January 15, 2006....Brrrr! Winter has returned!

I knew it was going to come back but I'm a little sad that winter has returned! I was getting used to the warmer temperatures, 40's 50's in January and in the Northeast US! It was wonderful not to have to heat the studio! Stayed out of the studio today working on photographing beads, scheduling auctions for the next few weeks. My interpreting schedule is going to get back into full swing and I don't want to miss a beat with the auctions. I want to keep weekly auctions up and so I decided to schedule them now before the next few weeks get crazy. I've scheduled auctions up to the first week in February. My schedule should calm down after that and I'll be able to schedule more.

January 14, 2006.....

Spending all of my available time at the torch. I'm doing the Urban Glass Show in NYC in March under my artist name and I'm freaking about it already! It will be the biggest venue I've ever been in and I want to ensure that I have plenty of inventory to take with me. I also don't want to slight my auctions so I've been pushing myself to work harder than I normally do. Normally, it's a pretty leisurely pace in the studio but I've been out there early every day and staying as long as possible! Auctions up at justbeads.com. Search for LampworkDiva and you'll find me!

January 8, 2006...Lots to do!

I have another ground glass frit that I've fallen in love with - this is a golden brown frit and it does amazing things in the flame! It can turn a violet blue, gold, bronze or simply stay brown! Now who would have thought you could get violet blue out of brown ground glass?! Always something new to learn and add to the glass!

Thursday, January 5, 2006.....

Sent out a newsletter yesterday morning and got some good feedback on it. For anyone who couldn't use the links I included in the newsletter, apologies! I didn't realize the link was so long! A customer was nice enough to send an email to notify me and suggested I use http://www.snipurl.com to shorten the links! Good idea!

I like to put eye candy up with every post, afterall, that's why you come here, isn't it? This is a close up of some beads that will go on auction at Justbeads.com tomorrow (Friday, January 6). I love the colors in the beads - Moroccan blue and Ivory. Oh I almost forgot to tell you - I got some new glass today! I'm always in search of a good transparent garnet color in rod form and it's hard to come by! Through the glass boards online, I found some to purchase and it arrived today. I'll be working with it tomorrow morning and post pictures this weekend. Nothing like new glass to inspire you!

January 2, 2006.....Quick posting before torching

Good morning! Here's a photo I took of a garden statue I have of a seated Buddha. He sits outside my studio door and I see him every morning as I connect the propane to torch. This one morning, he was a profound message for me. If you're feeling overwhelmed, remember, that snow will melt! I'm sharing it with you here. If you like the print as much as I do, you can go to my CafePress store - http://www.cafepress.com/cindygimbrone to purchase a print.

I'm such a morning-person! I get up early in the morning and do about 4-5 hours of torching then off to do other things for the day. I balance my freelance interpreting with the torching this way - interpret in the afternoon and torch in the morning. I know many part-time lampworkers do the opposite - "regular work" in the morning/day and then night time torching. My energy is gone by then - I've tried but my whole body is wired to do my best work in the morning. So, better get out there before the morning's gone!

Happy New Year! New auctions!...January 1, 2006

Spent all day yesterday photographing and cropping photos of the beads I've been making over the past few weeks. I don't alter my photos to change the look of a bead in any way - the colors, the surface of the bead are just as I see them. Of course, your monitor may show the colors slightly different than mine but the picture is basically untouched.
New auctions up on Justbeads.com. I won't be listing on ebay anymore, justbeads.com is a great venue for me and the customers are great! The set I've posted today are up on justbeads.com for the next week.
A word or two about the set - I've become completely addicted to this particular glass frit (I think I have talked about glass frit before this, it is ground glass that you roll onto your hot glass). It's like having two frits in one! I always love that - if I put clear over the frit, it stays white, if I don't put clear over the frit, it turns blue. Blue and white - what can be better than that!?! It's fun and pretty! Life is good! Hope yours is too!

Happily and busily working away.....December 29, 2005

No, I haven't disappeared! Between the holidays and working at the torch, I haven't had much time to post! It's funny, most people slow down over the holidays but I rev up and work furiously! It's when I have the most time to myself so I spend all the time I can at the torch. The longer and more sustained time I spend at the torch, the more creative my work becomes. I'm a realy hands on person and I have to manipulate the glass to see different things in it. Some artists draw their creations and then create them at the torch but I have to have the glass flowing in front of me to see what it can do and where I can take it. My slumps don't come after I've been at the torch for a long time, they come when I'm not at the torch! :-) So, this is short and sweet this morning, I want to get to the torch as early as possible!

New imported Italian Glass color....December 15, 2005

I had promised a picture of the new imported Italian glass color and the beads I made with it. Here it is! This is a very pale Granny Apple color, I think it's the color of white wine. It wasn't named that, I believe because there was another color slightly lighter that was named Chardonnay - I think this color is really the same. I've done a very simple technique on these beads, some a plain wound glass and the others are rolled with a little bit of frit (small bits of glass) that gives them a brown/gold color. The jar of frit kept calling me while I was making the plain beads and saying how wonderful it would look on the beads! I agree! Looks like white wine and gold! These are up for auction on Justbeads. com under Lampwork Diva!

Working and creating in the cold.....December 14, 2005

I'm heating the studio with two powerful space heaters and sometimes, even that isn't enough to keep the studio warm (may have something to do with no insulation?!). The cold doesn't dampen the creative spirit, though. I went out to the studio to continue working on the pendants with crystals on 2mm mandrels but my creative muse had other ideas! I picked up the 3.5mm mandrels and started making large hollow beads with Czech glass! The Czech glass has a different "flow" in the flame than the Italian glass, it's "thicker" and flows slower. Perfect for large hollow beads! I haven't made many of them because when I tried a year or so ago, I couldn't clean mine. To this day they have bead release rolling around inside! Well, this morning, I figured out how to clean them - I fill the hollow bead with water, cover the holes with my fingers and shake to break up the bead release and then blow very hard through the bead hole. All the bead release comes out! Clean as a whistle as my father would say.

I've posted pictures of the pendant beads, though because I've been promising pictures of the various styles I've been working on, the hollow bead pictures will come in a few days. I took the simple notion of a crystal plunged into a floral bead and simplified it. The attraction is the crystal only and the metallic finish of the rondelle bead that the disk is suspended from. Here and there, I've varied it a bit - no crystal but a twist of the metallic rondelle, or plain rondelle with a crystal. I'm still playing around with variations. I like these simple, uncomplicated pendants. I'm going to post a few for auction on Justbeads.com in the next day or two. But if you see one you like, please make a comment or drop me an email, I'm happy to sell it to you!

New styles and photographing.....December 11, 2005

I've talked about photography before, mostly complaining about how long it can take because you have to shoot alot of pictures to get a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital photography and I don't have to develop all of the those photos that I don't use! I have been working on some new styles. If you look at a post from a few days back, you'll see a taupe and amethyst pendant with a single 2mm crystal in it. I've been taking the idea of crystals in floral beads and simplifying it - placing a single crystal in a single colored glass. So, I have several different pendants now using this concept and I need to photograph them so you can see them! Which reminds me, if you ever see a set of beads on the blog that you'd like to purchase, send me an email. Most likely, I have those beads available as an auction or sitting on my bench.

Soft or hard glass???.....Friday, December 9th, 2005

I want to take a bit of cyberspace this morning to explain the glass that I use to make the beads. I use primarily imported Italian glass which is the same glass used to make those lovely Ventian glass art objects. The Italian glass is made by a company called "Effetre" (ee-FAY-TRAY) and is categoried as "soft glass." Now, if you're like me, you're thinking, "that makes no sense" - how can glass be "soft." Now, this might not be the right scientific explanation for it, but you have to think of the "soft" in comparison to other glasses. You know that Pyrex baking dish you have? Well, that's made of borosilicate (bore-oh-SILL- ah- kit) glass or "hard glass" and it's called "hard glass" because it doesn't melt or crack when you heat it at baking temperatures. In comparison to Pyrex or Borosilicate, the Italian glass melts at a lower temperature. The Italian glass wouldn't melt if you put it in your oven but it does melt at a lower temperature than the borosilicate. You can do all the same things with borosilicate glass as I do with the imported Italian glass, but you need a MUCH larger and hotter flame! The borosilicate color palate is much different than the Italian glass too, it's much more subdued. Right now, I prefer the vibrancy of the soft glass color palate.

So, all of the beads and small sculpture you'll see from me will be made of "soft glass." All beads are individually handmade, even the plain spacer beads! A rod of glass is melted in the flame of a bench-mounted torch and hand-wound around a stiff wire or mandrel. Once decorated, the hot bead is placed in a brick kiln to cool very slowly. This is called "annealing" - if the glass cools too quickly, it will crack as an ice cube does when dropped into a glass of water. Annealing assures that there is no stress in the glass so that you can enjoy them for years to come.

The Sweetest thing......December 7, 2005

As I've been telling you, when the temperature goes below 30 here in the Northeast US, I'm unable to work in my unheated studio. Well, my husband did the sweetest thing on Sunday, he surprised me with two very powerful heaters that he placed in the studio. Within 2 hours, the studio was as warm as a July afternoon! Wasn't that the sweetest thing to do!? I think so and now I am able to work happily away even in the winter! WhooHoo!

I've been working on a fairly simple yet elegant design - a single crystal placed into a single colored round tab suspended from a rondel-bead. I'll be working on them again today in the studio to see what sort of variations I can come up with. I like the elegant look of these beads - the single crystal. Adding the 2mm crystals to the bead isn't easy. It's the preparation that's the killer! I place a tiny dab of glue on the end of a stainless steel mandrel and glue the flat end of the crystal to the tip of the mandrel. I've lost quite a few of the crystals because 2mm is tiny! It's hard to see which end is flat sometimes and the crystals will slip off the bench and onto the floor! Sometimes I find them, most of the time, I don't. Once the crystal is glued onto the mandrel, I make the rondel-bead and had the round bead to the end. I flatten the round bead then heat a section of the round tab bead and press the crystal into the hot glass. A dab of clear glass is placed over the crystal as a lens to magnify it. The clear is melted smooth in the flame and the bead placed into the kiln to anneal. I'm showing one of these beads but have several different variations sitting on my workbench. I'll photograph them later in the week and post them here.

December 3, 2005.....New Glass colors.....

Been working with some new Italian Glass colors that fall within the green palate. I love the color green and I love the way many of the greens flow when worked in the flame. The transparent greens and teals behave superbly in the flame and make lovely transparent beads.

Cold and Fire.....November 27, 2005

Studio has been too cold to work in the past few days....the studio is unheated and has to be at least 30 degrees Farenheit for me to be able to heat it with the kilns and space heater I have. I've tried to work when it was colder, but it's just too darn cold! Spent the day putting up auctions and scheduling some for the next few weeks. When it warms up outside, I want to be able to work at the torch!

November 22, 2005....Beadmaker as Photographer?

I intended to get to the studio yesterday but spent my torch time taking pictures! After I took the pictures, then I had to edit them into web-seeable shots - I don't alter the look of the beads or the colors or try to smooth out any of their handmade quality when I photo-edit. If I didn't lighten the shots then they'd just be too darn dark for anyone to see! It's kind of fun to do the close up shots but all of this takes time! I spent all of my torch time photographing, photoediting and then posting auctions! So, I'm thinking that a beadmaker or really any artist might also be considered a photographer! Yes, I could pay someone to do the photographing but have you tried to find someone who specializes in small works like beads?!? They're just not to be found! So, I've posted the fruits of my labor - check out my auctions on ebay and justbeads.com under Lampwork Diva.

November 17, 2005.....

First snow today! I know living in the Northeast US that we'll eventually get snow but I always like it to hold off because I don't have any heating system in my studio - brrrrr! I won't be able to get to the torch until this weekend but will have a few extra days over the Thanksgiving holiday. I've been working on the LampworkDiva logo, business cards and some other informational materials. I've got some photographing to do of some beads I made last weekend too. I'm working at keeping a steady stream of new bead auctions up on justbeads and ebay. I'm varying the number of beads I put in each set to see what buyers like.

LampworkDiva Logo and Auctions....

I've had a good friend of mine create a logo for Lampwork Diva! I am debuting her here! The logo is based on beads I have created in the flame. This one is made of enamels painted onto glass and then formed into a bead in the flame. She is a tribute to Picasso and is entitled Picasso's Amour. She isn't for sale but definitely is a DIVA!

There are auctions up on ebay and justbeads. For those beadlovers not familiar with http://www.justbeads.com - you NEED to GO THERE! What's great about justbeads is that is it just that - BEADS! No wading through the volumes of different items that you can get on ebay - if you are looking for just beads then you gotta go to JUSTBEADS.COM!

Here are a few of the beads I've put up on justbeads.com - search for LampworkDiva and you'll find me!

Eye Candy.....

New Auctions on Ebay!

November 5th, 2005....so I'm trying to get myself back into the swing of posting bead auctions weekly. All auctions are made by "the Diva" that is the Lampwork Diva! I've been focused on doing more art and less computer so it's been awhile since an update. I know in the land of the internet that means people have already forgotten me so I have to start all over again! But instead of griping about my lack of computer motivation, let me tell you about the work I've been doing lately.

In September, I took a class in blowing glass with Sally Prasch! It was way kewl! I've posted a picture of Sally here today so you can see the master at work! She started in glass art when she was 13! Wow! Imagine having that much clarity in your life - to know what you wanted to do! Sally is a very generous artist and very encouraging to her students.

Blowing glass brings up a whole other set of skills that I am eager to develop. Most people think that the wound glass beads are "blown" but they're not! they're wound on a thick wire or mandrel. Before I took Sally's class, I had been playing with blowing glass with a stainless steel pipe - a blowpipe - and was having some small success. Taking Sally's class gave me more confidence to continue.

Ok, I think I've spent enough time at the computer this morning, my studio should be warmed enough for me to go to work for a few hours. I promise to post more - in the mean time, take a look at my auctions on ebay:http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlampworkdiva

Fibers and glass......

I've had less time in the studio this fall. More work as an interpreter that I save to get me through the summer months when I have little freelance work. I've been productive with the little time I do have, though! In September, I took a class with Sally Prasch and learned to blow glass using tubing.