October 2014 by GBUK

Flame October 2014

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Torchlight on …

Joy Porteous Page 4 Members’ beads from last month’s challenge:

Page 6 Pull a goldstone stringer

Page 8 Colour testing …. black glass

Page 11

No pressure, no prizes, just fun! Make a bead, set of beads, focal, mixed media, on or off mandrel piece using the theme of or

Post your photos on www.frit-happens.co.uk and/or www.craftpimp.co.uk and/or our Facebook page by All members' photos will be included in the October issue of the GBUK

Joy Porteous I began my lampworking journey sometime around 2007-2008. I was working as a lecturer for Cornwall College at the time and enjoyed making jewellery in my spare time. I wanted a way to make my jewellery stand out, to be a bit different, so I tentatively bought my first handmade glass beads from an eBay seller. I remember being so worried about the comparative cost in relation to ‘other’ glass beads. My fears were quickly forgotten when the beads arrived, I was totally in awe of these beautiful objects. I couldn’t believe someone had made them by hand. I had to know how it was done, what it involved. I bought Cindy Jenkins book and read it several times. From the information in the book I bought a Hot-Head, bead release and mandrels plus a variety pack of glass from Tuffnell’s. With no knowledge of the science behind ‘annealing’ I converted my slow cooker and some vermiculite into my bead cooler. Once started, I was totally addicted, my thirst for knowledge never ending. My husband bought me my first kiln and this was quickly followed by a Nortel Minor. I soon found that an oxycon was a lot cheaper to run than oxygen cylinders. I was lucky enough to have a large attic with skylights and this was my ventilation system, a little chilly in winter but hey, I was making my own beads! My library of bead books was overtaken by lampwork books as my obsession grew. I moved from the attic to the spare room, added a real ventilation system and sawed endless pieces of drainpipe to accommodate my ever growing glass collection………….good job I was earning a steady wage! I suppose there comes a time in all lampworking careers when you start to look closely at other lampworkers’ beads. I don’t mean the pretty patterns and colours but the finish, the originality………..the art. I began to look at other beads and find myself recognising particular lampwork artist’s work. At the same time I became critical of my own work and found I was putting more in the water pot than in the kiln. I started a never ending quest to improve my beadmaking.

My hobby was becoming quite expensive so I tried to sell what beads I could on eBay, included them in my own jewellery and sold at local markets. One day, while working a few local galleries, I called into a jeweller’s who I knew made a lot of his own jewellery. I came away with the offer of studio space in Okehampton. I could not believe my luck. With the support of my gorgeous husband I cut my college hours to 3 days a week, set up and worked 3 days in my fabulous working studio. After 2 years I went into the studio full time where I had the most wonderful further 3 years by courtesy of Lynn and David of Purple Penguins Silver Jewellers. Lampworking full time improved my bead making immensely, got my beads recognised locally and gave me the courage to seek other lampworkers. I discovered there are quite a few of us. I took some wonderful courses with Lorna Prime of Pixie Willow Designs, Amanda Muddimer of Mango Beads and Anouk Jasperse.

www.meaganlilylampwork.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/MeaganLilyLampwork https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MeaganLily

I look back on my ‘Lampwork Journey’ and feel extremely privileged to have found something so relaxing and all absorbing and to have had the full support of my lovely husband throughout. These days I work from a studio in my garden, I have torches and room to teach two people at one time although I prefer to look at this as passing on my knowledge. I also have time to work at my art, develop new ideas and relax doing something I love.

‘Halloween’

‘Black ‘

Pulling stringer from aventurine By Scarlet Leonard Keeping the sparkle in your aventurine, goldstone or bluestone can be tricky without working really cold. Encasing a ribbon and pulling it into a stringer will help keep those sparkles and allow you to continue to work on a bead while protecting the sparkles from burning out as easily. It also gives you more control as an encased stringer doesn't 'flop' in the flame as much. Encasing single ribbons

I find a cross between dump encasing and swipe encasing methods the easiest for working with ribbons. You will need to get your clear dripping hot and flash the ribbon in the flame to warm it up. Then swipe towards the end of the ribbon on both of the flat sides. The flow of the molten clear should fill in the edges but if it doesn't just give a quick swipe along those too.

You can then warm the whole thing through to round out the clear and get more heat into the ribbon before attaching a punty and pulling into a stringer. As you can see from the final greenstone stringer the encasement is quite thin.

Encasing multiple ribbons If you want to achieve a thicker pull or use multiple ribbons to create a twisty, then encasing by wrapping clear around your ribbons will work better as it keeps the bundle together and your collection of ribbons will stand the heat better than a single ribbon.

Again working towards the end of the ribbon wrap clear around it in a spiral motion taking care to ensure there are no gaps in the clear. Once encased heat your gather through, attach a punty and pull or twist if you have used different ribbons. The example uses both blue and goldstone to create a twisty.

Colour testing When I first started making beads I remember trawling the Effetre opaque section of the Tuffnell Glass website for black glass rods. It never occurred to me that black might be listed as a transparent colour. Of course, that's because Effetre black is not really black at all, but a very deep transparent purple. It works fine as a base bead, but try to use it for any kind of stringer decoration, and its true purpleness is revealed. So what do you use when you want a black that's - well black?

his was developed for just this situation, and it is indeed very intense. It's also notorious for its tendency to spread and web. If you want a dot to remain a dot, or a line to stay a line, you have to be really careful not to overheat it. On the other hand, you can get some really funky organic effects by heating the blazes out of your bead, and letting that intense black spread and do its thing. To get the webbing, you only want to use a tiny amount of intense black, preferably in a very fine stringer. A little goes a very long way, which is just as well, as intense black is definitely not cheap.

This is a fairly true black, if anything slightly on the brownish side. It works fine for dots and stringer. It does have a slight tendency to spread and bleed, but nothing like intense black. It's also very reasonably priced, one of the cheapest of the CIM range. It's only disadvantage is that it's not quite a deep enough black to hold true when pulled for twisties or murrini decoration.

Ilsa Fatt

black

This really is the ultimate black. It holds true even for very fine lines, and doesn't bleed or spread. This is the black I always use for fine decoration.

. The dots have stayed fairly true, but they have expanded in size, with a small amount of bleeding at the edges. You wouldn't think I'd applied tiny dots with a very fine stringer. These look more like splats than dots.

I've applied some random lines and blots with a very fine stringer and then heated to soupiness to really get the

Even though this bead has been heated as much as the others, the dots have hardly spread, and the edges are still

In conclusion, for base beads I'd use the inexpensive Effetre regular black or CIM Tuxedo. For any fine stringer work its always Reichenbach Deep Black, unless I'm after a bit of organic webbing, courtesy of Effetre Intense Black.

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!