Beer & Beadz – September 2017

This months Beer & Beadz was hosted by Trudy.  The theme was Fall and we were challenged to bring our beads that were inspired by the season. It was great to see some members that haven’t been out to a get together in awhile.

Melanie Rowe did a demo on making leaves.  She showed us her technique for creating twisties which she made in the fall colours and used to accent her leaves.

There was a great discussion on what wire to use when creating things like leaves off mandrel.  We talked about using copper wire and how hard it was to clean and then about steel wire.  I personally have used nickle silver wire and found it worked well and seems to harden a bit in the kiln.  I will be trying stainless steel wire my next time making headpins or leaves.

Trudy also demo’d.  She demonstrated how she makes her cabachons.  She makes a gather on the end of a glass rod and decorates it or blends it with another colour.  She shapes the gather a bit to give it the rough shape of her intended pendant then mashes it.  She removes it from the rod and cleans up the end of the cabachon and pops it into a fiber blanket.  This rough cabachon with go into the kiln and be heated to it’s melting point where the glass with melt and reshape itself to a flat back and domed surface.

Debbie (me) did a quick demo of a encased bead in order to test the new -006 clear Alexx has been talking about.  While this new clear is still marked as -006, it is clearer and scums less.  I have to try it yet on my home torch as I tend to work hotter and see if I get the same results.  I picked up my batch from Joanne at Andrighetti Glass if you want some.

Dinner was burgers on the grill and dessert was cake .. and we had lots of it.  It was Barb’s birthday so people brought a cake for her including Barb herself.