After I finished making yesterday’s necklace I thought to myself: looks nice, needs more red! I got on the torch and made some beads using the tonic water bottles, added some red frit, and then used them in this necklace.
Needs more red…
Category: Inspiration
My favourite orange cup
I was a bit sad when I dropped my favourite orange cup the other day! Don’t worry, I didn’t cry. I just thought it was a shame that my favourite cup was broken. And then I thought “well, why not make some beads from it?”
So I made some flower beads, and then made these earrings. I was worried that the colour would burn out in the flame but it didn’t. Very happy to open the kiln this morning to find these.
Making recycled glass beads
Today I made a necklace featuring beads from wine, gin and tonic bottles. I love taking the time to talk to people about how these beads are made, so here goes:
- I get lots of donations of gin and wine bottles (thanks to everyone who takes the time to do this). When I get the bottles I have to first of all clean them. This involves soaking them in hot water to remove the labels and clean the inside of the bottle. Sometimes the labels are a bit sticky, so I will use Eucalyptus oil to do the final clean for me.
- The next step is to smash the bottle! I put the bottle in a pillowcase and hit it as hard as I can with a hammer. I then take the broken pieces out of the bag and put them in a container with the same type of glass. It’s important that I don’t mix glass as they may not be compatible.
- Next it’s time to make the beads. Before I start making the beads I heat the glass on a hot plate. The reason I do this is because glass is temperamental! It does not like to be heated up too quickly (and it does not like to be cooled down too quickly). If I were to place glass straight into the flame it would just smash into a million pieces. So warming it up helps a lot. Less wasted glass.
- My torch runs oxygen and LPG (which is the gas you use for BBQs). I use really long tongs to pick up the warm glass and then carefully introduce that to the flame and warm it up enough to make it melt. Once it has started to get a bit “drippy” I will wind the glass onto a stainless steel mandrel (coated in bead release) and start using different tools and techniques to make the beads.
- Once the bead has been made it goes into the kiln to go through the annealing process. This is where the molecules align and the bead is strengthened. The beads stay in the kiln until I have finished for the day. They will sit at 510 degrees celsius for a further half an hour before I start ramping down the kiln.
- The next day the kiln is cool enough to remove the beads. They then need to be removed from the mandrels, and the holes then need to have the bead release cleaned from them.
- Phew! After that, the beads are ready to use to make necklaces like this:
June Colour Play #4
I hope you have enjoyed the colourful earrings that I have been sharing as part of my Colour Play series of work this month. Don’t forget, you can visit the shop to see the whole collection. The final colour way is green.
Asymmetrical earrings
Yesterday I was looking through some old photos of my jewellery. I came across some old work that I had made for a Flame On exhibition at Kirra Galleries. The earrings were asymmetrical and I really liked them. I think most of the earrings sold from that exhibition, so it made me wonder why I hadn’t made more like them, or even remotely similar to them. This morning as I was trawling through my beads, trying to find pairs that matched for earrings….I had a sudden realisation….I didn’t have to match them if I was going to make them asymmetrical. Yay, that made it easier to find some lovely beads that all kind of worked together, hence this pair of earrings:
Niobium earrings #2
I have a few different pairs of niobium earrings to share. I like the little copper sparkle in this pair! Teamed with beads made from a Coopers Ale bottle, they are really quite pretty.
Pretty little charm bracelet
I have been playing around with some ideas for a pretty little charm bracelet. Assorted recycled glass beads in all sorts of pretty colours.
June Colour Play #3
Inspired by the changing season
Well it’s definitely winter here! I have been doing a lot of driving lately and it has been quite lovely to watch the paddocks turn from brown to green. This necklace is inspired by the changing season. Using beads made from beer, wine and champagne bottles, I think it captures the change from brown paddocks through to lush green fields quite nicely.
Hooray for long weekends
I was so pleased to wake up today knowing that it was a long weekend and I didn’t have to be anywhere else but at home. We all woke up a little later than normal, and I have had a chance to play with some more design ideas with the enamelled copper tubes and various recycled glass beads. I really like how this one sits.
