Here's some of what I've been up to lately

Just popping in to show off some of the goodies I've been making. I've got a couple topics to write about, but not yet.


Metallic Scrolls on Creamy Ivory



Metallic Scrolls on Mirrored Red

And lastly, I've been doing some work with my new flat lap machine. It makes some really unique windows in my beads.

Studio Tour

I noticed a thread on the Etsy forums of artists showing off their workspace, so I thought I'd share mine. I always love seeing where the "magic" happens for artists. So here's where I make my glass goodies.


Above you can see my minor burner along with a bunch of glass in my workstation. I'm not the best about cleaning up when I'm done. When I do actually clean up, I can never find anything, so this works out. The green hose connects to the oxygen concentrator at my feet and the red one leads outside to my propane tank. The containers full of sand hold my mandrels that are dipped and ready to be used. There's a couple jars of pixie dust and frit hanging around too.



Here's my kiln. After creating each bead, it gets placed inside a 960 degree kiln to be held for 30 minutes or longer and slowly ramped down to room temperature. This helps relieve the stress in the glass caused by manipulating it.



Here's my jumble of tools. They're not exactly organized. Not even a little bit. I drop them on my feet when I'm reaching for them sometimes actually. The flame handled tools are beadrollers from Donna at CGBeads. I love them. They are fantastic for consistent sizes. I have several tools by Zooziis as well. I love the flat shapes as a nice canvas for scrollwork. Last but not least is my most used tool, the giant spoon I stole from the utensil drawer. I use this constantly to pat down surface designs.


Here's my 10 lpm Oxygen Concentrator.



Some of my glass rods. Most of these are Moretti, but I do have a little bit from everyone.



My reject pile. I need a bigger bowl. I was thinking of trying to fill one of those giant water jugs.



Here's my 1200 Cfm squirrel cage blower. It's attached to a hood above my torch to blow the noxious fumes outside. It's quite loud, but ventilation is too important to ignore.


This is Onny, the studio kitty. She's very helpful.




Here's where I take my bead pictures. There's normally a Cannon DSLR camera on the tripod.

New Lampworking Toy...er...Tool

Buying a new tool is always so much fun for me. I'll research it for weeks, trying to justify the money I'll be spending on it. I look at other artists' work to see what they've done using that tool, trying to think of how I would put my own spin on it. I order it and hound the poor mail carrier. It finally arrives and it's like Christmas!

This month I bought myself an Ameritool Flat Lap machine. I love it! With this tool, I can create windows into the core of my lampwork beads. Here's a few examples

Glass Week on DeviantArt

For those of you that are on DeviantArt. The group ArtisanCrafts is hosting glass week. Take a look at some of the interviews and featured glass pieces

http://myntkat.deviantart.com/journal/34300684/

Hey everyone! Hope everyone's enjoying the end of Summer before school starts back up and Fall begins. I've been playing with a new shape this week among other things. It's called the Kalera long and lean by Zooziis. It's a perfect flat canvas and makes a fantastic focal for a pendant. Here's a couple focals I've made with this new press. Let me know what you guys think.

How to Metal Line a Bead with the Impress Bead Liner

I just made a quick tutorial about lining beads with metal using the Impress Bead Liner. I bought this tool early in the year just for fun, and it is awesome and a great value.  Take a look and let me know if you have any questions.

Gathering 2010!

Hey there everyone. I just got back from the ISGB Gathering! It was fantastic to meet all those amazing artists. So much of the work I saw on Saturday's Bead Bazaar just blew me away. I wish I could have been there the entire week. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the entire week off. Darn day job.

On Friday I saw a bunch of demonstrations. It started with Margaret Neher's beautiful boro flowers. They were so realistic. She had a table at the bead bazaar and she really does have some amazing work.

Next I shopped for 15 minutes and then back to a presentation about painting with enamels. Bronwen Heilman showed us all how she paints designs using enamels, heats it back up and then fires it. After seeing her presentation and a few other folk's beads in a similar style, I bought a bunch of enamels. I'm looking forward to playing with those.

After some lunch, Leah Fairbanks showed her amazingly detailed floral beads. I don't make a lot of florals, but I drooled over her beads for a long time before I was able to set up my studio. It was even better seeing her beads in person. She demonstrated her florals, but also showed us a bit of coldworking to make facets. If there had been a lap machine available for purchase in the vendor's area, I probably would have bought it.

Next Wesley Fleming showed his tiny detailed soft glass insects. I didn't even know you could sculpt like that in soft glass. I found that presentation very interesting. I wanted to buy one of his spiders at the bead bazaar, but they were so realistic I was a little creeped out.

Last but not least was Eun-Suh Choi. Her sculptures were made entirely of clear boro glass. They were so incredible. It may sound simple since it's all clear and a repeating pattern of branches, but they are amazing. When showing some slides of her other work, she mentioned a piece in the Corning museum that was 13 feet high. I am going to have to look for it when I'm there next.

I think in the end I was sad to go, especially since there was so much more to do on other days, but I was so packed with information I think I might have exploded with much more.

Oh, and I bought a little something for myself. This is a cored and capped big holed bead from Hayley Tsang.

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