btw, 23 Feb 2011

Hello again dear readers,

It's officially wednesday again, so time to get cracking and write a little!

I have been going a little mad the last two days using any spare time to take photos of my bead soup piece.
I am neither a camera or photoshop expert.
I realised I had to shoot my photos again on a better setting, it is called  the Fine setting on my little point and shoot.  I had to break out the manual to find out how to do that!
Then, of course, the angles were not the same.... and on it goes.


For the background I have tried 3 different colours; dark grey, white and shiny black. All have their various challenges. Aarrghhh...!!!
I love the shiny black, but of course anything shiny reflects so much, however I think I may have tamed the beast a little! We shall see....!

Consequently, there is not much in the bead making area this week, or even on  the jewelry making table.

I do, however have a few photos of some murrini that arrived today from Donna at fyrebeadz and also some glass twisties from my little studio.

Hope all are well and enjoying your day,

Cheers,

Jenni

Sneak peek time!

Hello readers,

It's getting closer.. thought I would tempt you with a little "Sneak peek!" 
I'm having fun with this!

Now please go checkout my partner,  Grace, and her awesome blurred photo of her finished item.




Until next time,

Jenni

Bead Soup Blog Party- reveal 26 Feb

Dear readers,

As you all must know by now I am participating in the extraordinary Bead Soup Blog Party,
masterminded by the lovely Lori Anderson. This is the 3rd and the largest bead soup organised by Lori.

This very large, international, cyber festival of jewelry artists has attracted 210 participants!
Is that not wonderful!!

For my readers who do not know about  this event, the idea is you are partnered with another participant to exchange beads.
A focal bead, clasp and others  beads/jewelry items of choice were exchanged.

Each partner then designs a piece/s of jewelry using the beads sent to her/him and the finished items will then be revealed on Saturday 26th February on each participant's blog.
One rule is that the focal bead and clasp must be incorporated into the design, additional beads of choice are optional.

A flickr group was created for all participants to show the beads they received from their partner.

Please check out the photos on flickr here.

I have been partnered with Grace from suddenly last summer, no. 186 on  the list ( list to be displayed on 26 Feb. on this blog)

Here is a photo of my 'soup ingredients' that Grace sent from Philadelphia. Gorgeous isn't it!

Please come back and visit on the 26th, there will be so much to inspire you!

Thank you to Lori for organising this fantastic event and for all the work that is continuing 'behind the scenes' to keep  it rolling along....

In anticipation,

Cheers,

Jenni.

A Blog Giveaway

 Hello dear readers

I have never done this before, but I guess there is always a time  for a first.
I came across this lovely blog the other day, A Prairie Thistle LIfe, written by Julie.
Her jewelry, she says, is influenced by life In the Prairie land. It contains lovely bird and nature inspired elements.
She also has beautiful photos with eclectic combinations of French and American farmhouse vintage furniture and collectibles for the home which she uses so well to stage her jewelry pieces, just gorgeous.
Some are for sale, too.

As I am a bird lover and a collector of vintage bits and pieces, and definately a garden and nature lover, I felt  drawn to Julie's lovely photos immediately.

This week she has had a sweet bracelet made from a vintage spoon to give away. It's beautiful.
See Julie's blog for the conditions of the giveaway.
.
The giveaway will be open until March 20th.

I have had a quiet weekend. No working on the torch as it has been far too windy. I need to have fresh air coming in behind me for ventilation as well as noxious fumes removed.
When it is windy the flame drifts all over the place and it is just too dangerous.

So, I worked on my BSBP piece and finally finished it to my satisfaction!
Now to finish off a few extras!
I still have quite a lovely lot of soup left!

I will be posting a "sneak peak" tomorrow, so please come back for a look!.

Ok, time for bed,

goodnight,

Jenni

A glass journey - Venice

Hello dear readers,

This will be a wordy post! I am warning you now...!

When we were married, my husband's Grandmother, Norah, gave us a beautiful water colour painting of The Bridge of Sighs in Venice. This was the start to my continuing fascination with that amazing city, although I did not really know it at the time.
She had purchased the painting herself, from the artist, when on the "Grand Tour" in the early 60s.

For those who do not know, the Bridge of Sighs was erected in the year 1600 to connect the Doge's prisons of Prigoni, with the inquisitor's rooms in the main palace.

The name of the "Bridge of Sighs" was invented in the 19th Century, when Lord Byron helped to popularise the belief that bridge's name was inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led through it to the executioner. How awfully sad is that!

We hung our gorgeous painting proudly in our new home in Brisbane, Queensland.
One of our neighbours very kindly welcomed us to their home one afternoon.
He and his wife had an extraordinary collection of paperweights collected over a long life together.  I was fascinated by them and hence my glass journey began in earnest - I began to collect my own.

The little flowers you see in these very traditional style paperweights  (see photo below) are called millefiore, the Italian name for "thousand flowers". I have quite a collection of my own now, a lot of them given to me by my daughters over the years for Mothers' day or my birthday.

The same technique used for making the millefiore cane I now apply to my own beadmaking at times, with the application of Murrini to my glass beads - just in a much smaller degree!

My daughters, have of course, heard me speak about Venice before and how much I want to go there one day........

So, last Christmas they gave me this lovely book, "Venetian Journal" - a book of food, travel and dreams compiled by Tessa Kiros.

It has lots of wonderful photos, recipes and little tips about Venice as well as pages for diary notes and vellum pockets to keep little treasures like tickets etc.

And so dear readers, all of this story is to tell you that I AM GOING TO VENICE if you hadn't worked it out by now!! Yes, the reality of it actually happening is just starting to sink in a little!

A stopover in Dubai is first, followed by Venice, Florence, Rome, Istanbul, London and Hong Kong.

We are doing our own mini version of "The Grand Tour".

We leave in under 2 weeks time!

It is true that, of course, I could have gone to Venice before now. Somehow though, the timing is just right. 

It feels that my glass journey has actually been taking me to this point where I am ready to go.

I am not participating in any beadmaking courses there - hopefully I can return one day to do that!  It is purely for the joy of seeing a place I have desired to see for so long.

Yes, I know Venice is a little old, a little worn out, can be smelly, can be crowded, all of that, but that is all part of the beauty and I can't wait to embrace it all.

I will be continuing to write my beady blog as often as I can, however, you will be able to see my travel photos on my other blog-

Jennis travel blog.

For my glass bead friends, I will be posting Venetian glass photos here as well as on my travel blog.

I will be linking the two blogs together very soon.

photo by Pierre at Venice Daily Photo

I send my heart up to thee, all my heart
In this my singing.
For the stars help me, and the sea bears part:
The very night is clinging
Closer to Venice's streets to leave one space
Above me, whence thy face
May light my joyous heart to thee its dwelling-place.

Robert Browning (Surrey 1812- Venice 1889).

I will be blogging, I am sure up, until the day we leave,

So until next time,

Cheers from
Jenni

A blogging learning curve.

Hello dear readers,

My family will tell you I have never been particularly adept at computing skills.
In fact, four months ago I had to be shown how to plug my little digital camera into the computer!
I still type with only two fingers. That will probably never change.

Years ago, a school teacher in frustration with my continuing pathetic skills at the typewriter keyboard, placed paper over the top of the keys so I could not look at them. I still do look at the keys to type.
That will never change either!

So, to say I have had a steep learning curve starting this blog is an understatement!
With each post, I have learnt a little more.
However, I could not have learnt these new skills (mind you, I still refer to my written instructions continually) without the help of some very prolific bloggers who not only dazzle me on a daily basis with their incredible artistic endeavours but also take the time and energy to write tips and tutorials for those with less experience such as myself.

I am sure there are a lot of you out there who so generously do this, but there are a few who come to mind immediately and I do wish to mention them here.

Lorelei who wrote about making collages.
Heather at Humblebeads who recently wrote about Piknik and creating those rounded corners she loves so much and
Brandi who amongst her many tips, recently wrote about creating a solid border, how to create a dotted border, how to make a colour palette and how to add text onto a photo.

Thank you so much, girls, for your educational efforts. This computer/photoshop/piknik/ Picasa/photo collage newbie is actually starting to learn a few computer skills!

One day down the track I hope I may be able to pass on the favour.

The above bicone photo collage was put together using Picasa, and believe me, if I can do it, you can too!

On to a new shape tomorrow!

Cheers for tonight,

Jenni

Silver and Goldstone

Hello dear readers,

Yesterday, I managed to find a little time to play in the glass studio.
When I was rummaging through a tin of glass bits and pieces, I came across a small packet of gold aventurine (AKA goldstone) flakes and it made me think how little I actually use this particular additive in my bead making.  In combination with silver leaf or foil, goldstone can give some lovely results.

I decided to try out a tutorial by Carol Anne Bouchles from the Passing the Flame "Spotlight on Silver" series of lampworking tutorials compiled by Corina Tettinger.  I bought this booklet several years ago.
Carol calls the tutorial bead a "Patina Forest Bicone".

I think my bicone bead turned out kind of O.K. (see pictures below).  However, for the next attempt, I will try to have a more even ring around the bead and a more even application of goldstone flakes: one end is covered more than the other. Perhaps also, I should apply the goldstone more liberally.

The squiggle of glass through the centre is made with a medium topaz stringer which changes colour from topaz to blue when applied on top of silver leaf or foil.
How wonderful is that!  I truly love glass when it does all these magic reactions.

The other thing I am thinking about is whether the bead I made should be etched. What do you think?

Following on with my recent bicone obsession, I also made an opal yellow bicone, encased it in silver and applied a fine stringer of intense black which results in that great webbing affect. (Also seen on the white bicone here.)

Cheers

Jenni

Bead Table Wednesday

Hello dear readers,

Goodness, a week goes by SO quickly!
This week, as you can see from a previous post, I have been making bicone shaped beads and, also, tab beads made from the gorgeous glass "fossil" by Effetre.

Fossil is a "Cool Color", one of a range of glass colours made by Effetre in Murano, Italy and supplied exclusively to (and named by) Frantz Art Glass. It came in Light, medium and dark batches when I purchased it.
Frantz Art Glass still stock it (medium only by the looks of things) and I noticed it is on sale at the moment.

The beads I made are made with dark fossil glass rods only.
The glass striates into the lovely variegated grey colours you see here, occasionally a little bit of caramel appears also.
It is a simple glass to work, no tricks required and the result is this wonderful marble appearance.

Above is the bracelet I am working on at the moment.
The small barrel beads are a pale, grey glass which changed in the flame to this lovely, honey colour with the addition of silver foil.

The spotty ring connector is PMC.

Just out of the picture is a grey glass hollow bead which will be suspended from the  PMC connector

The small white beads are quartz - as is the large faceted crystal nugget at the top.

The small dark brown-grey spacers are smokey quartz.

It is an earthy look with just a hint of bling!
Now to put it together!

The other news I wish to mention, whilst writing today, is that I have joined up to participate in a color palette blog walk organised by Brandi.

Please also check out her blog and shop, she has amazing jewelry with beautiful borosilicate glass beads and gemstones. Truly unique. Fantastic photos too!

The colour palettes can be viewed from Monday Feb 28th until Friday March 4th.

You will be able to see my photo palette and story on Wednesday March 2nd, here on my blog with links to other participants to view their lovely palettes and read their musings.

For more information, click on the color palette logo on the sidebar on the left of the screen.

Until next time,

Jenni