One World One Heart 2011

Welcome to the fifth and  final blog hop adventure known as One World One Heart. I've been participating for a few years and visiting other blogs since the beginning. It's been a wonderful ride and I've made a few friends and gotten to know a lot of other bloggers along the way!

The blog hop is hosted by Lisa at  A Whimsical Bohemian and the rules are ♥here♥  and I would like to add just ONE more for my players... PLEASE, please make it easy to get in touch with you if you win!!! I have several blogs and also have a team blog participating and in past years, people we cannot reach are passed over for someone who make it easy to get in touch with! So please, leave your email OR make sure your profile has an "email me" button!

A little bit about this blog: HollysFollyBeads is the blog devoted to my art and my passion (and the challenges...brutal honesty here!) of making beads from glass. I share the highs and lows and post cool tutorials from time to time. I love to participate in bead  and jewelry challenges particularly if the inspiration is an expressionist painting.

Goldfish necklace inspired by the Henri Matisse painting.

I'm giving away one of my off mandrel hearts (I just love to make these!): This one uses a special moody glass called raku and you never quite know what's coming out of the kiln. It will arrive on a rubber necklace and ready to wear.

To win: leave a comment (1) and make sure there is a way to reach you! 


You may want to visit my life in the foothills / dog blog for a different bead give away and... my handmade glass bead promotions group, The Fire Divas, are also hosting a HUGE giveaway!

Sail Boat Pendant

I didn't run away and hide...I got a JOB! OK - more like gig. I'm working on my first t.v. production in ages. It's been creative and fun and... exhausting. I've gotten to work with several people from my Carol Duvall days, including my Exec. Producer and Director and a few other peeps I haven't seen in ages!

I did have one productive torch session and the beads are still on the kitchen counter... waiting for a bath and a scrub. But I REALLY like them....

I thought I would share a pendant from my recent sale. One of my customer's bought the bead and had me turn it into a pendant. I really like the way it turned out.

When I make a pendant, I always try to think about how it hangs. Notice the top loop is made to run perpendicular to the neck, so the bead sits straight. The bottom loop runs parallel to the neck so you can see the dangles. I like my wraps tight so the bead doesn't spin (on beads like this). But that is a valid design feature on certain round beads. I also like the crystals on the top and bottom to continue the color of the bead as the eye moves up or down.  I used Champagne on the bottom and Indian Sapphire on top.

What do you look for in a pendant that you like to wear???

Last day of the BIG SALE!

Just a reminder... THERE'S A CLEARANCE SALE GOING ON!!!
 It ends at the stroke of midnight tonight!!!

With prices like these, that means:

This gorgeous art-inspired glass bead necklace is a steal @ $112.00*

This extra large hollow glass shell bead is only $19.00*!

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There are over 100 items on my website and another 80 on  Artfire. I realize I HAVE to get rid of some things in order to make room in my head / jewelry room / life for NEW things. Ebay being what it is, I would rather sell these babies to my friends and fans at a deep discount rather than to strangers on Ebay. So...  here's the deal on the sale:

• 30% off for everyone.
• 10% additional off for Newsletter Subscribers for a total of 40% off.
• 20% additional off for Fan Page Member members for a total of 50% off. Join my Facebook Fan Page
• FREE shipping on all orders over $150.00
• Sale ends 11:59 p.m. the Saturday night 01/22/11

Da Fine Print:

• VALID ONLY ON BEADS AND JEWELRY IN STOCK.
• NOT VALID with FREE Bead Gift Certs. Free beads are FREE at the retail cost of the beads... Sorry!
• NOT VALID on made to order items. In stock only.
• NOT VALID on tools or kits.
• NOT VALID on Etsy.... I don't want to deal with the discounts on their fees... And EVERYTHING is on Artfire anyway...where it's less expensive for me as an artist. Again, sorry!

Checking Out:

• On HollysFolly.com w/a credit card: I will charge you the discounted amount when billing your card in the shop.
• On HollysFolly.com and Artfire w/ Paypal: either wait for a corrected invoice OR pay and check out. I will  refund the difference upon shipping.

You must be a subscriber on a mailing list / fan page to get the discount additional discounts. Mention this deal for your discount! If you are reading this online and are not a subscriber, no discount will apply!


*Fan page prices used for the examples. 

Off Mandrel Hearts

Hearts were the first thing I ever learned to make off mandrel. Although I frequently make leaves off mandrel too, hearts have always spoken to me. I find myself usually making at least one every torch session. I must admit, they are my favorite "jewelry." Despite being an avid bead maker and troubled jewelry designer, I often forget to wear jewelry. Even though I KNOW it's my best source of advertising, it's always an afterthought! I love being able to dash to my stash box, put a heart on a chain and go!

For this tutorial, you should know to keep glass warm in the flame. If you've worked on one side too long, give the other side a heat bath. I do NOT remind you of this in the tutorial... but it is crucial!!!

GLASS: 
If you are making canes, the leftover bits that end up in the water jar are a perfect and usually colorful place to start as I've done here. This can be a great end of day bead - a way to clean off your table.  But you can also start with a rod and some frit or stringer. If that's the case, you can start with Step three. This can be done in soft and hard glass. Just stick to your COE rules and percentages. You will need two rods to use as handles. I prefer a transparent or just clear as they take the heat better than pastels.

TOOLS: 

♥ Mashers   ♥Scissors ♥Corina's Magic Wand  ♥Delicate knife ♥Tungsten Pick ♥Reverse Tweezers*

DIRECTIONS:

1. Here are two still glowing ends from a cane pull. Place them far back in the flame to avoid shocking.
   
2. Usually, the larger one will crack. Try to crack it so the two pieces attach to each other.
   
3. Melt in and square off. If starting with fresh rod, simply melt a gather and square off with mashers. You should end up with a pretty firm rectangle. If you like your color, keep going. If not, heat the paddle and twist with mashers to mix the colors better OR  heat the paddle and dip into some frit for interest . Melt in and square off again. The end without the punty will be the top of your heart. If you don't like that, attach another punty on a the side OPPOSITE of where you want your top to be.
   
4. Get the paddle hot... red hot - but not drooping - on both sides. Use scissors to cut down the middle toward the rod - but not all the way to the rod.
   
5. The cut marks will be a little raised and can be sharp. Take a moment to heat where you've cut and allow the rough edges to melt in. You can smooth this out a little Corina's magic wand or other small brass tool. Then you're ready to add a bail.
   
   Most people are always a bit off on the cutting...it's never 50/50. Eyeball the smaller side... that's where you will put the bail to give the heart visual balance. Keep the heart warm in your non-dominant hand and in your "good" hand, heat a pea sized gather. You can also melt some of that same frit into the gather but know that it will pull into lines for the bail.
   Note how the same frit used on the surface of this heart striated into lines when the bail was pulled.
   
   Gently touch down w/ the gather on the small side of the heart. Move the heart beside the flame and keep your bail rod in the flame so that you are heating the glass that will feed into the bail.
   
   Start stretching that gather. Bend it in the flame until it touches the back of the heart. Once it touches, flame break / twist off bailing rod.
   
6. This step is  where many skimp... once you flame break the bail rod, your heart is still attached to the other rod at the bottom of the heart. Take a tungsten pick and use the flame to even up any thin spots in the bail. Add a drop of glass here. Heat and stretch there. If it collapses...drill a new hole with the pick (see below). I also take a pointy tool / pick / knife and make sure the bail really connects to the heart. Press or poke the connection points with a pick or knife. Get creative here: give it dimples or fingers... but make sure it's connected! Look at the dimple on this bail:
   
   You can keep the heart in the flame an infinite amount of time... just make sure the bail will hang true / straight and doesn't have thinner areas. Below, the ends of the bail are melted in and the hole is large.
   
7. If surface decoration is desired, now is the time to do that. Flowers, other hearts...where ever you want to go...just keep the heart warm and don't allow the bail to get too hot! This is another great use for stray stringers on the work table.
   
   
   Example of Surface Decoration
8. Once the bail is hanging true and any decorations have been added, I flash the tips of the reverse tweezers in the flame. They can't be icy cold! Grab the heart either by the bail or the crease left by the scissors.
   
   Place the handle rod in the edge of the flame until it twists and break off. It will most likely be a little wonky on the bottom...still kind of squared off.
   
   
9. Use the heat to pull the glass into a more graceful shape by heating one side at a time until the glass flows down. All the working side to cool (good time to give some heat to the upper part of the bead) before repeating on the opposite side.
   
   
10. Often the handle rod is clear. It's nice to give that bottom tip some color. If you started from a cane pull, use a bit of the same cane. OR stringer or more frit. Melt the tip in. 
    
11. Finally, it's nice to draw the bottom of that tip to a nicer point or even a curve. Heat just above the tip and use the end of a warm rod to touch down, stretch the tip of the bead and break off in the flame. It's also a good time to put the bead on a tungsten pick and make sure it will hang properly. If not, return it to the tweezers, heat the bail and straighten it with mashers so that the heart will hang vertically.
    
    One last heat bath and in the kiln! But... check for tool marks... like I have here! ICK! Heat that out, do any final shaping and then...to the kiln.
     

THINGS THAT CAN / WILL GO WRONG: 

• The holding rod could melt. Work further back in the flame and don't put so much of the rod in the flame. It needs to be warm...but not soft! You can marver it quickly to cool it down. Grab your mashers and re-center your heart before the rod sets firm again. 
• The heart could fall off the holding rod or out of the tweezers. Pick it up with mashers or a pick...whatever is handy. Super heat where you want to punty while heating a punty rod, reattach and keep working. 
• The bail could melt in. Use your tungsten pick to drill a hole. Do this by warming the bail a bit and moving it BEHIND the flame. Place the tungsten in the flame and when it glows, begin twisting your hand a bit to the right and a bit to the left. The tungsten will drill a hole in the glass! You may need to flip it around and work from the other side too. When the hole is all the way through, give it a little heat to smooth those rough edges created by the pick, recenter the bail and you're done.
• The bail could be thin in places. Just add a few drops of glass, melt in slowly and add more if needed. Also, if you heat and stretch the bail hole, make sure both sides are warm for more even stretching. 

This is my final heart. It came out a bit darker than  I would have liked because I stopped and took too many pictures.  Keep in mind: if you use fussy glass, you will have unpredictable results.  

*I like my reverse tweezers to have a wooden grip as I hold the tip in the flame and the handles can get hot without something to protect you. Reverse tweezers give you one less thing to worry about while balancing all that hot glass in the flame. They hold the piece for you and you don't have think about keeping them closed.


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If you found this tutorial helpful, please consider making a donation to the artist. Or purchasing a heart here. Thank you!

BIG SALE!

---

There are over 100 items on my website and another 80 on  Artfire. I realize I HAVE to get rid of some things in order to make room in my head / jewelry room / life for NEW things. Ebay being what it is, I would rather sell these babies to my friends and fans at a deep discount rather than to strangers on Ebay. So...  here's the deal on the sale:

• 30% off for everyone.
• 10% additional off for Newsletter Subscribers for a total of 40% off.
• 20% additional off for Fan Page Member members for a total of 50% off. Join my Facebook Fan Page
• FREE shipping on all orders over $150.00
• Sale ends 11:59 p.m. the Saturday night 01/22/11

Da Fine Print:

• VALID ONLY ON BEADS AND JEWELRY IN STOCK.
• NOT VALID with FREE Bead Gift Certs. Free beads are FREE at the retail cost of the beads... Sorry!
• NOT VALID on made to order items. In stock only.
• NOT VALID on tools or kits.
• NOT VALID on Etsy.... I don't want to deal with the discounts on their fees... And EVERYTHING is on Artfire anyway...where it's less expensive for me as an artist. Again, sorry!

Checking Out:

• On HollysFolly.com w/a credit card: I will charge you the discounted amount when billing your card in the shop.
• On HollysFolly.com and Artfire w/ Paypal: either wait for a corrected invoice OR pay and check out. I will  refund the difference upon shipping.

You must be a subscriber on a mailing list / fan page to get the discount additional discounts. Mention this deal for your discount! If you are reading this online and are not a subscriber, no discount will apply!

Jacked Up Tools: My Favorite "Knife"

This is my favorite knife. Judy Carlson taught me how to make this... and it has ended up being the tool I keep closest to me.

To make it, you will need an extra xacto handle and blades from the smallest utility knife you can find. Literally, the blade is about an inch long.

I bought a large set of xactos at Harbor freight (or on Amazon.com):

They often have several in store but I buy the one that gives me the most handles.  Take the handle, remove the blade and replace it with a mini utility knife blade. (Also Harbor Freight or Amazon, links below!)

Twist the handle collet onto the blade and tighten. Press the blade down onto your table at and angle and make sure it won't shift on you. If it does, the collet needs to be tighter. 

What do I use this for? (What don't I would be a better question!) You can: 

 Shift stringer into place

Add definition to leaves:

And to  hearts:

Use it to shape petals: 

Give a critter some personality (private collection): 

I've got a myriad of expensive tools and one that costs about $15 bucks to make 5 of them is my hands down all time favorite! 

Fire Divas Bead Challenge

Those Fire Divas are at it again!!! Love is in the air! Literally! Just look at what the incredibly talented Divas came up with for our True Love Challenge this month. After you fall in love with your favorite, don't forget to vote on the right side of the Fire Diva's blog!


Entry 1


Entry 2


Entry 3


Entry 4


Entry 5


Thanks for voting! Results will be posted in one week!

Getting Back on Track

I finally had a great torch session yesterday... the glass beads are still sitting in the kiln.

I made a special bead for my niece, a bunch of matching beads for a tutorial I'm writing (you know how I LOVE making matching beads...NOT!) and a similar one to the matchy matchies... And it didn't suck. Which is progress!

I'm still listing a few new items every day from my overflowing bead bowl. I hate overwhelming the fan page where all my listings feed to...so, that why I'm slow about it.

This button is the latest addition:

I love to use these on a knitted scarf. I work on my knifty knitter and drop a few stitches in the middle of the width about 6"  past the center. Finish the scarf, sewing in any loose threads and then attach the handmade bead. I love to use a button on my scarves to keep it up around my neck when I'm hiking.

What do you like to use handmade buttons for???

It's Just Me

I have been in royal arsed funk of late. I took December off to deal with arm pain... much better except... I've got facial flushing from the injections. (Fitting name because the "cure" to me would be to plunge my face in ice cold running water!) As I type, it feels like the right side of my face is on fire! (See pic below - just couldn't put my frightening mug on top of this blog!)

But now that I have turned the torch back on... I spend all my time pulling butt ugly stringers and canes and end up making one ugly bead and quitting! It's like everything I ever knew is ... gone. POOF!

Who knew that the neon yellow rod I selected to decorate this coral heart would magically become ...coral in the kiln? And what's up with that turquoise, Holly Dare???

The basket-weave bead was PERFECT in every way then I (ME, see the problem?) had to decorate it and at some point, I decided the decorations were covering the perfect basket-weave so... ugh.. throw it in the kiln and quit!

And if that ain't enough, am I the ONLY person who ASSuMEs that 'since I took the picture, I must have listed the bead / blogged about it?' Uh...no. Again, I'm clearly the problem here! I found a whole stash of tiger beads, a button, an ocotpus and another boat bead that I ASSuMEd I listed for sale because, duh, I took the picture!  (Check the glass bead website later today  for these and more later in the week!)

A friend and fellow teacher spied me complaining on Facebook and pointed out "Now is not the time for new things. Make something you know and love. That will open the doorway."


So, as soon as I'm off benadryl for the face (sleepy Holly and fire do NOT mix!), I'll try, try again!

Facial flushing after steroid injections. 

5th Annual Women of Glass

I made a goal a few years back that I wanted to have something in the Women of Glass Issue of The Flow Magazine. I finally got my nerve up and submitted something... three of my best beads and a "oh whatever." They picked the "oh whatever" bead!!!!!!!! Whooo Hoooo! (Is this just one more case in point that I can NOT / should NOT judge my own work????

The Women in Glass Issue is on Sale HERE

Anyway, this was the big beady news I promised! But wait! It gets even bigger. You guys know I'm a co-Admin for the Fire Divas, a bead collective of other artisans who work together to promote one another. I'm thrilled to say that FIVE other Divas are in the issue too! Whoooo Hooo! There's nothing like sharing a little glory with friends! You'll have to check out the magazine to see what was featured... but let's take a little tour through some of these terrifically talented artist shops!

I share the same page with my good friend and fellow Diva Janel Dudley of Janel Dudley Beads. She makes the most amazing eye beads and lovely high silver focals:

Changing Seasons Tree by JanelDudleyBeads

Laurie Ament / Glassbead has a couple of beads featured. I adore Laurie's brilliant and bold color mixes. She's quite talented at sculpture too!

Heart Bead by GlassBead

The always amazing Judith Billig of IcarusBeads is also featured. She's another master of those sparkling high silver glasses that leave me cawing like a crow! Check out these sparkling beauties:

Aztec Gaia by IcarusBeads

In real life, Judith is friends with Lori Bergmann.  Just as I'm excited to share a page with Janel, Judith and Lori are page-mates! Lori's company is AshlynDesign. Lori is one of those "utility beadmakers" She does a little of everything and she does it all well!

Pink Leopard Set by AshlynDesign

And we can't forget one of our newer Divas, Kathleen Young of Ugly Duckling Beads. Nothing ugly here! No, this "ugly duckling" has already morphed into a swan! She makes lovely flowers and fabulous little faces!! 

Southern Comfort Focal by UglyDucklingBeads

Please do check out my fellow Divas shops and if you love to drool over glass, get a copy of that magazine!!

Nuttin' Much

Well, this is the week of "almost" news. Lots of stories to share juggling in the air... but nothing much to actually report.

I have some big beady news... but can't share it just yet.

I was going to direct your attention to the Art Bead Scene... but no new contest has been announced.

I have a fusing project that's "almost" finished...but it's going to the Philippines and I want it to be there before I post.

The Fire Divas will be participating in a special on Etsy... but I should let them announce that first!

See what I mean???

Since it's a slow news Monday, I'll just leave you with a picture of one of my favorite focals (still sits on my desk!):

Hope your Monday is productive!