Venturing into pastures new!

I love glass, you know I do :) and I do enjoy making beads, but to be quite honest for ages I have really really wanted to do other things too!  I love marbles and sculptural work and baubles and, well everything and needed a bit of a boost to my mojo; sooo, about a year ago I got in contact with a lovely lady who lives a very very long way away (well not the other side of the world, but the other end of the country and from here and that is a long way!) and who makes beautiful pieces in a different kind of glass from the kind I use.  The glass is called Borosilicate or Boro for short.  It is alot harder than the soft glass that I have been using and you can do all sort of exciting things with it (things that some people argue you can do with soft glass to an extent) but you need ALOT more heat to melt it.

I have been trying to get up North to visit this lady for about a year, but with one thing and another I just couldn't make it, until this week!  Today I should be at market, but after two days tuition and two days driving (just under 800 miles round trip, but worth every single mile!) I badly needed a rest, so here I am writing this and trying to focus my brain!

I have had the most amazing two days with this lovely, kind, hardworking, talented and wonderful teacher who wouldn't let me give up when I threw a 'I can't do it tantrum'!  If you want to see what she does have a look at her website A Flame with Desire. Not to say that working with Boro is necessarily hard (well of course it all depends on what you are trying to do and I don't want to put people off who might be thinking of having a go), but it really is very different, lots of techniques I thought I knew I almost had to relearn and you do need to get that glass HOT, REALLY HOT!  It has been an exciting two days and now the fun starts as I look to playing more with this great glass over the quiet months of winter so that next year (hopefully) I will be able to branch out more with this work.

Before I include photos of a few of the things I made this week, I also wanted to say a big thank you to the lovely owners of the fabulous B&B where I stayed Howe Farm.  They were so very kind and helpful, the room was lovely with fabulous views and the whole place was very comfortable.  I would strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to stay up in the Lake District. Here is the view from the B&B :) 

Not good photos I am afraid as the light today is bad, but judging by the forecast it isn't going to get much better so hopefully you can see these (I did make some other things, but either I really can't get decent photos or really they are techniques that need quite a bit more practice that I haven't included them ;).  The 'trees' are great fun to make, you can really get into the 'zone' making these, this is just a little one (rather reminiscent of some of the pruning we have been doing round here recently!).  I am very pleased with the marbles, the sparkly one is lovely (not normally my colour but I am pleased with it) and the flower implosion one I am very proud of; implosion is the name for the technique used to make it and I have tried to make these before with soft glass and failed, but I am very pleased with this one (not perfect but not a bad start, I shall definitely be making more of these). :)

Been a bit quiet recently

Sorry, been a bit quiet recently on here, crazy time has started again with the start of the holiday season, the workshop/studio down in Bude is busy and I now only get to have one day a week in my home studio and need to get a good load of stock made up as soon we shall be moving house and all my kit will be packed away for a couple of weeks (while we work out exactly where I am going to go in the new house - you would have thought we would have sorted this early on when we viewed and we did, but have changed our minds and I think it is going to be one of those 'let's work it out when we get there' scenarios!  

I have been playing with a tutorial from the lovely Gems in Bloom using lots of silver again.  Here are a few photos of pieces that are currently in my Etsy shop. :)

Messing about with marbles!

Well, mini paperweights actually!  Similar process to marbles, but it doesn't matter if they aren't perfectly round!

Now, I haven't made it to the 'barnio' (studio in a barn!), much recently because that wind gets right in and I am seriously fed up with being cold!  But, I needed to get out there this week to get more stock made for market and the open studio/workshop down at Bude, so I wrapped up warm and ventured out.  I had a list as long as my arm of beads I wanted to make.  Beads for bracelets (only two left in stock), beads for earrings (very few left in my market stock but quite a few in the open studio, but I wanted to make some fancier ones that I have), pendant beads, hearts, encased beads, flowery beads, you name it!  In I went and then thought, ooh, haven't made a mini paperweight for a bit, will just make the one today!  5 mini paperweights later (and they take me almost an hour to make!) and I have only otherwise made a set of beads for one bracelet and two 'beach' beads for pendants!!!  I can't help it, there is something seriously therapeutic about making these round smooth glass objects.  Now I write I think of Suzanne Vega's song, Small Blue thing, 'like a marble or an eye'! 

Most of the marbles you see and paperweights are not made with 'soft' glass and that is part of the entertainment for me!  Soft glass shocks easily and if it gets too cold, shatters!  One of the 5 I made didn't make it, it came off it's' punty (the thin rod of glass that is attached to the bottom of the paperweight which keeps it off the bottom of the kiln (if my kiln base was a bit cleaner it wouldn't have mattered!), broke and the lovely red and white swirly sphere of glass was covered in mess (it had also been too hot when it went in, a fine balance!).  I tried to take it out, thinking I might be able to rescue it, but as soon as it came out of the kiln the cracks started to appear, a bit like the cracks you see on the surface of a not quite frozen lake if you drop a rock on it!   Sadly rescue was not possible.

 Making paperweights and marbles with soft glass also poses another challenge in that the clear soft glasses available can be a bit 'scummy' but I suppose that adds to the 'organic' nature of the piece.  The harder borrocillicate glass is much clearner, but I still don't have a torch hot enough to melt it!  There are a couple of nice crystal clear soft glasses around but they cost an arm and a small fortune and bearing in mind the amount I use it just isn't feasible.

 I have made a couple of marbles, but need to practice getting them fully round and also need to practice getting them into the kiln without burning myself or dropping the orb!

So I didn't succeed in making many beads but I had fun and after all that is what this is all about.  I should be out there today, but it is blowing a hooley again, hopefully I will brave it tomorrow and who knows, I might actually manage to make what I intend, but you never know!!!!

On line selling

It's a tricky question, where shall I sell my work, there are so many option?.  I was very lucky when I started out in that a local bead shop where I used to buy jewellery supplies asked if they could stock my beads (I grinned for days) and then a client of my partner's asked me if I would have a stall at a market she was starting up.  From those small starts the markets grew and so did the outlets.  That's fine for selling locally but what the wider market place?

When I started lampworking I was recommended a forum to join,  Frit Happens.  A wonderful friendly place with lots of help and support.  From here I found out about two online selling platforms, Etsy and Folksy (there are others too).  I do have my own website Glass Beads by Lotti and did to start with a shop on here, but it was time consuming to do and so I opened up an Etsy shop Glass Beads by Lotti Etsy shop.  It was sooooo easy to open (and with help and advice from the forum and from the Etsy site itself) easy to populate and use.  I also opened a Folksy shop, but to be honest I haven't got any stock in there at the moment as most of my on-line sales have been through Etsy and it is tricky to keep track of everything!  A really cool thing now is that you can input your Etsy shop into your website (which I have done) and I have a link on my Facebook page Glass Beads by Lotti Facebook page, brilliant! :)

Etsy is an online selling platform for handmade items, there is a worldwide audience and I would say that over 50% of my sales are to North America (I have had beads go to Australia too).  It is free to join and you pay a small amount for each listing and pay a small fee to Etsy and to Paypal (the payment system Etsy uses) when you make a sale.  Simple :)  So if you are a crafter or artist of any kind, do have a look at Etsy (Folksy, Artfire and there are many others).  These are not like Ebay, they are not auctions and you know that people searching on these sites are looking for handmade items specifically.  Of course there is no reason you can't sell on Ebay I know alot of crafters who do, it is just that these other platforms are orientated to the artisan maker.  Like with so many of these things you do need to list frequently to keep your shop active and new (same with Twitter and Facebook).

Of course now the markets are starting up for the summer and the studio/workshop in Bude is going to get busy for the summer, my challenge is going to be making enough stock to spread between my commitments.  One final word of caution then from me, don't over do it, don't over stretch yourself in terms of your selling outlets, you might not be able to keep up!  :) :)

Photos

I really struggle with photos, taking them and editing them.  I have a lovely very expensive Canon, but this house is so dark and even with a light box things don't seem to be any better, so I have to wait for a nice sunny day to attempt to take pictures.  They aren't too bad in this but still could be ALOT better.

Editing.  Well my other half has lovely editing software for his web development work, but can I work out how to use it? No! Anyway it's on his PC and he is using it most of the time.  I tried Gimp and it hated me and then tried another bit of freeware and that was fine until yesterday and now that hates me too!  I also wanted to do collages and had seen friends on Facebook mention Picasa, I do have an account with them but had never really tried it properly, so today after loading some very odd photos up onto my Etsy site I decided to download Picasa.  I am in love, will take some finding out about stuff but already I am a happy girl!  Should be out in the (not that freezing today) barnio (barn that is a studio!) as the sun is shining on it and therefore it should be slightly warmer than 0, but think it might be a play on Picasa day instead!  Looking forward to being able to post up some better photos in the future. 

My attempt at a simple first collage - whoop whoop. :)

What is lampworking?

Ok, so I have said I am a Lampworker or Flameworker (they are the same thing and you will see both terms used by different people) but what does this mean?  Well (very briefly) in my case (and most commonly) it involves using an extremely hot gas/oxygen torch to melt glass rods onto steel sticks or mandrels.  

These mandrels are coated in a very fine clay mixture to prevent the glass sticking to the rod.  The glass is then melted onto the rod whilst rotating it and is shaped using hand movements and tools.  There are various types of glass and manufacturers.  

The glass I use has a COE (coefficient of expansion) of 104, this means that it is quite a soft glass and melts at lower temperatures than glass with a lower COE.  You have to be careful not to mix glasses of different COE's otherwise the glass shatters, although you can use small amounts of fine broken glass of a different COE called frit for decoration, but only a small amount.  

Whilst beads are still hot they are placed into an equally digitally controlled hot kiln and left for about 10 hours to anneal which makes them strong. Once the beads are cooled they are taken off the mandrels and the resulting holes cleaned of the dried clay mixture.

There are so many different designs and ways of decorating beads, I buy alot of tutorials and go to workshops and training sessions.  I also use books and discuss different methods with other lampworkers on forums and on social networking (I have a facebook account and twitter and pinterest - phew!).
 
Lampworking/Flameworking can also be used to make sculptural work without a mandrel, 'off mandrel', which is something I have started to do, making mini paperweights and marbles and hope to move onto larger pieces this year. For my bead work and current mini paperweights and cupboard/drawer knobs I use the soft glass still, but hope to move onto using much tougher glass which melts at much higher temperatures and also is less prone to thermal shock (what happens if you spend too long admiring your hot bead in a cooler atmosphere!).  The tougher glass is called borosilicate (pyrex!).

If you type lampworking into your search engine you can find good links to places which can tell you more.  I have put some links in my links section (including to my Facebook, Twitter, Etsy shop, website and pinterest pages).

It's been ages since I last blogged.  I used to keep a blog of all our adventures since moving down to the South West from rural Hertfordshire, but got so busy it got rather neglected, and there were only so many times you could say, 'Oh I have seen deer; a buzzard; a woodpecker,' or 'Lovely day at the beach; on Dartmoor!'.  Then this week I went to a local small business networking meeting and met a nice lady who advises small business on social networking and was told to get blogging again, so here goes!

When we moved down here, a whole 6 years ago, I was working as a freelance trainer and coach working with small business teaching leadership and management skills (I used to be a project and line manager for a BIG HUGE global corporate company, you can take the girl out of management but you can't take the management out of the girl!).  I generally worked through private training providers or colleges and one of my assignments was working with a woman who worked in a craft centre; as part of her course I had to observe her teaching the customers jewellery making skills and as I used to have a bit of a play with a bead loom thought I could have a go at this.  I enjoyed making my own jewellery for friends and family and was mostly self taught through books and magazines.  One day I bought a magazine which had a tutorial in it for making a lampwork bead (what making a bead using your bedside lamp??).  I realised this was about melting glass and got very very excited.  I just love glass, always have, it's a bit of a family thing, collecting glass pieces and visiting hot shops (where they blow glass).  Quickly I found myself a tutor so could learn lampworking and just over a year ago I gave up the teaching work to become a full time artist (who me!). 

I started selling my work through a couple of small outlets and a weekly market, through the market I met other stallholders who told me about other markets and so on!  Finally one of my customers from that market contacted me and asked me if I would like to be part of a small co-operative of 4 glass orientated artists setting up a workshop and outlet in Bude in Cornwall, right by the sea and it was this break (pardon the pun) that enabled me (forced me actually as I couldn't do everything) to give up the teaching.  The workshop/outlet is a fabulous place and you can find out more information on it at
Altantic Glass Studio

I work in a cold breezy barn with so much natural ventilation that the swallows can get in in the summer even if the doors are closed!  Currently it is just too cold to get in there to torch without going blue in 5 minutes and heating is just a waste of money as the nice warm air just ends up outside!  So I am looking forward to warmer days when I can get back to work, the only issue is that warmer days mean busy days in the workshop in Bude and at the markets, but I shall just have to manage my time a bit better this year.

Enough as an intro at the moment I think, more soon on what I actually do and what lampworking is (and no it isn't using my bedside light to make beads).   I shall aim to blog at least twice a month, maybe more in these intial stages and as it is too cold to do any glass making.