Just for a change I thought I would not only document the giftwrap for our guild exchange but also the contents. And as a special bonus, and giftwrap & contents I received, which were totally in my colours:)
dot bead. 3 dec 2017.
Every few years, I attempt what I call Kristina Logan style twist floral dots. They never come out right, but over the last two decades, they've improved, and thus act as a handy metric for judging whether my lampworking skills have improved. While incremental, there has been improvement, which still kind of surprises me.
This bead is, to be honest, kind of bland and boring, but I didn't have time to do something better, and I didn't have anything else remotely in the correct colour scheme (I made this bead specifically for our santa swap.) It's hollow, but a thick hollow, with layered dots in green and white (& red) on a transparent base. Plunging the dots not only puts a pretty bubble, it also pushes the dot down, making it somewhat easier to make a less lumpy bead. (I have been thinking about these beads for a very long time.) Really, this bead's beiggest problem was that it needed a more contrasty (i.e. darker) colour for the base dot—not only to get the flowers to show better, but also to balance the red. C'est la vie, try again next time.
view one. turmeric paste, brown paper, silk flowers, ribbon
While I was experimenting with henna this summer (a major reason I wasn't doing much with glass) I wondered if I could make a yellow stain with turmeric, which is used as a food (protein) dye. Even more exciting would be to make beet juice henna (pink). I didn't get very far with this, but I figured I could use the leftover turmeric paste to practice on paper, which could then be used for giftwrap.
different view, using a much greater proportion of natural light with just a bit—say 1/64th power? flash fill, and a large piece of cardboard to bounce light onto the front of the box.
Since the bead went into a fairly small box, the paper, which measured perhaps 12" square, was (mostly) big enough to wrap the box (I left the bottom uncovered, since the box was the same cardboard-brown colour.) To help tie the turmeric in I added a yellow flower & ribbon. All in all, a not-entirely-successful wrap job to cover a not-entirely-successful bead, but ‘done-by-deadline’ is sometimes more important than perfect.
Fused wire wrap xmas tree ornament (about 6" high) and its wrapping job. By Laura F.
I'm a great lover of lime green, which I think makes a wonderful accent for emerald, red, fuchsia or turquoise, so you can see why this colour combo immediately caught my eye. The ornament is made with a base glass that has a subtle sparkle that my photography probably entirely failed to capture, accented with dichro tack-fused—super-crisp—on & wirewrapped to suggest a garland.
Though our guild is mostly lampworkers, we do have some fusers. Someday, I'm gonna get one of them to really teach me this...
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
