Flame January 2015 by GBUK

Flame January 2015

Find us at www.gbuk.org

@gbuk.org

Torchlight on …

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Members’ beads from last month’s challenge:

Page 8-9 Colour testing …. transparent red glass… by

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Enter this challenge to win - see Page 7 Make a bead, set of beads, focal, mixed media, on or off mandrel piece using the theme of

or ‘ Post your photos on www.frit-happens.co.uk and/or www.craftpimp.co.uk and/or our Facebook page by All members' photos will be included in the December issue of the GBUK

Bob Thomas Red Dragon Lampwork was formed as a means to finance my hobby of lampworking, which I took up after I had retired (from BT) in 2009. I took up lampworking in early 2011, and after a one day foundation course in glass beadmaking with a superb teacher, Sally Carver aka Red Hot Sal, I continued to make beads initially using techniques from one of her DVDs or from the videos on the Internet. I was making so many beads and other glass items that I had to have an outlet for them, so started selling them. My inspiration for my glass creations comes from the world around me; I have a wide range of interests from the natural world to archaeology. I have always been very good with my hands, being a bit of a "Jack of all Trades". In my time, I have made, amongst other things, dolls houses with furniture and Fimo 1" scale food and artefacts; and painted in oils, pastels and watercolour so have a reasonable eye for colour.

I have make my own beads in my studio in March (a converted workshop/shed). I sell the handmade beads and other items through fairs and online and to other jewellery makers for them to use in their own designs, as well as selling my own designed one of a kind unique jewellery. Like most lampworkers new to the discipline I have purchased tutorials from established artists to increase my knowledge and skill base. Most of my knowledge and techniques have been gleaned from the Internet and videos, posted by other very generous glass artists, in both soft and hard glass, who are prepared to share their methods with others freely.

In 2012 I decided to expand my glass creativity by taking a course in marble making, at Tuffnell Glass, with Australian marble maker Jan Ridgen-Clay who was visiting the UK at the time. This led me into the borosilicate side of lampworking, but I found that I preferred to work from the rod rather than blowing with tube. Again most of my knowledge in hard glass has come from the Internet, as UK classes in boro were very limited. I have made marbles, paperweights and jewellery pendants in boro , as well as dip pens.

I had the chance in 2013, at the UK Flame Off, to take a brief sculptural course with one of Murano's best knows Glass Masters, Lucio Bubacco, which has helped me enormously with my soft glass manipulation.

This class led to me moving more towards the sculptural side of lampworking, and I started off doing some figure sculptures in borosilicate. The "Fairy" figures I made were for a charity fair.

This year I have branched out into more soft glass sculptural forms, by creating "bugs" and other creatures, trying to emulate a hero of mine, Wesley Fleming from the USA. I think I have found my niche in glass sculpture, and I am fortunate enough to have been able to take a class with Wesley Fleming in the UK last October at Tuffnell's studio in Yorkshire. I am now concentrating on soft glass sculpture, and continuing with my borosilicate pendants, marbles and mini paperweights.

We have four places available, one on each of (borosilicate marbles) (encased florals) (sealife) (glassblowing) But we aren’t just giving them away …… you have to do a little something in return!

Write an article or tutorial suitable for GBUK to use in furthering it’s aim of sharing and disseminating information about making glass beads.

Contribute one or more photos to using this month’s challenges.

Tell the story of a bead you have made, a bead you want to make or even the story of a bead in your collection.

We’d like a suggestion for what to do with lampwork other than making jewellery with it.

The small print Closing date:

midnight, 7 March 2015

Winners will be announced on 14 March 2015 via Newsflash. You must be a fully paid up member of GBUK on 31 March 2015 to enter. Only one entry per household is eligible to enter. Multiple entries may be submitted in all competitions but your name will only be entered once per draw. Winners will be drawn using a random number generator to determine the winner. Committee members are not eligible to enter. GBUK reserves the right to use any submissions in the future for either publication or promotion of GBUK. Full credit will be given if and when used. Send entries to:

secretary@gbuk.org

‘Fireworks’

‘Contrasting Colours’

Colour testing Effetre Striking Red

Ilsa Fatt

CIM Sangre CIM Bordello Reichenbach Garnet

Transparent red

This comes as a very pale beige transparent rod, which darkens as soon as it touches the flame. I'd never used it for a whole bead, and was surprised at just how difficult it was to strike. After turning and twiddling it, taking it out of the flame and putting it back in, I finally came up with a pale orangey-red bead. It's a really nice colour, but I'm not sure it was worth the amount of time it took to get there. The white bead with red dots was a total failure. I gave up on striking it after what felt like ages, so the Striking Red dot bead is pathetically under struck. (I used Japanese cooling bubbles, so it is possible that it might have struck more had I used a kiln). The weird thing is that when I have used small dots of striking red on large, complex beads, they have always over-struck, going too dark for my liking.

Ah, now here is a red that I like. It's a rich, proper red, and strikes easily. It doesn't darken, so you know that you're not going to end up with a brown smear. However, like many CIM colours, it's somewhere in that borderland between transparent and opaque. CIM Sangre starts out fairly transparent, but opacifies the more it is worked. Still, I'd rather have that than the darkening and browning that other reds seem to do.

Bordello is a very dense dark red. The rod looks almost black, only showing its redness up to the light. I made the plain bead over a white base, but even so, the colour is too liking. Bordello also has a slight tendency to brown, which you can see in the dot bead, Bordello ribbon twistie bead. It's more of a mahogany than the decadent wine red which suggests.

when held dark for my and in the the name

This was a real disappointment. The rod colour looks lovely, a dark, rich red, less dense than Bordello. Like Bordello, I thought it would work best over white, but the encased bead went really brown, with a cloudy effect that just reminds me of a scab. It looks better in the dot bead, but again, it's brown, not the glorious deep red that the rod seemed to promise.

So, in conclusion, CIM Sangre wins hands down, standing on it's head, and doing a pirouette at the same time. (if you could do a pirouette while standing on your head). It's cheap, it's cheerful, and it's utterly reliable.

The annual competition has come round faster than you thought it would so we want to gremind you that - details of where to send Entries need to be in by them will be sent in a Newsflash and put on the website.. You need to be a paid-up member on 28th February 2015 to enter any category other than Jewellery. The themes this year are:

So get your thinking caps on!