Monthly Theme Challenge - May/June

[Nammie]

The Colour Challenge is up and running nicely, lots of black and white items so far with more to come I hope....

The THEME challenge for this month (15th May to 15th June) is....

Tutorials

All you have to do is make something (bead, fused piece, boro sculptural piece etc) using a tutorial you have either found free on the web, purchased or have written yourself. You don't have to rush out and find a new one, it could be one you have followed many times and developed. It can be an simple or as technically challenging as you like and you don't have to follow it like a recipe, perhaps you've combined techniques from a couple of tutorials to create something new.

Please try to include a link or reference for the tutorial with your entry so we can see a 'library' of what people have tried along side the results. Obviously, if it was a paid tutorial, please respect the author's copyright, a link to where to buy it is one thing but no giving away all the secrets!

The same 'rules' apply as to the Colour Challenge - Just post a pic and perhaps a bit of blurb in this thread to enter. Pics must be posted before midnight on 15th June. Everyone who posts a pic is entered once into the draw for the 'prize'. You can post as many items as you like but you'll only go in the draw once.

[Skyblue]

This is an interesting challenge hmm got to think now

[mel]

Great idea 

[ajda]

Yes, great idea - a way to share interesting tutorials. And for me at least, the push I needed to have another go at one that has been gathering dust since I didn't have the patience to master it...

[Nammie]

How are we all doing with the tutorials? Remember this challenge runs from the 15th of one month to the 15th of the next so you've still got time.

I've tried my chosen tutorial, got plenty of disasters under my belt, have had a few successes now and just need to do some more photos....

[ajda]

Time's always running away from me - too many projects and not enough time... I have one rubbish little item to show, though no photos yet, and another more ambitious one in the pipeline... am keeping my eye on the mid-month deadline.

[ajda]

OK, so my first project was to try to make a New Zealand silver fern (the All-Blacks emblem) on a boro bead small enough for earrings... I've only made one, so only half a pair so far... but I don't feel much motivated to perfect the technique or finish the pair... maybe one day. The tutorial was one I found free, and I loved the home-made hand-drawn nature of it, so thought I'd give it a go - http://perles-au-chalumeau.forumactif.com/t1164-pour-pinar - it's for feather murrini, so I planned to adapt it slightly to try to get the silver fern. If you hold the bead at arm's length, in low light, and half-close your eyes, you might imagine it's OK - but really not one of my proudest:



My second was to have a go at dragon eyes from a tutorial in The Flow Magazine 2010 - I think I paid to have a pdf download of this one, but can't remember when or where - it's by an Aussie called Christian Arnold. I have several handicaps - first an appalling lack of patience, second shaky hands especially after my morning espresso... the list continues, but all just excuses of course. Anyhow, I finally got round to giving it a proper go and here are the first two attempts. No 1 - not enough stringer to cover the base, so the pupil seems to have grown tendrils - it doesn't even look like an eye, but I thought it might make quite a nice pendant, so I stuck a  bail on it before dropping it into the kiln. No 2 - too much pupil, but otherwise not too bad. Now, if I had the patience to practise and perfect it, I might get somewhere, but that's probably not going to happen...

[Jane C ♫]

Hurrah! Here are some beads (my first ones in a month!).

I pulled some stringers a while ago and had them sitting in a jar, so thought it would be a good idea to use them up. I haven't done much raking or stringer control work before, so this was fun.

For a tutorial, I used The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking by Kimberley Adams. P64-65 on stringer work.



I did the ones at the top first, then decided to change it round and see what would happen if I put stringer along the bead instead of round it. The bottom one is my first flowers!

[Rascal]

Here are my first 3 bead attempts from The Glass Bead Trip by Claudia Trimbur-Pagel. Somehow I forgot his nose on the first one so it ended up looking like a cow. They were fun to make but definitely need more ppp
pup tutorial by KWebbo, on Flickr

[Pat from Canvey]

Those are so cute Karen.