The Perfect Clear

As a creator of clear-encased glass floral beads, I am vulnerable to the whims of clear glass cane. A nice, unscratched clear cane allows me to produce tiny glass blossoms frozen in time on complex backgrounds, like the one here that is up on Etsy. (Though I did catch a few little bubbles in the final wrap - I musn't have been holding my tongue right! ;) )

Sadly, I am all out of good clear right now! I went through about 6 pounds of clear last year and picked out all my best rods. What remains all have serious scratches and surface flaws - and in the flame, that means scum. Nothing ruins a nice encased floral like a big smear of scummy white froth over a lovely blossom. It only seems to happen on the final wrap, an hour or two into the process, and right over your favorite flower! :)

So all this means that I'm ordering a huge amount of clear right now, and hoping that it turns out to be nice clean smooth rods.

I've tried Vetrofond in the past and found it to be no better than regular Effetre. My other options were Rocio's Diamond clear, but it's about 5 times the price of regular Effetre. Since I use almost a full rod of clear in my florals, that would force my floral prices way up. The most expensive option is TAG Clarity Clear, which is about 9 times the price of regular Effetre. I'm sure it's amazing, but at the rate I use clear it just doesn't make sense. I've chosen Effetre Ultra-Clear, which is about 30% more expensive than regular Effetre clear. It has gotten a good reputation as clean rod, but it can boil if mistreated in the flame, just like regular Effetre clear. I've had good luck with Effetre clear in the past, though, working far back in a cool, slightly oxidizing flame. So I'm not worried about the formulation, just crossing my fingers that I get a nice, clean, unscratchy batch of cane! :) I'm unable to make my beloved florals until it arrives, so wish me luck... *twitch, twitch*

;)

Stocking Up!

I've been working on year-end inventory figures over the past several weeks, and the results are interesting. Especially since I'm getting to the fun part, which is determining what I'm going to put in our big glass order of the year... :)

As of year end 2008, we have nearly 80 pounds of raw glass cane in our studio!

Now, why would we ever need MORE than 80 pounds of glass, you might ask? (Other than the fact that it's... so pretty...)

Well, around 30 pounds of that glass is a fabulous stash of clear borosilicate rods, passed from garage to garage for around 15 years, that we recently received from friends. Sweet! But, that doesn't help us with our soft glass colour needs - and in fact it's encouraging us to buy more delicious, delicious boro colour rods! (I'm taking a stand against exploring even more cool glass COE ranges, like Bullseye or Satake. It's gorgeous, but where would we store it???)

Another factor influencing us to stock up is that according to my calculations we melted over 25 pounds in 2008! And we burn through our staple colours like black, white, ivory and especially clear very quickly.

And our final motivation is that we expect to create on an even greater scale in 2009!

It's like having a well-stocked kitchen: we need all the spices and flavours on hand, though we absolutely can't manage without the basics.

Plus, glass is... so... pretty. :)

More on what I'm craving in my next post!

Our Flameworking Studio

Heather melting a glass gather on the torch. (It's from last year with our old workbench)

Andrea putting a finished bead into our AIM 84-BD digitally-controlled firebrick kiln.

Augh! Oh, no, wait... It's just our studio. It's okay. We know it's creepy-looking! Look past the spooky walls and you'll see our 350CFM exhaust fan, natural gas connection, tiled and sheet-metaled workbench, active glass rod organizer, and lots of tool storage. The corner bench was made by Andrea as part of a theatre set, and assembled by her using extra 2 x 4s and countertop offcuts from our home renovation projects.

Here's a close-up of our beloved Bethlehem Piranha bench burner. The green line brings us oxygen from our two oxygen concentrators.

Here's the good stuff! Part of our glass rod storage - our opaques and half our transparents. Each rod of glass has its own properties and behaviours in the flame. Some are regular price, others are super-expensive. We just reorganized our storage and it's so inspiring to see all those colours together. Isn't it lovely?

These are some of our graphite shaping tools. We use the plain one most, of course, followed by the Osibin Shaper on the far left. The others are newer toys. I've had good success with the lentil shaper, second from the right.

First piece of 2009

We took a break for the first few weeks of 09 to recharge our batteries, re-organize the studio, and inventory our supplies and creations.
Just the other day I finally got back on the torch again to make a custom order for a friend. Here it is, our first of the year!
It's one of our Goddess of Willendorf inspired pendants, in cobalt blue glass with light silver fuming. I finally managed to keep it wide and flat, so that it would lie flat on the neck. I had worried that this would interfere with the flow of the body, but I'm actually thrilled with how she turned out. It's very "Willendorf" but also very liquid-looking. I hope my friend likes it!

Happy New Year!

We just got back from celebrating Christmas and the Winter Solstice with friends and family back in my (Heather's) hometown, Ottawa. It was lovely to indulge in vast amounts of socializing, catching up and playing after our marathon of shows.

Now that we're back in Winnipeg, Andrea and I are reviewing what Hearts of Glass achieved in 2008 and looking ahead to 2009. It's been a year of huge milestones for us - especially in terms of figuring out the business side of things, and we're hoping to reach more huge milestones in the new year - especially in terms of design and techniques.

I'll talk more about that in my next post, but for now here's a photo of a necklace that I was really proud of this year. We call it the Laza Tiger Necklace:

HoliDAZE - Dec 12, 13, 14th at Edge Gallery, 611 Main Street

HoliDAZE is this weekend!
It's our final hoorah of the season and it'll be HUGE. 25 artists, live music, an awesome new venue, and lots of energy. If you need gifts and stocking stuffers it's a stop you won't want to miss. In fact it's worth a visit just to take in the sights and sounds! Everything from toys to pottery to homemade art supplies to baby gear to glassware.

HoliDAZE. Where you will definitely find something unexpected and fabulous!

Elm Street Artisan Open House

We just had a fabulous weekend show at the Sumak Designs studio, hosted by Susan McIlwain. We did this show last year and earlier in October, and it's always a lovely time. Susan and her friend and fellow designer Doreen Lapointe of Formations in Metal have been really encouraging towards us and have helped us move to a new level in our work since they started informally mentoring us. We've been really lucky to know them!





This is an example of Susan's work. http://www.sumakdesigns.com/ Thanks Susan for all your support!


Doreen also teaches adult evening programs in metalsmithing at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate.