Let there be light.....

Welcome to Glass & Light. If we haven't met before, you can visit my "other blog" (see link on the right) for a more personal view into my soul.

I swear this is an unaltered photograph - and I also admit that I did not see this view before I photographed my bead, and that I can't see it now, no matter how closely I peer at the bead from various angles.  Something in the light shining through the bead at the exact moment the shot was taken gave gorgeous results...

Which, really, is the beauty of boro glass work.  Boro is manufactured with a lot of silver in it (and some other elements as well) which results in a lot of shifting colors, special shine and depth. Rather unpredictable and addictive.

I work my boro beads and wands on a Nortel Minor torch with 1 O2 concentrator.  With a stronger setup, you might get brigher colors and less haze.  Many of my boro beads are up for sale on StringyThingy.

Making the world a little greener....

Welcome to Glass & Light. If we haven't met before, you can visit my "other blog" (see link on the right) for a more personal view into my soul.

 

I am honored to be featured this week in Green Prophet, a webzine focusing on environmental news in the Middle East.  The webzine is in English and has quite about artists and designers who practice the three "R's"  - reduce, reuse and recycle - in their everyday designs and work. They also have well-written and informative articles about green technology and politics.  If you enjoy reading articles like this, then I would recommend visiting Green Prophet at least once.  They update their articles frequently.  Thank you, Karen of GP, for finding me and bringing me to your webzine!

And I ask (as I always do!), are 3 R's enough?  What about 5 R's, or 10?  I think that we should add to this list - 

• Repair - fix the old and keep using it, rather than buying new and junking the old
• Replant - let's keep Israel green by planting more trees.  Once our country was tropical.
• Renew - renew our vows to go "green" and our commitment to Israel's (and the world's) environment
• Rethink - be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things
• Remember - this is the only planet that we have, and most of its resources are limited
• Remind - remind others, especially our children, the what, how and why of healthy environmental practices
• Reward - give a good word to people who do the right thing
• Respect - the needs and opinions of others, but don't be afraid to stand up against poor practices and attitudes
• Regulate - first and foremost, we need to regulate ourselves.  It's not enough to "feel green" if we're not doing anything about it.  But I'm also in favor of getting our governments to set some limits on industry and waste management
• pRioritize - we can't do everything, but we should do something.  What are our priorities?
• pRepare - keep reading, keep learning, keep trying.... prepare for our future

I suspect that the last 2 are cheating, but I'm not taking them off my list.  Many of my stained glass pieces contain recycled or upcycled components.  I make a lot of beads from recycled glass (although most of them are not in my Etsy site).  And I've put a lot of practices in place to conserve resources.  It's not all about money - buying used bubblewrap or used bubble bags sometimes costs as much as the original and can be time-consuming to find - but about reusing what's already out there instead of encouraging the manufacture of more plastic while putting the old stuff into landfill.  

 

Thank you, Green Prophet! 

 

Little House Gods....

Welcome to Glass & Light. If we haven't met before, you can visit my "other blog" (see link on the right) for a more personal view into my soul.

I'm now the proud owner of several house gods, although owner might not be the right word - perhaps it should be "protectee." These are my first off-mandrel creations. I made them with boro glass and they have plenty of bling and a lot of charm. Much easier to care for and quieter than Spike and Buffy, our beloved yard dogs, who do tend to bark at night sometimes.

Meet Bear-Dog, family protector:

and the Striped Stallion, house god of creativity and passion:

And here is poor Curly-tailed Aardvark. I accidently snapped his tail off (ouch!) and while I'll try to repair him (whence he might become a curly-butt Aardvark!), reintroduction into the flame is tricky even for house gods like him, and he might explode.

Bear-dog and Striped Stallion are looking for a new home (Aarvark is simply looking for a new tail!). Click on my link on the right "Shop for Lampwork Beads" to find them.

Tip for Lampworking Artists:
Interested in learning to make animal figurines in the flame? I can highly recommend Pipyr's tutorials, which you can find here her Etsy store.

Learn a New Skill Set...

Welcome to Glass & Light. If we haven't met before, you can visit my "other blog" (see link on the right) for a more personal view into my soul.



I'm now offering my tutorial, From Bottle to Bead, for sale on Etsy. Bottle to Bead is the happy result of many months of research and experimentation working with bottle glass: specifically, recycling my wine bottles into lampwork beads. My tutorial includes how to harvest bottle glass, what to expect when you use it and an annealing schedule for your kiln. And of course, I've illustrated it with lots of photos from my studio!



Tips for Glass Artists:

Interested in purchasing my lampworking tutorial? You can find it at StringyThingy, my Etsy store. And if beads aren't your thing, keep an eye out for my "soon-to-be-published" tutorial for stained glass artists, which will be sold through Glass & Light.