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!!!!
