As a result of going to an Astrid Riedel demo a couple of weeks ago, I can't stop making wigwags. So far, they look more like gnarly, crazed swizzle-branches than the beautiful, even, magical thing that Astrid showed us in her demo, but I'm guessing I can't aspire to that until my 50th or 100th attempt. As a result of me not being able to stop making wigwags, and in order to not have a gnarly-cane accumulation in the studio, I've had to start using them, and these beads have a fair amount of wigwagginess to them.
I'm just getting back to the torch and barely starting to feel comfortable there again after a pretty dry two years, so my beads feel a little shaky and I'm having trouble with heat control and knowing what I want to make. So, I am just pushing through it and putting things together randomly knowing that if I keep that up, I will come through on the other side with better comfort and better beads.
This bead is silver glass frit stringer in an Ivory jacket. I made this bead at the beginning of the session, before I got hypnotized by the wigwags and all the pretty colours.
Wood makes a really good base for surface florals, as it's very reactive. Here, I used encased stringer to overdot the Wood flower petals, which has resulted in some pretty reactions in the petals. I'll do this again for sure. The base of the bead is cane made from layering Mint Lozenge, Shrubbery, and Slytherin. The wigwag is up the sides of the bead.
I can't really explain the construction of the rest of these beads since I was just winging it in the studio and didn't really make notes about which colours I used in which beads. What I can tell you is that they are a mishmash of wigwags, Spanish Leather, Apple Blush, Shrubbery, Slytherin, Mint Lozenge, Evil Queen, Copper Green, and the odd little dash of Raku.
And that is what Session 1 brought me. I feel lucky that I was able to attend Astrid's demo because it helped me envision a way to use these colours together that I had not been naturally inclined to. It woke up "possibility", and now I am full of ideas.
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