I've been having fun making all sorts of twists, different sizes, shapes and colours. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but I've had fun. I've also used up some of my many bits of scrap stained glass.
I've not made many beads lately but have made just a few to keep my hand in as it were. The top left is a vessel and the two bottom beads are made on curved mandrels. I foolishly decided to enter a cat bead swop on the Frit Happens Forum where you send a few beads to a coordinator who then send you the same number back from other participants. Can you see which three are meant to be cat beads?
I’ve just bought the book “Link It” by Susan C. Thomas and it contains projects using both rubber and aluminium rings. Purple Moon Beads sells the aluminium jump rings but I’m not too keen as the colour coating comes off very easily. One of the projects I’d quite like to try uses 1.6mm wire with a 10mm ID. I’ve made a sample using some of my own 1.0mm and 10mm ID (internal diameter) for quickness and it’s clear that the 1.0mm rings and not sturdy enough to withstand the forces on them so I've ordered some brass and copper rings from The Dragonfly Company.
Just in case you are feeling homesick Kat, it's never a dull moment on Canvey.
It seems he failed to take the bend, overcorrected and clipped the corner of the garden fence on our side of the road before trying to cross the beck. Makes a change from all the accidents on the roundabout outside our house.
Someone in the lampworking Forum I belong to posted this link. The one I like so far is "When the going gets tough, the tough get Kat"
Occasionally, I try a cat face and the one below is the latest,
The eyes are a bit off but on the whole, I am happy with the outcome. At least I know to make the eyes or at least the pupils smaller next time around.