11.15.2017 - Can u CAB?

JillSymons.com Lampwork

I had a repeated request this past week for cabs... which in my book are dangerous.  No, not for everyone - just me.  As what happens to me is I have to make them every which way... and in every color and size - and and and.... 

I've been playing around with finding other ways to use them, as I don't always have the time to make bezel settings...  my sweet neighbor, Kathleen, is a beading genius and can whip out bezel cups or stitch these into seed beads in the drop of a hat - but me?  I'd rather be making beads!!
(*if you want one - but don't have the means to mount it, I can put you in touch with her - and you two can make arrangements).

Over time, I've come to putting holes in the cabs to allow for a jumpring... but that seems to lessen the elegance of said cab.  This week, after the flurry of cabs - I started looking at some bead sets I have on hand, and decided to take the cab to a more casual style and add that hole for a bale...  last I counted, I have eleven sets of beads that there are now focals and closures for!  Check out my website tonight to see what's up on my Weekly Wednesday Update!  Live at 9pm EST.

JillSymons.com Lampwork
Peace Out

11.8.2017 - Richness of Silver

I love silver.  I love what it does in the flame and how different glass reacts to it.  I love how my friends/customers react to it as well.  It is a classic - and makes jewelry timeless and very flexibly wearable.  Somehow - a little doesn't convey as well as heavily wrapped layers of silver, and I always make sure that the silver is fully adhered to the bead surface - and smoothly tumbled to take off any sharp edges *and test for how well it has adhered to the surface!*.

Some of my styles don't require tumbling and the beads don't need tumbling - as the silver is held fast under a layer of clear encasing glass.  While these are also 1/2" dia, the wrapped bead is smaller - so that with the encasing layer - it doesn't exceed 1/2".

Another version of wonderful silver on glass is the Nailheads - again adhered in the flame, and tumbled to make sure they all stuck!  

11.1.2017 - Weighing Things...

Last week I watched as a friend held these in her hand and tried to approximate the weight.  I have always tried to make pieces that I felt were wearable and comfortable across the board.  It spurred me on - I came home and immediately set out to make a lighter version of these while trying to preserve the OOOOHness of the pair.  I cut the weight in half.  

There is a clear glass ball - with a glass loop at the top - NO HOLE... suspended from a ring at the back of the cup shaped argentium silver disk.  These are dangling from a curved earwire soldered to the back of the silver cup.  I've turned the ear wire pretty close to the earlobe so they don't hang low, but left (on most) the silver tail of the ear wire extending below the clear bead.  I can always trim this to end just at the base of the clear bead... 

So - with my digital scale out - I weighed these - and came up with .10oz apiece (the equivalent weight of a dime), and the new scaled down version - at .05 apiece. (two weigh as much as a dime).

I think they're a nicely petite version of the original, for those worried about weight of glass earrings... and being as I am... I've made the components in (all transparent) clear, denim blue, light amethyst, dark amethyst, amber, topaz, pale green, cobalt, and light blue.  

Having some time issues tonight with the update - but will edit and load the pictures etc between now and tomorrow so - have a look at it over the weekend maybe?  thanks for being here.... smiles, Jill

10.24.2017 - Lovely Lauscha...

Tis' the season, or it soon will be...  I just thought I'd put the word out that I do have some inventory of the wonderful transparent Lauscha red.  Think "Candy Apple RED"!  Perfect for the holidays as well as the lovers' holiday following shortly in February.  
While Glassdaddy (my daddy - Frank DeRosa) isn't in business anymore - he has assured me he will lovingly participate in making sure quality control is in effect for the shipments.  

Email me if you're interested and I'll put a PayPal button on my site next week and get that ball rolling!   Smiles - Jill

email me at lampwork@jillsymons.com

10.18.2017 - Edge Obsession continues...

Last year I swore off presses. 

I had ordered three expensive presses from Germany and they arrived with guide pins that weren't tapered - and were NOT stainless steel as they had stated in the description.  At ~$80 per press - imagine my disappointment when the Stainless Steel guide pins rusted in the Texas atmosphere.  Owner was not easy with making it right... not pleased...

So - I figured for the quintessential handmade handshaped bead - it should be unique.  OOAK (do you know how long it took me to realize what that meant?)  I can control so many more things with this method, but it is much more time consuming.  I have mentioned before - but I work with a set of brass calipers on my torch mounted marver so I can check dimensions as I work.  So - matching beads are possible *(as with the olive earrings shown above).
 

I almost worked solely in these tiles this week - loving the fact that the light is more able to penetrate a thinner bead AND this allows the color to shine.  I also love the mirror smooth surfaces here - as chill marks don't add anything to this set!!

I did end up playing the balancing act a bit with the gorgeous droplet earrings (shown at bottom of page)...

I do receive emails asking if these are made with presses... one woman suggesting they were cut with a saw, then polished... LOL
It just involves a ton of patience - a hand held marver and tenacity.  Maybe we can call it being stubborn.  But the results are very pretty.... smiles - Jill

---

The relief from straight edges....

Imagine balancing a 1/2"D blob of molten moving glass - moving it constantly until it rounds out - and is centered enough to hang straight from its own glass mandrel loop... - then imagine a matching pair?? I love the challenge.  #nopresses

10.11.2017 - Cute Posing Beads

*Remember - Weekly Wednesday update tonight at 9pm eastern. http://www.jillsymons.com

I love how glass transmits light.  (yes - think fiber optics!!) These wonderfully chunky tabs do that with these night straight edges.  I remember sitting at the torch while making these - looking forward to photographing them! Yes... seriously!  they're 1" across and about 3/8" thick... chunky - and I've left the chill marks on the surface - because it makes them all that more interesting!  Most of the glass I use is Lauscha or glass from the Czech Republic.  The transparent colors are just rich and clear. (OK... the light green is Effetre, and has some small bubbles... but the color is enticing enough to put up with them)... 
 

So, you know what the intent of this post is about... right?  Just how nice it was to stand these on their edges and capture their personalities!
smiles, Jill

10.4.2017 - When One Thing Leads to Another....

Oh gosh, you know how it is.  You torch and suddenly there is an idea - and an idea of how to make a finding that will show off that idea.  Then you find all those colors you love, then the ones that you forgot about, and then the ones that you don't ever use....

...you make more.  You make more in different sizes.  You make more in different sizes and some that slope out slightly... then you fall into the abyss. 

...and, 
then you fall into the abyss. And you find yourself making sculptural flowers - feeling like Mary Engelbreit.... you snap back into the here and now - look to make sure no one saw... and get back to business. : ) Jill

9.27.2017 - ...That Nod & Knowing Whisper....

Years ago, my friend had quietly remarked how many times lampwork is an exercise into proving just how much you can cram onto the 'tiny canvas' of bead surface.  Yes, she is still my friend... and I remember that quite often as I work.

I've always felt less-is-more... and it shows in my work.  But every now and then something comes and nudges you... for me, this week, it was this piece.

While this piece has a mix of Boro and soft glass beads... I absolutely love the feel.  I have also found recently that my long-held belief that focal beads had to be just that - the focal - the belle of the ball... etc.  what I am now finding is just the opposite - that while they need to be interesting, it's better if they join everything together with a nod & a knowing whisper.  I like that approach much better. : )  Smiles, Jill

9.20.2017 - Cab-athon

I've had my nose in the torch lately - mostly making fun pendants and these encased domed cabochons.  While the faceted pearls (have been drilled for larger stringing material) are more of a gorgeous gray/blue, they just pair beautifully with this cab.  I'm setting up the Smith Little Torch to make the silver bezel setting for this one - and I may just set a few others... 

Seems though that making these bezel settings is more a labor of love than a profitable endeavor.... or so it seems... but you never know what else will be born during this creative time!

Believe me... I have something "cooking"!!

I've been experimenting with doming some silver disks - and have a great instructional book on making my own silver beads... wonder if that's worth it?? hmmm, I may make silver bead caps on my own, eh?  Anyway - we are supposed to have a cool down by the end of next week... FALL??? where are you? Anxiously awaiting your return, Love Texas.

Update tonight at 9pm at JillSymons.com : )

9.13.2017 - Eye Turning NYC Images

How do  you turn your eye off?  This trip wasn't about glass, or seeking that quintessential feel of the Big Apple, which surprisingly didn't feel big at all?  Are the comfort, beauty items we find pleasing somehow made present and evident no matter where we go?  

This is my take away from a week spent doing much different things than shown here... but these are the underlying sweetness of unintentionally being bombarded by the things I find so wonderful.  Thank you wonderful elements, for finding me. love, Jill

A little info I found online about these gems...

"Cast-iron vault lights (plates with glass lenses set into them) from the portion of sidewalk adjacent to the buildingVault space was a great thing in the nineteenth century. It could be and was used for coal storage, getting the potential fires and explosions of coal dust out of the body of the building. It could be and was used for boilers for the same reason. It could be used for storage for heavy objects, which makes sense when you remember that all those pretty cast-iron front loft buildings were warehouses and factories.

It gradually became more trouble than it was worth. The sidewalks leaked, and the cast-iron portions (particularly the vault lights) cracked under heavy loads. It was lousy space for anyone more sentient than a lump of coal. It was also, until 1997, taxed if it was usable. As a result, a lot of landlords closed off the interior access to the vaults, making them unusable and therefore untaxable, but also eliminating any possibility of maintenance. The tops of vaults were often covered with new sidewalk concrete, to the point where it is sometimes not possible to tell if a vault is present or not.

The New York City Department of Buildings has had some real success in digitizing records, but the focus has not surprisingly been on records pertinent to current regulations. The tax on vaults was handled by the Department of Finance, and those records have not been directly linked to the DoB records. Add this to the physical conditions and here’s the result: there are no accurate public records about which buildings have sidewalk vaults. In some cases there may not be accurate private records: if someone bought a building in 2000 that has a vault that was walled off in 1980, they may not even know that extension is there."

8.16.2017 - Light and Transmission

For the past month or so I've been working with transparent glass.  Of late the sets have been hollows with usually groups of three disks - rather chunky ones... what I"ve found over time is that some colors of transparent glass have a "fiber optic like" quality.  Notice on the lenses above, how the colors are more concentrated and electric at the edges?  Especially light green, orange, yellow and pink...

While talking to a friend we were talking about how to get light into the transparent hollow bead sets.  The groupings of three or four of these disks transmit the light and come alive...   Lauscha glass' Peach and Ice Blue have these qualities....  which brings me to another topic...

Lauscha glass' Peach and Ice Blue have these qualities....  When I work in transparent glass, I almost exclusively work with the Glassdaddy's German Lauscha or Czech glass.  The viscosity of the glass is very different and it also tolerates heat much better than Effetre. (this means no boiling or scumming)...  which, in the end, leave you with a bead that is clean and clear. 

Also - regarding light - some colors are rich, but dense.  Light has to be able to get into the bead... so sometimes I take a darker color and veil it over a lighter one to lighten it up... OR in a set - to get beads that are in the same color range, but different diameters.
I don't usually mix colors in a single bead, but often do combine these pure colors in sets - it's just how I work.  

Also - regarding light - some colors are rich, but dense.  Light has to be able to get into the bead... so sometimes I take a darker color and veil it over a lighter one to lighten it up... OR in a set - to get beads that are in the same color range, but different diameters.
I don't usually mix colors in a single bead, but often do combine these pure colors in sets - it's just how I work.  Smiles, Jill

8.9.2017 - Be Still My Heart!

Remember to come by the Weekly Update tonight at 9pm Eastern - http://www.jillsymons.com

While I have been dabbling in opaque glass and finding my voice there.  I dipped my toes back into the realm of transparent glass and have fallen in love all over again.  I think, (this is big for me)... that out of all the styles I make - sets like these just make my heart pound.   I think these define me - and I'm pleased with that!!  
Light and airy hollows, three big ones front and center... flanked by tall thin light/color transmitting disks (...which serve also to keep the hollows elevated) and several other smaller hollows & disks.  Am I the only one who feels wearing necklaces in the middle of summertime is sometimes too hot?  Are you laughing?  These beads allow the largest ones to float - while the disks are what touch your skin.

Crazy, I know... 
smiles, Jill

On a side note: I was contacted last night by someone who said they loved my hollows (blush, thank you!!) and wanted me to do a tutorial on them.  It seems a little like re-inventing the wheel to me sometimes though... as there are plenty of people who make hollows.   I'll think about it though - and we shall see.