Flame sept 2014 by GBUK

Flame September 2014

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Torchlight on …

Ingrid Brunt Page 4 Members’ beads from last month’s challenge:

Page 6 Make a pumpkin Halloween bead for Beads of Courage

Page 8 Colour testing …. Clear glass

Page 11

No pressure, no prizes, just fun! Post your photos on Make a bead, set of beads, focal, mixed www.frit-happens.co.uk and/or media, on or off mandrel piece using the theme of ‘Halloween’ or the colour of black. www.craftpimp.co.uk and/or our Facebook page by All members' photos will be included in the October issue of the GBUK

Ingrid Brunt My lampworking journey started in 2007. I’ve always loved Art and Design and did Jewellery Design and Manufacture at college then Silversmithing and Jewellery at university. I carried on making jewellery as a hobby and while searching the internet for glass beads I noticed the word “lampwork”, I looked into what that meant and after finding out you could make your own glass beads I knew this was something I really wanted to have a go at.

After buying a second hand setup on Ebay, my husband converted our old coal cellar into a little studio, and with my hothead torch and can of Mapp gas I made my first beads. Three cans of Mapp gas later I converted to bulk and haven’t looked back.

I’m self taught from “Passing the Flame” by Corina Tettinger and tutorials and advice from “Frit Happens”. I work in a school and have a family; lampworking is my hobby and the best way to de-stress after a busy day.

Still using my original hothead torch I love working on themes and projects and I also love a challenge. The GBUK competitions are good for this, they make you think outside of your comfort zone and stretch you. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind spending a long time on a set, my nativity took over 6 weeks. I'm still trying to master encasing, so would love a lesson in the future to help me with that, at the moment though Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m having fun and experimenting.

http://www.bruntiesbeads.com https://www.etsy.com/shop/BruntiesBeads

‘Shards’

‘Flowers ‘

Pumpkin Patch

by Trudi Doherty

These pumpkin beads are great all year round but are particularly suited to autumn. Kids especially love them and I've written this mini tutorial with the children's charity Beads Of Courage in mind. • 2.4mm coated mandrel ** • Effetre Dark Yellow (it goes orange when worked) • Effetre Petrol green rod and stringer • CiM Peace stringer • Reichenbach Deep Black stringer • Marver • Knife • Curved "smile" tool ** kids find it easier to string beads with bigger holes! So let's get on and make our first bead for BoC. Be safe - use eye protection and ventilation when making lampwork beads. Step 1 Take your dark yellow and wind on a small barrel. (be sure to leave space at one end to add the green bit!) Notice how once this has been flame worked the glass goes orange.

Step 2 Take your petrol green rod and wind a small bead just touching the "orange" even though we'll be adding more orange, I've added the green now as I find it easier to add it next to a thin barrel.

Step 3 Heat gently and use a knife (I've used an old kitchen one) or shaper tool and add definition between the two colours.

Step 4 Take your dark yellow/orange rod and add more glass around the middle to make a rounded oval shape. You want it to be more oval for the finished shape.

The programme is designed to provide an additional treatment and offers support for children and teenagers undergoing serious illness and treatments. The beads help the children to take ownership of their journey and to make sense of the experience they are going through in a very visible and tangible way. The beads give them a tool to explain it to themselves and others, adults, medical professionals, brothers, sisters, friends and say to everybody “This is my story, this is what I’m doing – it's not nice but I’m strong and I will get through it”. With each procedure or milestone in their treatment, they get a special bead. Each bead is their way of saying “This isn’t easy, but I did it”. Another nurse said “I never would have expected for the beads to have such an effect on anxiety as well as compliance issues related to taking medications. I have also seen changes in patients' coping skills and confidence with active involvement in this programme”.

Step 5 Heat the bead till it's warm all the way through and flatten between two marvers. Flame polish to remove the ridge marks.

Step 9 Take your petrol green stringer, and working slightly to the side of the flame (this will give you better control), add a spiral vine to the side. Heat enough to ensure it is attached, but not so much that it melts in.

Step 6 Now we want to add some "ridges". I add 3 on each side. Heat a spot on the bead, rest against a marver (not shown) and using your knife, gently press down (avoiding the green part). TIP To keep the bead warm all over, I change sides when adding each ridge.

Step 7 Take your white stringer, and add two dots. Gently heat, and flatten with your marver. Step 8 Take your black stringer, and add a dot on each of the white dots. Heat gently and press in with your marver. While I haven't melted them all the way in, I have made sure that each dot is securely attached and won't come off (there is no "undercut" on the dot). When adding heat to dots, it's best to take it away from the flame before you think it's melted in. The residue heat will keep melting it in, and it's best to reheat and press than to go too far!

Step 10 Almost there! I picked up this nifty tool at a fair. I don't even know what you'd call it to be honest! You could use anything with a similar shape... or even skip this part if you like. Spot heat the bead under the eyes, and gently push in the tool to add a mouth shape! Give a gentle heat and place in your kiln or fibre blanket to anneal later (BoC beads must be annealed)!!

TIP Use a saturated black when adding on top of a light base. Normal blacks are not saturated enough as they are really very dark purple and this will show up on top of a colour such as white. You could also use Effetre Intense Black. www.bechildcanceraware.org/beadsofcourage/ See other free tutorials for BoC at www.bechildcanceraware.org/beadsofcourage/ lampworktutorials/

Colour testing You’re in full creative flow, making the most beautiful bead ever to come off a mandrel. All that remains is to encase it to further magnify that glassy gorgeousness - then you suddenly find you’ve covered your perfect gem in a layer of what looks like last night’s scummy bath water. Into the bucket of cold water it goes....

Ilsa Fatt

Clear. That hardly visible but most essential glass colour.

Clear

These are the three clears that I have in my stash, and what I think of them.

When I first started making beads I bought a large wodge of this, the standard Effetre clear, and I’m still working my way through it. It’s very variable. Some rods are fine, and some are full of gunk, and it’s virtually impossible to tell just by looking at the raw rod. These days I just use the 004 when I need a cheap glass to build up bulk - say under a layer of a more expensive glass or to give a bit of substance to a very soft opaque. I’m wary of using it anywhere it will be on display, and I don’t think I’ll be buying any more of it in the future.

Effetre brought Crystal Clear out a few years ago, and the difference between this and the standard clear is remarkable. Crystal clear is well - clear, and reliably so. It encases really nicely. The only thing I can grumble about is that it is a bit stiff, and if I’m encasing a reducing silver glass, its easy to burn off all that wonderful shine. So, for those occasions i use...

This is also a lovely, reliable clear. I’m not convinced it is actually softer than the Effetre 006. It might just feel that way because the rods are so much thinner - some of them almost as thin as commercial stringer. Either way, it works really well over silver glass. I’d be happy to use this one all the time, except that it’s more than twice the price of the 006, and I’m just too much of a cheapskate.

I haven’t used any other clears, but here is some info from out there on the web.

CIM are really good about having web pages devoted to beadmakers’ reviews of all their colours. Here’s the page on Clear. http://www.creationismessy.com/color.aspx?id=24

I’ve never used these for the simple reason that they are just so massively expensive, but those who do use them seem to absolutely love them, and would probably say that they are worth every penny. Aether reacts with silver glass to produce a green/yellow cast, whereas Zephyr has been formulated to be absolutely nonreactive. Whichever clear you use, the most important thing is to KEEP IT CLEAN!!! Some people soak their glass in silver pickle solution: http://www.frantznewsletter.com/2010/12/23/how-to-getthe-perfect-clear-104-coe-glass/ I’m too lazy to do that, so I generally give any new rods a good swipe down with some isopropyl alcohol, bought over the internet.

Next month: colour testing - black.

The GBUK Journal is a great opportunity to showcase your work in a high quality publication. Best of all it is free to submit an entry and all members who are paid up as of 30 September 2014 will receive a free copy. If you would like to have your work included in the next GBUK Journal, then please read this carefully. We would like you to send one image only to webmaster@gbuk.org, but, as before, all other required information will need to be submitted using the online submission form on the GBUK website or click this LINK.

The AGM this year was poorly attended, despite the venue being what is possibly regarded as the best in the UK - Tuffnell Glass. Those that did attend had access to all the torches in the studio, glass, tools and the expertise of both Martin and Teresa. Martin treated us to great demos on daffoldil making and floating fish, with a bit of boro glass blowing thrown in. The meeting itself was productive, as all meetings when members get together are, and we decided on a couple of very exciting projects for the coming year. We had seven entries for the Circus themed competition, which was won jointly by Heather Kelly and Gay Massender.

The annual competition will come round faster than you think so we want to give you plenty of notice. Entries need to be in by 28th February 2015 - details of where to send them will be published later. You need to be a paid-up member on 28th February 2015 to enter any category other than Jewellery. The themes this year are:

So get your thinking caps on!