Humorous Handbag

I think I looked like one of those old school cartoons, where the character does an exaggerated second look, when I first (and second) saw this handbag by Celine.  It totally cracked me up, and yet, it's color, materials and function all look great.  I just keep seeing a face with its tongue hanging out.  Did you see the same at your first look?

Hulk Hogan in 10 EASY Steps.

Our Southern Flames lampwork beadmaking group had a monthly challenge to make a "Macho" bead in honor of Fathers Day.

I thought about this for awhile and wondered what I wanted to do. There are a lot of shapes and items that come to mind, but quite honestly, I don't think "macho" both in color or style is really my thing. (periwinkle and aqua aren't exactly macho colors)

Luckily, I was saved by www.msn.com. Who knew? There on the front page was a story about Hulk Hogan. Perfect I thought. Here's an overly muscular guy who bleaches his hair blonde, does the fake bake suntan thing, and has bulging muscles. Perfect for my parody style. So away I went. And here's how to make your own Hulk Hogan bead, just in case you've been yearning for one and don't want to buy mine, which is in my lampwork bead Etsy shop.

Hulk Hogan Mini Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps

1. make a wide barrel bead out of dark ivory, or as I used, one of the flesh shades from CIM glass.
2. flatten it, and gently marver in both ends to add a little facial definition.
3. swipe a small band of white where the teeth go. Don't worry about perfection, because you're going to frame it with his moustache.
4. wrap lapis blue around the top part of his head a couple of times and keep it partially rounded for his bandana. (don't add the tails in the back yet.)
5. mix yellow and white to make a pale yellow glass. Heat both ends really hot and keep smushing together and pulling apart and smushing some more. Make sure you get it really hot before you pull it out and gently cool a bit and then pull it out into thick stringer. Don't want air bubbles in it.
6. Using the cooled thick soft yellow stringer, swipe vertical stripes onto the back of his head for hair. Turn the bead over and make an upside down "U" over his white teeth to form his moustache.
7. Add two large dots of black for his sunglasses. While still warm, pull the outer edges up and out to form the glasses. Add a small thin strip around the side of his face for the sunglass arms and heat both dots to the center to bring it across to join the dots.
8. Add a small dot for his nose. Spread it out a bit for nostrils and add two small indentations for his nostrils.
9. Add dots for his ears and indent to shape them.
10. Add two small swooshes to form an upside down "v" with his blue bandanna glass to the back side to show where it was tied.

Tool Time Drawing For One of My Beads

And the winner is...... (drum roll please).... Melanie! Melanie, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, so thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. I really appreciate it and thanks to all the other people who commented. I will contact you for your address, so I can send you a bead.

What a fun combination of answers for my video blog's question about my new brass tool. From beadmaker prod, to belly button pusher, to a hat maker and petal pusher. Each one had their own merit.

The tool turned into quite a question mark to me. first I tried to see whether I could get an exterior bead shape from it. I used a light pastel opaque for its pliability, and it wouldn't hold that shape. The bead kept wanting to round up. so it ended up looking more like a modified egg shape. So the shaping aspect didn't work...yet. (You know me, I'm going to give it another try sometime.)

That leaves me with using the to indent this blue glass bead. First I tried a simple indentation and with the shape of the original bead, it reminded me of a sugared Easter egg that has the little flowers, bunnies and chicks in frosting on the inside. I tried a simple one with a sculptural blackbird on the inside and a tree on the outside. I'd like to take this concept a step further at another time and get more intricate. It would be fun to try it like a silhouette and do people faces and decorate the edges of the circle like a picture frame. And of course, I'll need to try an Easter theme at some point too. Lots of possibilities.

My second bead, I call "Singing Tommy", which is pictured above. I decided that tool would be able to make a large and wide open mouth. To make the depth more apparent, I first melted in a black dot and then pressed it in. I used a #420 Effetre coral for the tongue which was to accent the hole. If I had wanted to draw more attention to it, I'd maybe have tried a brighter or lighter pink that would show up even more against the black.

If you've read the comments, they were varied and lots of fun. I might try some of the other ideas in the future, but unless I get really frustrated, I might skip burning it.

Both of these beads are available in my etsy shop, http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com .
And please come back for more online coaching, tips, tricks and who knows what else!