GlaesDesign

My Christmas decorations are now available at Goody Goodness in Jackson St, Petone.

If you are starting to think about your Christmas shopping, or are looking for gifts to send overseas in time for the big day, the Artisan Craft Market is a good place to start. The Christmas market is taking place on 18 November at the Lower Hutt Town Hall from 10am - 4pm. I look forward to seeing you there!

Introducing Santa's Little Helper - the latest addition to my Christmas range.

Focus on... Pixie Dust

I have been having a bit of a play around this week with “pixie dust”, which is a finely ground mica powder. It comes in a range of colours, but I have been using gold this week, which came in with some samples the other day.

It is deceptively simple to use – you heat the glass, roll it in the powder, heat the bead to melt it in a bit, or encase it first for a bit of extra sparkle. Except that….

When encasing it, I have discovered that if the layer of dust is too thick under the encasing glass, the bead cracks in the kiln. If it is not thick enough, the mica powder clumps together or just fades into nothing.

On the surface of the bead, if I melt it in too much it loses its sparkle, and if I don’t melt it in enough some of it rubs off the finished bead.

Despite these annoying side effects, I have had some successes this week, as you can see below (unfortunately, when I went to make some earrings with the pink drops I discovered one them was actually cracked after all, so I will need to make another one to replace it…sigh).

Christmas decorations

My current focus is on Christmas decorations. I have to start these early in order to get them all done in time for Christmas markets, overseas posting and customer orders. I have a selection of designs and I try to add a new one every year. I haven’t quite decided what this year’s will be, but I am considering maybe trying an elf (or I may just make some design adjustments to the gingerbread men, as I think the current faces are a little bit creepy!) Watch this space...

My current line up consists of: Bells, Snowflakes, Christmas trees, Snowmen, Angels, candy canes, gingerbread men, Santa, and Rudolf. Most of them are around 5-6cm tall (excluding the charm and ribbon), so work best on a small tree. The snowflakes and candy canes are a little bit bigger (8-12cm tall, approx.) as they are made up of more beads.

If you want to order any, please PM me with your choices and when you need them by, and I will get back to you to let you know whether I can meet your deadline and how much they will cost.

Focus on... Moonflower Earrings

I make my moonflower earrings using anodized aluminium rounds that I import from a small artisan business in Colorado, called ‘Lillypilly Designs’. (You can find out a little bit more about them here: https://www.lillypillydesigns.com/about-us.html).

There are 24 patterns in 14 colours available, so plenty for me to work with, although not all of the patterns lend themselves to the moon shape that I make with them – there is a very cute owl which would mostly disappear if I chopped the middle out of the disk! I named them 'Moonflower' because the first few I made all had floral patterns on them, and, although a lot of them now have geometric patterns, the name has stuck.

Once the rounds arrive, I use my metal cutting dies to remove a round segment to create the moon, and I cut a couple of smaller circles from the cut off to make matching bead caps – wasting as little as possible of the aluminium round. I have to file back the points on the moons before I use them, as they are as sharp as a needle when I first cut them. Then I make the necessary holes with a punch, wire up the bead and put it all together. DONE!

My moonflower earrings are available for sale at Goody Goodness, 247 Jackson Street, Petone.

New Kiln
As you know, my old Paragon kiln failed fairly catastrophically. The lining had worn through in the back corner, and when the metal mandrel rack came into contact with the wires through the hole, there was an electrical surge which blew the element. Luckily, I had just let go of the metal mandrel which was propped up in the rack, so I narrowly avoided electrocution – literally by seconds! So, the verdict was that the entire internal workings and lining would need to be replaced, and it would be cheaper to buy a new kiln than fix the old one. Kiln shopping ensued….

I did some research and ended up buying my new (and bigger) kiln from a glass supplier in Australia (although it is made by an American company called Glass Hive, who make bespoke glass kilns).

Because the kiln is bigger, we needed to do a bit of reno to the studio to make room for it. We had to remove my tall shelving unit (which we will turn sideways, cut down, and reinstall along the wall above my bead shelves) and make a longer bench. I say ‘we’ but actually it was mostly my lovely husband who did the work (thank you, Andrew!). We will also need to replace some of the storage that sat next to the old bench, as it was too tall to fit under the new one, which now runs the length of the entire wall.

Although the new kiln is bigger, I think I have actually ended up with more workable space, and some permanent locations for some of my silversmithing gear. We will need to build some drawers or shelving to go under the new bench, but for now, my kiln is installed and I can get back to making beads, completing outstanding orders and starting on my Christmas decorations. Just need to do a bit of tidying first…

Focus on... Frit
Frit is basically just tiny pieces of broken glass. It comes in various grades from fairly coarse to almost powder-like. Currently I buy my frit in pre-packed bags, but I now have equipment to make my own, so I will use some of the scrap glass I have been collecting from ends of rods and do a bit of experimenting – watch this space for the results.
To use the frit, I first make the bead to the shape and size that I want. Then I heat it up so that the surface is red hot and almost liquid, and dip it into the frit, rolling it to collect as much as I can on the surface. If the glass is not hot enough, the frit will not stick, and sometimes I have to spot-heat the bead to fill in any gaps. I then melt the frit into the surface of the bead. Depending on how much frit I use it may affect the size of the bead, so if I am using coarser frit, or am planning to use quite a bit of it, I might make the bead slightly smaller than I need so that it ends up the right size.
Once the frit is melted in, and I am happy with how the colour/pattern looks, I will tidy up the shape of the bead, which may have been slightly skewed by the rolling and melting process, then it’s ready to go into the kiln.
Frit can create a variety of effects on a bead. A relatively fine frit in a single colour can make the bead look a little bit mottled, like glazed pottery. A mix of colours in a more chunky frit can create an abstract pattern. I may also rake the melted frit to make swirls. Here some images of beads where I have used frit.

Focus on.... Fuchsia Pendants

I love making these. The colour combinations are endless, you can wear them on a long or a short chain, and they always look really effective.

The flowers require a specific shaped mandrel (pictured) which, annoyingly, I only have one of. I have tried to get more, but the woman who made mine seems to have stopped creating them, and the alternatives don’t seem to work as well. Therefore, I can only make one bead at a sitting, which somewhat slows production!

The mandrel I use is designed for making glass bead caps, but they work extremely well for other things. As well as using them to make my fuchsia beads, I use them for making the hats for my Santa and Snowmen Christmas decorations, and my jellyfish pendants.

For my Fuchsias, I use a couple of main colours – one for the cup shaped base, and a second for the petals. Then I swipe a transparent over the top of each petal to give them some depth. I add the leaves last, then in the kiln it goes.

Once it has been annealed and cleaned up, I use some headpins to make a few stamens, wire it all up, and hang it from a large bail. I sell these as pendants, rather than a complete necklace, as I find most people already have a spare neck chain or two at home, although I do always take a few chains to markets with me, in case anyone wants the whole package!

Again, these (pendants only) are available from https://www.facebook.com/GoodyGoodnessNZ in Jackson St, Petone

Hooray! I have now ordered a new "Glass Hive" kiln (which has had some excellent reviews) from Chockadoo in Australia (https://www.chockadoo.com.au/). Amazing service and great price - it should arrive in about 2 weeks.
The new one is about twice the size of my old kiln, so a bit of renovation is going to be required to fit it in my studio. Busy weekend ahead I think. Before that happens I am going to need to do a bit of rationalising to get rid of some things, as we will need to put in a new, longer bench and get rid of some shelving. Maybe I should hire a skip😆

My kiln has died - this time in spectacular fashion. Apparently, a small hole had been worn into the lining and the metal bead shelf came into contact with some wiring through it the other day and blew up the element.... permanently. It will cost more to fix than to replace the whole thing, so I guess I am going kiln shopping. Not sure at this stage when I will be back in action. 😭😭

I have decided to do a regular slot focusing on various aspects of my work and going into a bit more depth about what is involved. This is my first one -

FOCUS ON: Ring toppers (for interchangeable rings)

These come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are made on a base plate that corresponds to the shape of the final ring. I currently have hearts, flowers and circles myself, but there are other shapes available from tool suppliers, such as stars, triangles, ellipses, etc.

The base plate screws onto the top of the mandrel, then a small nut is screwed on top of that. The nut is the part of the topper that the glass is wound around when the topper is being made, and this will screw onto the interchangeable ring base once the topper is finished.

The base plate is dipped into bead release (before the nut is added), to stop the glass fusing to it. The plate will be removed once the glass has been through the kiln and has cooled down. The final step is to use my Dremel to clean the bead release off the back of the topper, and it is ready to screw onto the 2.5mm screw on the interchangeable ring base.

All my rings and toppers are currently available at Goody Goodness in Jackson Street, Petone.

These are all now available for sale on my Felt shop (https://felt.co.nz/shop/glaesdesign).

Apparently my Moonflower earrings have proved quite popular at Goody Goodness in Petone, so I have had to make some more. I am hoping to drop these off in the next couple of days, so get in fast 😉

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...

This is my brand new earring style. They are created on 20 gauge stainless steel wire, and come with a small silicone earring stopper to keep them safely in place.

They are currently on sale at Goody Goodness - https://www.goodies.nz/ (179 High Street, Lower Hutt).

Just a few bits and pieces I have been working on.

Having a play round with beadable items. What are your thoughts on this cake slice?

Out of the kiln today, Iris on Iris! This gorgeous bracelet focal bead is made with 'Iris dense blue' (Reichenbach) glass with 'Iris' (Double Helix) glass frit. You can see the iridescent effects on this one, but they are even more pronounced when it's sitting in your hand. I will be creating one of my 'snake bead' bands for this, so I will upload a photo of the finished product when it is done.

Sample beads for new colours out of the kiln this morning. I particularly like the 'pearl' colours on the left - they really do have a mother-of-pearl-like sheen to them. My other fav is the 'Iris Blue' on the far right. It's not obvious from this image, but it has a metallic blue finish which is really nice.

My kiln finally got fixed yesterday, yay!! So I headed up to the studio this morning to make the final 6 beads in this set. Hopefully I will be able to put them together some time this week (watch this space). I also had a batch of glass arrive while my kiln was on strike so I had a whole lot of new colours to play with today. Fun, fun!

So after a very, very long Christmas holiday break, it's back into the studio at last. Unfortunately it looks like my kiln is on the fritz again today, so I guess I will be calling the kiln man once more on Monday (I don't think my kiln likes long breaks!)

So, no bead making for me today, but I had plenty of other things to occupy my time. I have started stringing the blue rainbow dichroic beads I made a couple of months ago. I have made some sterling silver bead caps to frame them, and tube beads to use as spacers. The bead caps and spacers still need to be filed, sanded and polished before the necklace can be fully assembled, but you will get an idea of what the finished product will look like from the pictures.

I have also strung the red sparkle beads on knotted leather. I decided not to add bead caps and spacers to this one, as I like the contrast of the black and red. 🙂

I think these might be my new favourite. They are rainbow dichroic over 'Mosaic Blue', which is a gorgeous cobalt blue transparent that really brings out the blues and pinks in the dichroic glass on top. These will form part of a set of 13 graduated beads - I have 2 more in the kiln, but it was too full of other beads (mostly Christmas tree parts!!) for me to finish the set today. I should be able to complete it on Monday though, so watch this space for the full set.

And here is my display in situ - I finally got round to taking a picture today!

So apparently my Christmas decorations have been pretty popular at the exhibition, so I had to make some more...

I have spent this afternoon working out my layout for the exhibition at Thistle Hall this week, and making a couple of display units. The exhibition opens tomorrow night, so tomorrow is set up day. Hopefully this will work in the space! I will also have my Christmas decorations and flowers for sale but not sure where they will go yet.

So on to the next thing....

The exhibition will take place at Thistle Hall in Wellington, and opens on 28 November (next Monday!). I will have some of my work there, along side a number of other talented artists. It will run for 7 days so come along for a look if you are in the area!

All good to go at Lower Hutt Event Centre for today's Artisan Craft Market . Hope to see some of you there

The next event I am attending is Waterloo School's Christmas Cottage, which is on next Wednesday night. All the details are in the below flyer. Hope to see some of you there.

I had a bit of a play with my new glass. The bell on the left is 'Ivory Aqua' and the one on the right is 'Painted Skies'. Both really pretty, but I think I like the Ivory aqua slightly more.
The translucent yellow is called 'Buttercup' and the other ring is 'Intense blue' transparent on white.

I finished this bracelet today, and had some beads left over, so I thought I would make some matching earrings too...

https://felt.co.nz/listing/519261/River-Stones-Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/519260/River-stones-Bracelet

Yay - new glass just arrived from the US 😁

I have been busy making gift boxes this weekend, as I have a couple of Markets coming up before Christmas. It's always nice to be able to offer gift wrapping. Lots of different paper designs to choose from.

Part 2 is now available to watch...

Lampwork Glass Beads - Part 2: Interview with a glass bead artist Last week we went on a field trip to learn how to make lampwork glass beads. This is part two of the series so, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out ...

I uploaded these little earrings to my Felt shop the other day. They are all sterling silver and fasten using ear posts with butterflies.
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517179/Mystic-Beige-Glass-Tube-Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517172/Pale-Blue-Glass-Tube-Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517171/Blue-glass-tube-earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517177/Rubino-Glass-Tube-Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517175/Coral-La-Mesa-Glass-Tube-Earrings

Now available on my Felt shop:
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517344/Blue-Amoeba--Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517345/Green-Amoeba--Earrings
https://felt.co.nz/listing/517346/Purple-Amoeba--Earrings

Christmas decorations are now available for order. Please get your orders in early to give me plenty of time to make them and to avoid missing out.

Please note, I can make the bells any colour you like, so if you want to order any just let me know what colours you would like.

These make great corporate gifts if you are trying to think of something a bit different to give your clients. The price depends on the quantity ordered, so please get in touch if you want more information.

So exciting - Carol from Affordable Jewellery Supplies (https://www.affordablejewellerysupplies.co.nz/) came and filmed me the other week for her YouTube channel. You can check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsrZYmZqMGs&t=1s
She also has some of my bead sets for sale on her website.

Carol, thank you so much for visiting me in my tiny studio (and thank you to Andy for the camera skills)!

How Lampwork Glass Beads Are Made We are going on a field trip to learn how to make lampwork glass beads. This is part one of a two part series so be sure to check back next week.If you would...

GlaesDesign's cover photo