Playing with Toys

Ok, let’s start with a cat picture…. After all, they are my “helpers” with all things fabric related:

• Any piece of fabric/quilt block laid on the floor must be sat upon
• When Mom pins a piece of fabric to the rug (how I lay out the backing when making the quilt “sandwich”), she really wants us to pull the pins out and throw them around
• Same as above – but when Mom has pins in the binding of a quilt and is hand sewing it.  Bonus points if we crouch on the arm of the couch and do it while she is sewing
• Oh, and when the quilts are finished, they are ours
• And, we are not just helpers with quilts; when Mom is wire wrapping, she wants us to play with the wire as she’s twisting it.

My Hubby’s Job is to Save Me from Myself

As I often say, I am an intelligent, capable, strong woman, but I require a caretaker as I lack a certain amount of common sense and the ability to care for myself in some ways.

So, I have to call my hubby out once again for his thinking ahead and about me….

A few weeks back, he bought me a portable, rechargeable, power pack for charging my phones and my ipad.

It has gotten a lot of use, as I often forget to plug my phone in when I get home… or when I get to work…  Having the ability to charge my phone anywhere is such a boon!

Quilt coming

There is a quilt picture and commentary coming shortly… I promise… quilting is still my first love!  I just have to finish the binding and I will post it.

(The above quip posted in defense of myself towards the person (you know who you are!) who chided me about abandoning quilting for glass-work!)

Gems, Metal, and Wire

Square metal wire wrapping

When I took the first wire wrapping class a few weeks back, the instructions stated to bring a couple stones you wanted to wrap.  I brought some of the gemstones that I've been collecting for a few (many) years.  The instructor told me, however, that faceted gems required square wire and that that was a longer class.

Here’s a reminder of the sort of gemstones that I've been collecting:

Long story short, a couple of us in the class requested her square wire class, we looked at schedules, and the class was held last Sunday.

Needless to say, I loved the class, addressed the concepts with my usual hyper level, and have been prolific at wrapping my gems ever since!

The instructor gave us each a cabochon (oval) and some cheap wire (copper in my case) and it took four hours to guide us through the different concepts of square wire (versus round that we’d used in the other wire wrapping class). 

Here is my finished product:

After learning the basic concepts, I bought some silver wire (expensive compared to what I’d been using) from the Studio and started on wrapping the largest of my personal gemstones.  Making the first cut into that silver wire was pretty scary.

I got the wires organized, and attached to each other before class ended and then brought the project home to finish.  My take on how you do the form of square wire wrapping we were taught is:

1. Cut the wires and bind them to each other to make the framework
2. Put the gem into the framework, secure in front and back
3. Make the bail
4. Finish with decorative bits, etc

I got step one done at the studio.  When I got home, I started on step two.  At the point where I finished that, and actually saw this huge amethyst that I’d been caressing for years encased in a setting, I was overjoyed.  I danced into the kitchen and did a “see! See!” to Chris.  I’m sure he was greatly amused.

Here’s what it looks like:

I then moved on to the other gemstones and some other particularly special pieces that I’ve been collecting, as well as some glass pieces to give as gifts.

One of the 20~ caret Ametrines.  This one is purple to white/clear.  The setting is silver, with brass accents.

The other 20~ caret Ametrines.  This one is purple to yellow.  I used brass with copper accents for the setting.

A small, dark amethyst.  I’m not happy with using 22-gauge wire for smaller things.  I ordered some silver in 24 gauge rather than 22.  I think it will be a little more unforgiving to accidental twists, etc., but I think I’ll like the results better.

These are the last of the gemstones that I've set so far.  I used brass for the settings and tried very hard to match them.  I told Chris that I would either have two nice pendants that looked similar, or a pair of earrings.

I've decided that they will be earrings.

This is a large stone do-nut bead that I bought somewhere along the line.  I love the color and wanted to do something with it.  This pattern of wire is nothing I was taught – I just sort of made it up. 

This is crackled glass (see last week’s post and all the other crackle bits). 

This one is quite large.  I made it for a friend who likes blue!

Last one – this is a small glass do-dad that I made.  The snowflake is copper foil cut out using a paper punch.  Amazingly enough, my $8.00 approximately 1 inch sized and not very detailed Fiskar’s punch made a mess of the copper, while the $0.99, 3/8^th inch, very detailed punch made perfect cuts!  I have several other do-dads just like these (with different designs) – I think that a smaller gauge of silver will do much better for them.

Setting Gemstones

Next up – moving on to putting gemstones into actual settings with prongs!

I have more gemstones, smaller ones.  They are beautiful, but too small for even tiny wire.  I've been watching YouTube videos on setting stones with pronged settings, and Karen (Studio at Rush Creek) has setting pliers (needle nose type of pliers that opens evenly, rather than in a Vee shape).

First up, a ring for my right hand. 

I had an engagement ring (bought a couple years into our marriage… long story).  I looked at it a couple weeks ago and discovered that the stone was gone.  The ring (setting) wasn't much to speak of, and the gem was pretty cheap), so I’m not horribly distressed or concerned.  However, since we just hit 15 years (woot woot!), and since I have this great desire to play with gemstones, I looked through my collection for something suitable.

I found a 10mm, round cut (brilliant cut?) blue topaz.  Blue was the color my hubby picked for the main stone on my wedding ring (I’m not into diamonds), so that gem struck me as the one to use.  Its 3.5 carats according to a chart I found – quite the rock!  I found a solitaire setting in sterling silver on a website and sent away for it.  I’m not ready to spend a great deal of money on gold yet. 

The rest of my collection of “un wire wrap able” gemstones include citrine, amethyst, and a clear stone – probably faceted glass, but still pretty.  Anyway, I found a seller on eBay who has some brass and/or bronze settings at a reasonable price.  I’m totally satisfied with setting them into those settings and making some every day jeweler rather than even making the lower investment in sterling.  These stones are mine because I liked them and because they were cheap enough to satisfy my cheapskate nature!  I want to wear them, and have fun with them.  They've sat long enough in a box!

Playing with Metal

I've taken a couple classes at the Studio where I worked with copper, and now I've used silver wire.  I have toyed with the idea of doing a little more with copper – even considered buying some from the website recommended by one instructor , or buying a piece of hers from her – but after today I decided that I don’t like copper as a sheet metal as much as I like it for wire wrapping. 

Today’s metal foray started with buying a metal stamp (I’ll get back to that), and ironically, the metal that I liked stamping on best was brass – the very metal that I hate with wire wrapping!  Total opposites between the two jewelry art forms!

Side story:  Many years ago, Chris and I bought a LARGE paper cutter at an estate sale.  It’s one of those that every school had, until more safety standards came into play.  We call it a guillotine.  That’s the closest I can come to explaining how that huge blade appears to function!

The children used that paper cutter for school and art projects for many years (and avoided cutting off any digits) but it has sat for at least the last five with a minimum of use.  One day, Karen was talking about cutting things in the Studio, including thinner metals.  End of that discussion was me bringing her that HEAVY and awkward paper cutter.  I did hear quickly that it was pressed into service successfully.

Then, tonight when I wanted just a small piece of the silver from Karen’s sheet of silver, I asked her how I was to cut it…..

Yes, you see where this is going….

Karen:  “use that paper cutter you gave me”

DUH…..

(yes, it worked fine)

Kid in a Candy Store

Me:  Karen, can I buy some copper?  Where is it?

Karen:  (walks over by the sink, and points to a large box on top of a tool chest – tall tool chest,  much like my hubby’s in the garage) Just dig through here, find what you want and prices are marked (paraphrased)

Me:  (after about 20 minutes, and three trips to Karen at her desk to ask some things) You have so MANY treasures in here…..

I started with digging through that box, then moved down the treasure chest drawers as I saw signs that said “Dichrotic,” “silver wire,” and more.  I only wanted to work with the copper, but decided that I loved the brass and even went with silver.

Then, I moved on to the drawer set that contained the metal tools.  In looking for a hammer, I opened a drawer that contained both a ring-sizing dowel (name?) and a keychain (for lack of better word) of those bits to size your fingers for rings!

TOYS!!!

I sized my wedding ring – 5.5, as I thought I remembered – and most of my fingers. 

That took ten minutes or so.  There I was, paying for studio time (ok, I’m a regular and Karen gives me a break!), but playing with things and doing nothing productive.  It was so fun!  I’m such a geek…..

Anyway, I bought a setting for my new “engagement” ring, as said above, and I bought it in a size 6.0.  I think… the online form isn’t showing me.  I might have bought it in a 5.5.  Either way, I sized that finger to a 5.75.  I hope that that is close enough.  If not, I may hit up the son of my wire-wrapping teacher for some adjustments.  I gave her several of my cabochons made from my special glass (both my fuser’s reserve – pre made, and my own crackled designs), so maybe that buys me some good will, and/or maybe her son will accept a small quilt or embroidery on something (Deanna…. Are you reading this? J ) for some tweaking of some of my jewelry.

The stamp

To those of my readers who do not know all my predilections – I like mice.  Not real mice, although I have had pet mice and they are cute, but all sorts of mice figurines.  Tiny metal ones are my favorite – especially with crystals incorporated, the fur covered little ones are second, and glass and ceramic come in after that.  I prefer one inch or smaller in size.  I do, however, have quite the collection in all sizes and shapes. 

Cute story interlude:  when I had a minor surgery recently, my husband wandered the skyways waiting for me (it was a Doctor’s office procedure).  His goal was to find flowers or something for a gift when the procedure was complete.  However, he stumbled upon a gift store that had TY (think Beanie Baby) stuffed animals.  Instead of the expected man to woman gift of flowers, candy, and/or jewelry – I received a 4-inch white mouse.  I loved it!  (Still do, but I have to protect it from Bronx).  I think the nurses were a little confused, and most likely went and consulted the chart to remind themselves of my age and that I was in fact a grown woman!

Anyway, whilst perusing eBay the other day, I found this.  I had used metal punch stamps in one of the copper classes that I took at the Studio so I felt comfortable purchasing it.  I then purchased bits and pieces of copper, brass, and silver from the studio.  That’s one of the things I love about that place – Karen has EVERYTHING, and you can buy a square inch of metal, a single marble, a jump ring, etc., for your project.  The second part of that is that she’s got complete tool sets for so many art forms.  Instead of having to invest hundreds to do one project or after investing, find out you don’t like it, you can go to her studio, pay her more than reasonable price for “studio time” and use whatever you want. 

I pounded that stamp to my heart’s delight for over an hour!  I cut out circles of several sizes in my little collection of metal, and I textured them, and shaped them with tools that I have no idea what their names are!

Here are the pictures:

First – the stamp.  It’s about 2 ½ inches long and the design is about 3/8^th of an inch.

 And the metals – Copper, bronze, silver – in that order

My collection of bits and pieces:

I’ll list a little bit about them:

• Lower left, the cupped pieces.  Those are bronze, and there are going to be combined with some of the smaller bronze circles that are NOT cupped, with a jump ring through the holes on each, so that the smaller bit “sits” in the cup, and will be earrings.
• Upper left, one group in.  Large, plain, silver circles.  Same concept, there are smaller silver circles in there that are punched with the mousie.  They will be combined for earrings.
• The large cupped and rimmed circle of bronze in the lower center will probably be a pendant.
• I liked the bronze a lot more, so I cut out seven or eight (I have to count) midsized circle and stamped each one with a single mouse.  I’m going to put a jump ring, and maybe a bead or two on each, and give them to my co-workers daughters/god daughters.  If I counted right, there are six girls, all under 10/11.  I hope they will like them!
• Way lower left – that’s a piece of thin copper (there’s thin and thick copper in there).  It’s had things punched out, and you can see my practice with some letter stamps (more on that in a second)
• Middle right – that’s the piece of silver I bought.  It’s is about 1¼ x 2 inches.  Let me put this pricing of metal in perspective.  Brass and copper (heavier weight) were 50 cents a square inch.  That piece of silver was $14.00.  And – remember my discussion of the paper cutter?  One of the long sides was cut with it….

Ana’s pendant

Ana doesn’t like gold tone, and she’s not a fancy person – doesn’t wear huge jewelry like me.  I’m personally thrilled that she’s a geek girl and gets into t-shirts from TeeFury and Ript apparel – it gives me something “decorative” to buy for her, but I digress….

Anyway, as I was punching circles from that silver so adeptly cut with my former paper cutter…. I got it in my head to make a little something for Ana.

I dug through the other metal stamps that Karen has and determined which size and shape of letters I wanted to use to spell out A – N – A…. not A – N – N – A as most pre made, personalized merchandize is.  I was a bit nervous about stamping on a several dollar, but tiny, piece of silver and screwing it up.  I had hoped to line up Capital A, small n, small a, next to each other (the stamps are squared off) and punch all at one time (thus being lined up properly), but, alas, the stamps in a row were about 1.5 times the width of the circle.  Also, the letters would have been really separated; there’s quite a border on each stamp.

Anticipation

It’s way late (or way early if you look at it that way).  I have many pictures and a few good stories about my glass projects from today, and also some resin jewelry plans.

But my bed is calling…..

I will post again tomorrow…..

I will not promise, but that is my goal!

Crystal

This week marked my husband’s and my fifteenth anniversary!

Fifteen mostly wonderful years and I can honestly say that I am more in love with him now than when I married him.

According to various sources, the present for fifteen years should be crystal….

Our lovely daughter, Ana, obliged tradition…..

Quilting

Today was a “Sewing Saturday” for my quilt group.  Ana, my friend Michelle and I all attended.  I will say though, I got a little harassed by a couple members of the group for spending too much time on glass versus quilting.  I just want to snipe back in here that it is ALL ART!  Quilting will always be my truest love when it comes to art forms, but I am having fun with the glass as well right now…..

Rest assured, I left the sewing session today with a variety of ideas in my head, and several things that I want to start on….  I must, however, catch up on what I have going already and empty the dang “overflow” box that was supposed to get emptied a YEAR ago, but seems to have become permanent…..

I love spending time with the quilting group.  It is an open sew – no set program – and everyone does their own thing.  The best part is the conversations.  It is a group chat, therapy session, venting exercise, information session, and everything else in between! 

I especially love that my 25-year-old daughter – Ana – also loves to quilt and comes with me to most weekend events for the group.  Poor thing though…. Being the youngest there most of the time, we press her into service.  Today, we gave her the kitty and sent her to fetch pizza for dinner.  In my defense though - I paid for her share!

Anna’s Quilt

In my last blog post, I talked about and showed a picture of a quilt done for my friend’s daughter.  It has now been given to her.  Anna, her mother – my friend Cathy – several other friends of ours and I were at a session of one of our monthly groups the day after I wrote that post.  I enlisted the help of the group presenter (using the Show and Tell portion), and had her show the quilt and then surprised Anna with it!  I really hope she liked it….

Twin City Quilting 2012 Block of the Month

2012 was the second time that I have done TCQ’s block of the month program.  I actually declined to do it this year since I have so many things going on.  As of the date of this post, the page for the 2012 BOM is still up on their website; click here to have a look see at the way it was supposed to be done. 

There were three color ways.  If I recall correctly, I signed up for the brown.  I declined to buy her finishing kit (including the stripe that one was supposed to use for the quilt), and ventured on my own for several design “opportunities.”

I finished piecing the top of the quilt a week or so ago, and brought it with to the sewing Saturday event.  It has been too cold and there is too much snow around yet to hang quilts on my fence for picture taking.  I figured that the floor – and lighting – at the church where we have the events would be a far better choice for immortalizing.

Here is my Block of the Month quilt top:

And, true to form, here is the second quilt (smaller) made from left over bits and pieces….

The center block is end pieces from some strip assembly put together, some mis-sized flying geese were combined with other made from leftovers, and even the little scraps were pressed into service in some 25-patch blocks.

I have also got a couple smaller pieces in progress from the very last of the scraps… small pieces… table topper/runner/etc….

I have a problem…

I just cannot throw out usable pieces!

Glad Creations Scrap Tamers/Marti Mitchell Club

This program has two components:  first, there is a new technique by Marti Mitchell presented each month.  We receive a pattern, a tutorial, and the opportunity to buy specialty rulers and templates that correspond to the patterns.  Note:  all her patterns can be done with printed “templates” from the pattern; it is not necessary to buy every one of her rulers and/or templates but they can be useful tools.

The second component is that each year there is a mystery quilt that runs the length of the program.  I always do the mystery; I find them to be quite fun.  I also always stick to the nature of the program and ONLY use “scraps” from my stash.  In the four years that I have done the program, I have NEVER bought fabric for the mystery!

Next month’s session is the reveal of the final layout of the quilt.  I can’t quite recall (I need to look at the calendar), but I think there’s one session after that, and I really want to have at least the top – if not the whole quilt – done for that session.  I had fallen behind on the monthly “clues,” so my primary goal today was to get caught up. 

I did so!

I completed December, January, February, and March’s steps.

Yes, I was a little behind….

<Hangs head in shame…..>

December:   The piece for this month was a “standalone” block, unrelated to tasks from other months.  I completed twelve 4½ windmill blocks.

The directions called for using half square triangle (HST) paper and fabric pieces that we had cut in the first month of the program (the first month was cutting ALL the fabric pieces for subsequent months).

Oh oh… problem…..

I did not realize that the pattern called for HST paper…. I was at the church where we sew… not at home by my supplies, or my computer (can print it).

My 90-degree triangle ruler and a marking pen came in handy!  Experience counts for something…. Necessity is the mother of invention….!

January:  In a previous months, the directions called for making 72 (yes, 72!) small 4-patch blocks, and at another time, some strip pieces matching in size.  The base components of these pieces from two months measured a mere 1½ inches – giving me four patches that only measured 2½ inches!  Ana commented on how tiny the pieces were, and Michelle (who is also doing the mystery), used some colorful words to complain about how small things were and how difficult to piece.

The January task was to assemble four patches, the side strips, and some cuts of complementary fabric into 4½ blocks…..

72 – 4½ blocks made with SMALL pieces….

February:  More assembly!  And, thankfully, it took far less effort than the 72 blocks!

Those 72 – 4½ blocks, and 72 – 4½ squares of complementary fabric were then assembled into 36 larger blocks.

March:  this step was a little bit of combining the already assembled pieces and a little bit of new construction.  I made 11 strip sets of 4 pieces of 1½ wide fabric, cut them into 4½ squares and assembled the below two larger blocks – one using the windmill blocks from Decembers steps.

Wire Wrapping

As written about in previous blog posts – I have discovered that I can actually wire wrap and have been getting quite prolific at it!  After taking a class two or three weeks ago at the Studio, I have been wrapping glass pieces that I have created.  I have been using the cheap round wire from Joann’s.

Tomorrow, I “graduate” to a higher level….

I will be taking a more advanced wire wrapping class – using square wire, precious metal (silver) and actual gemstones (my own) – at the Studio.

I will post more about this later, but meanwhile, here are some of the gems that I have had for a long time and am anxious to wrap up into pieces that I can wear.

Glass

Although I was accused of neglecting my true love (quilting) for my OTHER hobby today…. I am going to throw out a few words and pictures about my latest in glass….

Opinion Needed

I bought some pieces of millefiori that are called “complex.”  They are multiple canes of millefiori combined together to create a larger design.  The following pieces are the SAME millefiori, but done with different fusings.  I am interested to hear which people like better.  My husband has a different opinion than I do…

This is a “relief” fuse – not hot enough to fully fuse the glass together; just enough to smooth all the edges.  I used only a single layer of glass and the millefiori cross cut.  (Ignore the wire; just look at the glass).

This is fully fused.  Glass wants to be ¼ inch thick with the full heat setting so it is important to use the “rule of two” (two full layers of glass).  I used the SAME purple glass, covered it with clear and then the millefiori cross cut.

Mondrian 

I spoke last post about my “tribute” to Mondrian.  Well, as often happens with me, that tribute has turned into a little bit of an obsession…

I liked the first green plate that I made in this Mondrian-ish style so much that I made a second one the next week.  Here is a picture of it – post fusing and pre slumping:

The first green Mondrian plate was made mostly to use up some nice green 90 COE glass I had.  I also had some left over black that was quite thin.  I cut that up for the sashing of the pieces.  This second green plate was more of a “my style” (that mosaic type putting together I do) of design and I used noodles (pre-cut, packed glass that looks like fettuccine) for the sashing. 

And then I noticed I had a lot of purples in my glass stash….

Imagine that…. Me having purples…

So, I stopped at the glass supply store and got another package of noodles (white) and created this:    

And, when at the glass store, I also got a package of blue noodles… it is a really pretty blue…. And felt obligated to use up some blues in my stash as well….

Crackle

I have posted pictures of plates using the crackle (with powdered glass) technique here before.  I created a 12 inch square in the same technique, but instead of putting a backing piece of glass on and fusing to a plate, I cut up the crackle piece and made jewelry bits:

Most of the above pieces are from the same crackle – it is just that since they are jewelry sized, some got more of one color, and others another.  Some of them look very “giraffe.”  As Elinor loves giraffes, she will be getting gifts!

I can never stop with just one!  Here is a pre-kilned crackle piece I just did.  Its purples, white and black, but the full colors will not show until after fusing:

Miscellaneous

Brandie came with last week and made a “coral” bowl.  Here is its post fuse, but pre slump:

Matt came too, and made a circular wall hanging/window decoration of Cuthulu.  It is a little hard to see in this cell phone picture, but when I held it up to the light, it was pretty cool!

I’m upset over this one… the glass did NOT cut well, and then did NOT fuse back together well in the kiln… oh well, it will get used at home, and when there’s something on it, you wont see the cracks!

And, lastly, a few small pieces:

Comments on them: 

• The yellow pieces are 96 COE millefiori that I found on eBay
• The maple leaf, snowflake and hearts are copper cut from copper foil using cheap little paper punches
• The “indented” piece was done with a technique called “carving” using the same fiber paper that I use for crackle and for making channels in two pieces of glass.  Brandie did this one as a test, but we will be doing more now that we tested the concept

Learning New Tricks

Quilting

I have been quilting a bit lately.

Really…!

Not caught up, but feeling a little self-satisfied.

Anna’s Quilt

About a year ago, the daughter of one of my best, and oldest, friends graduated from college.  She loves dragons so I decided to embroider a bunch of dragons and make her a quilt from them.  Good plan, right?

Yea, best laid plans….

Anna took up quilting and asked me to embroider her some dragons so she could make a quilt of them…

Back to the drawing board….

I found a pattern for an appliquéd dragon at a sewing/quilting expo.  It was way out of my comfort zone, but I figured that I needed to make her something pretty spectacular since I was already way overdue!

I have not actually given the piece to her yet – her mother has seen the picture – so hopefully she does not see this post until I have a chance!

Here is the picture:

Each scale - and all the other little bits – are cut from batiks and sewn down with a small zigzag stitch in a 60 weight (light) thread.  The color scheme – purples and yellows – is based on Anna’s love of purple.

Block of the Month

I have also finished the block of the month from last year from Twin City Quilting (top only).  I chose not to sign up for it this year so that I could catch up on some other things.  I will post a picture when I have one.  Maybe some of my quilting group who also did the project will send me their pictures so I can showcase them all here and show how varied they are!

I am now working on a sort of planned/sort of scrappy quilt from all the partial blocks and leftover pieces of fabric from the project!  I will let you know how that goes too.

Glass

I am still spending most of my time with glass.  Fabric will always be my first and most true love when it comes to artwork, but glass is pretty cool to play with.  I am learning to anticipate what colors will do when heated and playing with patterns and designs.

My regular routine is to go to the Studio after work on Fridays and stay until close.  Then, I go to dinner with my hubby and daughter Ana, usually bringing with the days booty from the kiln and demanding attention and praise.

Wave Plates

I wrote before about my wave plate that I copied from a pinterest board.  Karen (Studio owner) has the slumping mold for the wave, so I am starting to play around with it.  Every couple of trips to the glass store, I treat myself to some extraordinary pieces of glass (extraordinarily expensive too….).  One time it was the green/orange glass that I made into a leaf bowl and several other pieces, including a LOT of jewelry.  The next time it was a mauve piece that I also make a leaf bowl out of (I like them… what can I say!), and the last trip was a less expensive, but cool piece that was greens and yellows).  I did not make a leaf bowl, but did make a circular plate.  This means that I have wound up with curved pieces leftover of each of these glasses.

Since I don’t want to waste ANY of the glass, but also want to do more than just putting it into a mold, I’ve started making the wave plates out of the longer scraps.  Here are the two wave plates that I have made so far.

As you can see, the scraps dictate the direction of the strips!

Honoring Mondrian with a Plate

After finishing the wave, there were still a few pieces of the green/yellow glass left.  I came up with the idea of a Piet Mondrian style of design… at least that is what this plate says to me….

Each piece is “bordered” by a thin strip of black glass.  I did not quite have enough of the focus glass.  I suppose that I could have started cutting every piece to squares/rectangles.  However, as you can see from the center, I started to get smaller and smaller.  I think I could have come up with enough little squares to fill in the whole piece, but it would look weird – large pieces on one side, getting smaller and smaller until I hit the other edge.  I instead chose to go with adding in some complementary green pieces, and I think I made the right decision!

  

I liked this plate so much after pulling it out of the kiln that I am making another one.  I started working on it tonight with green scraps.  Instead of cutting thin strips of something else (which is really a little tough), I am using noodles (glass strips that you buy in a tube and they look just like fettuccine!) for the dividers.  Much easier.  That plate is on a 12 inch square.

My next plan is to make one out of purples.  That will be MINE… all MINE… (Yes, I love purple!) 

Fusers’ Reserve Glass

This is what Spectrum says about this glass:

“Fusers’ Reserve is an exciting, new limited edition line of fusible glass from Spectrum.  The line presents a great opportunity to obtain unique runs of tested compatible System 96 sheet glass, in an ever-changing combination of standard quality colors, mixes, and occasional experimental solid colors.”

My description is that its sheets of wavy colors mixed together in fun ways.

I took my hubby with me to the glass store the last time I went.  He was actually the one who discovered it at the end of an aisle and got me to buy a bit more of it than I planned.  I bought three full sheets and a few scraps from the scrap bin (large scraps actually). 

• 12 inch square – turquoise/orange/white
• 12 inch square – red/orange/white
• 12 inch square – clear/white/orange/yellow
• Number of pieces of purple/yellow/white – the largest being about 6 inches

Sheet 1 - The pieces that I have made from these sheets have been quite simple, as the glass speaks for itself.  I have cut up each two of the 12-inch sheets into square and rectangle shapes in order to make the most of them.  Here are pieces made from the turquoise/white/orange piece:

This is an 8-inch plate.  It is molded into an offset “square in square” shape; the base square is turned a number of degrees from the outside edge.

This is a small – 4.5 inches square – “sushi” form plate. 

This is my favorite – and will stay MINE – of the pieces.  I cut an 8-inch square from the 12-inch sheet.  This left me with a 4-inch strip.  The mold for this platter is supposed to be 4.5 inches wide.  Because this piece was narrower than it was supposed to be, it made the edge much closer to the depressions which resulted in the kiln pulling in the sides a little.  I sort of expected this kind of result, and was happy to see it happened!

I also think that I lined up the coloring/swirls in a pretty cool manner….

Sheet 2 - The red/orange/white piece ticked me off.  I started to cut it down, and it cracked diagonally and curved through the center….

Dang it!

I tried again, another bad crack….

I managed to cut a couple inch wide strips off the sides without incident (I wanted pieces from each to use for jewelry), but had a cracked piece…

Since I now had it trimmed to 10 inches square, I decide to lay it on top of clear, and border it somehow.

And, it kept getting bad – usually cracked pieces will “knit” back together.  My green/orange leaf bowl is a perfect example.  That hand rolled glass broke oddly in a couple places as well, but you cannot see that at all.

This piece – not so much.  The cracks are apparent. 

It’s kilned flat at this point – so I do not have a picture yet.  I decided to mold it into a “square in square” and hopefully that will make the design flaw less apparent.

Actually (in thought mode now), maybe I should try something else… something deeper…. I am going to the Studio again tomorrow… I will look through molds…..

Pieces - Lastly, I cut up some of the purple/yellow/white pieces.  Most went to jewelry pieces (more on that soon….) but here is one piece – a small plate (five inches)

Jewelry

Jewelry is one of my favorite things – both to make and to wear.  I have made fabric jewelry, yarn jewelry, glass jewelry – both fused and lampworking, have done bead stringing, bead weaving, set beads with headpins, enameling on copper, etc.

Before I talk about the jewelry in detail, I have to share about my newest “toy(s).”  The Macy’s store in downtown St. Paul has closed and they sold off a lot of furniture and sundry items.  Have you ever seen those display stands for necklaces that are a partial “bust” – neck down – and simulate the wearing of the piece?  You’ll see pictures of them a few inches down in this article, but I just want to brag that I got two of them, for a dollar a piece and that they are fantastic for taking pictures!

Ok, back to talking about creating jewelry…. 

Now that I am an empty nester and have tons of time on my hands…

(Cue hysterical laughing)

Yea, not so much time….

Nevertheless, since I can go elsewhere in the evenings, and since the Studio has TONS of jewelry classes, I have been trying new techniques.  The three classes I have taken in the last few weeks are:

• Resin jewelry (I do not have pictures yet – I will do that next post)
• Flame painted copper (another excuse to play with torches!)
• Wire Wrapping

Flame Painted Copper

Basically, we took 6-inch pieces of flat, 16 mm copper and alternated applying flame from a mini torch and dipping it in water until it turned pretty colors.  Other than melting the side of my plastic water container (I did not watch the torch aim well enough), there were no injuries.  Do not worry; the container was a used yogurt container so I did not ruin a good storage piece.

Once the piece of copper was conditioned, we then cut it into shapes and also used various tools and implements upon it to create fun things.  I personally used: 

• A punch (simple holes)
• Metal stamps (small ones – 3/8 inch or so – to create patterns rather than a discernible design)
• A base with half round holes and tools with a spheres in matching sizes (to create “dimples”)
• Circle cutter
• Crimping tools 

Some of these pieces (the one with three round circles and the one on the far right) are complete.  In the far right one, I have attached dangles (of copper) and stacked beads on headpins.  Other pieces (the heart, the crimped one next to it) are unfinished.  I will be selecting beads from my own stash and maybe other little bits to them to complete.

These will most likely be gifts.  They really are not my style, but were fun to create.

Wire Wrapping

I have saved the best for the last.

I must tell a story though…

Over the years, I have collected bunch of gemstones – mostly larger amethyst and ametrine.  I once looked into having one of the larger ones set, and got an estimate into the hundreds.  My next idea was to have them wire wrapped.  I approached some artists who did wire wrap about trading for a quilt for some services.  A couple were interested but nothing ever came to fruition.

A few weeks back, I picked up some wire and tried my hand at it.  After all, I have made lots of spirals, loops, waves, etc., that I have incorporated into glass…how hard could it be?  I am artistic….

Yea, right… famous last words….

After a little bit of trying, I crumpled up the wire and threw it away.  It was pretty pathetic an attempt.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed that the Studio had a wire wrapping class.  I signed up.

Long story short, the instructor taught some basics, I learned where I went wrong, and I am taking the advanced (square wire) class in another week.

Back to the longer story….

So, I brought the gems with me.  And promptly found out that those need the square wire (hence the advanced class).  I just happened to have a bunch of little pieces that I pulled out of the kiln that day.  Incidentally, they were the pieces that I cut from the fusers’ reserve glass for jewelry.  They were good sizes to use as cabochons for the wire wrapping and I went with it. 

They were absolutely perfect for wire wrapping and make spectacular pieces!  I have put more of the fusers’ reserve into the kiln to make more.

Here are some pictures:

This was done in the class… inside of THREE hours of learning the techniques!  It is not perfect, I can see every mistake, but I like it.  That’s the display stand I was talking about.

This is one of the latest pieces I made.  It is a “scrap” pendant made out of one of my treat pieces of glass – the same glass as in my wave plate.

And the rest.  I am practicing with different colors of wire – copper and coated craft wire, I have not graduated to precious metals yet.  I like the metal colored wire – copper, brass, silver, gold – but am not really happy with the purple.  I had to get purple since it is my color, but just am not pleased.  Chris suggested that it is maybe the glass/pattern on the glass that I am objecting too.  I am going to try again with something simpler.