Highlights from Beer & Beadz – May 2016
Thanks to Trudy and her lovely assistant Alicia for hosting our May 2016 Beer & Beadz event which was a great success!
We started the evening off by gathering in Trudy’s cozy living room and talked about our passion for glass as well as the hot topic currently in the news with respect to the issues of our beloved suppliers and the environmental push for more safety regulations in the US.
See links below for the latest news from Bullseye and Spectrum Glass.
Bullseye
Spectrum
A bit later, Trudy fired up the BBQ and with the help of Alicia Champ, they put together a delicious spread that was enjoyed by all.
The evening ignited even more with Trudy’s off-mandrel demonstration. She worked her magic by combining color on a hothead torch. After forming a gather, Trudy used mashers to flatten and form the glass into a nicely shaped pendant. She went on to explain that once the glass pendant is in the kiln (using specific settings a bit hotter than annealing temperature), the top will smooth and round out leaving a nice flat back. A perfect surface for adding a nice silver bail with a small amount of Gorilla Super Glue to complete the pendant.
In the spirit of sharing, Ken McIntosh followed with a great demonstration on how to make an off-mandrel bell flower to celebrate the Spring theme. He gathered a ball of glass then shaped it with tweezers. Once out of the kiln, he explained that he drills a hole through so the bell flower can be worn as a pendant by creating a wire bail.
We ended the evening with our beautiful bead exchange! Thanks to everyone for coming out! You can see examples of both demonstrated pieces pictured below. Square #1 – Trudy’s pretty pink and white pendant. Square #5 – Ken’s fabulous bell flower.
