News & Information Sharing

 Purple Rose 733 is a new colour by Reichenbach.   Having a look on the web to see what I could find on this gorgeous colour I came across Lara Lutrick's blog post on Purple Rose.

Here is what Laura wrote.... "On the OCR website I saw this new colour Reichenbach 733 in lampworking cane.  I was excited by the possibility that Reichenbach was trying to recreate the beloved and in very short supply Zimmerman 99."   Got to Lara's blog to see her findings and some amazing beads she made with Reichenbach Purple Rose.

The bead above is by Lara Lutrick.  

A fantastic video  for intermediate beaders on how to make a large flower lampwork bead.  Almost 11 minutes Lorraine Dowdle clearly demonstrates how to create this challenging bead.

Definitely worth the time to pull up a chair and watch this one!  

Watch the youtube video here  

I found this classy little pendant idea on the Avenue Beads blog a while back.  What a great way to use your lampworking supplies with sheet glass to add a new dimension to you work with glass.    

Here's what Joe said.... 

"I've had a couple sheets of 104coe glass sitting around for what seems like years, gathering dust in a dark lonely corner. Last week I decided to pull out the sheets and try a little experiment mixing our handmade lampwork glass supplies and fusing
.  

For first time around I decided to use some scrap pieces just in case it wasn't going to work. No sense in wasting a good sheet of glass on the unknown.

Pick out some complementary shard colors. I was going for an organic look so I picked some colors that I thought would create some good reactions. In the one closest we have Lunar Rainbow,Silvered Ivory and Silvered Caramel shards. Added to that I overlaid the shards with black stringers, a bit of Rosewood Fusion Frit and a handful of Ocher Spiral Murrini chips."....   See Joe's blog post and the full tutorial here       

See our Sheet Glass Here 

ROSE BUD TUTORIAL 

Jan Cahill is a statesman of lampworking in Australia and often shares her expertise on forums.  Recently Jan posted on GlassBeadMakers another fantastic short tutorial.  

How pretty are these!

Step 1:  Make a cone shape with a pale opaque glass.

Step 2:  Add 5 large dots around the base of the cone in an opaque complementary colour.

Step 3:  Add a dot of transparent on top of the opaque dot

Steop 4:  With a razor blade crease each dot so the dot spreads to the base and up the cone.

Step 5:  Heat each petal one by one and with a pointed tool, slightly dig in and pull the glass up to the top of the cone.

Step 6:  With green opaue place a medium size dot between the base of each petal.

Step 7: With a razor lade crease each green dot so it fits nicely between the base of each petal.

See the pictorial step by step here. 

THROW AWAY THE MANDREL & GO ROUND

Tools:

Torch (Propane/Oxygen)

 Tweezers

 Marble mould(s)

 Kiln

 2 x 8-9mm Effetre Special Clear rod

 2 x 5-6mm Effetre Special Clear rod

 Frit of your choice (104coe compatible)

Preparation:

Melt the ends of both of the 5-6mm rods and place onto a rod rack to cool.  Spread out the frit evenly in a stailess steel bowl, frit holder or on the corner of your marver.  ideally it should be spread flat.

Download part two of Michael's tutorial here  

OCTAGONAL BEAD TUTORIAL

GlassBeadMakers Thread

Jan Cahill shares this beginners tutorial of an Octagonal Bead.

Take a look at the full tutorial  

You will need:  Effetre Violet Pastel 272, Effetre Gold Pink (Rubino Oro), Effetre Copper Green, Poke, Knife  

ANGEL GLASS BEAD TUTORIAL

You Tube Video

REVERSAL WIGWAG SWITCHBACK