A Little Glass Vocabulary Lesson

When I mentioned I was stuck for an idea to write about today, my teammate Lesley Watt mentioned to me that she would like to have a little lesson in some lampwork vocaulary!  Perfect, I said, 'cuz I know that!  So today I'm going to tell you about three lampwork words you may have heard but don't really know what they are - frit, murrini and stringer.

FRIT

The above photo is a picture of frit by Robin Koza of Glass Diversions.  Frit is little ground up pieces of glass that you roll your bead in.  You can either melt it in all the way or leave it somewhat raised for different effects.  There are many producers of frit - Robin's frit blends were the first I was introduced to so I chose to highlight hers here.  But if you google glass frit, you will find many people who make gorgeous frit blends.

Here are some examples of my beads with frit:

 The above is an example of frit, melted in after the base bead was wrapped in silver foil.  You can see the reaction the frit and silver foil give to the beads!

 This is an example of a bead rolled in clear frit, and left somewhat raised.  It gives the impression of sugar or gumdrop candy!

 This is an example of frit over enamel powder (very finely ground glass) - this frit is raku frit, which gives varied colors when worked in different areas of the flame - either hotter or cooler.

 These beads were made by dipping the hot end of a glass rod in frit, then melting in the frit all the the way and making the bead, so it looks like swirls.

 Finally, these beads were made by rolling the disk in frit and only barely melting it in, to make it raised and resemble sand.

MURRINI

Murrini are little chips of glass that you apply to beads.  Murrini can be very simple, or very complex.  Murrini start out by layering colors of glass in specific design patterns to achieve a certain look.  The big blob of glass that results is then pulled down by heating it very slowly and stretching the blob out until it becomes basically the same dimensions as a glass rod.  The rod that results is then cut into "chips" with tile cutters and then applied to beads. 

An example of a simple murrini I made can be seen in this bead:

Here, I striped a rod of ivory glass with red-brown, heated it until the lines were fused with the ivory glass, and pulled it into a rod that I could nip into smaller chips.

Some people make really fantastic murrini - Lori and Kim for example:

Jennifer Cameron uses a lot of murrini by Lori and Kim to make her awesome headpins:

And Donna Millard, who I admire for the videos she shows of her large gathers before she pulls her murrini rods! This murrini by Donna:

 Made these beads:

 STRINGER

And finally, stringer.  Stringer is glass that is pulled off a molten rod of glass to make a thin strand of glass, used in decoration.  I can think of many people who have amazing "stringer control" - which means the ability to control how you apply your stringer onto a bead while controlling the heat used to apply it.  Here are some examples (the stringers are all the little lines you see "drawn" on the design of the bead):

Jelveh Jafarian

 JC Herrell

Holly Cooper

So there you have it, a simple lesson on three lampwork vocabulary words!  I hope you enjoyed the post today, as well as the eye candy!

Susan Kennedy
SueBeads Etsy Store
SueBeads Web Site

Things to do with headpins - 2 for 1 Tutorial

You may of heard on the blog… Beadfest happened recently! My friend, and AJE team member Lesley, kindly offered to take some of my beads across for swaps so I could share in the beady goodness! I got some amazing swaps back, some of which were headpins. 

I’ve been curious about glass headpins ever since I saw them while scrolling through Facebook, so I was thrilled to get some beautiful millefiori pins from Jen, and pretty green drop pins from Sue (which make me think of little jester’s hats!)

As with a lot of things I covet, once I got my hands on them, I had no clue what to do with them. I just wanted some as they were pretty. So they sat in my box of special things while I pondered. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas which I am going to share today. The demo’s are using Jen’s headpins as I think their shape works really well for these ideas.

The domed clear glass on Jen’s headpins give them such a wonderful depth that I thought they would make a pretty ring. 

Start by taking a headpin and holding it a couple of mm from the glass, bend the glass up so it sits at 90 degrees to the wire.

I used one of my existing rings to get the size. Put it on to your ring mandrel and mark with a felt tip where you need to wrap.

Hold the headpin on the mark with your thumb and wrap the wire around the mandrel, and loop it around the glass.

Keep looping until all the wire is around the head, tuck in the end of the wire and straighten the shank.

Put it on... cute!

Afterwards, I did think about adding seed beads around the shank and was going to make a second, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked that had a large enough hole… time for more bead shopping! If you do want to use beads, you would need put them on to the wire before sizing your ring on the mandrel.

Secondly, I decided to make a clasp. For such tiny heads, they make great focals, so my next design features the pin right in the middle. 

As with the ring design, hold the pin and bend the head to 90 degrees.

With bail making pliers wrap a wide loop on one side of the head.

Fold it round the top of the pin to hold it securely.

Do the same on the opposite side.

Wrap the remaining wire around either side of the head, tucking the end in neatly so it doesn’t catch.

Left as it is, it would make a great connector

Or you could do as I did and make a hook to turn the piece into a clasp.

With both designs, due to the heat needed to make the pins, the wire is quite soft, so it's nice and easy to use. But you may find that you need to harden your work when it's complete!

I hope I've inspired you to get wrapping with those headpins! To get some for yourself, visit Jen or Sue!

Thanks for reading!

Caroline

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk

Secrets Revealed...the Mission for the perfect bead display in an imperfect World

I haven't done a "bead show" since I first started making beads about 7 or 8 years ago. My set-up then was literally cobbled together with bits and pieces. And it was definitely NOT ideal.

Fast forward to 2013. And my last minute decision (June!) to vend at Bead Fest (August!). When you read this, I am probably already on my way to Pittsburgh to pick my handsome husband up from the airport before we continue on to Philadelphia (yes, you read that right....it's kind of complicated).

My jewelry display from a show I did in April. 

And I literally went shopping for my bead display stuff yesterday afternoon. Because I work better under pressure. Also, I procrastinate. So it's sort of still a cobbled together display. 

I went shopping with the thought that I would buy cheap wood trays from the craft shop and fill them with something to create a nice soft bed for my beads...rice? seed beads? coffee beans? Definitely NOT sand. I did that the first bead show. It was a disaster. 

I stopped at Kohl's first so I could buy some jeans for hubs. And I took a quick look in the cookware department. And I found the perfect solution to one of my major problems....small inventory. 

The small square bowls are very simple, elegant, and only about 3" or 4" across. Because I mostly have focals, each bowl will be a perfect showcase for a focal bead. I bought 3 trays of 3 bowls. So I only need to put out 9 focals at any given time. I can add a few to the long rectangular tray as well.

Because my deep dark embarrassing secret is that I just don't have very many beads. It's been a crazy summer (I long for kids whining about being bored and me not having to drive miles and miles and miles every single day) and I signed up late. Oh well. Call this a learning experience and have fun. Meet new people. Buy beads.

I decided I wanted a black or dark brown filler. There are several reasons I went that direction. Because my entire set-up is black, white, wood, and metal. Also, it would have driven me insane if the white rice was "off" from the white of the dish. So I ran next door to Walmart to look for something black. Black beans? Black wild rice? I decided on the rice.

 But I was worried about my glass headpins being too heavy for the rice to keep upright in the 8 oz. canning jars I had put in the cart. I bought 4 bags at $5 EACH to try (which seems kind of expensive for rice! But what do I know? I rarely eat rice and have never eaten this kind.)

The next stop was Michaels (just a few doors down from Walmart) where I found...sand. Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to use sand. But PEOPLE! This sand is coarse. And black. With a little bit of sparkle. And it didn't stick to the sides of the plastic bag it was in...a very good sign.

And at only $3/bag at nearly twice the amount in the bag as the rice, I was certain this was my answer.

I rushed home to try everything out.

This particular style murrini really needs to be seen top down. Laying on their sides on my table looks pretty unimpressive

And in the jar:

An additional benefit of the jar of sand...easy to pack away:

I'll be returning that wild rice when I get back from Bead Fest.

Check out the postcards we ordered to give out:

Stop by and say hello if you're going to Bead Fest. If not, say hello in the comments below.
Have a great week!

-Jen Cameron
Glass Addictions

Where did this necklace come from part 2 and giveaway winner

First I would like to share with you all the winner of the Earring Challenge Giveaway!
Congratulations to

Monique of A Half-Baked Notion

Please contact Linda so she can get you your goodies!!!

So when I left you in my last post I had just been back from the Michael's trip and found these and some really cool hematite rings that just begged to come home with me.

So off I went to create.  I attempted to bezel those rounds but they were just not playing nice.  It wasn't the look I was going for.

But before I could even take a picture of those rings as they were purchased they just screamed at me and needed to be beaded right away.  I was loving the way it was going.

 Well as luck would have it and my luck for sure I did not have enough of those rings to do the whole piece.  So how to bring it all together.  Back then I did not have very much experience with spiral herringbone stitch but it just seemed to be the perfect flow so .......

Then the real question.  How to hang the pendant.  Sideways so it flowed from one side to the other or up and down so that it hung as a statement.

As you can see this is perfect in my opinion.  I love wearing this one just because and with just about anything it can go with (when my daughter hasn't hidden it on me.  She says it's hers.) and it hangs just were I want it too.  I had actually worn it to the State Fair last year and was literally stopped by 3 women wondering what booth I bought it in. 

So that is how so many of my creations come to be.  I love to be surprised by what I receive because it challenges me to think and play in a way I may not have before.

Kristen

April Component of the Month Reveal-Headpins!

Today is the big reveal and I am super excited to see what the guest designers and the AJE team members came up with. Because of the last minute switcheroo, my having a show the 1st weekend of April and not mailing until after that, it was a very short design month for everyone.

There were two different headpin design choices. 

Murrini:

or Spirals:

While I sent each participant two headpins, they were only required to use one.

Without further ado, let's take a look at what everyone made:

Guest Designers:

Erin Prais-Hintz

Kathy Lindemer

Alice Peterson

AJE Team:

Susan Kennedy

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman

Linda Landig

Jen Cameron

Grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy the show(case) of designs

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

Getting More Traffic to your Facebook Business Page

Frustrated by the lack of "likes" on your facebook page? Or the lack of interaction? Yeah...me too. I've tried the various things like...asking a question that will (hopefully) start a conversation, sharing updates about what I'm doing in the studio, etc. I often felt like I was talking to myself.

However, I noticed when I posted the occasional photo, there were a lot more likes and comments. The more likes and comments, the more people will see your content. However, posting photos periodically throughout the day gets cumbersome to upload to computer then post to facebook.

Or at least, it was, until I got the Facebook Pages app for my iPhone. It's super easy to use and I can share photos immediately after taking them.

For the last few weeks I've been prepping for a show, which was last weekend. I posted snapshots of new beads, my worktable, in progress jewelry, etc. a couple times a day.

During the show I posted photos of my booth, close-ups of my business card holders, the fact I was barefoot behind the table...

Looking at my stats from March 30-April 7, I got 65 new page "likes". Mostly from posting photos. My show was April 5th-7th, so some of those may be the result of people looking me up on Facebook after meeting me and seeing my work at the show.

Have you noticed the chart at the top of your page (only you can see it)? Mine looks like this:

If you click on the chart (or on "see all"), it will give you all KINDS of information. Facebook is hoping you will use that to pay for advertising....but you don't have to. And it gives you some really helpful information to run your business. 

You can get an overview that looks like this and shows you likes, people talking about this and weekly total reach:

Under the "Likes" tab, you get the chart I showed you at the beginning which shows the number of likes and unlikes you've gotten for each day. But it also gives you a breakdown of your audience. Particularly helpful if you decide to set up an ad campaign...or helping you have a better grasp of basic demographic information about WHO is liking your page:

Reach has three components. Demographics and location:

How you reached people and visits to your page:

And since I've already shared a ton of charts, I won't bother showing "Talking about this" because visually it looks the same as what you've already seen. However, it shows two components...demographics of who is talking about your page (gender, age, location) and HOW people are talking about your page. 

I wish I could give you specific information about how the new "likes" translates into sales, but I have not listed anything online since I started showing lots of photos. I do recommend making your page very visual, but not just listings. Because that gets spammy and people will probably leave your page if all you do is peddle your product and do nothing to interact with your audience. 

Have you discovered any tips that have helped increase the audience and interaction of your Facebook page? Please share in the comments section! 

Still recovering from three days of running my booth...

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions