Beading Tools

Xavier is holding some of Mary's beading tools for me. I take the beads off of the wire that Mary spins them on and wash the beads. The brushes are used to clean the mud out of the inside core of the beads.  Mary warned me that the mud she uses to hold the bead on is carcinogenic, and with that in mind I used the tools with gusto.

About half way through getting the beads cleaned, I noticed that the middle one, which used to have bristles on it, now only had half of its bristles.

I few minutes later, I noticed it had no bristles and now is  only a stick of metal, like the two on either side of it that are supposed to look that way.

Whoops.

Perhaps I have been scrubbing the insides of the beads with too much vigor.

I asked her and she gave me a lesson. 

I was cleaning the core as though I was attacking a germ infested corner.  Only a gentle scrub is needed.

I owe Mary one new tool.

Arta

In an hour or less ...

The tiniest beads are connectors

I need tiny connector beads to slip between the larger beads Mary makes when I go back to Sassy Bead next week.

She slipped down to her beading studio tonight to see how many connector beads she could make in less than an hour.

The simple, black connector beads were costing me $.25 a piece at Sassy Bead.

Mary said, "Let's see if they cost that when I make them."

The math goes like this.

Chatting and making beads

Say she is worth $30 an hour and the tube of glass is $1.50 plus tax.

She made 8 connector beads in an hour.

The cost (exluding the propane, the use of the equipment, and the labour of the person who will clean them up tomorrow) is $31.50.

Doesn't that come out to a little less than $4 per connector bead.

I will wait until I clean them up tomorrow to see if they are more or less beautiful than the ones for $.25 a piece.

Mary says she is making the beads to give away.  I say not one of them is leaving this house.

Arta

From the Bead Guru



Want a bead on beading?
Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Bouchard

Bonnie asked some questions about beading.

Here are my answers:

1. Are these photos from the studio? I love the rods of glass against the orange paint on the wall. I am envying the organization of the last photo with the multi-height containers for the different rod shapes.

Yes, this is my studio. I love it. When Leo built it for me, I picked bright orange and blue paint. He also made the glass rod holders. Fun to be able to organize and see the colours. Going to the glass store and buying the glass is so fun. There are so many colours to choose from. It is hard not to buy some of every colour.

2. I want to know if flash photography is allowed when someone has the propane torch going?

Yes, flash photography is allowed. The safety goggles I am wearing are also sunglasses of sorts, so a flash would not bother me.

3. Is it scary everytime the torch turns on?

Yes. I run through the safety steps in my head each time I turn my torch on and then off. There is always a little fear in the back of my mind. A good thing to have when one is working with fire and explosive gases. Once the torch is properly lit, I can relax a little.

4. Does anyone wear protective gloves, and if so how could the gloves both protect and allow the fine motor skills required for the task?

No need for protective gloves. Your hands are far enough away from the flame that they do not get hot. Some books recommend wearing a leather apron though so that if a piece of glass breaks off and goes flying, it does not hit you and burn through your clothes. (if you put cold glass into the flame too quickly, the glass can explode).


5. David is here with me. He asks "How does she not get hurt?"

I do my best to stay safe and make sure anyone in my shop with me is safe. The kids have to stay a safe distance back when they are watching and sometimes they also wear protective goggles. I have burned my fingers before trying to pick up a piece of hot glass. That hurts. When that happens, I put my finger under cold water until it feels better.


6. I like where you are burning with fire. It's really cool. I am not meaning cold. I am meaning "cool".

Yes, the fire is cool. The thing I like most is what happens to the glass when you melt it. It is amazing to me. Working with the melted glass is like holding a knife with honey on it. You have to keep turning it or gravity will make it drip off the knife. As long as you are moving it back and forth, you can keep the honey from dripping. Try it some time.

7. David likes how the metal rod she is holding is black where she is holding it and white where it is close to the bead in the flame. I like studying Mary's face as she is studying the beading task at hand.

The black part of the rod where I hold it does not get hot. The part with the bead on it that looks white is actually a kind of mud. It is called slip. I dip the end of the black rod the some grey slip. That way the glass bead will not stick to the metal rod. When the gray slip gets hot in the flame it looks white. The next day when I take the bead off the metal rod, the slip just breaks off like mud breaks off your boots when it is dry. Then I can wash it off the bead too.

6. Do the rich buy saftey glasses that have their prescription lenses in them? Perhaps Mary doesn't need prescription glasses.

I only need glasses to see things far away (like for driving and watching movies with sub-titles). I guess you could get special prescription lenses, but I don’t think there are any glass bead makers that are rich. So they probably just wear their regular glasses under their safety glasses.

The cool thing about these glasses are that they are not just for safety. They also have a filter in the lens that allows me to see the bead inside the flame without all the red around it.

Thanks for reading.

Mary, the Bead Guru

Sassy Bead

I bundled up Mary's beads and rode into Ottawa with her today. 

She was off to work. 

I wandered down to the jewellery story where Zoe used to work:  Sassy Bead.

When I laid the beads down on the table and asked for help getting them into a necklace the clerk did a double-take and then said, "Wow, where did you get those beads.  I would be happy if I had just one of them."

"This one," she said, pointing to the middle chartreuse bead.

Mary was back at work so she didn't get to hear the compliment.  It is she, not I who can spin glass into beads.

My task to figure out how much irregularity I should use when placing the beads on the string.  No use in defaulting to symetry.

I had 3 sets of black and white beads to string for Mary and I only got to one of them.

While I was threading wire through the beads, the clerk was looking at an ivory and blue set of beads, muttering something about not being able to contain herself, wanting to mix some brass and ivory spaces into that set when I am  ready to string them.

Tomorrow there will be enough time to give this project another try -- another day where I line up beads and put the finishing touch on Mary's interesting hobby.

Tomorrow is the day when Mary will get the first necklace of the intermediate beading class around her neck and wear them to work.

I have hundreds of hobby projects yet to be completed. Feels good to see someone else take the whole thing to the hoop.

Arta

Making Beads

Mary has been making glass beads for a while now. 

She is in the middle of taking an intermediate course. 

I went along to her second class last week.

The teacher nvited me to wear some protective glasses, like the ones Mary is wearing in this picture.

I didn't know enought to swing the side bar away from thefront lense of the glasses ... until the teacher came over and show me how to make it easier to wear the glasses. 

They did feel quite lumpy

Mary is making the technique look easy -- gently holdiong the wire here and letting the bead gently cool out of the flame.

She and I dream that in the evenings we will be able to go down to her work bench and make enough beads that everyone can have a necklace. 

So far, she has managed one night and a couple of hours on two Saturdays. 

Her dreams mirror mine.  I believed that I would sit down and watch a biopic each evening that I have been here.

After 11 days I have seen 4 pictures: A Beautiful Mind, Lumumba, The Social Network and La Vie en Rose (Edith Piaf).

We don’t know if we should see this as the glass have full, or the glass half empty. 

I have seen more movies than none. 

And she has run three beadings sessions.

I am going to count that as both of us being ahead.

Here are the rods of chartreus glass she has been melting, along with some of the beads -- black and white on the left side of the picture and you can see some chartreuse ones mixed in with other colours on the right side.

I hang out beside her on a low stool and we talk – mostly about how to get to Sassy Beads to buy the wire chain on which the beads are to go.
 

As you can see, protective glasses have to be worn. 

There is a blow torch and several wires on which she puts slip.

When I first saw her sitting on the stool, a blow torch firing heat out toward the wall, I had a moment where I thought, "Who is it that takes up a hobby that requires a propane torch.

When did embroidery, tatting and cross-stitch go out of style?
 

The long tubes of glass sit against the wall.

She picks one up, puts it in the flame and with her other hand, spins the wires as the glass falls onto them.

The spin is a slow one. I don't think I have the fine motor control to move my fingers that slowly and evenly.

But I can't say that I am not going to give it a try before I leave.

Arta