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Our little group from the mainland enjoying
the sunny ferry trip (Kerry Caron, Lene Baldry, Me, Ania Kyte).
Tor and Heidi Baxter also made the trip. |
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Alexx's studio with 3 torches set-up.
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Here's Heidi Baxter trying out the torch and
nifty didymium shield. And David Sivers busily working away in
the background. |
Kerry Caron also trying out the dual-fuel
(usually a hothead user). So how'd ya like it Kerry? |
Ania Kyte making a floral I think. |
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Greg Planer checking out Alexx's super-
dooper Phantom torch. |
Show and tell by local boro artist Ben
Evers.... way cool! |
The master at his torch while Nicole
Valentine looks on. |
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Here's Nicole again making a sculptural flower
bead for us. Start with a spacer bead in a bright color like
yellow. |
Then she's building up I think ivory (could
be white) dots for petals. |
Ah yes... you see it much better in this pic...
five stacked dots around the spacer bead. |
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A little squish and shape with the tweezers. |
The some dots around the center of the spacer
to add interest to the center of the flower. Thanx Nicole! |
Alrighty.. let get down to business. Alexx's
is making his signature "Bone" bead. make a chunky
barrel base (I think in Ivory). |
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Now Alexx's is creating a bit of a gather
on the end of a 254 (EDP) rod. |
Now for the nifty trick... he holds
the rod overtop and down to the side... touches just the very
tip to the bead and pulls out a thin stringer while he spins
his base bead and spirals it down the length of the bead. Now
out course he did this in one swift motion... when I tried it
LOL! I guess practise make perfect eh Alexx. |
Now with Alexx's lovely thin spiral
down the bead he rakes it one way then the other way in quarters
around the bead forming the 'bone' shape. Note: Alexx's perfered
method to steady the hands... bamboo stick held in both hands
that is gently resting on the torch. And he is now using the
nifty Bunsen burner to spot heat. |
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Finishing off the raking... then Alexx reduces
the bead and the 254 ends up metallic. Nicely done Alexx! |
More show and tell by Ben Evers. |
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Now the Alexx Cheng Dichro Bead...tada! |
Base bead in dark color like black. Barrel
shape and roughly the width of the dichro Strip. |
Heating up the Dichro on the clear side of
course. However interesting to note is that Alexx doesn't use
pre-fired dichro...
raw right off the sheet. |
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Cool base bead and wrap the dichro (dichro
down) around pushing tight against the base. |
Alexx does slightly heat the coated
side as he makes his way around the bead. Then overlaps slightly
and pulls off. A little bit of heat then ready for casing. |
He use a thick clear rod and gets it
very hot. Using the spiral method, gently spinning the rod side
to side to squeeze out air bubbles and thin the leading edge,
he adds a thick layer of casing. |
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Then Alexx heated it up to round it out. |
Now for some decorative dots in white first. |
You can see better in this picture. |
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Then some more little dots in teal.
Voila...thanx Alexx! |
So before we get to Ben's demo I'd like to
thank everybody for coming and making it a very special event.
I think I got everybody's name in attendance but I forgive me
if I missed anyone as there were one or two arrivals later in
the evening I might have missed: |
Okay now for Ben Ever's boro demo. Ben you'll
have to forgive me if I miss a step here or there I was running
out of memory on the camera. Ben starts with a hollow open ended
tube which he is now attaching a smaller blow tube. |
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Thank you to: Lene, David, Kerry, Greg, Ania,
Debbie, Ben, Michelle, Nicole, Patrick, Marla, Heidi, Tor, and
Vic... and of course a great big thank you to out hosts Alexx
and Viyada for their hospitality. |
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Now a little further down the tube Ben heats
it up and melts off the tube leaving an opening. |
Ben is now adding frit to the inside of the
tube while spinning. This is coating the inside with frit. |
Ben is now sealing the end and is preparing
to blow the bubble. Note his blow hose is now attached to the
end of the blow tube. |
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Blowing a nice bubble. |
Now Ben has added a punty to end to further
shape and blow. |
Now with the blow tube removed he is
shaping the lip of the vessel. |
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A little more marvering and shaping.... |
Here it is the finished piece, all that's
left to do is tap of the punty. Ben kindly gave away this piece
after dinner too. Thanx Ben! |
Alexx's mascot... Spanky getting some
exercise mountain climbing on the hill behind the house. |
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Relaxing after a wonderful dinner. |
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We're all so full we can barely move. |
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