Post #75 Reviews: Phillips Visor & CIM Clear Stringers

Wow, post 75! I'm definitely still not an "expert blogger" but I've definitely learned a thing or two since post #1. In honour of this auspicious occasion I will post a very silly self-portrait that I took first thing this morning without brushing my hair, apparently. :)



Which is also a good segueway into some reviews of Hearts of Glass 2010 purchases. Once again I chose Artistry in Glass as our supplier this year, with equally satisfying results. We have a very annoying process of completely inventorying our supplies and then ordering based on gaps, with a few treats thrown in. This year our treat was a fancy visor. A mundane order that turned out to be a treat was CIM Clear Stringers.

Andrea (my lovely and talented wife) wears glasses and wanted more comfortable layerable eye protection than the oversized economy safety glasses. I wanted something that would do a better job of filtering UV and IR radiation from boro glass as I was noticing the eye strain with my basic shade-3 flip-ups. Also I wanted something that would make me look like a mad scientist. The Phillips Boro Visor is working well for us in all these key areas.

I wear it over my regular economy safety didys. It's very comfortable and easy to move up and down. There's enough airflow that fogging up isn't too much of a problem. And I find that my vision of the work is very crisp and clear even though it's a little darker than I'm used to. Still, I find I'm wearing it flipped down 75-80% of the time, even when I'm working soft glass. It's essentially the same visor body used for magnifying or whatever but with a didy and a shade 3 lens in the visor area. I wonder whether it would be possible to squeeze a magnifying lens in there too? My eyes are feeling much better lately which is great.

I only ordered the CIM clear stringers because the regular effetre stringers were out of stock. At first I was annoyed because they're a fair bit pricier. But what a pleasant surprise when I first melted it! It was significantly stiffer than effetre (I worried for a second that I'd grabbed a boro stringer!) and about a zillion times less scummy that effetre stringers. The size is perfect for the final steps of my stamen florals, which is a very scum-sensitive stage, so I'm very pleased to have a smooth & cooperative clear to work with on small-scale applications. Part of the clarity probably comes from the way it's handled in shipping: neatly paper-wrapped in little packets of a dozen or so to prevent scratching. Not sure if that's AiG or CiM but either way I'm a happy lampworker!

Now I'm off to the torch to make some new work for our final Winnipeg show coming up the weekend of May 7th, just four weeks away!

Dragonfly Brooches and Upcoming Show

I made three dragonflies in the past few weeks. Two of them were lovely! One of them you will never see. >;)

Selika

Imperatrix



Also I am happy to announce an upcoming show!

Elm Street Spring Open Studio
Glass, Silver & Gemstones by three artisans
May 7, 8 & 9 (Friday, Saturday & Sunday)
395 Elm Street
5-10pm Friday May 7
10am-5pm Saturday & Sunday
Snacks and Door Prize!

More info and pictures to follow!

Poppy with NEW Stamen Cane!

Sorry I've been silent for a while. I've been distracted by the move plans. I slacked off on photographing and blogging but I *have* been making things here and there, mostly custom orders. I'll talk about those in an upcoming post but I want to share my latest floral with you right now!

It took me over two hours to build the stamen from scratch but it was worth it! This has twice as many elements as my last one and finally has the bushy, bristly look I've been craving for so long. My only regret is that the pea green, yellow and orange ended up looking more or less the same colour. Remember, kids, always use more vivid colours than you think you'll need in a stamen cane!

What do you think? :)

Custom Dragonfly

Yesterday I got a custom order on Etsy for a special dragonfly stickpin. It asked for blue "dragonfly-style" eyes and a green tail dot, which I'd never done before. I was so excited that I went on the torch as soon as I could and made this!


Insignis Dragonfly

"Captive Drop" Earrings

Andrea and I have finally come up with a name for our "handforged locking earrings": Captive Drops! What do you think? Also, I'm really happy with how the earring construction has continued to evolve from the first few sets!

The top two orange-coral swirl "Solar Flair" earrings are special orders. They look the same size in those photos but they really aren't! The earhooks and beadcaps as the same but one has tiny 7mm beads, and the other has 11mm beads. The photo below shows the real proportions:














The next two are freshly listed on Etsy!

Mountain Thaw (my favorite!)






















Cresyl Violet (a tiny pair for purple lovers!)

First bead of 2010

I got the new compressor filter installed in my 2nd oxygen concentrator, so I'm back up to full power! On Thursday I made this floral. I'm happy with the striping (it's better in real life than in the photo - I seem to have captured the one area where it faded out!). And the pink floral is actually the pinkest and least mooshy I've made, though still rather scummy. Rubino Oro, you are a harsh mistress. (Yes, I used an oxidizing flame and worked slowly and far out... any other suggestions?) Luckily, in real life it is only about the size of a big marble, so you only see the micro-scum if you look very closely.



I also made a batch of forged earrings that I'm very happy with. I don't have any shows coming up so I think I'll actually post them on Etsy! My poor shop has been so neglected and I look forward to sprucing it up.

Reflections and Resolutions

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had as wonderful a celebration this year as we did. We couldn't manage to get home to either of our families this year because of a costly, unexpected and of course unavoidable furnace replacement. However, we were very blessed to be invited to join our good friends' family events (we're friends with the whole family, starting with our dear friend Rebecca whom we met in Guatemala). We got to spend time with kiddos and elders, out in the country, with lots of games and traditions and fun. For New Years we set off a ton of fireworks from Red Bomb on a frozen creek in perfect, clear windless -25 degree weather under a bright full moon. I'm not sure who was more excited - the kidlets or the "grownups!". Anyway, we all looked fabulous in our parkas and snowpants. :)
"Molten Fury" fireworks (one of our favorites)

2009 was a great year for Hearts of Glass. We've been growing and improving every year and this year we set new new personal benchmarks for quality and design. We're still a relatively small hobby-business but when I think back to how far we've come over the past six years that we've been lampworking, it's really amazing! We didn't know anything when we started. We've still got a lot that we look forward to learning, but I am very proud of what we've accomplished together.
Speaking of which, Andrea and I celebrated our 7th anniversary (of dating) on Dec. 30th 2009! We're supposed to mostly celebrate our wedding anniversary now (2.5 years) but I can't help celebrating both. That way we get one every 6 months!
For 2010 we're planning to do more silversmithing and more online marketing. I'm getting the hang of striking double-amber-purple in boro and look forward to playing with more elaborate dragonfly designs. Andrea has challenged me to break out of my five-pointed floral "rut" and explore new petal shapes, which I've been meaning to do anyway, but now it's a matter of honour! ;)
Our biggest change and challenge in 2010 will be our big move... We've decided to move away from Winnipeg to Ottawa, to be closer to my family.

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It'll be a bittersweet and slightly scary move as we love Winnipeg so much and have been so well treated here. There are many decisions to make and many things up in the air! I'll continue to post News as it develops. However we'll be here until at least May 2010, possibly well into the summer, and we'll be working and selling here until then and hopefully returning for big shows and friend visits. So stay tuned!
Best wishes - Heather and Andrea