La Patisserie Press mini tutorials part I

I have wanted a La Patisserie press by Kati was here! from the very first moment I saw it back in 2010. It was tool lust at first sight, I resisted temptation because I am rubbish with presses! Quite quite poor at judging the amount of glass needed and too impatient to try over and over to get the knack of it. Just recently I made some citrus slice murrini for the Mini Mo' Club and they have been whispering to me about how much they want to be decorating chocolate beads and so I gave in......and I'm really glad I did, it is really quite a forgiving press when it comes to glass quantities and I've never enjoyed a press so much before.

It arrived this morning and I have been playing about with the different shapes and trying to figure out the best way to add glass the make them work for me. Here is a quick how to guide of what I have come up with so far, Cookie Cutter, Square and Heart, part 2 to follow soon.

Cookie Cutter

This is what the cookie cutter cavity looks like, you can see the waves of the texture plate at the bottom of this press (the base is reversible, the bottom of your beads can be plain too if you like).

Step 1 Wrap your mandrel and roll out the glass on a graphite paddle to just short of the width of the cavity

Step 2 Wrap a second layer of glass over your barrel and then press gently in to the top part of the press (the part with the handle) then flip it over and press again, repeat until the press is filled except for the frills

Step 3 Put a large dot of your glass in top and bottom and heat well

Step 4 heat your bead through and place your bead in the base and press between both halves of the press. This will fill the frills and press glass down onto the texture plate

 Step 5 gently flame kiss out the chill marks from the non textured side of your choc bead

Step 6 I am going to decorate this choc bead with pixie dust (mica). The colour I am using is Bright Gold Sparkle.

First a few notes on working with mica, wear a dust mask when handling and using mica in the same way you would when working with enamels and frits. Never use a shaker to apply the mica to your beads as this will cause the fine particles to become air born and never dip a hot bead in to a plastic container. A little mica goes a long way so pick up just a very small amount on a tea spoon to apply it.

Warm up your bead until it is glowing but not molten and dip the hot surface of your bead on to a small amount of mica then flash the bead back and fourth in the top of flame to get the pixie dust to stick.

Step 7 Sparkle Pixie dust can take quite a bit of heat without being burnt off so it is possible to add further decoration on top of the mica. I have decorated this chocolate with twistie cane leaves and an encased stringer rose.







Square

This is what the square cavity looks like, in this pic you can also see the twistie cane that I used in the previous bead to make the leaves.

Step 1 Wrap your mandrel and roll out the glass on a graphite paddle to just short of the width of the cavity (I find it easier to do this against the handle part rather than the base part)

Step 2 Wrap a second layer of glass over your barrel

Step 3 Press gently in to the top part of the press (the part with the handle) then flip your bead over and press again to flatten out

Step 4 add generous dots to the four corners of your bead to pad out the empty spaces in the cavity

Step 5 heat the dots in and press in the square cavity again, flip the bead over and press again

Step 6 add four small dots on the corners on both sides and melt in thoroughly to bulk out the top and bottom

Step 7 place your bead in the base and press between both halves of the press. This will fill the corners properly and press glass down onto the texture plate

Step 8 gently flame kiss out the chill marks from the non textured side of your choc bead

Step 9 decorate your bead, this one has twistie cane leaves and Gorgeous Grapefruit murrini









Heart

This is what the heart cavity looks like with the wave texture plate underneath

Step 1 Wrap your mandrel and roll out the glass on a graphite paddle to just short of the width of the cavity

Step 2 wrap more glass on one side of the barrel only. Next gently press into the top part of the press (the part with the handle) then flip your bead over and press again to flatten out the other side too

Step 3 place generous dots of glass on your bead where the "lobes" will be

Step 4 melt in well then press each gently in the heart cavity in the handle

Step 5 place small dots of glass to bulk out the lobes further

Step 6 melt in well then press each side gently in the heart cavity in the handle part of the press

Step 7 swipe on extra glass top and bottom in a V shape to bulk out the depth of your bead

Step 8 place your bead in the base cavity and press between both halves of the press. This will fill the whole cavity fully and push glass down onto the texture plate to give you chocolate bead wavy lines on the bottom

Step 9 gently flame kiss out the chill marks from the non textured side of your choc bead ready to decorate

Step 10 I have decided to add texture to the top on this bead with another texture plate, this one is a grid from the Zoozie texture tool. Heat you bead til glowing but not molten and press on to the texture plate gently

I'm going to decorate the grid textured surface with fine silver leaf which is fairly commonly found in books as loose sheets

Step 11 pick up a small amount of silver leaf with tweezers and burnish on

Step 12 burn off excess silver to partially reveal the textured surface.

I hope you have enjoyed these mini tuts on how I have been using my new press today and the fun ideas for chocolate decorations!



Jolene x

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Mini Mo' May 2012 - Britannia and Bumble

May's first Mini Mo' colourway is called Britannia, released in time for the Queens Jubilee and the Summer Olympics here in London. I have used Effetre Crimson 432, CiM Peace, Effetre Dark Cobalt Blue 246.

On the right is a set of encased beads with deep transparent blue Britannia shards over a selection of different blue glass cores.

Next up is a rather funky set using both twistie and murrini from the Britannia collection. I have spot heated and twisted the murrini to form wave shapes on the focal.

The third set of beads I am showing use Britannia flat cane, the core is Effetre transparent Emerald Green, encased with 006 and then I have used the red white and blue cane to make sculpted raised flower petals for this Island Garden set.

My second set is also based on a British summer theme, sunshine and honey bees.  Bumble uses CiM Hollandaise, Effetre Apricot Yellow 419 and Dark Yellow 412 with Reichenbach deep black with Goldstone Shards.

The first set I would like to show uses the flat cane in this collection to make raised floral beads in fire colours, The base glass here is Effetre Apricot Yellow 419 which has become a firm favourite of mine.

My Bizzy Bee set showcases one of the two kinds of Bumble murrini (Buzz and Feather Bee). Loosly based on feather murrini these layered oval chips can be raked into feathers or partially raked, as here, to make fabulous bee bodies!

My last set is a busy a cheery set using bands of Bumble twisties and lots and lots of layered dots and stripes of sunshine colours.

Jolene x




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Mini Mo' April 2012 - Pansy and Blue Macaw

Another catch up post from me seeing as I got stalled with my Mini Mo' blogging in March and couldn't get my head around blogging Mo's out of chronological order or skipping a month! Here is a retrospective look at my first Mini Mo’ glasswork theme for April. It is called Pansy. This collection uses all CiM glass – Dirty Martini, Thai Orchid, Creamsicle, Celadon and Lapis.

The first set of beads I am showing today feature Pansy twistie over a core of Effetre Petrol Green. I  wrapped the twistie cane around a small core of the green and wound several wraps of clear over the top which I melted down slowly causing the mass of glass to collapse and stretch the twistie pattern out sideways to the full width of each bead.

This next set was made with a pillow press, something I rarely do as I find presses quite difficult. I am very pleased with this little set, again, a core of Effetre petrol green wrapped with twistie and encased.


My third offering here is a floral mini set using the flat cane. These  beads have a core of Effetre Purple 272 with CiM Creamsicle stringer which was then encased with 006 and finally I swiped on a floral pattern using the Pansy flat cane and some pale green stringer.

My writing skill with stringer text has come a long way since I made these bead in March and I currently have a custom bracelet bead listing up on Etsy to help raise funds for our Beads of Courage fundraising Beadathon in October.

More info BCCA and Beads of Courage HERE

My second collection is also insprired by nature but uses a Primary colour palette. The Blue Macaw Mini Mo’ glasswork uses all Effetre colours - Cobalt Blue 256 with Special Dark Lemon 408 and Special Dark Yellow 412.

The inspiration for this first set of beads comes from the blue Macaw murrini. I have used them in place of dots in the focal bead.

My Polytwists set uses lashings and lashings of Blue Macaw twistie can both under and over 006 clear glass to make these finky round beads.





Next I'd like to show you another set of florals (below), the core colour of these beads is CiM Olive. Three of these beads were wrapped with silver foil and then encased with Effetre 006. I have used both the Blue Macaw flat cane and twistie to form the raised petals design.

Lastly I just want to let you all know that I am running a prize giveawy on my blog for the whole of September, full details of the prize and how to enter please click on my shameless promo giveaway.



Jolene x

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A bit of a shameless promo giveaway!

Howdy folks,

I've never done a promo quite like this before but I have decided that I am going to have a giveaway for my first ever encased tree bead! This is the first of it's kind for me and a style that I have been working on and developing over the past few months.

I submitted a picture of this bead in a fit of 11th hour bravery for the Beads and Beyond Jewellery Maker of the Year competition (lampwork category) earlier this year and blow me down, it only went and took 2nd place! Anyhow if you would like to own this rather substantial bead then all you have to do to enter is follow my blog by email using the box over there -------->

The last date to enter my giveaway by subscribing to my blog is the 30th of September and I will select winner at random from the list of my email subscribers on the 1st of October 2012.
Best of luck
Jolene x

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CiM, Zim and silver part IV...notes on Obsidian ltd run

This is the fourth post in my CiM/Zim series but instead of posting up a few recipes and examples I have decides to focus on CiM Obsidian from Messy Color as I have a bit of a crush on this glass.

This large focal bead has been made with CiM Obsidian ltd run and Zimmermann Z8911 light pea green frit.

First I made the bead using CiM Obsidian then let it cool a little and wrapped it in silver leaf, burnished the leaf on and then burnt it off in the flame then added a little frit. I love how the silver has broken up into little droplets on the surface of this bead.

These next images show where the real magic with obsidian happens and show why I am so smitten with this ltd run glass.

 I used the same recipe as the focal bead above to make this bracelet bead duo but this time I wafted each very quickly in a propane rich (reduction) flame and the resulting reaction is this beautiful peacock shimmer which is so hard to capture in a photograph.

This last experiment was to see if I could capture that peacock shimmer under encasement. The trio of beads shown here were created in exactly the same was as the bracelet beads above but without the addition of frit. I then encased the focal bead with Effetre 006 clear glass. As you can see the peacock colour is lost entirely under the clear layer. The streaky brown you can see in the encasing layer is down to my not setting the flame back to neutral before encasing.



Jolene x

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Not everything in life is black and white...

I've been planning to do some black and white comparison testing for ages. I wanted to put several different black CoE 104 glass rods through their paces in a diluted form by drawing them out over CiM Peace as twistie cane. The colours I am comparing in this post are:

• CiM Charcoal
• Vetrofond Black 064
• CiM Hades
• Effetre Black 064
• CiM Tuxedo

I made a simple striped twistie cane, an encased twistie cane and a ribbon style cane with each of these black glasses and CiM Peace. The beads below show the simple striped twistie over CiM Journey ltd run (which is a stiff transparent glass).

1. The bead on the left was made with the CiM Charcoal twistie. The black in this twistie has crept towards the centre on the cane forming a thick black line along the centre with short narrow black spokes on either side like a tyre tread print.
2. The second is Vetrofond Black 064, this glass has seemed to react with the CiM Peace base giving extra fine stripes between the "real" ones. This glass has appeared to dilute down to a darkish grey.
3. Third up  up is CiM Hades, the behaviour this cane here is similar to the Charcoal one but the Hades has spread width ways as well giving the appearance of  a thick black line along the centre of the cane with short wide black spokes on either side.This effect looks "smokier" than the Charcoal one.
4. The fourth bead is made with  Effetre Black 064, this glass has diluted down to a vibrant purplish blackcurrant colour. As with the Vetrofond there has been a reaction with the Peace base to give the appearance of extra stripes.
5. Lastly my CiM Tuxedo twistie over Journey, this cane has melted flat to give similar tyre track effect to the other CiM blacks but it has a slight deep purple cast to it.

These next beads show my encased striped twistie over CiM African Grey ltd run, a lovely rich muted grey which is a fairly hard to find now. I've used Effetre 006 clear in my twistie canes.

1. The first bead here has been made with an encased CiM Charcoal cane which has inhibited the glass's natural tendency to spread. The diluted Charcoal here has remained true black looking.
2. The second is Vetrofond Black 064, the encasing has stopped the spreading and illusion of extra lines shown with the unencased cane. The stripes on this bead look deep a blue/grey.
3. Next up is CiM Hades, as with Charcoal, the spreading tendency has been inhibited and the stripes still look very black.
4. The fourth bead is made with  Effetre Black 064, as expected, no additional reaction lines this time and an obviously blackcurrant/purplish colour.
5. Fifth, CiM Tuxedo twistie over Journey, again no spreading and the diluted glass also appears to remain relatively black with a very slight purplish cast. 

As far as encased twistie cane with fine stripes goes, there appears to be only a very slight difference in intensity and hue between the three CiM glass colours I have tested. If I was splitting hairs I would say that Tuxedo appeared darkest but Hades appeared to stay most black.

This last picture shows beads made with ribbon twistie over a small core of CiM Peace. Each bead was then encased with Effetre 006 clear glass. This form of twistie shows each glass in its most diluted form as cane.

 

1. The first is CiM Charcoal which has an ethereal smokey quality to it. The colour has remained quite black but become quite transparent.
2. The second is Vetrofond Black 064 which now has a transparent and wispy blue grey hue
3. Next up is CiM Hades, very black looking and appearing to be fairly dense
4. The fourth bead is made with  Effetre Black 064, distinctly different in colour from all of my other test beads, it is fairly translucent and again blackcurrant looking. 
5. Last up is CiM Tuxedo ribbon twistie over Peace. In the flesh this twistie is noticeably more translucent that the Hades bracelet bead but that has not proven very easy to capture in my picture.

In conclusion:

Effetre and Vetrofond black have a fun reaction over Peace.

Neither Effetre or Vetrofond black hold their black colour well in dilute form.

All three of these CiM blacks are spreaders in dilute form.

For encased twistie with fine black stripes head for Tuxedo as on balance it is the least expensive and most readily available of the three CiM glasses tested.

Charcoal, Effetre black and Vetrofond black make cool looking wispy ribbon twistie.

In all of these  pictures CiM Tuxedo is darkest looking but is not the truest black hue. CiM Hades holds its black tone the best in dilute form.

Jolene x

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Mini Mo' March 2012 - Humbugs and Chocolate Limes

The first of my glasswork collections for March is Chocolate Limes. This Mini Mo's glasswork was made using CiM Sherwood and Effetre Dark Brown Special 448 with Nomalicious Choca Mocha shards. The colour inspiration for this set was given to me by the seat fabric and decor in my pals local pub in Leics!

The first beads I would like to show are a collection of sculptural floral beads using Choc Limes flat cane over Effetre Dark Brown and Effetre Dark Grass Green encased with 006 clear.

Here is a proper Pic N Mix shapes selection of Choc Lime twistie allsorts! This fun and funky set of beads shows what the striped and ribbon twistie canes look like both left raised and melted flat under clear encasement.

Next I'd like to show a recent bracelet bead collection made with lashings and lashings of Choca Mocha shards over CiM Ginger, Reichenbach Mystic Beige and Effetre light topaz.

In Keeping with the sweet shop inspired theme in March, my second collection is this delicious monochrome. Humbug Mini Mo' uses CiM Peace and CiM Hades with shimmering goldstone.

The beads here are stunning jewel toned rounds with lashings of raised goldstone shards decoration. Both the foremost turquoise bead  and opaque looking green bead at the back are made with Double helix Gaia and show how beautiful these shards look when silver fumed.

This striking monchrome raised floral set uses Humbug murrini flat cane and looks deceptively simple.

These beads below are the reason that I am blogging about March in August! I put my black and white Humbug twistie cane somewhere safe and it took me just about forever to find it again!! Because of that I have made something very different with it than I would have done back in March as I'm on a bracelet bead kick at the moment. This collection of beads features Humbug twistie over CiM African Grey and Silvered Ivory shards over Effetre Steel Grey transparent.

Both the Goldstone and Choca Mocha Shards have become popular staple lines in my lampy supplies shop, Frit N Chips on Etsy.

Jolene x

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Making an Amoeba bead (BoC tutorial)

A follow on from the tutorial that I published yesterday for a simple two colour twistie cane, here is a tutorial for the little Amoeba beads that I make for Beads of Courage UK.

I have always liked to punty and pull my twistie gathers with CoE 104 glass and so these kinds of cute and simple critter beads that I make for the BoC kiddies have evolved from the detailed twistie scraps that I often have to hand to work with.

These beads are basically a twistie cored encased tab bead with boggling eyes. You can make the core with any kind of  twistie that you may have to hand and then encase with any light transparent.

I wind the fat ends of my twistie pull on to a pre-warmed coated (with bead release) mandrel to form the Amoeba core.

Next I melt and roughly wrap the part of my clear punty that was originally my maria to become the encasing layer of glass.

The next stage is to smooth the surface and even out the whole bead with gentle marvering to create nice bead ends and holes that are dimpled and not sharp.

 I then pre-warm my mashers so that the bead will not be chilled too rapidly at the pressing stage. You do not need posh mashers to make beads like these Amoebas, you could press your bead between two heat proof surfaces or heat and press one side at a time on your graphite marver.

I use the curve of my mashers to round out the bead so that the centre is slightly bigger than the ends. Other ways you can achieve the same look is to marver one end at a time to a slight angle with your graphite paddle or wrap an extra layer of glass around the middle of the bead and then gravity shape it into a slight barrel profile in the flame.

I then press my bead along the length of the mandrel to get the lovely tab shape I am looking for. Be sure not to press your bead too thin - leave at least a mandrels with of glass on either side of the mandrel. Flame kiss out the circular marks caused to the surface of the bead by rapid chilling due to the pressing process.

Choose where you would like your critters eyes to be and place two dots of white with thick stringer for the eyes. Melt the dots down just a little and then top both with a smaller dot of a dark transparent stringer for the iris colour and melt the topped dots down just a little to make them look well rounded and smooth.

Next top with a very small dot of black glass for the pupil and melt in. I like to use a stringer that is about 1mm to do this to make sure the pupils are nice and small.

Lastly warm the whole bead through thoroughly in the top of the flame  before popping into you kiln for garaging. I don't recommend making these kind of beads if you are cooling in bubbles, vermiculite or with a fibre blanket as large pressed beads have a higher rate of failure due to the thermal stresses involved in their making.

Here is a selection of Amoebas that will be making their way off to BoC - BCCA this week.

Jolene x

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