Ask me anything! (about my beads)
 

I might be having a mid-life crisis, or maybe I'm just looking for more excuses to hang out on the computer and procrastinate working... but if anyone is interested in how I make a particular bead or just achieve a specific effect, post a pic of it here and I'll spill the beans. (The only exceptions are things I learned in a class from someone who is still teaching, in which case I'll refer you to them. :) )

What a sweetie!

So, what is the meaning of life?

:hide:

Seriously, that is a kind and generous offer.

Oh, I'm taking advantage of this one!

I love your sets, in particular the Romance series. And of those I positively drool over the Peach Romance and the Champagne Romance sets.

For the life of me I cannot picture how you get the effect you do on those sets. But I'm not very knowledgeable concerning the use of frits so I need little words. :)

well just to keep you busy.........

whats the base color?
http://www.beadwife.com/detail.tpl?ItemID=12137

OK I also want to know...
1) What is your all time fav frit? you can pick one soft and one boro...
2) What is the most important thing you would tell a lampworker who wants to get into the business end of things.
3) I know there are threads about Raku all over the place but what is your secret!?!

NOt all about specific glass beads, but it will keep you busy!! :) This is really awesome of you Kalera!

And the frit is???

Thanks Kalera - that's so generous of you!

I'd love to know how to make these .. they are just gorgeous.

http://beadwife.com/mm//public/media...536.76795.jpeg
http://beadwife.com/mm//public/media...282.77873.jpeg

OK, this one is so simple... and sooo complicated at the same time! It's going to be a long story but the story is necessary in order to explain why the answer is complicated.

The frit blend I use for those started out as an accidental act of heartbreaking stupidity. I had two jars of frit open; one was Gaffer Tobacco and one was Reichenbach Iris Opal Orange (Raku). I had just finished playing with the Tobacco, and basically deciding I didn't like it and had no use for it, and took what was left in my frit dish and dumped it back into the jar.

The wrong jar. I accidentally dumped it into the R-108 jar. Gah! So I scooped it out, and the frit under it trying to get it all out of my precious R108, and put the blended frit into a jar. A few days later, I thought, what the heck... I'll at least see if it's usable. So I made a bead with it. To my astonishment, the tobacco and the R-108 reacted together and the result was absolutely beautiful! That was the birth of a line I called "Klimt", which was equal parts Gaffer Tobacco and R-108, size 1. One day, I had another "duh" moment, and, while blending more Klimt frit, I added the wrong size of R-108... now it had size 1 and size 0. To my surprise, it was even more lovely, so I continued mixing it with those proportions: One part size 0 R-108, one part size 1 R-108, two parts Gaffer Tobacco.

The next happy accident was getting a little Z-99 Purple Rose special in it. At first I was bummed because of how dramatically the Z-99 changed the look of the beads; it's really dominant, and a tiny bit makes a huge impact! Plus, the tendency to devitrify makes it harder to work with. I thought I'd use up that batch and go back to my old formula... but realized, after making a set or three, that I loved the look except for the random patches of devit. That's when I started tumbling the beads in a rock tumbler, to get rid of the devit and give them a uniform matte finish.

Somewhere along the line the formula morphed to include pinches of other colors, which morph and vary depending on my whim, but the basic, most crucial elements are still one part R-108 size #0, one part R-108 size #1, two parts Gaffer Tobacco size #1, and a pinch of Z-99 #0.

i was thinking raku thunder... well raku, with bits of purple and green at least :) my best guess!

http://beadwife.com/mm//public/media...137.86250.jpeg

The base color is Bullseye Peoni Pink!

1. ONE FRIT??? :cry: probably R-108 for soft glass, and definitely GA Amazon Bronze in boro!

2. For every hour you put into lampworking, you will need two hours to run your business and promote your work, so if you torch 20 hours a week you should expect to work 60 hours a week.

3. Seriously, I don't do anything special! I just melt it and it comes out like that. Barracuda torch, two concentrators, usually natural gas but sometimes I switch to propane just for giggles.

Thanks for this, Kalera! Believe it or not I have all of these frits and I've never even tried the Tobacco. Maybe, I'll get some use out of it now!

It's the recipe above. :)

Those are a base of Bullseye French Vanilla, covered with a strip of heavy silver foil, melt in, roll in transparent colors of Bullseye frit, melt in, encase. :)

Kalera, is your natural gas piped in the normal household psi or did you boost it? I have a Cuda too and always wonder if NG would work without boosting.

Thank you so much for sharing! :kiss:

It seems like the most useless color ever, until you add R-108... then it's pure magic! It can also achieve a nice metallic bronze-flake look if you oxidize it just so, and it makes R-108 pop if your roll your bead in it before you add R-108.

Thanks Kalera! Are you using a mix of frit sizes for these? It looks like you're getting a lot of variation.

Thanks Kalera! you R O C K !

You're welcome! I learned so much from forums, and the generosity of other lampers... you guys rock!

It's just piped right in at household PSI. It's great for bead-sized things, including pretty decent-sized boro beads, but if I was doing large solid boro work I'd probably want more pressure.

The exact recipe, including frit sizes, is in post #8. :) Much of what looks like size variation is actually due to reactions... some frits "push" on the others.

You are welcome! Thank you!

I definitely plan to give that recipe a try, but I was asking about the Cove beads. Sorry I wasn't clear about that at all.

Wow - I hustled over here as soon as I got my email that you had answered in the other thread. First I went to The Beadwife and looked at sold sets to refresh my memory about names and was remembering "romance" - bounced over here and lo and behold, someone beat me to it. I use raku all the time and love it, but it never forms a matrix like this. Guess I have to get me some tobacco - wonder why it does that -or maybe it's the BE? I was looking at the squeezed romance sets like "sky", "spring", "ruby", "daffodil" and they all have the nifty matrix. Do you think it's just the frit mixture?

Thank you so much for your wonderful offer - still think a tut would sell like hotcakes - like the silver tuts. You probably have all the photos already unless you are like me and forgot what you used. Doesn't sound like it though.

Going to git me some tobacco right now!!!

Oh! Sorry, I got mixed up... I should have known you were referring to the Cove beads! Those are all medium BE frit, but when two or more pieces bleed into each other you get a bigger "pool" in that spot.

It is definitely the frit; it has reacted the same so far on every opaque base I've put it on, including 90, 96, and 104. I love it!

What a fun thing to offer, thank-you. I'am in!

Dawn Canyon and Ochoco pixestone ...I am totally intrigued by the color combos on these two beads. If Dawn Canyon is still available payday I may add it to my collection for the hutch..:smile:

Lorraine

Those are seriously beautiful beads. You are one of the few people that I think makes gorgeous frit beads.

Here's my offer, Kalera. I'm pretty good with computer stuff and other software. If you ever decide that you want to organize your series into a sellable .pdf tut, let me know - happy to help.

Hi Kalera,

the post says you used an amber base ... can you tell me the specifics & frit for these please.

Thanks!!!




And FYI ... I'd be willing to help with the sellable pdf as well ... been a graphic designer for almost 20 years!!!! It would be fun to do and I would hope you could include techniques as well ... just sayin;

This is the most generous thing I've seen on Lampworketc!!!
I love these beads. Would love to know your recipe.

http://www.beadwife.com/detail.tpl?ItemID=12509

Thanks Squidly! :D

Lorraine, Dawn Canyon is a mix of frits in varying sizes that includes R-108, R-106, R-227, K-66, Z-74, and Z-99. There is also a medium, slightly translucent blue, and a cobalt that is a total mystery. It's on a base color of Uroboros 2342.
http://beadwife.com/mm//public/media...449.87265.jpeg

The way some of these frits, like this one, got born was essentially via happy accident. Oftentimes, it's what I do with a bunch of leftovers or samples that I couldn't do anything with. Worse yet, sometimes I don't know what those frits are... an early mistake I'm learning not to make!

I think I know enough of the components of this one to more or less replicate it. I hope. I have half a baby food jar of it left!

Ochoco Pixiestone is half R-108 and R-736 frits, size #1, gravity swirled over some vintage German light blue transparent.
http://beadwife.com/mm//public/media...460.87319.jpeg