When I revamped the site, ‘Glass’ meant beads, because that's all I've made, outside of a few marbles. There didn't seem to be any point in any other categories. But my repertoire shows signs of increasing—recently I tried a tink style vessel and lately I made these knobs for a wooden cabinet I designed for my studio to replace the plastic jobbie that isn't really wide enough to support the dvd player/amplifier. Given my experiences in the woodworking class—I had a not-serious but humiliating kickback accident on the last day of class—this was by far the most enjoyable part of the whole project (which remains unfinished, and would be a whole lot more unfinished without the wizard's expertise & assistance.)
six knobs made for a cabinet.
In order to make the knobs removable, he oiled some screws and set them in epoxy, which he said would've been easier to shove into solid knobs (these are slightly hollow.) After the glue dried, he backed out the screws. I admit to being a little dubious about how well this will work, but if it doesn't, we'll just permanently glue the knobs to the drawers. It's not as if I can't make more, after all. It occurred to me after I made them that blowing them, tink style, might be easier than doing the mandrel wound style I tried. —I really liked making them. Even the dichro strips on striking orange (!) worked out well, giving the knobs some zing to contrast all that soft green and purple. (Though I'm not very good at striking orange, and it tended to opacify, thereby covering up the dichro...ah well.) The wizard pointed out we have 30 ugly finger-pinching plastic bright brass knobs to replace on our kitchen cabinets...
The iris blooming in my garden and around town have inspired me to attempt asymmetrical ribbon cane, which is how I believe Leah Fairbanks gets her gorgeous effects on her iris beads. The precise method isn't documented in the Kervin booklet (there are space limitations after all) but I'm slowly getting it.
Very slowly. I really like this lime green and purple color combo, though properly speaking all the purple bearded iris I've seen have had yellow or purple beards (I have one that graduates from one t'other, way cool.)
I've occasionally seen really tight “macro” shots of beads, so I've included one here, complete with many dust specks for your edification.
Effetre soda lime glass, dichro, hand pulled striped cane. approximately 25mm, manufactured late May/early June. File created 8jun05.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
