EllyLoo Creations-Lampwork & Jewelry

So, Lately, my glass mojo has been ‘leaking’ out.  I’ve been making spacers, and pretty beads, but nothing new that I’d go “OOoooo” over.  So I tried a tutorial that I haven’t tried since I was a brand spankin new glass girl, and sooo excited because I had been eyeing this tutorial, and always wanted to try it. 

So I allowed my mojo to mutate a bit, and I attempted another implosion.
Next time, I will be leaving the flowers off, they’re not that hot.   This is a Mandrel Wound Implosion bead.  YOu’ve seen implosions in boro pendants, in Marbles, etc, but this is with soft glass.  It involves a large disk bead, lots of dots, and lots of patience.  (I get my glass too hot, you can see how the implosions ’swirl’ around the mandrel…that’s ok, I LIKE them that way.  I also like my marshmallows burned and crispy.  Really!)

I think next time I will try silvered ivory dots.  I like how they implode.

Hi! I said I’d show you what I cooked up using the optic mold 2 posts ago, and here you go!

This is a striped stringer that I made. 

I plunged soft glass into the mold until it came out with a nice clean shape–and by the way, this will take a few tries!  You have to make sure the glob fits into the hole without catching, tamp it down, bring it out, melt a bit more on the rod just behind the shape you just made, fit it in again, tamp it down… etc etc… until you have a nice inch of ’shape’.  Take a stringer of whatever stripes you want, and then lay them down in the grooves.  Take another glass rod or a mandrel, and use it as a punty, attaching it to the end.  Melt it down, keeping the stripes straight, and when you have it soft enough, pause, take it out of the flame, count to 3 and pull!

Why did I make yellow on clear?  I would like to put cute little stamen in the middle of my flowers.  Here’s my first try. I decided I need more practice.  Like… I don’t like how the stringer melted a ring around itself…I’ll have to experiment more.   Anyhow, please also ignore the scorched glass, my clear clearly wasn’t cleaned right! I do the last moment “armit swipe”, hoping it’ll get most of the gunk.  But I DO like the cute little stamen it leaves behind! 

There’s another striped stringer used in this bead, can you spot it?