On a roll ...

After having spent so long ignoring this blog it seems I now have lots I want to share so at the risk of sending everyone off to the land of Nod, I am gonna post a few more pics of the upcoming exhibition with glass stuff.
In that last piece I finally got to use the crusty little beads that I made from the wine bottles. This is my first ever attempt at bead making with a torch and I reckon I have a long (long long!) way to go! These little guys presented a bit of a design challenge because of their size. They are pretty tiny - say 4 -6mm, and just looked silly paired with most pendanty things. Also I was jack of making them and had to just use what I had made when still enthralled with the process. Actually I still love the process but hate cleaning out the clay stuff from inside the bead! So I doubled them up and combined them with some seeds made by indigenous Australians and some wood beads that I rescued from an op shop. The tree itself was cut from two trays - a 70's wooden one and an older silver plate one .

This one is made from a recycled wine bottle, reclaimed pewter and sterling silver. Oh and the bottom of a champagne flute that fell out of my cupboard and broke! I used the rest of it to make little beads - crusty, underdeveloped bead, but beads none-the-less. I called this piece "Elemental" 'cos it has a kinda earth spirit vibe going on. I think the hand that I cast and decorated adds to that too.

This one is also made from wine bottle glass that is captured with reclaimed pewter and backed with brass cut from an old tray that I bashed up a bit. Can't quite remember what I called it but I know it had a reference to the moon - "Luna something or other" because I think it looks a bit moonlike ...