lo and behold

Almost every glass teacher I’ve had says, “Make 100 spacers.”

In the class, they try to get to you to make 20 or 40, tell you that the best way to get better at home is to make spacers until you can make them with your eyes closed. The basic shape and application of a spacer bead is the foundation of all other beads, they say. 

I actually agree with them.  And I believe this approach to learning will work.  But I haven’t ever done it. 

In the classes, they say, “Make them quick. Get the glass on and move to the next one.  Not going in the kiln. Doesn’t matter if they’re good.”  The idea, I know, is to burn it into muscle memory:  the size of the gather, the touchdown of the glass, the roll of the mandrel and the swipe of the taper at the end.  And then, heating the glass, getting it balanced, and cooling the bead without losing the shape.

It’s not simple. 

For a while, since I got back from Austin I think, I’ve been trying to torch an hour day, rather than wait until I have enough time for 3-hour-kiln-running session.  I start with a mandrel of two or three black spacers, and then I move onto the one or two other beads I am going to make that day. 

I use the black spacers in necklaces I make, and I have gotten much better at them.  If I make three on a mandrel, usually the first one cracks.  I can’t quite manage the heat/cooling thing. 

But last weekend, something new happened with my simple spacers.  At the end of my rare 6-hour session at the torch, I was tired, and decided to make some colored spacers instead of my usual black ones.  I was using pretty thick mandrels – 1/4 inch I think.  And suddenly, I made a spacer that was lovely.  Bigger than the black ones that I usually make.  Something about the size of the mandrel, the thickness of the spacer, and the weight of the bead was in perfect proportion.  Like a cheerio.  And, later, when I got them off the mandrel, I was delighted to see that they were all the same size.  Actually, I measured.  They were within 1 mm of the same size.  That counts. 

The next day, I sat down for about 45 minutes to make just cheerios.  And look:

You can’t imagine how satisfying it felt to produce this little handful of blue perfection.  It looks like nothing, like so simple, but being able to do this is a huge leap in my skills.  Eventually, the fact that I can do this will be buried deep in my glass beads, but it’s like the alphabet.  After you can read  books, you forget that at one time you didn’t even know the letters.  But it you hadn’t learned the letters, you wouldn’t be reading those books. 

I’m gonna go make some more!  And, I’ll bet I get to 100 pretty soon!

This lovely group of beads  - made by me!! – is a gift, going into the mail today.  Will say more after it arrives. 

I’m very proud of these beads and how “professional” they look as set.  Yay!!!

Congratulations, Ruthie - you are the winner of the Happy Friday giveaway!  Please get in touch, and I will send you these beautiful lampwork beads made by Beverley Hicklin.  They came all the way from England to me, and now they’ll travel from New England to where??  If only beads could tell stories . . .actually, they can.  

I’m starting to think that in the spirit of spring cleaning, giveaways are a great way to de-stash some of my loot.  It won’t always happen on Fridays, though, so check back often!

Happy Tuesday! 

Lori Anderson’s virtual Bead Soup Party has attracted over 80 participants, and we’re having fun getting to know each other.  My partner is Mary Harding.  We share a common interest in seed bead work, and we are also both bead-makers.  But we also recognized immediately that we have very different styles. 

Mary makes ceramic beads with subtle, earthy glazes in various shapes, often imprinted with objects from nature like leaves, flower buds, grasses, and trees.  I would call Mary’s style organic, and she also called it rustic.  She has also worked in fused glass, but it seems not what she is most currently interested in. 

My style I would describe as modern, sparse, geometric. . . .Mary and I decided to send each other packages that would offer challenge by taking each of us out of our usual MOs.  Here’s what I got:

A beautiful heart pendant, a coordinating handmade clasp, and six round ceramic beads in two colors (upper left corner) – all handmade by Mary.  Light blue/aqua-ish faceted gemstone and tumbled Tourmaline chips from Artbeads. 

First thing I noticed is that the beads I sent Mary are in the same color family – that should be fun! 

Next, I went to my own stash, and pulled out things I have that would go with this palette.  As you can see, I love bluish- purply shades and I have lots of choices:  some amethyst rounds, some glass roundels, and three different sets of lampworked beads.  The single round one on the left is one that I made, the others are all ones that I’ve bought over the years. In fact, you will see later, that some of these exact same beads are in the bead soup I sent to Mary.  But more on that after she gets the package. 

Here’s another shot of the accent beads Mary sent me with some beads of my own. 

So, I can tell that my way into this project is through color, and I’m working in a color family that I really like.  The question for me now is: how much can I transform these materials into a piece of jewelry that approximates my aesthetic and how much can/should I bend myself to match the integrity of the materials themselves.  Hmmm. . . .Any thoughts my fellow Swappers?