Hearts and Owls

I'm still working on inventory for the bead show next week ( Bead Expo Fri 11th-13th nov. Kingston Town Hall Moorrabbin).
I spent a lot of time on a heart design. It features a flower blossoming from a heart, like how love sometimes returns when you may not have thought it possible. There are 'flames' around the edges, symbolizing the challenges/trials that impact on our hearts. OK enough blithering and philosophizing! Here are pics of 4. I have only made about 9.

Now for some owls... I have been in a feverish frenzy making these. Some are in that category where I don't know whether I will actually part with them.

He reminds me of the universe, funnily enough his body was made from a glass called Black Nebula

Had to try out Clio glass, was a challenge alright!

Look! Legs! they make me laugh, like little owl pantaloons.

A tail! He also has legs (shock horror)

Mother and baby

Adorable plump baby owls! see the little gap for dangling charms?

The Usual Suspects!

New owl design(s) and don't forget the Bead Expo!

If you are in Melbourne and like beads especially to buy or want to see my work firsthand, please come to:
the Bead Society of Victoria's Bead Expo
11th - 13th November 2011
Kingston CIty Hall, 979 Nepean Hwy, Moorabbin, VIC.
1 day pass: $10 for an adult up to a 3 day pass $25. Also concessions available.
My table is on the upper level of the hall, look for red and white.

Time to see some evolution in the owl species.  Here's some eye candy:

Branching out in Bead Design

A couple of weeks ago I went to the beautiful state of Tasmania to attend a workshop with the german lampwork artist Anastasia. I have been a fan of Anastasia's work since I discovered lampwork back in 2006. Some of the lessons we were taught involved the use of enamels and fine stringer, such as with her tree beads. The following are some of my beads made in the class, the first has the addition of a tiny owl (awwwwww).





This floral one featues some honeycomb murrini for the stamens of the flowers, pretty cool stuff, though it takes a long time to make the murrini so we were given some of the demonstration version that Anastasia made.


Since I have returned I have been creating more trees using Helios glass, which reduces to a golden lustre, on a plain base, but adding fine frit to emulate leaves or dots for the occasional fruit blob. It is a very relaxing process but I have some ideas that will require pushing the boundaries a bit. Here is the forest so far:

Ring a Ring a Rosy

I have been making quite a variety of beads, but enjoying the ring thing a lot! Here's a couple of fingerfuls.



I particularly like the eye and flower design, decorative and interesting. The middle finger ring is made from Double Helix 'Helios' a beautiful lustering gold colour.

Below are a few more for good measure. I think if you are going to wear a glass ring, it had better be a showcase for the glass and therefore cannot be tiny and boring. It should catch the eye, well, that's what I think, and all the three year olds that have played with them would agree with me!

Rings of glass

A couple of weeks ago I attended some workshops with renowned lampwork artist and teacher, Corina Tettinger. Six days of filling up my brains to overflowing with valuable insights and new techniques was the best thing I have done this year. Thanks to a fantastic teacher, Corina, we were taught not only what was expected, but also plenty of awesome extras such as rings!

I was dying to make some of these beautiful glittery objects for the fingers using some of the wonderful Double Helix silver glasses. such as Clio, Kalypso and Triton.

So far I have made 5. One is for my niece, the light blue mirror one. The last one i made was the most ornate, with the goldstone edge, twist and shiny dots. The design possibilities are exciting so i'm looking forward to doing some crazy fun things with rings.

Necklace with lampwork and enamel be

I made this necklace yesterday using both lampwork and enamel beads. The enamel beads are such a pleasure to work with. They instantly add detail and keep things light.

A small diversion - the mirror has two faces

I don't know how it started, but a couple of days ago I came across the idea of each side of the face expressing different aspects of our personality, and how cutting an image of a face in half and then mirroring it, accentuated the differences. So I had to do it. I made sure that the lighting was as even as I could get it, and used a nikon d90 to snap the pic.

Well it turns out my nose is not in the centre of my face, so it ends up fat and skinny. Smile has always been a little lopsided, more active rightside. An eyebrow (right) has usually been a little more raised (the skeptic in me) and I have a mighty neck and chin on the right. Anyway the right side is quite intense and strong (freak!). The left side looks friendly, I could be friends with someone like that.
While looking for other faces on the 'net I came across Angelina Jolie, very striking  and unexpected differences. Also saw Gwyneth Paltrow, who appears almost perfectly symmetrical!
Ok, now that I've purged that notion on to the blog I hope to focus on more important things!