A year for change

It's that time of year to look back and reflect on past success and road bumps, as well as make a few new goal for the up coming year.  When thinking about my glass work, I realize I had a pretty good year. I took my first class for fused glass, bought a larger kiln and had a great Christmas season selling ornaments.  So what's next?

I have quite few ideas of projects I'd like to try this year. And figure with all the changes that will be going on this year, it will be a good time to focus on experimenting and trying new things.  For example, I have two pieces in the kiln right now that are using a dam of kiln paper and scraps from a Brocken dish as well as left overs from the snowmen. I'd also like to try printing my own decals on special photo paper. And if I find time, try glass paint.

I'll post my first few scrap experiments once they're out of the kiln lasted today.

My goal for Jan-Feb is to simply find time to be in my studio.  With little one due pretty much any day now, I'm not sure what kind of time I can commit to my glass.

I also see a bit of a shift in the way I use my blog. I will continue to focus on my glass work but plan to include a bit about what's going on at home too. I am hoping to post once a week.
 Personnal goals for the new year, enjoy my time off with baby.
Fitness goal, get back to pre baby shape by the time we head to BC sometime this summer.

What to do with these new colours?

When my new glass arrived, I thought I'd receive similar colours to the last batch. When I first ordered a glass pack from Artistry in Glass, the pack was pretty much all transparent colours, colours I would have picked out myself. This round, the pack had colours that don't normally appeal to me. I now have so bright yellows, bright green and a pale brown. These colours do go together but aren't colours I usually work with. I think because these colours aren't my favourites to work with, I'll be able to experiment a bit more with patterns and mixing colours.
I also have a new mould to work with, a square plate. That'll take some playing around with as well. Hopefully between getting the final touches ready for baby and finishing up all the details with my class I'll find enough time.

requests

It's a bit early to start thinking about the holidays, but I am gearing up for a few custom made pieces. I can make items for pretty much any price point. If there are specific colours you'd like, I may have to order them and that could take a few weeks. If you are interested at all in ordering something for a gift please let me know!

Check out the pages at the top of the blog I have added a few items.

Check out my pages!

I just organized some of my pictures into pages so you can check them out. I've add prices well, so it you are interested in anything let me know! Also there's a link to my facebook page. Check it out!.

There is much more to post, hopefully I'll find some time during the school year to get it all done!

Fused glass pendant tutorial

Here is my first attempt at creating a tutorial for fused glass. This is going to be geared towards someone working with kids or a group.

these are the organizers I bought

I just received a huge order of glass yesterday so I my first job was to organize and clean my work room. It even meant a trip to staples to get something to help organize all the new glass.Here are the before pic                    

not perfect yet, but now I can work!

My first step is the prepare the kiln shelf so that the glass does not stick. I use a shelf primer that I got from the Tiffany House in Calgary. You can also use thin fire fibre paper. It's a bit easier to use but also more pricy. I have been ordering most of my supplies lately from Artistry in Glass, an online shop out of Ontario. I have also bought some supplies from the Bisset Stain glass shop in south Edmonton.

 There is the kiln shelf before and after the primer. I help it dry faster I put the shelf in the kiln and heat it to 300 degrees F and let it cool.







Next off let's look at the tools I use for the glass cutting.

 Here I have a ruler, my grid for accurate cutting, my cutting tool and my nippers.
I had all the pieces pre-cut for my class when I had them make these pendants for mothers day.







To start I measured out the size I wanted the pendants to be. The initial pieces for these are going to be about 1'by1'. I use my cutting tool to score the glass, making sure to not push to hard that I see a white line, but hard enough that I see a faint line in the glass.


Next I use my nippers to put pressure on both side of the scored line. This will force the glass to break on my score line.

I then scored the glass and nipped it into the squares. Each pendant will have a coloured base square and a clear square to place on top as seen in the following picture. I chose one pendant to have a transparent yellow cap to see the different effect a coloured cap would have instead of the clear. Here are the six example I started with.  I didn't give my class too many colour options.

To decorate the pendants I used scraps from other projects, confetti ( shards of glass) and frit ( sand like pieces of glass) I told my kids when going through the pieces to decorate to be very careful. If is glass and the side are sharp! Sorting through the glass can cause cuts. 

I told my kids that simple designs work best. I also instructed them to keep their decorations to one level, if you start staking glass the amount of time in the kiln can change or depending on how the glass melts it can cause air bubbles that can ruin the piece. 

The other tip I gave them was to keep their design inside the base colour square.  If pieces are left out of the base square they can distort the shape. SOmetimes the new shape is very neat but since I wanted a guaranteed shape we kept the decoration inside the square. To help keep the pieces in place you can use white glue. Just don't put huge globs of it on, too much can cause a black film to develop in the kiln where the glue was. If you use just a touch, you won't see it. For my personal projects I use a glass glue. Again that glue can be purchased from the same places I mentioned above. When the decorating is done you put your clear cap on top of the base. Use a touch of glue to secure it. Make sure to line the clear up as best you can with the base. It is ok if the size and shape of the two pieces isn't exactly right. Fusing can be pretty forgiving. Here are the pendant before I placed them in the kiln. I will so post some pictures later on in this post showing air bubbles and what can happen if a pendant has too much decoration outside of the base square. 

To help make sure each student receives the pendant they made at the end of the day, I have them write their name on some tape in a muffin tin. Each student then places their finished work in their own space. I let the glue dry before transporting these home to my kiln so that they do not fall apart in the car. If they slide around a bit at least all the pieces are contained in the tin so I can try to piece them back together a bit. 

When I place the pendants in the kiln I'll put then in order  of the muffin, so that when I take them out they go right back into their names spot. Some pieces change drastically, so having a method of keeping the organized is important. 

Here is what they looked like when I pulled the out of the kiln- i'll mention my fire schedule at the bottom of the post.

Here are some of the tools you'll need to put the cords together, a bail, two part glass glue, cord, jump loops, your preferred method of attaching jump loops to the cord. ( I like the kind you fold over on the cord with pilers) and a lobster clasp. I bought most of these supplies at the Rock and Gem shop in Lacombe as I work in that town. 

With my class I had the cord pre-cut to the same length.

First I attach the bail to the pendant, follow the instructions for the type or glue you are using. Let the glue set for a bit.

While the glue is setting fold over your cord ends or attach you method of choice to the end of the cords. Pick one side to attach a few jump loops. Remember to open and close the loops side ways, do not pull them apart, you can distort the shape of the loop. I like to add a few loops so that you have a choice of how long the pendant will hand. 

If your bail is open enough, you can wait to put it on the cord, if not you will have to put it on the cord before attaching the clasp. 

Here are some close ups of the pendants when they came out of the kiln, I haven't decided if i'll put bails on all of them yet, I do like the yellow one. 

As you can see the transparent decorations did not show up well on the black base. 

Here is an example of what can happen if you decorate outside the base square. Edges are jagged and the shape is not uniform. 

This piece have a few large air bubbles trapped from layering glass in the middle. The edges fused first leaving not room for the air in the middle to escape. Sometime these bubbles will burst, breaking your piece. This one can still be usable. 

Here is the firing schedule I used -

Ramp        temp          hold

500         1100        5min

200         1250        10min 

9999        1475        5 min

9999        950        30min

400          500         0min

then let the kiln cool- do not open the door until it reaches less than 100 degrees

    These degrees are in F

The annealing hold if for COE 96 glass. 

Let me know if you need anything more specific or anything clarified!

Wine bottle and goals for Sept.

Here is a few pictures of my first slumped wine bottle dish. I think these are pretty cool. For the next bit, my friends and family shouldn't be surprised if they get these as gifts. I'd probably add a cheese knife of wine bottle stopper, maybe even a bottle of wine!

This size of bottle fit easily into the mould, I can also do smaller and larger bottles and different types and colours.


I haven't mentioned my goal for a loooooong time, mostly due to the fact my mind hasn't been on glass but on up coming baby.
I am making my Sept goals since I'm off to B.C. for a week and when I get back I'm back at school getting ready for the kids.

Lampwork goal
Since the fumes from certain glass is not ok in large amounts my goal will be to just keep up with my beading a few times during the month. Fusing glass right now is just a bit safer.

Glass fusing
I want to try a few different bottles so make some suggestions! My hubby like wine so I'm sure he won't have a problem trying a few. Hopefully we bring a few neat looking bottles back from B.C. To make one of these I really only need 24-48 hours notice

I also want to experiment with my new draping mould. See what kind of candle holders and vases I can make. I have never used this kind of mould so we'll see what kind of trouble I can get into.

Marketing
My summer contest isn't going quite as well as I have hoped. I wanted to have my 50 likes by now, so I'll keep pushing that and hopefully be able to make the draw in Sept. So don't forget to check out my Facebook page and like the page to be entered in the contest. Here is the link.
I want to post 1-2 item a week onto the two craft sites I'm apart of. And maybe try to find a few most sites to post to. I have thought about easy, but there are so many people that have fusing sites and I am not sure I want to complete with that yet.

I've also be asked to help an art teacher in Red Deer that would love to try some glass fusing with her glass. My plan is to make a tutorial that I will post here to show the steps for making a fused glass pendant. We'll see how this goes.

Personal
I have way more energy right now so I'm trying to get back into some cardio, I'm finding running very awkward with the growing belly but I'm trying to get a touch. I'll keep going to the gym as well.

During Sept I'd like to get the baby's room painted and start getting the furniture for it.

Getting back to the torch

Life is changing pretty quick at my house. I have been down in my lampwork room very much in the past four months. That's is mostly due to the fact I have been feeling 100% until recently and the fact I've been spending  a lot of time researching if I should be lampworking while pregnant. After hours of reading and looking over many lampwork forums, I comfortable getting back to my torch. I just should stay awa from ay silver glass ( my fav!) and not spend more then an hour or two torching at a time. I'm happy to say I have a batch of pandora size beads annealing in my kiln.
I'll have pics posted when I have then out and clean.

I'm also excited about a huge order of glass that should be arriving in the next few weeks, including a few new fusing moulds

I'm sure a bit of baby talk will be now making it into my blog.

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page and "like" it. Once I get to 50 likes I'll be having a draw for a cuff bracelet or small fused dish.

https://www.facebook.com/JeanBeads



I also am trying a poll app on my site, check it out.

Cuff summer contest.

I have a summer contest to win a fused glass cuff bracelet or a small dish (5x5 inch) all you have to do to be entered in this contest is go to my facebook page and " like " the page. When I get to 50 likes I'll make the draw from everyone who likes my pages. Below are some of the cuff bracelets I have available. Good luck!
Here is the link to my page

Also here are some pictures of the items you could win! If I have the right colours if you win I can make a custom cuff!

 

Fused glass dishes!

I haven't posted anything in a while So here are my latest creations since I received my larger kiln. Let me know what you think.  I'm looking for ideas of colour combos or patterns to try next!

This platter was made as a gift

This was the first platter I made. 

This one has a matching dish

Wavy plate

This one has a fish

Yellow coasters

 

Matching dishes

Speckled dish

Blue speckled dish, I though about making this one into a sun catcher....ummmm

Pricing

These past few months I've been paying more attention to how different artists price their work. Pricing is something that I have always been conflicted with. Since many people do not know all the time and what goes into glass work, they feel many pieces are over priced.

I've been doing some research on how to price jewelry. Many sites give you different formula to use. The one I have been using is the cost of materials plus about 10$ an hour for my time. Something I'd like to start also taking into account is the complexity of my work and the level of technique the different pieces require. For example, it can take the same about of time to make 5 small beads with little detail as a larger focal lampwork bead. The little beads may even require more glass. However, the larger focal bead has much more detail and time put into it. It feels much more like a tiny piece of art. Using my formula, the 5 smaller beads should cost more as they used more glass and about the same time. But I feel the formula doesn't represent the quality of the focal bead. Plus once a bead comes out of the kiln there is still work to be done, I need to clean out the bead release and polish each bead. If I make a bead into a jewelry, that is more time I need to take into account.
Also, at what point to I consider myself more than a beginner and give myself a raise? Many glass artists make beads full time and charge out at $20-$30 an hour for their work.


If you search online at craft sites like Etsy, many focal beads run in the price range of $20-$70, for one bead. When I first began lampworking I didn't understand how one bead could be so pricey. But now I do. The hard part is helping other realise that many of these beads are worth the price the artist puts of them. ( although I have seen beads that do not match their price)

I am also wondering what other factors I should take into account when pricing my glass work. For example, after a glass bead is made it spends a good amount of time annealing in a kiln. During that time I am not working on the bead but the beads is still being worked. Other then the cost of electricity do I take into account the amount of time the beads spend in the kiln?

I have just received my new larger kiln for glass fusing, often my fused glass spends 6-15 hours in the kiln. If I'm making a dish or slumping it goes into the kiln multiple times. So I may have spent 1-2 hours putting the glass together but by the time the piece is finished it's spent over 20 hours in the kiln. Does that mean I charge $20 for my time about $40 for the glass for a total of $80 for a piece that took a total of 22 hours from start to finish? I'm not sure....

The more I have been working with glass the more I find it like painting and other art forms I have tried over the years. Many people how purchase art do not feel that hundreds of dollars is unworthy of a painting, but the same price for a piece of glass art is not always understood.

I know I am just beginning to sell some of my own work and am not that experienced yet in pricing and marketing. My main goal with my work is to simply afford to continue my hobby, but I do want my glass work to be valued properly. I figure I have more research to do.

Beads for sale

Ok, this is going to be a short post. One of my goal for the month was to put up three items for sale. I decided instead of posting fully finished pieces of jewellery  I'd post beads, tiny piece of art you can wear everyday!
These are beads I'm show casing.

this is one of my favourite beads I've ever made. It took over an hour. It is a petal implosion beads with silvered ivory stringer for decoration on the top. THe colour called pumpkin, it's a pinkish orange. I'd like to charge 20$ for the bead. It's about 3.5cm by 2cm by 1cm

This is a set of coral/ivory beads. There are 5 in the set. They are about 1.5 cm.  Since these beads a quite a bit faster to make and take less technic I'm charging 10$ for all six.

These beads remind me a bit of fossils. They are made with metallic black glass and iris orange (raku) The raku changes colour depending on how it's cooled and reheated. The focal bead has also dichro glass. The focal beads mesures   3cm long. The other two beads aren't quite the same size, one is 3cm long and the second is 3.5 cm long. For the set I'd like to charge 20$

Sometimes I feel that beads are a bit pricy, but then I remember they are ting pieces of art. Later this week I plan on posting about prices. They are something I have been very conflicted about.  These beads will also be posted on a Canadian craft site. Wish me luck!

Clio jewellery

Ok, here are the items I've made so far with the clio beads, plus what I did with the etched beads from an earlier post. most of these do not have clasps yet. I will be buying those this weekend at Carlos LIttle Beads shop. I don't have time to order them online and would rather not buy them at Michael's. I want these items to be as unique as they can be.  There are a couple views of the same necklace. Not my great pictures but I took them this morning before heading to work. I might add captions later. Let me know what you think!