves changes color with different backgrounds. I like this amber color, with wispy metallics and hints of pink and green.

Flock Bead Experiments

Over the weekend I had time to experiment a bit with some new Flock beads. The question to be answered was one of glass colors. I'm enjoying a lot of the silver glasses, but can't reliably get the colors I want from them. In particular, the fuming from those glasses often ruins base colors. I've found that the blues and greens behave most properly, while yellows and pinks turn muddy. This is as it should be, since yellows and pinks have sulfur in their composition, which reacts with silver to give a brown/black oxide. Of course, I could just abandon the silver glass completely, but there are certain features of it that I'm really attracted to.

In the photo, that lovely brown knob on the upper left started off ivory. I'm actually pretty happy with this color here, contrasting with the blues of the leaves. This one was envisioned as a pull for the ceiling fan in my studio.

I still can't build the bead I see in my head, which is a take off on one of my journal pages. Can you  just imagine? My heart just wells up thinking about it.

Things I need:

1. A way to control the background color and get the nice variations I like.
2. A way to put in the background spiral. I tried this, but used something with too much contrast, so I need to go to something fainter.
3. A way to put the text in. This is where the fine penwork with enamel comes in.
4. A shape that speaks to me better; something a bit unusual. Maybe back to the clouds.

Birdwatching Beads

Heat control is critical when making beads. Finesse is needed to apply stringer (thin glass rods like angel hair pasta) slowly and carefully, keeping it raised, not melted into the surface. Then that applied stringer needs to be kept warm enough to keep it from popping off while other surface decoration is being applied. Thin areas of certain bead shapes, like the smaller end of these cones, are prone to cracking if not enough heat is applied, while it also takes less heat in those areas to melt the stringer in. There's a narrow window of tolerance.

Different glasses react differently in the flame. Some are prone to boiling if overheated. Some are shocky and dislike sudden thermal changes. Certain colors react. Silver glass will fume the surrounding glass if it is reduced, meaning the flame has more fuel and lower oxygen.

There's a lot to know. And knowing is different that being able to do it without thinking. Five months off the torch means that I have to remind myself of things that should be second nature. Practice, practice, practice is required. Slowly, I'm approaching the point of being able to do what I want without so much talking to myself.

It's like teaching a child to read. At some point that laborious sounding-out of words becomes recognition, and a reader is born. Then after years of building skill, the teen can read Dickens.

Glass Mojo

I claimed a few hours on the torch from a busy weekend, to try to recover a bit more glass mojo. My stringer control is getting better. I just played around with wrapping the ends of beads, laying down branches (one direction is much easier than the other) and shaping leaves and birds.

Who could believe that I'm out of opal yellow glass??? I have drawers full of glass, but only one solitary rod of the beloved opal yellow when I went searching yesterday. Four beads it is, with opal yellow cased on a clear core. All the time I had anyway. I guess I need to return to organizing the glass stash. I did a whole drawer of pinks and one of silver glass last weekend, but none this time.

Sunday was spent experimenting with ceramic clay. I haven't played with that in many, many years, so it was interesting to try again. It did give me some ideas for new things to try with metal clay. It's useful to have an inexpensive alternate for testing purposes. I brought home a slab of clay to make a bunch of stamps and molds. It's good to have a friend who teaches high school art, with a specialty in ceramics. I forgot to get a photo of the small wish-keeper I constructed. Think of a small box with lid, with holes for stringing together. At the end I constructed a small hollow bird. I didn't have time to carve that one as I wished, but I'll make another at home now that I have the process down.

Anastasia Workshop, Day 2

I collected my beads today from the second day of the workshop. We started off the day making a floral with enamel stringer watercolor background and flower center murini. I chose different colors from the class sample, as I hate it when all the beads come out looking the same.

Then we moved on to a creativity exercise, adding glass to a base bead until we "saw" something in the glass to work with. I added amber glass to the side of my bead until it started to look like a huge hitchhiking thumb. So I added a fist and then decided it would be more interesting with a forefinger up. The fingernails are pressed in with a tool. When Anja came by, she suggested a few drops of blood, so those are on the extended finger. Finally, I added a cuff and silver glass button.

The wave bead was an exercise in moving glass, sculpting small points without loosing the large mass of the bead. It also has a latticcino cane. The last bead, the coral bead, was the opposite exercise -- working tiny with controlled heat to build up small coral fingers and then add tiny dots and barnacles all over.

Workshop with Anastasia

For my birthday, I spent two days making beads with Anja Basan of Anastasia Beads. This was an incredible piece of luck, as she was only teaching in the US at Arrow Springs and here at Blue Moon Glassworks. I originally signed up more than a year ago for the workshop to be held in April. After my accident, I had to cancel my seat. Then the volcano forced the class to be rescheduled, and I was sad that I had given up my place. Recently, when I took my oxygen concentrator in for repair, I found out that there was one opening available, for the class now to be held on my birthday. Providence!

My father sent me money for my birthday, which I used to purchase one of Ana's bird beads, this incredible swan feeding a chick. Thanks, Dad!

During the first day of class, we did numerous small practice beads to learn the trick of working with hair fine stringers and enamels. Considering that I've been off the torch for five months, except for a few practice beads in the last couple of weeks, those fine stringers were a challenge. I'm happy to say that muscle memory is a wonderful thing. I wasn't great, but I wasn't as bad as I feared. These are the practice beads, with different line, dot and enamel techniques.

The big project of the day was learning to make Anja's trademark tree beads. Here are the two I made, along with a spiral/helix bead.

I need to go pick up my beads from day 2, so that I can show them.

Recovery Update

The PMC conference was really good for my walking progress. You know how big a temptation it must be to have an incredible bead shop just blocks away from the hotel. Ignoring the bum leg is possible, if there are enough distractions around. I did make it to the bead shop, then further to lunch and back, with no assistance. Red coral, tanzanite, amethyst, chalcedony, green amethyst, moss aquamarines, freshwater pearls, aquamarines, and apatite were just too hard to resist.

I came home immediately and dumped the crutches for good. I don't plan to use them again, although I still limp some -- badly, even, when I'm tired. I've started walking down stairs in an alternating pattern, which is much harder than going upstairs, which I've been doing for several weeks now. For someone who lives with seventeen steps, being able to negotiate them multiple times per day is important. I just consider it part of my therapy, and go slowly, always holding the rail.

Finally, finally, finally, I think I've closed the unhealing wound on my calf. Everyone seems to think it was actually a very deep pocket open down inside that had to fill from the inside out. Going to the chiropractor three weeks ago was a turning point, as she has been treating me with cold laser therapy. The mechanism of that treatment is a bit of a mystery, but it seems to bump up cellular metabolism for faster healing. The scar that has bothered me a huge amount is also responding to the treatment, with lessening of the worst pain. 

Physical and occupational therapists are starting to hint that discharge is coming in a few weeks. I've graduated to the elliptical exerciser, which is quite difficult for me now, but I expect it to get easier as I work at it more. Balancing on the bad leg, even while standing on the small trampoline, is now doable, at least for a count of ten. I finally got one of the therapists to work with me on getting down to and then up from the floor. I thought it would be difficult, but it was actually quite easy. I'm thinking of going to a gentle or restorative yoga class to see how that would feel.

I did have to rest a lot this last week. Between visiting with my father, who arrived before I got home, and trying to get a few classes submitted for the Bead & Button Show next year, I just put my feet up a lot and tried to regain some energy.

What's On Your Worktable?

I'm buried under here, trying to finish up last minute projects.


Here's a portion of my worktable, the scenic portion that caught my eye with it's gorgeous wash of aqua.

Silver nuggets, aquamarine, chalcedony, amazonite, silver charms, earring bezels, birds and more birds.

What's on your worktable? Feel free to zoom in on the scenic part.

Goodies from Bead & Button: Supplies

Shopping at a huge show is different when your mobility is impaired. I used the motorized scooter, of course. I guess I could have cleared everyone out of my way, for example the incredible crowd around Gary Wilson's booth drooling over stones would have gone down easily, but I didn't want to take out friends even when they were competitors (Louise and Mickey, aren't you thankful for my self control?)

Many folks were lovely and helped me out, making room for me or handing me goodies to check out at closer range. My DH waded into the fray for me, stood in lines, and generally handed over cash. What a guy! He especially enjoyed that stone booth above, generously talking me into extras. Other people were so goggle-eyed, making beelines for treasure before them, that they never saw me. Those are the ones to look out for. Would't want to run anyone down without intent.

Perhaps because of exhaustion, I really couldn't remember what I needed to purchase. I did recall the small faceted silver beads that I use in my bracelets -- two strands for a quick $100 start to the tab. That made me think of Softflex sterling coated wire and crimps, but wouldn't you know some shop had just cleaned them out of the large spools I wanted.


That led to thinking about stones for more bracelets. Alas, that was my downfall!! Not that I haven't bought stones in the past, but this year I got hooked on aquamarines, which are expensive! And just one kind won't do; there much be some variations that work together. Aren't they luscious?


Of course, I bought more than just aquamarines, venturing into lovely moss agate in many shapes.


That lead to phrenite,amazonite, lemon chrysophase and rhyolite.


Which led to fire agate, fossil coral and yellow opal.

Of course, there are the cabs and large bead from the aforementioned Gary Wilson, as well as Czech glass leaf beads and buttons.




I didn't even post photos of the ring inserts from Metal Clay Findings and the one lonely strand of lapiz beads. Oh, and the cool new tool for Viking knit.

Or the jewelry...tomorrow!

Beads Published!

I finally made it through my box of mail stashed from my trip, and found buried treasure -- my copy of The Flow magazine.


For the fifth year, this winter issue showcases the Gallery of Women in Glass, with some of the most stunning work in glass beads, marbles and sculpture. Three of my electroformed and painted-enamel beads are included on page 8.


I recommend a subscription to check out the eye candy regularly, but you can order individual issues from the publisher or check at your local glass shop to see if they carry this fine magazine.

Birds in the Clouds

For whatever reason, I typically make focal beads. Whether it's the repetitive boredom or the technical challenge of reproducing the same shape and size, I avoid sets. Only rarely do I find myself wanting to try. Usually, I decide that I'm nuts to want them to match, so a coordinated set of different styles is the only way to go.


The barrel beads I've been focusing on would be really nice, but a free-form shape would be easier than perfecting the size issue. So I squashed and cut ivory glass into cloud shapes, then stringer sketched in birds in tree branches.


The nest bead has a flying bird on the reverse. These remind me of my bronze Flock bracelet. Maybe I'll have to string them up into a bracelet.