March 12, 2009

ast night, I got to go play with fire. A lady I know, emailed me up and said "Hey, wanna come over to my house tonight"? Most of you know I have done medieval re-enactment (SCA) and studies for the last 14 years. When I was in Oregon, I moved before I was able to learn glassblowing in Dragon's Mist Shire, something which I have always mourned I did not get to try. However, I got to work with glass on a small scale last night with another person who lives near me and does SCA , making glass beads. Glass beads date back to the Vikings pre-8th century. I thought my first bead would come out atrocious, but it was one of the best of the three beads I made. Then I started experimenting, so they did not come out quite how I wanted, but they are still quite pretty. I will probably make a necklace or bracelet from them when I have enough to make something with.

When I got home, I put five of them in Bren's hand and he almost ate them (it was close). I shouted "No" and  he told me he thought they were candies. He thought they were really cool after I had to explain what they were. Then he says, "You really made these"? He thought they were really cool.

I so love making these lovely bits of glass.

Picture Left: The beads made last night. The little middle bead is the very first one I made and I was happy as it came out as I had planned and is perfectly round and has four colours in it. The one on the left is not as round as I would have liked, but I was concentrating on getting the white dots even all the way around, but oval works too.

Picture Above: These beads were made by someone in the SCA lampworking guild at one of the events I have attended over the years. I accidently got involved with helping her make some beads as it was very windy at the event that day and pushing her flame around. So as I was walking by her booth, she asked if I could hold my 9 yards of skirt out a bit to act as a windbreak, so I spent hours watching this lady work her craft. I know she gives so many as a tithing to the Royalty go give to others as awards and she also puts 10 into one of the creeks each year. 

When I get better, I plan on duplicating the style of some of the ancient glass beads, such as the ones below which are from Roman times.