These are the sets I plan to list on my Etsy today- time willing. My favorite would have to be the large choco-cream set. It has some of the new Effetre colors mixed in: Sediment, Sandstone, and the smallest hollow has stringer work in Okey Dokey Artichokey. I can see myself playing w/ these new colors quite a bit since they’re nice and earthy neutrals. Dk. ivory stringer stands out nicely against Sediment, it didn’t spread too much like Ivory is prone to do on some bases- so it kept the details w/0 distorting or discoloring.

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.

My puffy mandrels got here Friday and I played w/ them all weekend trying to emulate beach stone-ness by fuming glass- curdled dk. ivory that everyone was in a furor over when quantities were limited.. was it last year? How time flies!

Using these take a bit of getting used to in order for the bead not to be wonky when you puff a bit of air into the mandrel. But I suppose this is part of the sets’ charm since they are supposed to resemble beach stones, lol.

Hubby was nice enough to let me torch a few hours each day this weekend since our anniversary *7th* was yesterday. We hadn’t made plans for a babysitter in time so we stayed home and putted around.

You’ll have to let me know which you like better- etched or shiny.

*Ahem..Excuse me while I overload you w/ pics* 🙂

I was fortunate enough to get an email letting me know that Thomas Mann would be at MPC in the library this evening for a meet and greet along w/ a presentation of his life’s work. He also had a bunch of gorgeous and unique jewelry alongside kits, books, etc. that we could purchase. I got an autographed book and a kit for making a Found Object Sandwich under his Studio Flux line of products. It was hard to narrow down what I wanted to get when there was so much eye candy! He was a wonderful speaker and my tension headache from being in a crowd of people I’d never met before was worth it. Now to pore over his book and think about what to make w/ my kit.