From the kiln, etc...

I have a bunch of things to show you today.
Once again, I have been working on the beads I need for the pendant swap and am pretty pleased with the ones I got out of the kiln today.

First, we have "Grace". It was hard to name this one because so many names popped into my head - growth, sea fronds, but I think I'll stick with grace..

Sometimes you just get settled at the torch and things happen and last night was one of those times.

Another, similar bead that just "happened" was this one to the right... I call it "the Dance". It reminds me of a joyful, uninhibited dance.

I think that's the state I enter sometimes when I am creating. It's as if I'm in a trance and the glass is telling me what to do with it. If I have no plan, I'll pick up a color or two and let them tell me what to do. Sounds weird, but that's what happens.

This one, I'm calling "Fall Musings" because the colors, especially the variegations of the scrolls make me think of all the changing colors of the leaves.

The leaf change sneaks up on us and all at once, there it is. I've noticed it is already beginning.... sad, but it means another change of season and I enjoy the variety of seasons we have. I could do without the bitterest cold and the beastliest heat, but they come with the territory, so I choose to celebrate the changes rather than mourn them.

This one is a little different for me. I think I'm celebrating dots now that I have switched to my grocery store glasses and can actually see where they are going. I'm calling it "Frozen Flowers" mainly because "Colorful vine seen through a foggy window" just doesn't work!

It's one of the beads I made using enamels and I find the enamels keep the stringers (lines) from spreading too much and a lot more detail is preserved and a design can appear much more precise.

I couldn't resist posting this one. A new friend sent me a large piece of fluorite to wire and I worked on it for the past two nights. I think this is a perfect setting for this gorgeous piece!

(As with all the pictures, if you click on it, another window will open with a larger version, just hit your back button to come back to this page.)

Metaphysically, Fluorite is said to help connect mind to spirit. It does so by helping to neutralize persistent and unwanted thought patterns so that the mind, instead of keeping itself distracted by constant activity, much of which is resistance to these undesired thoughts, can be at peace.

Hmmm... I have a very similar piece that I wear occasionally. Sound like something I should carry with me at all times!

It seems I can't get a blog post up without mentioning the chickens and we've been pretty hard on them lately.

I have to admit that they aren't all mean and scary. This is our house chicken! We aren't sure if it's a he or a she. Until the day it crowed, we were sure it was a hen....

We call her/him "Socks", "Boots" or "Spats" because of the feathers on her/his feet. Whenever I walk from the shop to the house, he/she is hot on my heels because we have a little can of corn that we use to lure him/her to eat from our hands.

This one separated from the pack early and likes to hang around with us. Rudy has even taken a liking to it.

There's a welcome mat that says "Close the door quick before the chickens come in". I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it, but now.... I may have to get it because I don't think it will be long before that becomes a problem!

Wreaths and Roosters

I was first introduced to Sweet Annie (Artemisia Annua) by a friend who used to groom our dogs. I had taken the "girls" over for a visit and she showed me the swag of Sweet Annie she had hanging on the door. I was struck by it's frothy appearance and fresh, pungent aroma.

Years down the road, when we had our herb shop, one of our annual workshops was a Sweet Annie Wreath. (My sister, Tina, has basic instructions for making an herbal wreath on her blog here.) We planted a big row of it for just that purpose the first year and have never been without it since - although it is no longer in that nice neat row!

One year, it reseeded itself in a patch of Mesclun mix our young son had planted. He proudly cut and served it to us and we were surprised at the bitter taste. The next day we learned what had caused it and also that Sweet Annie has a laxative and vermifuge effect Well, at least no one had worms!

I expect to see it all over the farm now and was surprised today went out to photograph the stand of Sweet Annie that I had been watching all summer. As I got closer, something was odd about it. There's a picture of it to the left.

Those seed heads looked graceful, but certainly not the light, lacey look I expected, in fact they were so heavy the plant was bent over from the weight. I approached and gave the tops a squeeze. What? No scent? Wait a minute... these aren't Sweet Annie!

Nope, after taking an even closer look at the leaves, it turned out that the plants I'd been protecting from my husband's weed whacker ever since we cleaned out the corn patch were just overgrown Lamb's Quarters, gone to seed!

So, on with the hunt... I had gone far afield to avoid an attack by the angry rooster gang that lives at the bottom of the hill, but I was just going to have to brave them to get to the good stuff!

The guy to the right is the biggest bully of the bunch. He leads the attack and is shortly backed up by his lieutenant, a red rooster.

Tina has a pretty funny story about this bunch in her blog here.

But, I digress ... on with the hunt.

So, watching my back, I approached what I was SURE was Sweet Annie and took a nice shot.

You can see how lacey and upright the real stuff is. It's a bright yellow-green and the stems toward the middle of the plant are red. The aroma alone will give it away, but just watch out for those pretenders out there!

When it is ready to cut, the seeds bulk up a bit and the branches really fill in.

To the right is a shot of another patch of Sweet Annie next to a piece of equipment - it's a front end loader that is about 6 ft. tall - so you can see the relative size. It really gets BIG!

I was always surprised when I needed to get out the heavy "loppers" to cut the thick stems (trunks) in the fall.

So, now you probably want to know what we do with this stuff.

Well, this this a wreath I made last year around this time. The whole picture is faded, I'm afraid.

I can describe it to you though. The base is sweet annie with a some pampas grass plumes added in and a bit of blue garden sage. The flowers are the most beautiful hydrangeas - an unusual variety I found in one of our brothers' yard last fall. They were purple and burgundy - just beautiful.

This wreath hangs in our bedroom and I really wanted to plan a color scheme around it.

So, be sure what you are cutting and you may have the makings for a gorgeous, fragrant wreath in your backyard too! Just tying a bunch together with a ribbon makes a nice fall swag for the door.

Just watch out for roving rooster gangs - and don't eat the Sweet Annie!

Enamels... we've got enamels

Today, I really got on the enamel train! There are more, but this is the best of the bunch.

The picture is terrible, but it shows the assortment.

I finished a few more of the yellow redware branch beads, but got off track and had to try a few others.

There are so many choices now that I got the whole set of enamels and I've really only tried a few of the colors... haven't even touched some of the new glass colors I got at Beadfest almost a month ago!

The blue bead in the top middle was a try at a bird and it really did turn out well, but that blue is too dark to use on a dark color - not enough contrast. Then I tried again with the yellow one to the right.. Didn't turn out too badly, but I chose a couple others to spotlight:

To the right is a "Willow" pattern bead. It is one of the patterns I found while Googling redware patterns and I found that the brown stringer was stiff enough to get some decent detail.

I love blue willow stoneware and the willow motif is pretty cool. It may wind up in the swap box.

If you click on it, it should come up larger on another screen, just hit the back button to come back to this page.

Just before I finished up, I decided to try something else and the one to the left was the result. I think it has an art nouveau feel to it and I like it a lot. The colors are soft, but the pattern is clearly visible.

I'll have to see what else I can come up with just playing with it in a "free form" kinda way.

I think a simple setting will work with both of these because the beads speak for themselves and will both be easy to wear with a lot of things.

Beads and oh, yes.... Cheese!

I've been trying to get a good picture of this set since I made them. We have a sunny day today, so I took them outside and snapped this picture.

They are truly a gorgeous organic set of beads. I made them pretty much the same way as the big one I made into a pendant a few weeks ago because I knew they would be beautiful in a bracelet.

If you look at the enlargement of the third bead from the left, shown here, you can see how complex and amazing they are.

The little silver dots add just the right sparkle too!

I'll be getting back to the redware beads again as soon as I have a chance to torch again.

BUT! The other huge thing I really need to try VERY soon is to MAKE CHEESE!

Last evening, Tina & I went to a class taught by Betsy May, one of Tina's regular herb writers, at the Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg.

Ever since I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, I've felt that I have to learn to make cheese, so when we heard about the class, we signed up.

Betsy showed us, step by step, how to make a variety of soft cheeses including goat cheese (with none of the goaty aftertaste that has kept me from eating it for years) and Neufchatel which is very similar to cream cheese.

But the Pièce de résistance was the 30 minute mozzarella!

Here's a picture of Betsy. I think she's just poured the whey off the curds for the mozzarella.

Even in the less than ideal conditions of the lovely dining room of the Sweet Remembrances Tea Room (next door to the Rosemary House) where the class was actually held, she made it look easy enough that I logged on to the computer this morning and ordered the hard to find ingredients (like Rennet and Lipase) to make our own.

Watching her make the soap - I mean cheese - reminded me so much of our soapmaking adventures. Mixing up the rennet ahead of time, heating the milk, waiting for the curds to form ... it just seemed vaguely familiar.

There were 16 people there and we ate every bite of the (about 2 pounds of) mozzarella! I wish I could have brought some home for DH to try, but I'm sure he'll be trying some soon enough.

I just can't wait to get everything we need together and make some. Wow! That and a homemade loaf of bread - I'm golden!

More Faux Redware

I was working on a special order vessel this weekend along with some more of the "redware" type beads I was so excited about in my last post.

This is the final vessel. After a couple of false starts, we wound up with the perfect thing for the person who wanted it. Her business includes the word "spiral" and there's one on both sides.

Then, on to the faux redware beads. I tried a couple with a blue background, attempting to inscribe hearts and other shapes.

I was using Ivory to do the inscriptions and I think that was my first mistake. Ivory is not as "stiff" as the brown and they turned into shapeless blobs so you won't be seeing them here. I knew I could do this "branch" pattern. I love the way they look and expect them to become more refined as I go along.

I had googled redware to find old patterns and made some quick sketches of things that I want to try as time goes on.

I do think these or some variation of them will be my "hometown" charm. I can't wait to make a full bracelet of them - 'course then I'll have to go buy the right clothes to go with them. Oh the perils of jewelry making!

Inspiration!

So many ideas going through my head - and in so many directions!

First, I had a really nice response to the wire wrapped focals I showed last week, and it was suggested that I try wrapping crystal points the same way.

This is just a small one, maybe an inch or so long. It had a nice uneven "glob" on the top which made it really easy to catch up into the wire.

I'm not showing the first one I tried. First, it didn't photograph well and second, it was large and in my opinion, it looked overdone. I tried wrapping it in a figure eight and adding a number of stones and coils. Well maybe I'll show it later(!) and you can draw your own conclusions. I suppose in the right situation it could be appropriate.

The second is a bead which was inspired by something I saw online yesterday. I actually tried to copy the bead I saw, but got a somewhat different result. The one I was (yes) copying had a mossy look to it, but mine came out of the kiln looking like a piece of redware pottery.

My first reaction was that it would be perfect strung up with some of Tina's herbal beads and I'm definitely going to do that, probably with a charm that says "Grow".

My second reaction was that this is a direction I would like to follow, adding other colors and making a whole collection of redware beads. Redware pottery is an art form that is closely associated with our area. It involves the use of colored glazes, painting with slip (colored, liquid clay) and sgraffito (scratching a slip-covered piece to expose the red clay underneath) . We have a few plates commemorating our marriage and our son's birth with beautiful PA Dutch designs on them that were made that way and this has the very same look.

Having just signed up for yet another charm swap with the theme of "Hometown", I think I know now how to handle it! My first thought was red roses, for Lancaster, the Red Rose City (after the English War of the Roses, Red for Lancashire and White for Yorkshire). Another idea was some sort of quilt design, but now.... I think it will be redware.

And more swirly settings...

I knew I wouldn't be able to restrain myself.

The first pendant here, the earthy one was the first one I tried to put my own spin on this morning. I was really surprised at how beautifully it went together - even though I was reading the instructions wrong in the first place and decided to do something a little different anyway.

This one is wired through the bead. The instructions were for a cabochon which wouldn't normally have any holes in it.

I loved the idea of wiring it with silver since there are silver dots through the bead itself.

The second pendant I am showing - to the right - was a bead I made some time ago and loved, but never really knew what to do with it.

The base is galaxy glass, so it's quite milky and opalescent. I added a number of stripes and streaks of greens and turquoises and was happy with the delicate yet organic look of it.

The silver setting was the answer to the question, "what to do with this?" This one, I made actually following the directions in the magazine (so the bead is encased in the bezel, but there is no wire through the bead hole.) Normally I do that first and go from there, but for some reason, this time I did it differently.

The major problem I have with this technique is to know when to stop. Every time I look at the "finished product" I want to add another swirl here and another coil there.

Okay - I'll stop, but next time you see them, I can't promise they'll look exactly the same!

Wacky Copper

The photo isn't the best, but I thought I'd post this - just because I'm sort of excited about this technique.

I'm in a pendant swap and I'm somewhat intimidated - did I mention that before? So, I wanted to try something really different - for me. It's straighter than it appears, but this one includes some of the herbal beads that my sister makes.

She's teaching an online class this week and we wanted to make up some ideas of how to use them. They are the irregular brown beads at about 2 and 4:30! They smell heavenly!

This is a vague take off on an article in the latest "Step by Step Wire Jewelry". I actually made another one in silver this morning although it is even more bizarre - not really following the basics but finding the crazy curl technique suits me.
I'm sure I'll be posting it soon.

I'm back!

After the success of my first experiments with enamels, I was inspired to continue and try some more.

Roses in the Snow kept going through my head and this is the result! Sometimes a bead just goes so smoothly and this was one of them.

It is about 25 mm or 1 inch high. The base is black and I sifted white enamel over the top of the bead, then applied the vines, leaves and roses. I sifted another quick "flurry" over the whole thing and wound up with the picture I had in my head.

What a wonderful feeling!

After I finished this one, I went on to make another, very similar only it was on a base of "Cocoa" which makes it look like a piece of fancy chocolate! This one is a little shorter - about 22mm. I'm not sure the color difference shows up so well here, but if you click on the picture it should come up larger on its own screen.

Now, to try something really daring - 3 colors of enamel. I felt like I was flying without a net since I wasn't sure what the finished colors of the enamels would be.

Again, I was thrilled as I watched the bead come together and held my breath until I could take it from the kiln.

I showed it to my husband this morning and he said, "It looks like some kind of domino", so I'm calling it "3D Domino". Maybe it's really a fat surfboard ...

This one is 30 mm tall, and each side is different (these two pictures are different sides of the same bead,) but the feel is the same on both.

I'm feeling better about the pendant swap since I feel like what I will send will actually be something original - and something I am excited about.

It seems that my artist block has finally evaporated and I am on to a new direction that is my own. I'm bursting with new ideas and can hardly wait to get to the torch and make more focals and some new sets!

Another Challenge

I decided to participate in another inspiration challenge and the first bead is the result. It sorta conveys the feeling of the picture (which I don't have to post - but you'll just have to trust me on that!)

I had just received a set of enamels for use with 104 COE glass and was trying to decide what to do with them. The idea of sifting dark near the top of the bead and lighter near the bottom worked out beautifully to give the bead a gently shaded background.

The original showed discs of gold and yellow and apparently one of the "yellows" I picked up was green... now it looks sort of like a mango tree! The original painting was much classier.

But after finishing it, I was so pleased and thought - wouldn't that be pretty with grapey swags instead and so, I made one in purples.

This has metallic spots throughout as well although they aren't as easy to see in the picture.

Both of these beads are pretty big - big enough for pendants which is another project I am working on - a pendant swap.

I was somewhat intimidated by some of the things that another participant posted. Her pendants were extremely ornate and very well done. I was trying to do something up to her standard and then thought - "You know, I don't do things like that and I think I'll just let my beads speak for themselves and make pendants the way I always have."

So now that I've calmed down, I think I know how to do this... and these new beads may just be
some of my entries.

While I was fooling around with the enamels, I grabbed a large mandrel and a rod of "Iced Tea" glass and proceeded to make a vessel. I still had the enamels out and sifted a bit at the bottom and at the neck of the vessel. It needed something else, so I strung a piece of silver wire around it which melted beautifully into a beaded strand.

The vessel looks like a view of the galaxy. I'll need better picture to put it on my website, but meanwhile, we can enjoy it just like this.

The Iced Tea Galaxy.

What a good idea! I think I'll go in an treat myself to a glass
right now.

The ocean & the tropics with a side visit to Florence

Yes, I must admit, the Bantams have been around longer than the Chukars, so they aren't the newest additions, just the latest pictures....

That's settles, now, on to beads:

This set is called Ocean Granite. I was playing with copper foil, some frit and a few stringers.

Next is Florentine Crackle, The scrolls make it look like a Florentine paper design. I got a bit carried away with the technique and made a large focal and a medium sized bicone to go along with it.
But this one is the real inspiration for the Florentine name. I call it Florentine scrolls because it almost looks like golden scrolls on a deep turquoise base. Love the rich look.

So, there I was in the midst of all the blues and greens when suddenly I found myself with an orange stringer in my hand.

This was the result. Tropical Chatter.

It reminds me of the edge of the jungle. Can't you just see the tropical birds and flowers in this one?

It was an attempt to encase a floral and although I didn't smear it terribly, the effect is a little blurred and it works to give the feeling of the layers of vegetation in a rain forest.

Seems like I did a little tour. Across the ocean to Florence, ending on a desert isle. Amazing where the torch can take you!

The Line Up

The most recent additions to our menagerie are a bunch of bantam chicks. I think I mentioned them before when they were still chicks), but didn't show any pictures.

As you can see, there is an overabundance of roosters and we will have to do something about it eventually. In the evening, they all fly up to a perch along the side of the caged area they live in an stretch out in a rather colorful line up.


They are a great assortment of gamecocks, cochins, Polish, frizzles and many crosses of all the aforementioned breeds. We didn't know what to expect and as they have grown, it has been fascinating to watch how they developed.

On another note, I have been making beads in the mornings again lately and will be posting some new sets soon - maybe tomorrow!

Yay! It's beads!

I really need to stay active with my torchwork. It seems I was away for a few weeks and came back really rusty. But, at least I made a few things to show.

The first thing is a bead I made for a challenge in a lampworking forum I frequent. This is the inspirational photo:
It's from this artist's website. And these are two sides of the one bead that I made in response:

I've been wanting to try these concentric circles and was pretty happy with the way they turned out. I've switched to a shield and "grocery store" glasses and find my control has improved immensely!




It is actually somewhat lighter than it appears in the pictures and it inspired me to try something else....




I call this one Electric Retro. I wear a lot of lime green and was planning to do something with dark blue and lime, but picked up black and away I went.

The faint white lines are encased stringers that were very thin. I expected them to show up a bit more, but as it turned out, I kinda like this effect since it looks like electrical currents flowing from the dots.

The blue and green set? Well, this is what I wound up with. There are four big fat lentils with a nice variegated stem and tendrils drifting around them and the dreamy lighter blue flowers floating inside.

The fifth bead is a large holed "slider". It can be used on a necklace or as a slide on a bracelet.

I was playing with silver the other day trying to recreate something I had seen online and although this isn't the result I was expecting, it was a pleasant surprise.

This is copper blue wrapped with silver foil. Dots of EDP were added and I reduced the whole thing just before putting it in the kiln.

I think the reactions turned out some pretty interesting beads.

This is pretty much what I was actually trying to do. Funny what a little silver and reduction flame can do, huh?

The beads I was trying to make had a silvered line in the space where you see the dark turquoise. I think I know how to make them now, but I got such pretty results from my attempts that I don't think I have to!

Charming...

The resin charms I showed a few posts back didn't work out, so I wound up making beads and wrapping them with copper.


They aren't as unique as I was hoping, but I did come up with something! I do love purple glass with copper and I was determined to use copper for so many of the same thing.

While I was working on them, I was calling them "Drops of Saturn", but then remembered the song is about Jupiter. Oh, well - close. And I do love the silver drops here and there around the bead.

I had used this wrap for a moonstone colored charm a few years ago and really loved the way it looked.

So, they are finally in the mail and I will now anxiously await the gorgeous package of the final swap. The finished bracelet should be a really wonderful conglomeration of 24 charms from artists all over the world. I love the internet!

I have the kiln warming up and a bottle of Pepsi at the ready. It's only 7:20 in the AM, but I find early torching seems to work for me. I'm thinking navy and green - we'll see.

Off to pull some vine cane and get working...

Corny!

Well, it's been a couple of busy days and corny seems to be the operative word!

Last evening, Tina & I taught a class on making herbal beads at The Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg. We got there early and toured the gardens.

Susanna wanted to show the "World's largest teacup" to us and before we knew what happened, Tina and Susanna had hopped in and I snapped this picture.

No, it isn't moving, but aren't they a couple of hams??? Corny might be the operative word here.

Susanna told us that she and her sister have enjoyed dinner (along with her two children) in the teacup. What a great, fun, whimsical thing to do. I'll bet that's a memory they'll keep forever.

There were so many fun and interesting things in the gardens. Everywhere we looked was something else that pointed up the enthusiasm, imagination and love of life that permeates the gardens.

I happened to look up at the side of a barn and there was a lovely collection of unique birdhouses. The assortment of shapes, sizes and colors were at the same time haphazard and artful.

The teapot tree was in full bloom. Perhaps I'll post a picture of that later - or it may show up as a cover on the Essential Herbal one of these months.

We knew what awaited us at home today. (This is where it really gets corny!) We had called in some of the family to freeze corn starting early this morning and we husked, blanched, cooled, cut and bagged more than 40 quarts of corn that will be oh, so welcome this winter, reminding us of the bountiful summer.

A few of the ears in this particular type of corn had a second ear forming at the bottom, something unusual. Bob has been growing corn for most of his life and never saw anything like this before.

We got the freezing almost finished and the guys came in with a big pan of chicken, fresh from the grille, I sliced some tomatoes and we ate the final batch of corn which had been fully cooked. I usually add a bit of sugar when we boil the corn, but this was so sweet, it didn't need it. Fresh from the field - what a feast!

That's for the Birds!

Yes, they've taken over again!

A few months ago, we finally released the pheasants that we had raised last spring and fed and kept safe through the winter.

Bob replaced them with a flock of bantam chickens. Well, the chickens have grown into a most interesting melange of every conceivable combination of chicken, only a small version of each.

We have Frizzles, we have Cochins, we even have Polish chickens! I was afraid we had been slipped a few miniature emu chicks (is there such a thing?), but after looking through a number of web pages dedicated to bantam chickens, I found that they will develop large pompoms on their heads, but they are definitely chickens! I think our favorite is a Cochin who seems to have a bit of Frizzle in him. He is low slung and covered with wild black feathers. We call him "The Harlequin Phoenix" and although it's hard to see, he is right in the middle of the group in the picture above.

Yesterday, the phone rang. It was the Post Office, "Come get your birds!" So, off Bob went to pick up our latest additions: 50 day old Chukar chicks.

They seemed oddly quiet in the box, but, oh boy! Once the box was opened and they were scooped out and into the cage, they became lively.

They ran from side to side, jumped straight up in the air and managed to squeeze out through some unprotected holes in the cage which we quickly closed.

They were fed and watered and knew exactly how to handle both. Then it was time to rest. Baby birds, like many baby animals, have a disconcerting habit of collapsing unceremoniously on the ground and falling fast asleep. They look dead. I was horrified to see so many of them lying carelessly about the cage, legs thrown out, some of them soaking wet from their recent drink/bath. Those who were still awake tromped heedlessly over them, on their heads, necks, stomachs - occasionally giving them a peck or two just for good measure. It didn't look good and I had one pegged as a goner for sure. I turned around and he was gone, apparently rested and back to life again.

After a night on their own, we haven't lost any but they're still doing their little collapsing routine. Gotta love those birds.