7.23.2014 - What if?

I've always said that lampworkers all cook with the same ingredients, but have different recipes.
I became inspired to make cabochons a few months back when fellow lampworker Stacy Hilton Glaze fell hopelessly into the cab abyss. 


Back in 2004 I took a silversmithing class - and set my first few cabs... they are tiny.  


The challenge for me involves working in a totally different way - as instead of wrapping around a bead, it's rotated 90 degrees - and the design is built on the end.  Your work faces you - straight on!  Just imagine how much heat a red hot disk 1 1/2"dia can give off.  


After a few years of making cabs at the end of glass rods, nipping them off, then grinding them - I bought some cabochon mandrels from Zooziis - as it seemed easier to get uniformly larger cabs - and it IS.

My work is evolving, and it's fun to see which of my favorite designs can easily translate to this form of 'bead'... just know that I am having fun!  (yes, we crested 100 degrees here yesterday!)

smiles,
Jill

7.16.2014 - The Tesla Project & glassy friends

A few weeks back I saw that there was an event called the Tesla Project at an east side studio... so we loaded into the car one Saturday and went.  The cars on display were privately owned and were fun to look at but not touch.  Also there were artist studios, FUN... we went in and out of several - then I spotted her - Karen Woodward - a fellow glassie that  I'd met about 10 years ago in Missouri!  We had crossed paths here about 3 or 4 years ago as well... but this was cool.

Glassdaddy  & Karen Woodward

Karen lives rather close by, and has stopped in to buy glass from Glassdaddy - so this was cool us both being there to say hello to her.  I LOVE what she does with glass - I mean, how much emotion can you pack into a little lump of glass?

 

Karen has a way with whimsical.  She sculpts.

​She.is.COOL.

KarenWoodwardStudios.com

I also admire sculpture, and the amazing use of bright eye-popping color!  Who knows where this type of inspiration will lead me... but at least you now know who to "blame"!

smiles,
Jill

6.254.2014 - Not Glass Related...

The other morning I quietly laughed as I looked at my coffee table... normally there are beads and catalogs... but it was strewn with instruction manuals for tools.  A reciprocating saw, and a trimmer... and it was nice. I love tools... but I don't like having to buy them to get my life back in order.

Almost two weeks ago parts of Austin were hit with the scariest storm I've ever experienced.  (next day reports were of 70-90mph winds) Terrifying doesn't even begin to describe the terror I felt as I stood in the living room, watching my beautiful oak tree sway like it were a weeping willow - not an OAK!  
I took this photo with my iPhone at 11:30PM by a lightning strike - nearly two hours into the storm - which shows the beginning of the many downed fence panels and the loss of the center portion of my oak.  The past days have been full of hard work digging out huge chunks of concrete as many fencing panel posts simply snapped at their bases!  We rebuilt a good 70' of fencing solely on my property and repaired the common panels of adjacent neighbors.  Sheesh... makes one feel really small....

...and incredibly lucky.

6.18.2014 - Routine or renegade?

"If you always do what you've always done - you'll always get what you've always gotten"

I view myself as a pretty solid person - face value and steady.   I make steady progress in a predictable sort of way.  You visit here perhaps weekly on Wednesdays and see I've made some small steps forward as once I find a new technique I have to try everything possible to find what it's best suited for.

Perhaps discovering a new look or technique (or having received new colors of glass) I am launched forward into a world of "what if?".  Do I need to step way out of the box?

What if the stringer were thinner, what if the encasing were thicker, what if the color were lighter/darker, how does the light permeate the glass, does a lack of surface decoration draw you closer to the beauty of the glass color?  I'm always looking for the beam of light that shows me the way to the next wonderful discovery, but at times am impatient!  

Ewisteria3.jpg

I LOVE the silvered glass I've been playing with now for quite awhile, and would be somewhat content to keep making the same until every woman on Earth were wearing a pair of my carved silvered glass earrings I've not fulfilled the need. LOL  But seriously...

This was the previous version of carved beads, I called it glass-braiding, same technique - different end result.  Still very cool.

JillSymonsCarved.jpg

I'm looking for the next inspirational item that helps launch me forward towards something new to showcase.  Maybe next week?

If you've recently joined my mailing list - and want to see more of my work from earlier times - one place is http://jillsymons.blogspot.com.

smiles, 
Jill

Source: http://jillsymons.blogspot.com/search?upda...

6.11.2014 - Finding balance, finished items or raw materials?

I've been making lampwork beads for right at sixteen years.  At times that totally dumbfounds me, and yet my enthusiasm and ideas never wane.  When I first started I found it very hard to imagine what to do with the beads, how to make them into finished pieces.  I also was mystified as how to pricing my work.

I sold on eBay for eight years, then decided to launch my own website and handle sales personally.  I've been back and forth with making finished pieces versus offering raw materials... but bottom line - I am a maker of lampwork beads - that's where the joy is for me.

But it's still very hard four me to keep my hands off of the earring pairs - as it seems to fill a need to make completed items.  Next week I will be adding a collection page that features solely earrings! 

Back in 2004-5 I took a silversmithing course and found a passion for making my own findings, then later on maybe in 2011 there were silver bracelets and bangles, earrings etc.  but I began to feel distance from my glass passion.  How to combine the two without stealing the thunder from the glass?

Components... To this day I make all my own headpins, ear wires, focal headpins and clasps.  It gives my work a touch of personal uniqueness and fills the need to dabble hammer and melt silver.  If you're one of my customers who isn't savvy on assembly - and would like me to - I can give you a price for finished pieces as well! 

6.4.2014 - Sue's Necklace

I'm borrowing Sue's necklace for a bit to talk about control.  No, not self control, but heat.

I have dabbled in borosilicate (aka Boro) going on about 5 years.  Not seriously for most of it, as my torch couldn't melt it with gusto... but, that's OK, as I've never really EVER been a big bead kinda gal.  

I started slowly.  Winding the glass in pre-pulled stringers of clear boro - I think they were 3mm, maybe 2?  I'd feed them through the flame, and catch them on the mandrel as they came out the other side.  S L O W L Y... it made for very precise and beautifully uniform beads.  Then I stepped out of my comfort zone and started using a gorgeous boro glass called Blue Moon.

Working from the standard size rod (diameter of around maybe (8-9mm) I'd feed and pull to the smaller diameter as I went - watching as the color struck and the bead diameter grew.  I love this look, and toyed for quite awhile trying to figure out how to showcase the sides of a bead - and not the visible edge you would see if strung conventionally right through the hole.  This is what came about.  I am thrilled.  There is no hardware to tarnish, and not cold metal - heck, no sensitivity to allergies even!  I remember selling it with the added bonus that one could even put it through the dishwasher, although I secretly hope one doesn't.

I absolutely love what I do, I'm going on 16 1/2 years now and I confess to gleefully skipping to my torch sessions as if it were perhaps a newly acquired love.....   smiles, Jill

5.21.2014 - I may have missed something

While my passion has always been lampwork, I admit I may have too quickly dismissed fused glass.  I went to Helios Glass Studio a few weeks ago with some friends and while looking at all their supplies I had an odd sense that these were somehow distant relatives of my genre.

There was one piece there that really caught my eye... and it caused me to look a little closer at the possibilities that may lie just out of reach (for now)... as I thought this piece incredibly handsome.  The artist is keeping it for her collection - but I was happy to have 'met" it.

 

Fused Glass at Helios Glass studio 

5.14.2014 - Just luscious pictures.

I'm taking a break from knocking my head on my desk - proverbially fighting with the software for tonight's update page... frustrated.  So I'll post some pretties and bask in these for a little while before going back to the uncooperative page.

I was entering a local department store - and there were some really sad looking palms in pots flanking the entry but upon looking closer, this is what I found.  Isn't it so amazing?? Look how perfectly rolled up these are? It is what I aspire to do when I'm trying to make swirls... I am floored.

Jill