May do some stuff tomorrow... next day for sure if I don't get around to it. Did by myself a fancy locking rolling Toolchest/box today for all my tools and whatever glass will fit. I'm excited for it, may post a pic sometime haha. Also reminding myself here to make sure to order a decent pair of claw grabbers, that's one reason I haven't done too many pipes. The claws at the shop are my worst enemy, one pair won't grip well enough, always fun hearing a clank of glass on the bench, the other pair grips too well, which is always fun trying to get a super hot object out of. I most likely will be hitting up Glass Alchemy for their vday (and a few days after) sale, some pounds of color going for pretty cheap... also going to have to hit up ABR Imagery again as well, Northstar color seconds and odds are on a super cheap sale so I should grab some of my favorite NS colors, rather than a sample pack, I think I've been exposed to most of the NS colors now, and I need to grab a bunch of Simax clear rod and tubing in various sizes. I'll probably end up spending most of my loot on the clear to make sure I will be good on it for awhile, with what is left I'll figure out what colors I really need/want and try to grab those. Anything left... more tools. Time to rant some more... having a busy personal life sucks for glass work when all you wanna do is stay at the shop and make cool shit, especially now I'm starting to finally get satisified with some of my work... it's like everytime you get on the torch you realize something, or something new just clicks and you get better at it. And the better I can actually see myself getting, the more effort I will be willing to put into each and every piece, making sure to put out something that is quality, as before it's sorta just like "meh w/e I'm just practicing it's ok that the loop on this pendant isn't that great". While now I feel like I have to spend that extra time making sure the entire piece is upto quality. Due to the fact I'm finally at the point to where I can see not only that people are interested in my stuff, but I'm much more comfortable with selling my work, which I will soon, and didn't before just because I was being typical me, my own worst critic, especially when it comes to creative outlets. So for me to finally be able to see my progression and all the compliments from you guys has put me over that hurdle, this is a good thing, it is rare that I actually like my works of art or even showing them to other people. So that's the word y'all... more stuff to come just gotta get my ass behind that torch, I won't feel bad for blowing off some people this weekend in order to blow glass instead.
This weekend... hopefully I will finally get back on the torch... it's been far too long. Bahaha. I need to place a large order for clear and get a few more tools. I ordered 3-4 lbs of color from Glass Alchemy the other day. I should have plenty of stuff to work with at the shop though... I'm thinking I need to just pump out spoons and onies.
Placed my large order today with ABR. People always ask what the prices on shit is like so here is the breakdown of my order: Here's the 3 lbs of color I scored from the Glass Alchemy sale: Broke as a joke... but it will be Xmas when this shit comes in.
all these sales on color have made me pretty broke too lol to good of deals over at ga to not stock up on a few things though so ill just be poor for awhile
Got my Glass Alchemy colors in that I got from the sale, they also threw in some sample sticks of some new colors and some frit samples. Tried the sample of their new black, it's fuckin' sweeeeeet, I want more. So here's what 3 lbs of color looks like, you can see where I struck the end of the Ruby Strike a lil bit to see what it would look like: Was a productive evening on the torch, I figured out how to do implosions via tubing and made about 5 pendants, also made 6 bats/onies, in the kiln: More pics of this stuff to come tomorrow.
Alright here's yesterday's loot. First up is a rod implosion/compression pendant that I did to test out my new pin/floral frog to help with evenly spacing dots and trapping air bubbles, just did it real fast to see what it could do, then tried out some of the new GA black on the back: First tube implosion ever using some cobalt: Second tube implosion with 3 colors: Side view of my third tube implosion: Front view: Fourth tube implosion pendant: Five one-hitters/bats: Close-up of a onie to see the constriction for the bowl: And here's what I did today in the kiln until tomorrow. There's a jellyfish pendant, a hopefully reversal-ish pedant, a tube implosion again, and 10 more onies: Cheers y'all. More pics to come late tomorrow.
Soon soon, of course I won't post anything for sale here to obey the law of GC but I will make my artist name known, when I get everything ready to go, so everyone can find me through other means. I have almost all this stuff stockpiled up that I haven't given as gifts or put in the store. At this point that is a really good feeling. I appreciate all of the materials and tools that have been loaned/given to me upto this point of my progression, and it is great to finally have all my own stuff to do this craft. One day in the near future I will be setting up my own workspace at a new home and that will enable me to really get a lot of work done. This hobby is expensive but if you work at it and find your niche you can make it into a job. It will be exciting to finally be on my way making a living from what I love to do. I appreciate everyone's support just remember to keep actual business away from the thread there will be means to do that soon, and I am looking forward to the rest of this long journey that I have started! Stay tuned I think I've fallen in love and there's no stopping me now.
One-hitters from last time: All the onies together: Got the rest of my tools and glass in, more to come!
People always want to know what raw glass and such looks like, here's the pics from what I got. Some more tools and a quarter lb of Slyme... unfortunately it got busted up in shipping but I'm not worried because I will be pulling it down into stringers most likely. Tools pictured are some new claw grabbers, some big tweezers, a scoring knife, some small diamond shears, and an infinite bowl push: Full case of 19mm x 3.2mm Simax tubing and some 9mm rod laying on it: Some 25.4mm x 4mm Simax tubing and 5mm rod: Well that's it for supplies for awhile, will be able to pump some shit out. Have everything and more that I need for a complete setup on my own minus pressure regulators and a kiln. Aka will be building my own shop when I get a house.
I did this stuff and worked on a few other things not shown on day before yesterday. Also bought an ounce of silver to play with: Silver fumed 'ghost' mushroom pendant: Implosion pendant done on tubing: Silver fumed wrap and rake spoon I did quickly in a few minutes before the shop closed, didn't have time to melt it down properly but I'm getting a lot better at shaping: More to come later, I'll have yesterday's work to post. I will prob be on the torch for a little bit today too. Cheers y'all.