New inspirations

Well, I have to apologize for being remiss with my posts, but for an excuse, I have been inspired by recent workshops and have been busy experimenting with new techniques.  Two weeks ago, I attended two workshops sponsored by Southern Flames.  one was a workshop given by Brad Shute on how to work with his own handmade silver glass and the second was one by Marcy Lamberson on how to combine basic shapes into new combinations.  Both them have inspired me to extend my horizons.

Brad showed us how to get color combinations with his glass, especially purples and blues:

I love the blues that come out on repeated striking.  And I learned something important about the striking sequence.  I used to quit when I got a dark brown color---I thought that I had gone beyond the point of no return.  But I leaned that that color is the starting point of the striking sequence!  So instead of stopping, I should have kept going.

In Marcy's class, we combined old shapes in new ways:

The bead on the upper right is reminiscent of a house, and gives me an idea for a line of landscape beads.  Who knows what I'll come up with!