norsegirl

Been up to stuff but not much either interesting or productive.

Last weekend we toured model houses, which I think I discussed before. Having looked at the listings in Edmonton, I'm pretty convinced that we are never going to be able to buy a home - very depressing. There were a grand total of exactly 4 homes between $150,000 and $200,000 in the city on MLS AND com-free (the private sale site), and many of them were already sold. A whopping 4 homes in the 200,000 - 250,000 range on com-free (didn't count MLS) and it just goes up by leaps and bounds from there. The saddest part was that none of those homes were even as big as, much less bigger, than our current rental. Not much incentive to move I say. We may not be "building equity", but neither are we paying for repairs of having to pay for transportation to work - and that saves a bundle. Affordable housing my ass. Maybe compared to Toronto or Vancouver, but only because they are completely ridiculous! And again, adult me knows I should be saving for a downpayment on a mortgage, but childish me can't get excited about stashing money away and "doing without" so we can spend a lot of money on something less nice than what we have now.

Went for my first attempt at a chiropractic appointment on Wednesday and was sent for X-rays before he'd touch anything. Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering White Ave. indulging in retail bliss. Spent a whole lot of money at Lush, which appears to have been money well spent. So far enjoying everything I bought. Spent a moderately ridiculous sum at a fancy dog boutique. Haven't tried the "musher's wax" yet as the purpose is to keep paws from cracking in extreme cold or heat and it has been blessedly moderate all winter thusfar. Bought "dog smog remedy" which is like Binaca for dogs. Anna is NOT impressed. And it seems to only barely mask it for minutes, not improve it over time as advertised. They're next to me on the couch right now absolutely stinking up a storm.

Thursday I went for my first actual chiropractic treatment, having confirmed that I had not in fact fractured my spine all those years ago in Australia. Oh my GOD!!!!! I have never heard such a horrible noise! And it hurt to breathe after! I enjoyed shooting pain intermingled with dull ache for the next 48 hours. After which my spine seems to have returned to the base-achy-pain level of the last 5 years. Going again tomorrow and hoping it goes better.

Wasted Thursday and Friday trying not to hurt myself. Finally put away the Christmas decorations on Saturday morning. Only to find, once they were all nicely tucked away in the basement, that Jason missed one thing while clearing out the bathroom - isn't that always the way? Didn't accomplish much else that I can remember. Sunday lazed around most of the day, ran out to the grocery store to get stuff to make dinner, but then decided to eat junk food and put off the actual cooking until tonight. Picked up more glass at Canadian Tire and was thus able to finally get back on the torch (I think it's been a month or so and all the gas I had before had drained out because I forgot to remove the torch head). Had a completely unproductive evening of beading. First tried a hollow bead. I did obtain a hollow bead, but it's clunky, uneven and not delicate at all. On the bright side, it didn't collapse, so that's a start. On the down side, it fractured in cooling, so it's not long for this world I fear. I also attempted the "perfectly round bead". Um, yeah, perfectly round my ass. Looks the same shape as any of my other beads. Might have to try it again and work out where I went wrong. The hollow bead, ironically, is perfectly round - go figure. Also burnt myself stupendously bad! Was opening the bottle of bead release when I hit the back of my hand against the torch. Stuck a piece of my skin to the torch! Totally not kidding! There's a little hole on my hand, and a little blackened stain on my torch from where it burnt off when I lit the torch for the next bead - uuuugggghhhh! Surprisingly, not nearly as painful as whn I accidentally passed a thumb through the flame.

Today's plan is to walk the doggies to the polling station when Jason comes home for lunch. Not like my vote will matter at all since it's pretty much a foregone conclusion in this province. Stupid parties have turned this election into a one-or-two issue thing for me, and I support a woman's right to choose and the gay/lesbian right to marry, so I'm sure you can figure from that who I'm voting for if you really want to know. So that makes myself, Jason and maybe 20 other people in this riding - go us! And to show just how much support we have in this area... I had to go look if we even had a candidate to vote for, since last time I checked we didn't. Anyway, don't care who you vote for, just get out there and go it.

One weekend to a complete festoon. True, it's a short one, but I also dinked around with a few beads I chose not to use. Here's a sample of the beads I made today:


I made two of each of the beads shown, these were the best ones.

And ( behind the cut ) the whole festoon.

Finally, no more ugly commercial beads for me. Not even any beads made by other artists. Just mine. Feels good.

Now, off to write all those thank you notes. Maybe dye my hair first... so procrastinating.

I brought my lampworking stuff on the road. I first pulled it out under a picnic shelter at Avacal Inlands war to finish my thralldom graduation present. In the end I had 50 beads to give to Wernar. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them. I'm hoping maybe I'll have a chance to take a shot later since it turned out to be a pretty good set.

The surprise at this site was that even on relatively still days there is still enough of a breeze to move the flame and redirect the heat. This made working very difficult, but I managed it.

Then it was back to Ontario where I set up in my parents' garage. I then learned that the ambient temperature can have a HUGE affect on the work. The glass heated a lot faster, the glass was molten for longer and the beads took a long time to cool.

I finally arrived at Pennsic and first I set the stuff up so I could try to teach my apprentice sister. That's when I realized that the sunlight was so bright that I couldn't see the flame. Which isn't a problem for me since I know where I'm supposed to be working and all that, but makes it hard to teach. Odette got to try it again early evening, but then the ambient light is really too little to see anything but the flame. Finding a compromise was tough.

The course was in a tent, so the lighting wasn't much of a problem there, and the walls sucessfully cut the breeze, though the heat (being over 90 degrees) did make working at all on anything really hard. The class itself was rather unsuccessful as it was in land grab week and wasn't advertised in the site book as I got it in too late. I only got one walk-in and my apprentice sister. However, it was nice that Odette got some quality time on the torch and I hope she enjoyed it. Unfortunately I left my brand new safety glasses at the bead night, or dropped them out of my belt on the way there or back.

I did a few more nights of work, but with the combination of too much ambient heat (burnt a LOT of beads) and the breezes, I wasn't pleased with most of my results. However, I was particularly pleased with this bead that I made for Heather:

First attempt at heaps of stacked dots:



Unfortunately, it was lost at some point in the week. I don't know if Heather had it or if I did, I have no idea if it's in my stuff or lost somewhere in the grass at Pennsic. Fortunately I got a pic of it the night before it was lost.

I also finished the beads for the fighting laurels' prize tourney but didn't remember to take a picture of them. Not a big deal as I wasn't terribly impressed with them in the end. The set started so well, but got totally derailed by working at Pennsic.

On the bright side, I did attend an advanced bead-making class, at which I learned some new techniques that I can't wait to try. I'd be in my room working on it now but my husband is out so I have to watch the hounds. Maybe when he gets home...

Ever had one of those days where you know the universe is just out to break your heart? I spend half an hour making the most beautiful bead I've ever made (in my eyes anyway). Let it cool for what I thought was sufficient time. Then went to take it off the mandrel and it broke clean in half. I wanted to cry.



Being the practical woman that I am, I refused to be defeated, went to the toolbox, fetched myself some crazy glue and tah dah!

( Final product behind the cut )

Time to have a shower and a quick breakfast and go new car hunting :)

I was looking at this picture today, and I have always wanted to do a replica, and it suddenly occurred to me that I might have been misinterpreting...



Is it just me, or does that look like the "pearls" might actually be milky-transparent glass? Check the way they look pinkish over her neck and greyish at the nape of her neck where the hood is in the background, not to mention greyish all over the head-dress. Pearls are opaque.

Soooo, if this is meant to be glass, not pearls, I think I have an A&S project on my hands. Anyone want to give me any good pointers on making perfectly round beads? Mine have been rather "ring" or "Barrel" shaped thusfar. These beads are clearly round.

Shape description as per this site (about 1/3 down)

Last night's efforts (took me until now to charge the batteries and get the pics off the camera). The ones on the left are kinda yuck (still figuring out how to deal with the green, and the purple spots were just and experiment to see how the clear purple laid on the mauve, not well I think). The ones at either end aren't sensational either, but usable at least. The rest all turned out pretty well though. Even had decent enough control over the green to keep it from bleeding too much.

I think I'm about 2-3 beads away from the necklace I want now, at most. I've even got the stringing order figured out. I'll post it when it's all put together. Which better be by tomorrow in time for the event.





In other news tax season is over for me. All my work is done, except my own taxes that is, and I don't have to do all the documentation and working paper junk I do for work, so that should go easy. It'll be nice to have a life again, or rather for the weekend until school starts up again - sigh.

Today I went searching online for new techniques and found this page showing a neat technique for making stripes. Apologies for the bizarre non-glass related images on that site, I don't know what they were thinking. Anyway, most of my work today was experimenting with that technique. First in black on red, then yellow on black on red, which was cool when it worked but was hit and miss, then green on purple, which I wasn't satisfied with as the clear seemed to bleach the purple, then my dark purple on white.

I then experimented with Directions for a combed, raised design which was somewhat frustrating. I was unable to get the wavy line effect in step three, which was what I was really trying to achieve. The first bead I combed, the second my torch ran outta gas, the third I combed again and was rather pleased with the result. Then I tried a simple spotted bead, and after this, things went all to hell and I made a lot more glass blobs due to broken bead release than I did actual beads. At which point I figured it was time to call it a day and experiment with the camera instead.

What follows are images of today's beads taken outside with natural light and then inside on my trusty blue fabric. I still think the indoor light works better for me.

( beads behind the cut )

Passed my thumb through the flame of my torch while trying to make stringers. Didn't hurt too much when I did it. Hurts soooo very much now!!!! From now on I buy stringers. Grrrrrr.

Tonight, a little practice with stringers and an attempt at swirls. Had one really nice one, then overheated the bead and the whole thing went wacky (the black on white bead).



Displayed not on a stringer as per Lunesse's suggestion (my stringers are too large, they won't fit) but on a mandrel instead. Good suggestion, adapted.

Anyway, the last two beads on the right on the mandrel are out of that dark clear purple. It's a great colour when held up against the light, but I just can't figure a way to make it intense without it looking like black. I'm thinking next I might try a thin layer of white at the core of the bead and laying the purple over it. Who knows if I have the skill for that, but worth a try I guess.

I really love the diagonal dented violet bead. The edges are a little sharp, but the bead is lovely, so it will be used anyway.

Sleep time

Hello friends!

I've just started into making recreation Norse glass beads, and I'm so obsessed I made a community. If anyone else is similarily obsessed (with either making glass beads or with the use of beads by the Norse, or with the use of beads by any people in the time and place the SCA re-creates), please come join me

http://www.livejournal.com/community/glass_beads/