In Love with Ekho

I must say that Double Helix’s newest silver glass, Ekho, is a new favorite for me. It is a striking and reducing glass, and it keeps wonderful iridescent effects under encasement. There are some particularly talented artists that have played around w/ success in getting different colors, etc. Hayley, Karolen and Steph are three that come to mind right away.

They were encased w/ Double Helix’s Aether clear which is only available once every few months since Jed and Julie have a stringent standard of quality- I got a half pound of seconds and wish I’d bought a pound or more since I’m blowing thru it at an incredible speed because it is such a nice clear. You would never know they’re seconds comparing them to other clears like Effetre or Diamond Clear.

Deets: These were Ekho encased opal yellow w/ dots of clear, reduced and then encased. Easy peasy! It’s so tricky to catch the iridescence.

Art Imitating Life

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* 🙂

Thomas Mann in Monterey

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.

Translating Work from One Medium to Another

I can’t seem to get this design off my mind- finally realizing the significance of 3, Z makes our little family a trio.

Now I wonder if the design may pop a little more if the glass were etched..something to do later. Another thing I noticed while making this bead is that the stringer needs to be much thinner in order to get the same amount of detail similar to my faux bone pendant. Not that I want them to look exactly the same, but I’d have a little bit finer look in the details.
*Is that correct English, or did my Kentuckiana upbringing shine thru? lol. *

The deets: the focal base is ‘curdled’ ivory w/ stringer work of Double Helix’s new silver glass, Ekho. It was repeatedly heated and cooled while putting the stringer down and then finally briefly flashed in a reducing flame. I’m pretty sure regular Moretti Dk. Ivory would have curdled just the same since I had to repeatedly flash and cool while putting it back in my Kalera Long and Lean press to refine the shape.

Slip Painting Experiments

Tried to slip paint w/ Copprclay for the first time today, I think I still need to work on getting the consistency just right..The leaf had three layers and the rest around half a dozen layers of slip- thank goodness I have a handy-dandy mug warmer to dry my pieces lickety-split.

My hand developed a bad habit of shaking at inopportune moments while trying to do close work on my fern, hence the slightly odd placement on some fronds. Is frond the right word? anyhoo, it was fun and I still need to settle on a design for my BIG hollow forms.

Is Bigger Better?

These pieces were total impulses yesterday when I had some time to play w/ Copprclay.

The long one is approx. 4″ x 1-2/3″ and weighs in at 48 grams- they’re both hollow forms. The round-er one is 2-3/4″ x 2-1/2″ and weighs 45 grams. It’s a good bit of clay at 93 grams total.
I have to give credit to my friend, Sadie, since we were admiring her beautiful copper clay pendant at our last get together in Walnut Creek. Hers was more similar to the rounder one, and it had started developing this wonderful patina that was shiny and iridescent in certain spots.
I’d like to try painting a pattern on w/ slip, but probably need to practice on a less important piece. The long one is calling for something botanical, at least on one side- maybe a fern..
Then again, it is Copprclay and can be enameled. So many choices!

It’s so nice to hold the long one in my hand, almost like a worry stone. I’m itching to get at least one done before the weekend’s over, crossing my fingers it won’t be crazy again like the last.

Enamel Experiments
I’ve had these pieces for more than a week waiting to be photographed. They’re by no means professional, but I wasn’t expecting much for my trial run w/ enameling. It was fun to play and get a feel for the process. The colors used were: bitter, cobalt and I believe the red was oriental red. The sample enamel kit is from Whole Lotta Whimsy and is a good way to learn before investing too much money. There are 12 colors in my kit and most of them are more primary/ bright than I normally would use since I love muted/tertiary colors. It is worth it though since I don’t know what I’m doing exactly, lol, and if I mess up it’s no big deal. These were pieces snipped from a thinner gauge of copper sheet I had laying around. I didn’t think to bring some pieces of copprclay to play w/- next time.
I practiced sgraffito and I think the reason my pieces look so mottled is that I didn’t let my white liquid enamel layer dry completely. What can I say, I was on borrowed time since my wonderful neighbor was watching Z for a few hours so I could try enameling.
Tomorrow I’ll post some pics of my faux bone pieces I’ve also had sitting around for more than a week..

Glass Practice

It’s been quite some time since I’ve had time to torch and it shows in my shaping and encasing skills. My plan is to make more time to devote to the torch so my skills don’t get so rusty again.

After cleaning my space to make room to enamel, I discovered some old oddlots I hadn’t used in quite some time. One of them is the silver rich K-65 from Double Helix Glassworks. They’re the blue big holed beads in the pictures.

I also used Reich. Silver Brown, Aurae and some of its oddlots, GT Mountain Honey and Aether clear to encase.