Friday 5th September

And the Mojo Returns

It's been a rocky 5 or 6 weeks mojo wise, I have days when I couldn't make a single round bead, days when I didn't know where to start, and days when I just couldn't find either the inspiration or the slightest inclination.

But it's back, my mojo has returned, but this time I've got the measure of it, I'm not going to let it get all carried away with itself taking me to places I don't need to go yet and then leaving me feeling like I can't do anything right! No, I've got ya this time matey, I've got you on a tight leash, I've got myself all 'focused', so don't go putting any wild and crazy ideas in my head, ok!!

Just though I'd set him straight.

So while I find myself with a steady hand, and the molten glass and I are getting along, I've concentrated on taming that which is Rubino Oro (a very temperamental pink glass) and controlling fine stringers (very fine hand pulled strands of glass).

Dealing with rubino I've found it's all about temperature, it really doesn't like it too hot, once I got the hang of where it likes it in the flame, and more importantly where it doesn't we've got along. With stringers it's pretty much the same story, but when you get it wrong it's sooooooo frustrating, gggrrrrrrrrrr......................the bead usually ends up in the bin.

Last night I came up with a design for a bead that combined the two, and I just kept on making the same bead over, and over, and over, and over again, I made 13 all together, and these are the six I was happiest with.



I've called them 'Tamed' and you can WIN THEM if you send me an email with Free Beads in the title and join my mailing list, I won't bombard you with emails, I'll only email if I'm listing new beads on my site. Just email kate@sublimebeads.co.uk Good Luck.

Next week I'm off to Altringham to meet up with some like minded glassy folk, we're having a get together at the studio of another Lampwork Artist called Kaz. She came to visit me when she was working in Doncaster, actually I had hounded her in to it, lucky for her I wasn't an axe murderer or anything, what a lovely lady. We chatted about all things glassy, I got to show off my studio, and of course it wasn't long before we had to turn the torch on. She was very generous, sharing lots of tips 'n' tricks, she even gave me a bundle of glass as a gift, what a sweetie.

So I'm off to her studio on Saturday 13th, she's invited lots of other glassy folk too, no doubt there will be lots of chat, swops, and knowledge sharing, I can't wait. The glass art community is so embracing, encouraging, helpful and so, so generous in their willingness to share information, honestly it astounds me, I feel truly luck to be a part of it.