Northwest berries

The Pacific Northwest is blessed with an abundance of berry varieties.  Some might say that the non-native Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) is the kudzu of the Northwest.  The roots shoot out the giant primocane, a thick arching stem that can reach up to 20 feet in length during the first year of growth, and a mass of branching and fruiting floricanes on the second year.

I found a use for those long thorny primocanes one year when I had damage to my fence from people leaning or sitting on it.  I stapled a length of blackberry primocane along the upper edge of the fence.   Voila, organic natural barbed wire that worked like a charm and cost nothing.

My favorite flavor are the more tart pinkish berries on the cusp of ripeness.  Here are a series of handmade Aura Sun Arts beads with the hobnail texture of blackberries and the range of colors.    The Wikipedia article I linked to above has a nice photo showing this range of colors as the fruit ripens.  It goes from dark green to pale green to pink to dark pink to a very deep inky purple.

ripening berries

Summer crop of beads

summer beads 2012

This summer I have been mixing some custom colors by blending and stirring several colors together.  Browns can be especially tricky so by making several custom shades and blending them I have come up with some beads that resemble wood grain.

Another challenge was trying to match the color and shape of some green beads that were missing on a necklace a friend hoped I could repair.  I did not get an exact match but the unusual shape was fun to experiment with.

Here is a photo of some of the recent beads.  The round ones have touches of a bright greenish yellow called Uranium Green.

Click on the photo for a closer view.

Another glorious sign of summer are the crop of sunflowers.

summer sunflower

working with flame

How does one make a lampworked glass bead?

half made bead

Take a steel rod of 2 – 3 mm diameter, coated with a clay release agent, and heat up this rod in the flame.  With the other hand, select a glass rod of the color needed, and introduce this slowly to the flame as well.  The end of the glass rod will begin to melt, and form a blob, or “gather.”  Drip this onto the rod, and wrap it around.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

I usually marver the bead now, by rolling it on a flat surface until it takes a cylinder shape, and use this as my canvas to paint with more colors.  I keep adding layers of color, and often finish the bead with some clear glass encasing.

fully molten bead

The bead can be rather lumpy at this point, like a raspberry.   I heat it up further until it is entirely molten, and takes on a smooth rounded shape.  You must continually rotate the rod to keep the bead centered.  If you wish the bead to be textured you skip this rounding.  The bead can also be shaped by rolling it on a flat surface, or pressing it into a mold.

Then let it cool down until the normal colors return to the glass, and put it away in a kiln or warming thermal blanket to rest for several hours.  The next day it can be taken off the rod:   after a soak the clay rinses away and it twists free, the bead is complete and the rod can be re-coated with clay for the next dance.

The flame is a Minor lampworking torch with a mixture of propane and oxygen fuel.  Proper ventilation and didymium safety glasses are essential.  Wikipedia has several good entries relating to beadmaking and glass art.

Click on any photo here for a larger view.

torch, glass rods, and safety glasses

butterfly beads

I once had a butterfly stand,

swallowtails

where I sold hand colored paper butterflies to my mother, who wisely thought that safer and more creative than a lemonade stand.

I suspect she still has those paper butterflies, carefully stored away.

Now I have the chance to try my hand at butterflies again, shaky childish efforts only a mother could love.  Click to see them fly.

glass butterflies

Could this be an example of the mother-daughter butterfly effect?

blue oceans of glass

Blue has to be one of my favorite colors.

oceanic blues and greens

Blue glass beads can remind one of the fabulous colors of the ocean.  Tropical waters are very clear, with little plankton, and the water is clear all the way down to the sandy bottom, showing off those gorgeous turquoise tints.  Northern waters, with richer plankton, are a dark blue green.

When you paint with watercolors, you can combine or layer colors to blend and mix until you achieve new colors.  Glass is much the same, so start with a sandy layer, then add pale blues and greens, deeper blues, some flotsam, jetsam, and a few bubbles, and you can almost imagine yourself snorkeling, rocking in the ocean to the sound of your breathing.

watercolor painted in Belize

Click on the photo to see more big blues.  Those with a layer of clear glass on the outside – “encasing” –  have an extra sense of depth.  This layer refracts and bends light just as water does.  Quite a few of these are matched pairs or sets.  See all the blue beads on the Blue oceans page.  Other new sets are featured on the Earrings page.

Making beads

People are sometimes puzzled when they see my jewelry.

glass rods

You made the necklace, and the beads?  The bead stringing they can understand, but they are sometimes shocked to hear that I made the beads themselves and ask how.

It all starts with glass rods and a torch.  Here you see my work area with the many colors of glass rods arrayed on a hotplate.  The red knob at lower left is part of the torch.  At lower right you see the didymium safety glasses.  Click on the photo to see a larger view.

Lampwork is the term used to describe working with molten glass using a small ‘lamp’ or torch.  The beads are made by heating up the glass rods until liquid, and wrapping it around a steel rod coated with a release agent.  After the bead is complete, the rod is removed and that leaves a hole in the bead.

Stay tuned for weekly posts about beadmaking, other artistic adventures, and the Friday Mo report!

Aura Sun Arts

Welcome to Aura Sun Arts!

Aura Sun Arts

I love color and glass is a chance to play with liquid color in three dimensions.  Each bead is one of a kind, and most have a thick encasing of clear glass that makes them resemble the marbles I collected years ago.  Come explore my world.