Pam Jacobs
I am an engineer but I also love to create very non-engineer like things. I have been playing with ways to make freeform beads, but with an element of control. Lava flows smoothly until it encounters an obstruction and that is the feel I was going for with this experiment, so I named it Lava 2 (I did another first in purples). This one started with a large cylinder bead of Moretti dark amber. I then applied alternating circling stripes of copper green and dark ivory with enough spacing to leave some amber showing when the stripes melted in. I wrapped the hot bead in a couple of layers of silver leaf and melted that in. The shaping starts with letting the mass of glass sag to one side and using mashers and marvering to get the cylinder part about the right size/shape. I use scissors to cut the sagged part in 3 or 4 sections and start pulling and mashing with small mashers. I heat some sections enough that they almost drip off and then push them back up to create folds and swirling.

July 2003