The 2009 line appears to be done!

Today, I will take my demo pieces to my distributors to see what they think. Even though I've brought the necklaces to them throughout the building process, it's time to really see what they think.

The 2009 line is currently constructed as follows: (As always, these names can change.)

-> Sour Apple Green Cloud
-> Midnight Blue Cloud
-> Cloudy Blue Cloud
-> Tumultuous Seas Cloud
-> Green Dotted Cylinder
-> Red Dotted Cylinder
-> Violet Cylinder
-> Blue Cylinder
-> Violet with Trailings Cylinder

This collection is pulled together in color and shows different "views" in glass.

What I think is neat about this collection:

1) Everything looks really nice.
2) I finally have a signature stamp that looks nice.
3) All necklaces are between 17"-19" in length.

The necklaces that are on the outside of the collection are the Cloudy Sky Cloud and Dotted Red Cylinder necklace. The other necklaces in the collection are all color related. If I could put my vote on a few of the necklaces that will sell well are the Midnight Blue Cloud and the Dotted Red Cylinder necklace.

I'm proud of this collection. In the end, I'll be able to sleep well.

People are people

About a year ago, a friend asked if I could make little people out of glass. He wanted them for a project he was working on. Around six months ago, I made him a simple man, and his reaction was, "Ahhhhhh, that looks a bit off." He then went to say that it looked like a Lego man. I went back home and thought of making some more.

I made another man with longer legs and it was acceptable. That was a good thing because people aren't the easiest to make. Oh yea, one other thing is this friend wants them made of reactive glass.

This morning, I decided to make a few more figures. I made one out of what I thought was copper green, a reactive turquoise color and a dark ivory glass. The first two were built without any issue. The last one was a bit different. When I was building it, it popped off my glass rod and fell to my bench. For those who have seen my bench, it is an absolute mess. When molten glass falls to it, the molten glass picks up whatever was below it. The dark ivory glass picked up some dark red. The glass was twisted and then made. It turned out to be an interesting color combination.

When I pulled them out of the kiln, only two of the people appeared to have made it. The copper green one was actually made of an olive green. The reactive turquoise didn't react the way I thought it would and the dark ivory man's leg began to fleck off. The reason for the flecking is that leg was up against the door in the kiln. The cooler air from the room leaked into the kiln and affected only that leg. I might be able to fix him tomorrow morning.

I also created more red dotted beads. Something that happened to my beads from yesterday was that some of the dot color didn't show up well. I was hoping that the beads I made today would all show up with defined dots. Boy did they. At least I know what I need to do to get the colors to fully show up now.

Ahhhhhh, it's a bit more difficult than originally thought

I've been making a few man-beads every day and they are all low profile. All I can say is it appears to be more difficult to make the low man-beads when compared to a higher profile bi-cone/man-bead.

In addition, I have been playing around with a few of the colors that haven't been used in the past few years. Some of them are re-active colors and aren't doing what I want to do. That's too bad.

This morning, I created a series of the red-dotted beads. When I looked at them in the kiln, I was a bit amazed at how large they were. I quickly reduced the size of the beads. It appears that I'll need to create some more either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Project: Man-bead

I created a few "man-beads" on Friday because there was room in my kiln. This was both a challenge and if the beads ended out nice, they would be given to a few of my friends.

The first point of "Project Man-bead" was to select the colors. What colors are manly (in a bead world)? I thought dark blue, dark red, dark green, medium brown and dark brown. I pulled out some dark lapis blue, medium brown and dark brown glass from the pile of glass on my kitchen table.

The second point of "Project Man-bead" was to see which design elements went well with those colors. I thought dots and lines. For the dark lapis blue bead, I selected a green swirly line. For the browns, it was going to be orange-ish dots.

The third point of "Project Man-bead" was to select a shape. This was one of the most difficult parts because there are so many to choose from. When I started making beads, I would have selected a geometric shaped beads. The ones which were square or a rectangular prism. Now, as I mature in beadmaking, I select a bi-cone shape. This may be with or without a defined center line.

Step one, two and three were done. Now comes the most difficult part, creating the bead. I chose the brown one first. It went fairly easy, but one end was bigger than the other. The second brown bead went really easy. The ends where nice and the center ridge was smoothed out. The third bead, the blue one with the green line, was a similar shape to the brown ones and building it was a joy. The other beads went just as easily.

On Saturday, I went up to Arrow Springs in Cameron Park, CA to purchase a larger kiln and some glass. There was also a bead bizarre in front. My friends and I walked around and there was a only one person who made beads that would pass as "man-beads." His were a similar bi-cone shape and extremely low.

Today, I decided to make more beads. I made some beads headed towards a necklace and still had some room in the kiln. The decision was made, I would create some low "man-beads." Man, it was tough. Not sure if I worked hotter, making the glass more pliable, or the if it was something else completely different. I completed three of them. The first was somewhat easy and took me around 30 minutes. The second one broke bead release when I was nearly done. The third was by far the best and only took me around 15 minutes to create.

I'll be interested in seeing how they really show up when I take them out of the kiln. Will they pass as "man-beads" or will they be scrap-tastic, destined for the jar of bead doom. I'm just happy that I can create a bi-cone shape and that the colors for "man-beads" are fairly easy to find.

How many pieces make up a collection?

For me, this answer is easy, it's eight to ten. This means I need to create one to three pieces to complete my 2009 line. It will be distributed to the folks at the gift show in San Francisco in July this year.

Now that things are beginning to wind down as for designs, it's now time to start looking to murrini. I've had a few ideas over the past few years. We'll see what I'll make.

Last production cloud piece is designed (I think)

So, I currently have 3 cloud pieces done. I was thinking of doing two more, but out of four attempts I'm not sure any of them look good. (The last one is cooling down in the kiln right now.) I'm looking for 8-10 designs to give the folks who are looking to my distributor.

The piece is either going to called "Stormy cloud" or "Springtime cloud." Not sure which one will be it until I take them out of the kiln. When the beads go into the kiln, they look like a greyish cloud. I peeked a tad when they were cooling and they looked Spring-like.

Candy Apple production piece?

I created a series of beads in the cloud series and it turned out to be the same color as a Golden Apple. These beads are now known as "Candy Apple Clouds." Not sure if this is going to be a production piece or not, but the beads looks really nice.

I'm also going to change things up, each bead design is going to have a different name. For example, the cloud series now is:

-> Candy Apple Cloud (Green)
-> Nighttime Cloud (Dark Blue)
-> Tumultuous Seas Cloud (Pale Purple)

I'm thinking of making a lighter blue and lighter green version of these. Five in the cloud series seems enough for upcoming year. These and another five cylinder necklace should be decent. Ten different designs should suffice.

This changes the way stuff is named. The more interesting name seems to give the pieces a feeling of personality.

Two new designs done!

Today I completed two new necklaces. The purple cloud and the light green dotted necklace. Something I am realizing about naming these things is the one-offs (e.g. Midnight Fiesta) are easy to name while the stuff I plan to go into production with just get a fairly plain name. I don't think this a bad thing due to the fact that the production pieces need to have fairly normal names.

I'll put pictures up once I get them done.