Fumed and etched hollows, meant to look like beach stones- up on my Etsy.

I’ve been fighting the internet all day trying to get listings up on Etsy, let’s hope the connection lasts. The crackled trio is already listed and I plan to list the other two sets later today. Hope I’m not overloading you on pics, but if you’re like me- the more pics, the better..enjoy 🙂

More fumed hollows- what is it w/ me and hollows?! They look substantial, but are nice and light strung together. I somehow got more orange this time and it looks pretty interesting in person. Can’t decide if I should etch some just to see the difference, just don’t want to lose the nice colors. I love how the base glass curdles and makes it look almost faceted when the light hits the beads. It’s hard to get these photographed since my lights are reflected so strongly. Hope you all aren’t too tired of seeing this style. 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend, all.

So glad they fired ok for the most part- I did have some cracking that will have to be repaired, but nothing drastic. Whew! I didn’t do the open shelf firing on these, just a modified ramp: 1000*/hr to 1700* and hold 3 and a half hours. I put them in together since I’m impatient like that and I’m wondering if I may have avoided some of the cracking if they’d been put in one at a time.
Time for lunch I’m starving..


P.S. I really like how my slip painted charms came out too! 😉

My first foray into open shelf firing for hollow forms in Bronzclay did not go too well as you can see in the photos. I’m wondering if bronzclay is more prone to cracking during this type of firing? I noticed a lot of peeling and some cracking while firing my friend’s pieces this way last week..maybe it needs a slower ramp or a lower firing temp to burn the binder? I’ll probably just go back to my slow ramp/long firing schedule since I usually just fire them overnight and the time it takes makes no difference since I’m sleeping.
There were wonderful colors from the firing, although I sweat all over my fern piece since I strung it quickly onto a necklace w/ my ‘beach pebbles’ to wear for our monthly NorCal SGB meeting- this time at BAGI. I got to make a blown glass flower, can’t wait to get it next month. Boy was it hot, though- hence the sweating.

More hollow forms w/ slip painting-Bronzclay this time. These are my ‘crash test dummies’ for my first try shelf firing hollow forms. I’ve actually fired some of my lovely friend Sheryll’s pieces *she had no hollow forms* this way and had success and failures- some of her pieces split and flaked like a layer of paint peeling away from the wall. Others fired beautifully and had gorgeous colors since they were mostly Bronzclay and Hadar’s Bronze Clay.
These are in the kiln right now for Phase I firing.