New Lampwork from an Unlikely Souce

 

 

My friend Sandeye gave me these glass chunks.  They were left over from a glass installation she and  Phil Jurus assisted with in New York City some years ago.

Sandeye wondered how the glass would looked made into beads fumed with fine silver,  I said  I would give it a go and see what turned out.

 

 

First, I  pulled the chunks into rods and stringers.  Slowly, I might add.

Then I started making beads.

 

I couldn’t mix the glass since I didn’t know the COE of any of it, so I experimented with silver fuming.

 

Then I got bolder.

I added copper metal leaf

 

I added baking soda

 

I added pixie dust

 

I mixed them all up and fumed again

 

I put raised stringer designs on them

 

I melted the stringers in

 

I made hollow beads

 

I tried reduction flames

 

I even thinned aluminum foil in my rolling mill to see how that would work.  Not too well.

 

I made spacers

 

I made tubes

 

I made round beads

 

I made tablets

 

I even cut up copper pot scrubbers and got some cool effects.

 

See those dark spots? That’s copper scrubber I cut with scissors.

Eventually, I used up all the glass.

 

By the way, I made the beads on my new Mega Minor torch I bought from Wale Apparatus at Bead Fest in August.

I’ve been busy, haven’t I?

 

Think Sandeye will be surprised when she gets her beads? Don’t worry.  I will keep a few.