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The Committee
Editors Forward: The last few months have seen some considerable challenges for the committee. Our Chairman's husband was taken seriously ill but is now on the mend after a few months in hospital. Our membership secretary has also faced unplanned surgery and is also on the road to recovery. In the interim can you please bring any matters normally dealt with by the Chair to the attention of the Secretary. We appreciate your support and patience whilst the rest of the committee try to keep things ticking over. On a brighter note, we are delighted to announce 2 new honorary members both of whom do an incredible amount of work on behalf of the lampworking community: Teresa Blofeld of Tufnell Glass fame and Charlotte Dakin-Norris of Big Bang Beads aka one of our former Chairs of GBUK.
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In This Issue . . . Torchlight on ...
Pages 4 - 6
Debbie Dew Annual Competition
Page 7
Members Beads From Last Month's Challenge
Pages 8 - 9
Colour Testing... Transparent Light Green by Ilsa Fatt
Pages 10 - 11
Double Helix Boreas by Heather Kelly
Pages 12 - 13
Tutorial on recycling by Debbie Dew
Pages 14 - 18
GBUK Fair
Page 19
Members Challenge ... September No pressure, no prizes just pure fun
Recycling glass or Orange... Make a bead, set of beads, focal, mixed media which can be an on or off mandrel piece by using Recycled Glass or Orange glass. Post your photos on www.frit-happens.co.uk and/or www.craftpimp.co.uk and/or our Facebook page by: 10th October.
All members' photos will be included in the next issue of GBUK Flame 3
Torchlight On ...
Debbie Dew My lampworking journey began in 2007 when I found some gorgeous handmade beads for sale on . At this point I had no idea how they were made, I just knew I loved how they looked and I needed to find out more. I started trawling the internet for information, eventually contacting Ray Skene and arranging a lesson for January 2008.
At the end of the day, I came home and ordered my torch, oxycon and kiln, along with a basic selection of glass and tools, today I’m still working with the same torch, a midrange plus, although I’ve upgraded my oxycon and bought a second kiln. Since taking that first lesson, I’ve been lucky enough to take lessons with some well known beadmaker / teachers, amongst them, Amanda Muddimer, Julie Fountain, Teresa Laliberte and this year with Irina Sergeeva.
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I love experimenting and trying out new ideas with the glass, this means I haven’t really developed a recognisable style but I have lots and lots of fun. Sometimes cutting glass with scissors or razors and other times seeing how far I can push the glass before that ominous cracking sound happens, as it invariably does, usually when I’ve spent an hour or more making a bead and think to myself, just one more dot!!
I usually go to the torch with a plan in mind, however, very often, the glass has other ideas, refuses to play my way and wants to do what it wants to do, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. So I might start out thinking, today I’m doing as many variations of dots as I can think of and end up working on sculptural beads or even simply making headpins. ... or Dragons!
If I’ve completely run out of inspiration, I revert back to my first love – making hollows, they’ve improved a little from my earlier years, these days I’m more confident about putting detail onto a hollow bead without too much fear of it cracking at the last second. My initial lesson was with the king of hollow beads after all. 5
I used to read books when I went to bed, these days I read lampwork tutorials !! I’ve amassed quite a collection over the years as I’m sure most of us have, they’re a great source of inspiration when I feel stuck in a rut with my work and help to kickstart new directions.
As well as collecting tutorials, I’m also guilty of collecting glass, although after one particularly epic fail from mixing CoE’s I’ve learnt to tidy away a bit before I start working on the next thing.
I think the biggest piece of advice I’d give anyone starting out is, have fun, play, experiment and don’t put pressure on yourself to make saleable items. I know we all need to sell our beads to maintain our habit but too much pressure will stunt your creativity and ultimately your enjoyment in just melting glass.
Deb xx 6
Annual Competition
GBUK Market Place We are looking for some beta testers for the new GBUK Marketplace (e-shopping mall). If you are interested then please contact: secretary@gbuk.org
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Members Beads From Last Month's Challenge: Glass that doesn't do what is says on the tin:
Nicky Townsend
Colette Ladley
Debbie Dew
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Members Beads From Last Month's Challenge: Yellow:
Heather Kelly
Colette Ladley
Nicky Townsend
Debbie Dew
Scarlet Leonard 9
Colour Testing by Ilsa Fatt Transparent Light Green Effetre Light Green Effetre Grass Green Effetre Pale Emerald Effetre Uranium Yellow Effetre Kelp Effetre Light Green This, oddly enough, is the darkest of the colours listed. It has a lot of yellow in it, and I would describe it as a transparent lime green. Effetre Grass Green Is almost identical to Light Green, but it is, confusingly, just a little lighter. Getting a bit obsessive, I held a rod up against the lawn, and I would definitely describe it as lime, rather than grass. But maybe Italian grass is different. Effetre Pale Emerald This is a beautiful colour, slightly bluish in tone. It reminds me of the first spring leaves on an apple tree, or of Roman glass. Lovely. Effetre Uranium Yellow This is a very pale yellowish green. It reminds me most of what happens to your wee if you've eaten too much asparagus. I did a bit of Google research, and the Effetre Uranium glass does not appear to have any uranium in it. It's named after the Victorian yellow-green glass that was indeed coloured using uranium. My stepmother has an old glass bowl like that, full of knobs and protuberances, and a howling psychedelic acid green-yellow. It would probably send any geiger counter near it into a beeping frenzy. Effetre Kelp Effetre Kelp is very similar to Uranium Yellow, just very slightly browner in tone. It has one major difference, which is the reaction it has with Reichenbach Iris Gold frit. The Iris Gold goes semi-opaque to create a ghostly, faux boro effect. It also turns the Kelp a pleasing golden amber colour. To make the faux boro bead I made a small core of Kelp, rolled it in Iris Gold frit, melted the frit in, and encased in clear. I didn't reduce the Iris Gold, and just let the heat from melting in the encasement do the work. I tested all the other greens with Iris Gold, but only Kelp has this reaction. In the other beads the Iris Gold just disappears from view. 10
I tested all the greens with dots of Dark Ivory. None of them have any obvious reaction. 1
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Images: 1. Shades of light green 2. Light Green with ivory dots 3. Different greens with Iris Gold All pictures are, from left to right: Light Green, Grass Green, Pale Emerald, Uranium Yellow, Kelp
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Double Helix Boreas by Heather Kelly Here are some beads to show you different results you can get from Double Helix boreas. This is a transparent purple reduction silver glass.
I made some rounds encased in different colours. These all have a very small cylinder of 006 clear which is then encased in boreas, reduced and encased in another colour. From the right: 1. Encased in 006 clear as the baseline. 2. Encased in CiM frost, a very pale icy blue. 3. Encased in CiM Zoe, a transparent turquoise. 4. Encased in CiM birthstone which a very similar colour to Zoe. The greener areas in here are where boreas is over reduced, making it more opaque. 5. Encased in CiM aegean, a darker greenish teal. You can get quite a range of different colours from different encasings if you get tired of purple! I especially like the result with Zoe - it glows. Here are some rounds with boreas as surface reduction on different bases. Because boreas is transparent purple, if you use it over light tan opaques it will frequently look shiny but brownish.
From the right: 1. Over CiM frozen, which has fumed to a pale caramel from a translucent white. These have something of a humbugs look! 12
2. Over CiM duck egg. The fuming has made the base a greenish tan with darker brown lines adjacent to the boreas. 3. Over CiM tortoise. The tortoise went just as shiny and very dark greenish in the gaps! The boreas is around the middle and edges, the same as the others. It spread further too. 4. Over CiM nimbus, which is a dark opal grey. This darkened it up even more, and the boreas has a very shiny extra-reduced line around the very centre. For comparison, here is a bead with a core of ivory and a big stripe of boreas that was reduced and encased in clear.
This has something of an antique look. The iridescence in the boreas is subtle and you can see a purple haze over the base.
Boreas is great for crackling when put on dark ivory.
I have included the encased bead in here too so you can see the difference. The other beads all have boreas on the surface over dark ivory. Lots of cracking, lots of sheen, some purpler, some browner. You get bright yellowish silver lines along the edges, and if you reduce the bead more as in the larger cone, you start getting that webbing in the centre of the band too. I reduced all these beads by turning by my oxygen down and rolling the bead through the flame just enough to pick up a sheen, keeping it cool. You can also turn the propane up which may give slightly different results. 13
Tutorial on Recycling This tutorial came around through an enquiry to create a memento from a broken antique whiskey glass. Tim wanted to have something made that would keep the importance of the glass piece close to him by creating a heart shaped focal bead for his wife. NOTE: Before you start, make sure that the pieces of glass are clean and dry.
I sat some of the broken pieces of crystal on top of the kiln to start warming them before I put them in the flame. I didn’t want sudden heat to shatter the crystal. I pulled a few stringers while I was waiting for the kiln to reach annealing temperature. I then picked up the first piece of crystal with tweezers and starting to heat it very slowly in the back of the flame. Dip the piece in and out of the flame until you begin to get a slight glow, once it starts to glow, keep it in the flame but keep it at the back and continue to heat slowly until its glowing nicely, then bring it forward in the flame and melt until its ready to wrap around the mandrel. Warm your mandrel and begin wrapping the molten crystal around your mandrel, working as if you’re using any other glass. Heat enough to smooth out into a nice round shape.
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Keeping your bead warm, begin warming the next piece of crystal at the back of your flame and add it to your bead using it like a rod of glass ( Keep the tip of the crystal in the flame and the bead below) I’ve lifted it out of the flame here so you can see how I’m wrapping it around the bead. Melt in these first pieces completely, try to keep the shape as round as possible
Keep adding more pieces of glass slowly to increase the size, melt each piece in well and reshape your bead as you go along, it’s easier to shape as you go along than try to shape at the end of the process.
Since this is going to be a big puffy heart, I need quite a lot of crystal so I keep adding and melting until I’m happy I have enough. The yellow tinge indicates the crystal is molten (you won't get a red tinge like you do with glass, look for the yellow) as it cools it will go back to clear.
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Using a marver, form your bead into a cone shape then try it in your glass press, add more crystal and repress if you need to, you won't want to be adding more crystal to the bottom of your heart ones you start building the shoulders. Add more crystal to one side of your cone shape to begin forming your first shoulder. Keep adding crystal and melting in between pieces to get it nice and smooth.
Once the shoulder is melted smooth, press it in your heart press, check and add more crystal if you need to.
Build the second shoulder as you did the first, to finish off the heart shape.
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Melt it all smooth again after the final pressing.
Now to add some colour, I’ve chosen to use a little silver foil and frit, I wouldn’t advise melting it in completely. I’ve also used mica powder successfully in the past, however you choose to add colour, be sparing with it, you don’t want to risk cracks due to incompatibility. I’ve started by burnishing some silver foil over one shoulder of the heart. Next I’m adding some glass frit in shades through lilac and purple. I’m melting it just enough to stick to the crystal without melting it in.
I add a few twists in the frit with a thin purple rod to create a bit more interest.
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And it’s all finished, it just needs a final heat up before it goes in the kiln.
Here its safely tucked up in the kiln for the next 12 hours.
All finished and turned into a necklace xx
Please note: This isn't the only method of recycling glass, it's just the way that I have found to be easiest for me.
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GBUK Fair What?
A Lampwork Fair
When?
Saturday 19th September
Where?
Long Sutton Barns Long Sutton Lincolnshire PE12 9AF
Who?
Member’s tables, complementary crafts, torches. Open to the public in an established craft centre.
More details
Member’s tables will cost £10 for selling beads (refundable deposit), £15 for those selling supplies. Entry for visitors is free. Tables will be allocated on a first come, first served basis but the venue is quite large.
There is a Travelodge across the road, a McDonald’s next door and other local amenities. We are currently costing transport to the venue from Peterborough, which is on the mainline East Coast railway, for those wanting to come by public transport.
This is an exciting new venture and we hope you will support it. GBUK hasn’t held its own fair for several years.
Would you like a table? Contact: events@gbuk.org to book.
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Why not submit a tutorial or article for Flame?
Contact: secretary@gbuk.org
www.gbuk.org
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