Overdue Update

I have just realised how long it has been since I have updated my blog - especially as I have left it with the face cane project hanging.

On the next attempt, I made a face I was quite happy with, and managed to pull enough cane to go on and make 3 different versions, with a range of 'hairstyles' and colours backgrounds. After a battle with cutting the cane into slices (thank you to Nat in Sydney for sending me her cutters), I was able to make a selection of beads in the style of Roman Face Beads. I also updated my bead timeline, and finally presented it in a way I was happy with - as avisual display sewn onto a piece of black wool. Full documentation for both projects can be found on my website....

The Great Face Cane Adventure - Step 1

Ok, so here are the pics of my first foray into making Roman style face cane. Looking at the individual components, I am really happy with the eyes and mouth, but the square shape of the nose was harder to keep straight.... I am also happy with the neat round shape of the hair and the blue background of the finished face. I think I pulled the components a bit too small. I also didnt allow enough layers of encasing between components, not realising how much it would reduce. I needed a few layers of white between the eyes and the eyebrow encasing, but I misread my notes - I wanted the nose lines to meet the brows, but the eyes should have had some 'padding' between them and the brow line, as everything has ended up way too close and bunched together. I think the mouth is smeared because it went on off centre and I was trying to nudge it over. While I was disapointed when I first saw the finished cane, I think I was probably a bit hard on myself - its not a bad first effort, as I've only made simple cane with stripes before, so this is both my first attempt at a more complicated shape (i.e the eyes) and of combining multiple cane together. Anyway, what I need now is the catchcry of lampworking - practice, practice, practice!

Glass Projects

I have found blogging regularly when I'm not travelling has been a bit of a hardship in the last year - I'm either too busy to write, or so quiet there is nothing of interest happening to write about :). But I've been working pretty steadily on a number of glass projects for SCA Arts & Science competitions lately. I hadn't entered any Kingdom level competitions for ages, but luckily the topics recently have lent themselves to glass work. First there was the Rosary project, which I mentioned in my blog a few months ago. The documentation and photos are also up on my website. Then there was a viking jewellery category, and this weekend a competition for board games. Thanks to an SCA friend on Facebook, who drew the Viking Tafl games to my attention, I produced the game pieces pictured below.

I also have some plans for new projects, hopefully to be finished before Festival at Easter. I took the first steps on a major project today. I have planned for some time to work on making face cane for Roman portrait beads. I spent 4 hours today making components, eyes, nose etc and made my first Roman style face. I will post some pictures tomorrow. I'm not happy with the final result, but I can see some areas where I need to do things differently - I have some ideas to try tomorrow, but it's not a bad first effort I suppose. I thought I might blog along the learning curve I'll be undertaking as I attempt to master this new technique.