The Making of a Hot Mess: Volume 874

This is really kind of a tutorial for any fellow glassies who have also held on to the itty bitty rod shorts that result at the torch.  Personally I do it for the nookie, and by the nookie I mean I have no idea why I've kept the bits and pieces for the last few years.

This is the process I went through to make this cabochon~ it is time consuming but results in something unique and uses up what would otherwise be wasted glass.

1.  Collect all the little bits and pieces from your torch table

without having a single good reason

or any kind of plan for using them.

2.  Shove 'em in a drawer. 

3.  When that drawer fills up find another drawer.

4.  Accidentally rediscover your Slumpy molds

and make a mental note to try fuse molding those

shorts into cabs.

5.  Have a tropical storm come through

and demolish your beach plans.

6.  Get out some thick canvas and a hammer

so you can beat the crap out of the glass pieces

that are too big for the mold

because today is as good as any

to try out your idea

since

you do not have beach sand between your toes

and you were totally supposed to.

7.  Sort the pieces for color mixing.

8.  Take a blind guess at how much glass needs to be

layered in the mold and slap that sucker in the kiln.

(after coating the mold in kiln wash)

(which is boring)

9.  Ramp up to 1450 and hold for 20 minutes

because you are experimenting

and looking up on the internet to find out

if that is the right way or the wrong way

is also boring.

10.  Open the kiln and discover that only

1 out of 4 actually looks anything like it is supposed to

and they all have jagged sides.

(boo)

10.5 ~ Heads up.  Don't open the kiln to peek because

it turns out those molds don't like the temperature change.

At all.

11.  Take those jagged babies to your shiny shack

and introduce them to the Diamond Max.

12.  Grind the edges smooth.

13.  Put them back in the mold adding more glass

to the really wonky ones and fire 'em again.

14.  You may have to repeat steps 11-13 a couple of times

to get a feel for what exactly is the right amount of glass.

15.  Fin.

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Here is a sneaky peek at a repurposed twistie cab

being made into a cuff~

~~

My table still looks like a drunk monkey organized it,

so how about a Bead Tray Wednesday?

When I posted those earrings the other day someone asked to buy them.  And since I really liked those earrings I wanted to make them again for me, plus a couple more pairs in different color schemes.  Then I had a few people ask for a tutorial on how to make them, so maybe I'm working on that, too.    I say maybe because if I commit to a specific deadline I'll be apologizing for it next March when I come back to visit posts from this March and realize once again that I suck at finishing have tos when it comes to doing that which I love most~ making treasure from tiny spots of color.    It's the area of my creative life that is purely for the joy of it, and you can't put a deadline on that. 

So Yes, I'll write a tutorial and Yes it will be available either tomorrow or next week or some time after that.  But probably not tomorrow.

A little bit of beading~ Tutorial Style

I've worked on a few small beading projects this week~ mostly to unwind at the end of the day until the sleepies could take over.  I have to admit that hasn't been much of a contest, and if I was playing in the insomniac Hall of Fame game I would probably go down in history as the biggest loser.    If you've ever awakened at 3 am with the imprint of a needle on your forehead trailed by a thread impression down your right cheek, you know exactly what I mean.

A friend mentioned last weekend that his daughter is really into black and red so when I came across these forgotten vintage beads in my stash a few days later I thought one would make a sweet gift from daddy.  It's simple, but I have a feeling she'll treasure it nonetheless.

(Erin, would these beads not have been perfect for the Monolith print?  Egads)

~~

I have been asked over the last few months to write a tutorial on how I create my flavor of bead embroidered pendants.    I'm working on it now so if you are also interested in learning the specific steps and techniques I use shoot me an email or leave a comment with your email address and I will let you know when it is finished. 

Dawn and Kristen have graciously agreed to give it a test drive and they will each be receiving a kit next week.  I am writing the tut with all skill levels in mind, and once I know it is sufficient for beginners I will make it available to everyone. 

Sample beginning:

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I haven't cleaned the beads from yesterday's torch session, so I think I'll wait and post them with the ones I make today and tomorrow.      Which will probably blow my mind.

~~

Beading Tutorials

WHOOPSIE!  These tutorials were on pages of my old Website.  The same website I let expire and vanish.  Sorry about that!


Before Bill Gates put the final nail in the hetrulydoessuckalot coffin, I ran a forum in the group section of MSN called The Art of Beads.   The 800+ membership was so devastatingly awesome that it made me vomit Love every time I signed in. 

I wrote these tutorials for The Art so long ago I had forgotten they exist.  They be old.   But hey, who doesn't love a good picture taken on a SCANNER?

Jeff over at Beader's Showcase emailed this morning to inform me that my Cab Tutorial had been reinstated on the site, (did it quit before? get fired?) so it made me think that maybe there are people reading here that might like to check out the rudimentary edumuhcational skillz I developed while I was learning all of this on my own for the first time.    Did you know I heart longrunonsentences?

They seem to have been beneficial for some folks so if you are in the market for a beginner  beading tutorial, check out these freebies from 1892.

Okay, 2002.  Whatever.

~~

But First! 

There are some things I do differently now.  The ones that come to mind are:

~No! Glue! Ever! Amen!   I use heavy duty double sided tape to attach everything.  The tape has red peel away backing and can be found at Scrapbook stores and Michael's)

~I attach cabs for bead embroidery only as I am working on each one so that just the right amout of space is left to cover with seeds.  I no likey seeing the backing on a finished piece.

~I only use fireline for bead weaving. For bead embroidery the thread has to be Matchymatchy.

~I use Lacy's Stiff Stuff (LSS) for the actual embroidery work & back with ultrasuede/upcycled leather.

~No more wrapping beads to attach the backing to LSS.  (I'm referring to the barrette tutorial)  Decorative edging methods are way mo' bettah.

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Capturing a Cabochon with Seed Beads

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Freeform Tutorial

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Barrette Tutorial

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If you have a question regarding any of these, feel free to ask in the comments.
If I don't know the answer, I'll make one up.

~