This weekend (plus Monday) I’m taking a lampworking class given by Kate Fowle Meleny. Yesterday we worked on enameling and painting beads, and I never thought there were so many cool things you could do with enamels. We also saw a demonstration on electroforming which will be covered in -depth during Monday’s class.
I’ve spent the last year or so perfecting my lampworking skills, and while they are still are not perfect, they have improved exponentially. The pendant shown above is one of my favorites. I love to take different colors and swirl them together in different ways. You never know what the result is going to be.
Over the past year or so I’ve taken a number of classes from expert teachers who have come up to Alaska including Trey Cornette, Kim Fields, Tink Martin, and Mary Lockwood. In a few weeks I will be attending a 3-day course by Kate Fowle Meleny. Anyway, who says that no one ever comes up to Alaska? See, we have good stuff up here too….
I’ve recently opened my Kaplan Creations Etsy store, so stop by and see what’s new.
I spent the morning trying to get back into melting glass on a more regular basis. Since I had bought this new sugar coating frit, I decided to make a series of transparent beads that look like they have a sugar coating—-or they look like life savers,
or something……..
I’ve taken a pretty long hiatus from making jewelry, but am now slowly getting back on track. In the meantime I’ve been spending my free time lampworking, taking classes, and learning new techniques. Last month I took two classes taught by Mary Lockwood at Glass Firenze, located here in Eagle River. One of the classes was on encasing beads, the other was on making floral beads. Both were terrific, but as you can see from the picture, I still have a lot of practicing to do.
The boro glass workshops given by William Hagy are some of the best classes that I’ve ever attended! I attended the Intro to Boro I and II classes (beads and pendants) and then decided to also attend the glass sculpture class. This was quite a learning experience for me as I had only worked on soft glass. I had a lot of trouble adjusting my flame correctly, and wasn’t used to the idea of continually adjusting my flame. William is not only a terrific teacher, but is very patient when having to explain the same thing multiple times! He nicely balances demonstrations with hand-on work and is happy to come to your torch and help you out when you get into trouble. I really appreciated his keen sense of humor as well. Many thanks to Deborah at Glass Firenze for bringing him up to Alaska. Make sure you don’t pass up the opportunity if you are ever given a chance to attend any of his workshops.
These lampworked beads are black moretti glass decorated with fine silver and I created this unusual pendant with 18 ga wire and a few more beads. 
What to do with wonky beads?
I still make my share of them, and don’t always want to throw them away. Usually I just try to dress them up somehow so that the indisputable weirdness isn’t as obvious. Here are some examples—-I always get compliments on these when I wear them and wonder if anyone (except for other lampworkers of course) notice the asymmetry?
Another thing I sometimes do is split the bead in half and melt the halves down in the kiln. Sometimes these turn out to be junk, but sometimes they can be made into nice little cabs.
I’ve been experimenting with adding fine silver to my beads. Since I just love the turquoise and ivory combination (which also makes that nice little black line between the two main colors), the silver adds an interesting effect. This has taken a bit of practice though, and I still manage to burn up a lot of my silver wire before actually getting it onto the bead (I use 28 gauge fine silver that I purchase from MonsterSlayer) . Need to work high up in the cooler part of the flame, or at least turn the flame down a bit before adding the silver. Anyway, here are some of my recent efforts (there are also a few without silver).
I’ve been busy setting up my new studio, which is currently just a big mess. Waiting to get the propane line plumbed in so I can hook up my oxygen concentrator and new torch (Carlisle Mini CC). Will be putting up some better pictures real soon.
