Skunk Video!

We got a good video last night of our little skunk. She is just so adorable! She's also a little camera shy. We'll leave her be now. Ignore the date on the video, Wally didn't set it after putting in new batteries.

SKUNK VIDEO

Skunk Butt

Wally found a large hole on our property with a big mound of dirt next to it. He didn't want to put the camera there because he assumed it was just a ground squirrel home. So what? I love all of the critters so I insisted he put the camera out by the hole. Turns out it's the home of a skunk. She's adorable....isn't she? Just not the end of the skunk you want pointing towards you. I hope she sticks around. I love going out at dusk during the summer looking for skunks roaming around and hunting for bugs. They're so much fun to watch. Many years ago Wally and I were on a hike and along came a momma skunk with a bunch of little babies lined up behind her. We stopped dead in our tracks and they just walked on by, a foot or two away from our feet. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Taking Webbing a Step Further

First, one more layered Clio bead that I webbed. Clio was layered over a striking glass that turned blue. I'm thinking that reduced Triton would look very similar.

I've gotten a little fancy now and I've added silver foil into the mix. The next bead is Clio over Hades. I did a couple of layers of silver foil on the Clio, then did my webbing technique and encased.

The last bead is my favorite. It's just Clio, two layers of silver foil, webbed, lightly reduced and encased.

Clio over Ekho

I still have a lot of layered Clio beads to photographed but I think these may be my favorite. Both are Clio over Ekho. Depending on what Ekho decides to do, determines the color of the bead. You know how silver glass tends to have a mind of it's own. In many cases it ends up being a good thing. The first bead is multicolored with green, pink and lavender. The second bead is more deep amber, burgundy and purple. I just put down some Ekho, struck and reduced it and covered it with Clio. Then I did my webbing technique, did a light reduction and encased. I can't seem to put the Clio down! Very cool glass.

Clio

I've been playing a lot lately with Clio. The pink bead is from the first torch session with Clio. I had no problem striking the glass at all to get a nice deep pink. Since then I've had no luck recreating that gorgeous fuchsia. The second bead is what I've been getting instead. A pretty amber that has an incredible inner glow. So I've decided to capitalize on it and layer Clio over anything within arms reach. It's been a bit addicting. I'll post some layered Clio beads in a few days.

Dot Placement Helper

I've been meaning to post this for some time but I had intended on cleaning my workbench first. It really is organized chaos. I know what every rod and stringer is. It sure looks messy though. LOL!

When I first started lampworking I was immediately attracted to dots. However, I felt the need to rest my hand on something, anything. I tried a drinking glass turned upside down and Wally saw me struggling. He found this piece of metal in the garage that was actually part of the packing material when he purchased a bumper for his truck. It's perfect. In the bottom picture you can see the piece of metal and how it's about the same height as my torch face. The other pictures show how I can rest my right hand on it and also the end of the mandrel as I'm placing my dots. This means that everything is steady. The top picture shows that I only have to move about an inch to the right of the flame. I can't imagine ever having to work without it.

New images are up!

The new images are up now, hope you like them!
New Stamps

Beeswax March POTM

The March Project of the Month is up on the website. I did a spring pond scene. I give step by step instructions along with some tricks which make scenic stamping easier and less intimidating. I used four of our unmounted sheets for this scene and they are offered at a discount during the month of March. You can find everything here:
March POTM