First Tries at Bottle Slumping

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Maria Langer

Yes, I’m firing up the kiln again.

Years ago, in the autumn of 2014, when my building was first built but my home inside it was barely started, I took up yet another hobby to keep me busy while I waited for my wasband to get his head out of his ass and pay me what he owed me from our divorce settlement. That’s when I started doing “warm glass” work — specifically, making things like Christmas tree ornaments and jewelry with melted down, repurposed wine bottle glass.

Some Backstory

Here is one of the Christmas tree ornaments I created from broken bottle glass in my tabletop kiln back in December 2014. The blue glass is from a sake bottle.

I bought a tiny desktop kiln and tinier molds to fit inside it. I then acquired countless used wine bottles from the wineries in the area, broke them into tiny pieces, and melted down the pieces in the molds. Some of the resulting items — especially the Christmas tree ornaments — came out rather nice. But beyond that, I was disappointed, mostly because of problems with devitrification. Simply described, the rough edges of the broken glass, when melted down, prevented the final product from having a smooth, shiny surface.

I did all kinds of experiments to get rid of the unsightly marks and finally concluded that they’d have to be polished out. I bought a lap grinder as a sort of universal polishing tool — I was also trying to turn wine bottles into drinking glasses and needed to polish the rims — but it never worked the way I needed it to. I got discouraged and, as I usually do, set it aside and picked up another project to keep me busy. In this case, it was wiring my entire home prior to professional installation of plumbing, insulation, and drywall.

That took me through the winter and into the spring of 2015. I moved into my home and continued working on projects there: finishing my deck, trimming out the doors and windows, finishing up the loft. With flying work and an active social life, I didn’t have much time for playing with broken bottles and a kiln, especially since the results were so frustrating. Yet sometime around then, I bought a bigger kiln. I think I was considering larger glass projects, but don’t remember. The kiln arrived, I assembled it on a wheeled platform I built for it so it would be easy to move around my shop, and I promptly forgot about it.

Last autumn, before departing for my winter trip south, I finally got around to trying out the “new” kiln. I was able to set up several molds inside it. It took a few tries to get the firing schedule right and when I did, I was satisfied with the glass fusing of the items I put into the molds. But I hadn’t licked the devitrification problem, so I wondered why I was even bothering.

Of course, devitrification would not be an issue if I purchased glass specifically made for fusing in a kiln. It was available online from a variety of sellers and would make beautiful pieces. But that wasn’t my goal. My goal was to take garbage — wine bottles — and turn it into something desirable. And I was failing — at least to make pieces up to my own standards which, admittedly, are sometimes a bit too high to achieve.

The Jewelry Connection

Kingman turquoise with bronze wrapped in sterling silver and copper. I made and sold this pendant last Friday.

In January, I took up wire-wrapping gemstones to make pendants and earrings (so far). I developed a real knack for this and quickly developed my own style. I’ve sold a few dozen pieces so far and haven’t gotten bored with it yet. I think it’s because of the variety of stones and the new techniques I can experiment with. And having people praise me for my work — and actually pay me to own a piece — is a real motivator.

I occasionally set up a vendor table at Pybus Public Market on Fridays or Saturdays. (Last Friday I sold five pieces, including one that I’d just made less than an hour before.) One of the other vendors does art glass work. She uses the kind of glass she buys specifically for fusing and turns out some wonderful bowls and plates and other items. I asked her if she ever makes cabochons — after all, why not wrap a “stone” made of glass? She said she could but even after prodding her a few times, she hasn’t delivered any. I told her about my kiln and how it was nearly brand new and hardly used. She said she might have a friend interested in buying it.

I’ve been shedding a lot of the things I’ve owned for years that I lugged to Washington when I moved. I had too many things taking up space in my garage that I knew, deep down inside, I’d never use. The microwave from my old house was the first to go. An old Sony television, still in its box, went next. Both of those went for free. But I also sold my old desk, curtain rods, luggage, and all kinds of household items I packed from September 2012 to May 2013 while I was waiting for the court date for my divorce. (Honestly, if my wasband hadn’t delayed the court date, I would have had less time to pack and would have left a ton of stuff behind.) My telescope and a set of cast iron cookware were the most recent things to go and they each brought in a surprising amount of money. Maybe it was time to sell the “new” kiln.

Or maybe not. There was still one other thing I wanted to try: bottle slumping.

Bottle Slumping 101

I’ve been to a lot of arts and crafts shows. My good friend Janet is an artist and I’ve visited her at many of the shows where she sells her work. One of the craft items that occasionally appears at these shows is wine bottles that have been flattened in a kiln to make a plate. The technique is referred to as bottle slumping.

While my original kiln is too tiny to slump anything bigger than a shot glass, my new kiln can handle a standard sized wine bottle if I place it diagonally across the floor of the kiln. Yes, that means I can only do one at a time, but it was still worth a try. The way I saw it, if I didn’t use the damn kiln, I should sell it. I needed a reason to keep it. Making something desirable out of garbage was my goal. I still had literally hundreds of wine bottles to work with. (I had actually started disposing them in my recycle bin at the rate of 3 cases every two weeks but with 12 cases gone, I’d barely made a dent in what I had accumulated. When you have a lot of storage space, you find a way to fill it.)

I did research online. Using a kiln isn’t as easy as just turning it on and waiting for it to finish. You have to find and program in an appropriate firing schedule. Schedules vary based on what you’re trying to achieve, what kiln you’re using, and what kind of glass you put in it. So right from the get-go, I knew I’d be doing a lot of experiments.

I should also mention here that there are two ways to slump bottles: with and without a mold. I didn’t have a bottle slumping mold so, by necessity, I’d have to slump without one. That got me worried about glass sticking to the bottom of my kiln. I had Thin Fire paper — it’s a thin sheet of paper that turns to a white powder in the firing process and prevents melted glass from sticking to whatever is under it — but I didn’t know how much the glass would melt and whether it would get into the corners of my kiln. Still, I was ready to give it a go.

First Try

In case you’re wondering, here’s the first schedule I tried:

Seg	Ramp	Temp	Hold
1	500°	1100°	10 min
2	250°	1300°	0 min
3	300°	1425°	10 min

Let cool naturally.

So the other day, I programmed in a simple three-segment schedule, leveled the kiln — I use it in my car garage, which is gently sloped toward the door — put a bottle in there, closed the lid, and started it up.

The other thing many folks don’t realize about using a kiln is that it isn’t fast. The schedule I used would ramp up the temperature from my garage temperature to 1420°F over a matter of hours. Cooling would take even longer. I had dinner guests that night and the kiln was still too hot to open before they arrived at 5 PM. Although it might have been ready before I went to bed at 10 PM, I’d forgotten about it. But I remembered in the morning and went down to check it.

And I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

The bottle had melted nearly flat right in place, without seeping into the corners of the kiln. I say “nearly” flat because the bottle’s bottom, which is thicker than the rest of the bottle, had sort of collapsed and folded to make a lump. Although the neck of the bottle had collapsed, there were two air pockets inside. And when I washed the kiln paper power off the bottle, some water got inside along the neck.

The side that had rested on the floor of the kiln would be the top of the plate. It was flat with the texture of the bottom of the kiln, which I rather liked. When I set it on the countertop that way, however, the bulge at the bottom of the bottle lifted that end up, resulting in a plate that wasn’t level.

Here’s my first try. You can clearly see the big air pockets inside the bottle.

So I had three problems to resolve in my next test: get the air pockets out, close up the neck better, and come up with a way to level the resulting plate.

Second Try

I tackled the first two problems first and managed to resolve one of them. I decided that the reason there were air pockets and that the neck allowed water to get in was that I hadn’t melted the glass enough. I’d try again, but this time raise the highest temperature to 1450.

I reprogrammed the kiln, set another clean bottle in there, and got it started.

I do need to mention here that when I say “clean bottle” I mean completely clean and dry glass bottle, inside and out. I had to remove the labels by soaking in hot water for more than an hour, scrape away adhesive residue, and then use 90% rubbing alcohol to get the last little bits of glue off. Then I used hot water and a lot of agitation to rinse the inside of the bottle at least four times. Then I had to stand the bottle up on its neck in a place where the water would drain out and the bottle would eventually dry. This prep work is, quite frankly, a pain in the ass. But I do them two or three at a time so there’s always another bottle ready to slump.

I went about my day, running errands and doing chores around the house.

The schedule took another few hours to run and hours to cool. Finally, by mid afternoon the kiln was down to 200°. I opened it up but wasn’t foolish enough to touch the bottle, which would also be 200°. I did get a good look at it, though and it looked better. One of the air pockets was gone and the neck was nicely closed up, but there was still an air pocket right below the neck.

This is my second try. The neck had closed up nicely, but there’s still a good sized air bubble right below the neck. You’re looking at the flat side of the bottle.

When the kiln temperature got down to 90°F, I touched the bottle and found it cool enough to remove. It was better than the first one, but not quite “perfect” yet.

Third Try

Here’s the third try bottle inside the kiln. Note the tiny piece of shelf leg positioned under the neck. It’s unfortunate that I can only do one bottle at a time; once I get the schedule perfected, it would be nice to do two at a time.

In the meantime, I’d called the art glass lady from Pybus to get some advice. What I really wanted to know is whether I had to keep using the kiln paper or whether I could just use kiln wash at the bottom of my kiln. I would quickly run out of kiln paper if I used a fresh sheet for each firing and it isn’t something I can buy locally. She told me she uses the same stuff I was using and recommended it. She offered to sell me some, but I didn’t want to bother her with that. I also told her what I was doing and mentioned the air bubbles. She suggested ramping up at a slower rate and holding it longer at the 1300° temperature.

So I grabbed another bottle — which happened to be a slightly different style — and stuck it in the kiln. At this point, I’d also decided to try propping up the neck of the bottle so that when it slumped, it would make a raised edge that would (hopefully) balance out the folded ridge of the bottle bottom. The trick was finding something to prop it up on. You can’t use just anything when you’re heating it to 1450°F. I poked around my broken glass fusing supplies, which were all neatly organized in a rolling cart in my shop, and stumbled upon the shelf legs for my tiny desktop kiln. I wrapped one of them in kiln paper, laid it on its side, and stuck it under the bottle’s neck, about 3 inches from the top. Then I reprogrammed the kiln controller again following the glass lady’s advice, closed it up, and got it started.

Finishing a Product

While the kiln did its thing, I played around with my first experiment. I wanted to make a branded cheese plate that local wineries might use or sell. I had some old wine labels from a friend’s winery and stuck it on the bottle. I then mixed up a batch of food-safe clear coat that I’d purchased earlier in the day, leveled the bottle-plate on a work surface, and poured the mixture over the label and flat side of the bottle. I soon realized that I’d mixed up too much and spent some time dealing with drips as the mixture self-leveled, resulting in a thin coat over the top of the plate.

It was tough to resist the urge to touch it, but I managed. According to the package instructions, I’ll need to wait at least 48 hours before I attempt to test the surface for durability. Remember, if this is a cheese plate, it should be able to stand up to the work of a cheese knife on it.

This is my first try bottle with my first try label and coating. This is good enough for me to use, but not good enough for sale. Still, I’m on the right track.

Third Try Results

This morning, after making my coffee — I have my priorities straight — I went down to fetch the third try. I felt a moment of panic when I thought that little piece of kiln shelf leg was stuck but it came loose without much effort. The result was a squared out bump in the neck of the bottle which forms a sort of leg when the bottle is set with the flat side up.

Trouble is, it’s too high. Now the plate tilts down the other way. That’s easy enough to fix; all I need to do is trim the shelf leg — which I think I can do — to make it flatter for the next try.

Here’s my third try. There are fewer air bubbles inside the bottle and there’s now a leg to hold up the neck end. Trouble is, the leg is too tall and I really want a bottle with no bubbles.

As for the air pockets in the bottle, they are greatly reduced. But I’m not convinced the firing schedule fixed that. This bottle had a different shape with a more gently angled transition from bottle body to neck. Perhaps that’s why air wasn’t trapped inside the bottle when it melted? The only way to know for sure is to use the same schedule with a bottle shaped like one of the ones I originally used.

Fourth Try

In case you’re wondering, here’s the schedule I’m trying now:

Seg	Ramp	Temp	Hold
1	500°	500°	12 min
2	500°	750°	12 min
3	600°	1100°	10 min
4	200°	1300°	20 min
5	250°	1475°	10 min
6	9999°	1100°	60 min
7	500°	970°	30 min
8	120°	750°	20 min

Let cool naturally.

My fourth try is in the kiln right now. I took the same shape bottle (since that’s what was prepped), cut the shelf leg so it would be shorter, and positioned everything in the kiln. And then, rather than modifying the simple schedule I’d been using, I reprogrammed it entirely using the longer, more detailed schedule for bottle slumping that I’d found. My theory is that the slower ramp up and longer hold times will give the air in the bottles a better chance to escape, thus eliminating the pockets of air.

My kiln has a programmable controller which can store up to 6 user schedules.

Timing and Power Use

Keep in mind that each of these trials takes about 10 hours to complete. With only enough space for one bottle, I can only do two bottles a day — and that would require me to put the next one in each time I remove one. That’s not a huge deal for me; I’m here and once the schedule is set up just right, it is as easy as positioning a bottle and pushing a button on the kiln.

As for power usage, my kiln’s controller has the ability to calculate costs for me once I program in my kilowatt hour rate — which I just did. But I already know that the cost will be lower than what most people might think. Chelan County, where I live, supposedly has the second lowest electric rates in the country thanks to hydro and wind power: currently 2.7¢/kilowatt hour. (Compare that to 13.27¢/kilowatt hour where I lived in Arizona and 15.39¢/kilowatt hour where I lived in New Jersey.) The electric bill for my all electric house was only $25 last month. I’m thinking each firing might cost 25¢ to 50¢.

Goals

My final goal is to get a relatively level plate that can be used to serve cheese either as is directly from the kiln or with the application of a local winery label with a food safe clear coat to make it washable. I’d then sell those to local wineries for their use or make a product that they can sell to visitors. I can think of a few wineries that would be all over it once I got the kinks worked out.

Next time I’m at Pybus, I’ll bring a sample with me to see what kind of interest I get. Wish me luck.

Jewelry Making: A Hobby Gone Wild

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Maria Langer

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An update on my wire-wrapped jewelry endeavors.

By now, the folks who know me well know that my jewelry making hobby has blown up into something resembling an addiction. Indeed, it’s difficult for me to pass up a shop or website that offers gemstone cabochons (cabs, to those of us who work with these things) for sale without taking a look — and likely buying ones within my budget. I’ve now got a collection of about 4 dozen cabs in various shapes and sizes made of a stunning selection of stones. They’re almost all polished to a reflective shine. Just gorgeous.

The weird thing about this is that I’ve been going to Quartzsite, AZ where I bought about half the cabs I have now, for more than 20 years and saw cabs for sale every single year. It wasn’t until I realized what I could do with them that I began buying them. And when I started getting kind of good at turning them into jewelry, the draw became irresistible. I’ve since found a good supplier on Easy who sells decent quality stones at a reasonable price. I’ve bought two dozen from them in the past two weeks.

More about Cabochons

A cabochon, in case you’re wondering, is:

a gemstone which has been shaped and polished as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse.

Nevada Dendritic Sage Agate wrapped in sterling silver. I don’t think you can make a bad piece of jewelry out of such a nice stone — if you let the stone show.

Lapidaries create cabs by cutting stones into slabs, then cutting those slabs into shapes and polishing them with wheels of varying grits. I’ve seen guys do this and it looks like a ton of work. A good lapidary can produce beautiful cabs by finding the best features in a slab and featuring them in a finished cab. Those are the cabs I look for when I’m shopping.

Cabs range in size from very small — maybe 10 mm long — to quite large — over 50 mm on a side. I prefer them 30 to 45 mm long and 15 to 30 mm wide. Smaller than that and they’re tough to work with; larger and they make heavier pieces than I like.

Although I do like working with odd-shaped pieces, it’s a bit more challenging to get them properly wrapped. My skills aren’t quite reliable enough yet to tackle them successfully. So I stick with ovals, teardrops, and elongated pieces. I’m just starting to get the hang of dealing with square corners.

Turning Cabochons into Jewelry

There are basically three ways to turn a cab into a piece of jewelry:

Drill a hole in it and use that to secure a finding or beading string. Drilling a hole in a stone basically turns it into a bead. I don’t do this. I don’t like the idea of drilling into a beautiful stone or using a hole to secure it in jewelry. That’s my opinion. I’m sure a lot of beaders would disagree. Sorry. (I should add here that when working with very small stones, I think beading is the way to go. I may use gemstone beads as accents in future pieces; I’m still thinking about it.)
Use wire wrapping to secure the stone into the jewelry piece. This is what I do. There are several styles of wire-wrapping; the style I use is rather intricate, although I have experimented with simpler styles. I usually use 20 to 22 gauge square or round wire wrapped with 22 gauge half-round wire to create a custom frame for a stone, build a bail, and secure the stone into the frame. Then I use the excess frame wire to create accents with loops and swirls.
Cut and solder metal to create jewelry mounts for stones. This is another nice way to turn a cab into jewelry — especially if the cab’s reverse side is marred or unfinished. This is both harder and easier than wire-wrapping. It’s harder because you need good metal cutting and soldering skills. But, in a way, it’s also easier because you can work with virtually any size or shape cabochon and get good results.

I’ve begun work on a blog post providing more detail on how I make my pieces. The only thing I need to finish it are step-by-step photos. It won’t be enough to teach you how to do it, but at least you’ll see what I do. There are some good videos on YouTube to get you started if you want to try and I’ll link to the ones I think are best in that blog post.

The Metals

This is K2 Granite — yes, from the mountain K2 — wrapped in sterling silver. The colored specs are natural. I’d score this a 5 out of 5; it’s currently my favorite piece.

Lately, I’ve been working almost exclusively with sterling silver, although I have worked with copper and silver plate in the past. (When getting started, it’s a good idea to work with cheaper metals.) My friend Dorothy sat down with me when we were both in Quartzsite in January and showed me how she makes her jewelry. That was the first time I worked with sterling silver. She stressed the importance of tight, even wraps and put me on the right track in a search for perfection. Every time I finish a piece, I give it an objective score of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. I’m always shooting for 5s but am happy with 4s. I learn a lot from 3s and usually disassemble anything that scores lower than that.

Dorothy also taught me to save every single bit of silver that gets cut away from the piece. When my little plastic container is full, I can send it back to the silver supplier for credit on the purchase of more silver. At $16.60 per ounce (today’s price), those trimmings can really add up.

My Progress

I’ve come a long way since I started creating wire-wrapped gemstone cabochon pendants back in January. In fact, I look at some of the pieces I created back then, remembering how proud I was of them, and cringe.

My first pieces, prepped for sale. I’ll be selling these for just $10 each — a fraction of what I charge for my later pieces.

Why cringe? Well, most of them are terribly crude and generally immature. All those swirls — what was I thinking? This is the kind of jewelry a teenager would wear. That’s okay, but I’m not interested in making jewelry for teenagers.

Now compare those pieces to my most recent work here (and in closeups above):

Here are some of the pieces I created in the past week, all tagged and ready for packaging for sale. They range in price from about $40 to $50 each and are sold on a leather necklace with a hand-formed clasp.

If you like videos, try this one. It’s a show and tell for four recent pieces. (I really need to get a better setup for future videos.)

I think these designs are more finished looking and mature. (Maybe it’s just a matter of taste, though.) Not only am I using better cabochons, but I’m also wrapping them with sterling silver, although I haven’t completely given up on copper yet.

And yes, I am selling them. There’s a website where new pieces appear as they are finished: www.MLJewelryDesigns.com. There are links there to an online store. Selling them makes me happy and sad. Happy because other folks value what I do but sad because I hate to see them go.

I’ll also be at a kiosk/table at Pybus Public Market on three upcoming Saturdays, including this Saturday, March 31. I figure I’ll sit there for the day and make new pieces — maybe even some custom ones from unwrapped cabochons I’ll have on display and for sale. If you’re around, I hope you’ll stop by.

But if you’re not in the area, please do visit my online store and treat yourself or a loved one to a unique gift. I sure could use a cash inflow to feed my hobby with stones and silver wire!

Another New Hobby: Wire-Wrapped Jewelry

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Maria Langer

As if I didn’t have enough hobbies to keep me out of trouble.

I’m in Quartzsite, AZ, this January and although I originally had plans to camp out in the desert for the first half of the month, a variety of circumstances convinced me to take a booth at Tyson Wells’ Rock and Gem show. I’m selling (or trying to sell) aerial photos of desert campsites. (More on that in another post.) The east side of the show is full of rock vendors, many of which sell polished cabochons (or “cabs”) and finished jewelry.

In case you’ve never seen the word “findings” used this way, check definition 2 here.

There are several ways to make a rock into a piece of jewelry. The most obvious is to drill a hole in it to fasten a hoop or use some other sort of findings. But a more artistic method is to use wire to wrap the stone securely and add embellishments. This is called wire-wrapping and there are a lot of examples of it here, especially during the rock shows at Tyson Wells and the bigger/better rock show at Desert Gardens nearby.

Kindling an Interest

Last year, my friend Rebecca came to town while I was here and introduced me to her friend John Heusler, a gemologist who has a booth each year at Desert Gardens. John not only cuts and polishes stones, but also makes jewelry. Dorothy Roubik-Ellenbecker, another jewelry maker, works for/with John and shares booth space. She makes beautiful wire-wrapped pieces with intricate wraps that are really a joy to behold.

I got slightly interested in wire-wrapped jewelry last year, but was busy doing a lot of other things. This year, I’m sort of trapped in my booth, especially on weekends when there’s a decent crowd at the show. I’ve been looking at a lot of different wrapped jewelry styles while I’m here and starting getting the idea that maybe making some of these was within my capabilities.

Getting Training

I talked to Dorothy and asked if she’d be interested in teaching me in the evening, when we’re both done booth sitting for the day. She agreed and set a date for Monday evening. I asked about books that might be helpful and she recommended skipping the books and going right to YouTube. So I did.

I discovered that there are a lot of how-to videos on YouTube about wire-wrapped jewelry. Search for yourself. I spent one evening watching about a half dozen of them, mostly by one artist. “Tried-and-Tested Wire-Wrapping Tutorial for Pendants” showed one basic technique and “Quick Wrap! Wire Wrapping Tutorial for Pendants” showed a quicker but less polished technique. Neither of them looked terribly difficult. I went to bed that night eager to get started.

Buying Materials and Tools

Fortunately, everything I needed was walking distance from my booth. Before I opened that morning, I went shopping for cabs. I bought two nice ones, then realized that since I was just learning, I should start with lesser stones. I found a booth selling some nice but apparently low quality ones for a lot less. I bought ten.

I closed up early (as I often do — seriously, how to people do 9 to 5 unless they’re busy the whole time?) and walked over to the booth where I could find tools and wire. Although the woman working there tried hard to sell me expensive square silver wire, I homed right into the silver-plated copper. I expected to make a lot of mistakes and didn’t want to screw up with expensive wire.

A comment about tools…

If you look at the two videos I linked to above, you’ll see that the woman who does the tutorials makes a point of saying that she uses regular tools — not special jewelry tools. Sure, you can use an Ace Hardware needle nose pliers and wire cutter to get the job done. But look closely at her work. Those ridges that make needle nose pliers so good for gripping also mark up the soft metal wire she uses to wrap the stones. I didn’t want those ridges on my stones so I bought the right tools.

Her husband was extremely helpful with the tools. They had a big selection with a variety of qualities. One video I watched discussed tools in some detail, so I knew what I needed to get started. He helped me find every one of them, including one that wasn’t displayed that he had to dig through stock to find. (He also recommended another tool, which I passed on but wound up buying the next day.) The tools weren’t expensive — they averaged $5 to $10 each. My initial investment in tools and wire was $35, which I didn’t think was bad.

In case you’re wondering what I bought, here’s a list:

Small chain pliers
Small flat pliers
Small round pliers
Wire straightener
Wire cutter
18 gauge silver plated copper wire
20 gauge silver plated copper wire
22 gauge copper wire

First Tries

That evening, after dinner, I spread out my tools, pulled out some wire and a large teardrop-shaped labradorite cab, and got to work. I went with the quick wrapping technique in the second video I linked to above, using the 20 gauge silver wire. The biggest challenge was holding the cab and wire in place while I did the wire twisting required to hold it. I was almost surprised when I got the cab to stay in the cage I’d built for it. I then made and positioned swirls on the front of the piece with two of the leftover ends. I admit that I was kind of blown away by the results. The finished piece didn’t have the same polish as John or Dorothy’s work, but it sure wasn’t bad for a first try.

My first finished piece: labradorite wrapped in silver-plated copper.

A closer look at the piece, however, reveals its problems. The biggest problem, in my opinion, were the small burrs I’d created in the wire by rough handling. Simply said, I’d used my flat pliers too aggressively and had damaged the soft metal wire. There were burrs on the decorative bends, especially on the back. This could catch on fine fabrics like silk or nylon, making the piece pretty much unwearable. Unless Dorothy knew a way to fix it, it would never be more than a piece for show.

My wire twists aren’t as neat as they could be, either. Although my spirals are very good with minimal tool marks, the wire joins are clumsy. Surely Dorothy would have tips to fix that, too.

I decided to try the more difficult technique on a small piece of bacon agate that the vendor in the next booth had polished up and given me the day I arrived. I really think that the desire to do something useful with this pretty little stone is what helped fuel my interest in wrapping.

My second piece was a small bacon agate stone gifted to me that I wrapped in copper.

I chose the thinner, 22 gauge copper wire for the job. I thought (rightly, I believe) that the copper wire would go well with the colors in the rock and the small size of the rock meant I needed a thin wire. I followed the instructions in the video to the letter to create the tightly wrapped anchor points that would form the cage around the rock. I was very careful to avoid overworking the metal; this was a piece I wanted to wear and I didn’t want burrs. I purposely made the bail small and loose and added a single swirl to the front. When I was finished, I was very pleased with my work.

I sent photos to a few friends and put them on Twitter. I got some positive feedback, which made me feel good.

I watched a few more videos before I went to bed.

Additional Efforts

The next morning, I went back to the tool shop and bought three more tools:

“Micro” chain pliers – to get into tighter places
Nylon headed flat pliers – to prevent marring soft metal
Bailing pliers – to make nice bends

My third piece was an oval of some sort of speckled agate wrapped in silver-plated copper.

I chose another cab from my collection of cheap ones: an oval stone that combines a white quartz with black and pink rock specks. (No one seems able to give me the exact name for this stone, but I will keep trying to find out.) Again, I went with the more polished technique that used tightly wrapped anchor points to build the cage. I ended up with spirals that I positioned over the area that had no colored specks. I think it came out good, although I wish I’d made the upper spiral a little larger.

I had a nice elongated piece of rose quartz that was actually two-sided and decided to get fancy. I’d do a bevel mount with a thin wire to weave the bevel and hold the stone. I walked over to the findings booth and bought two more types of wire for my quickly growing collection:

24 gauge silver plated copper wire (for this piece)
28 gauge copper wire (for future use)

Then I went back to my booth and got to work. I started off well, using the 18 gauge silver-plated copper wire for the edges of the bevel. When I brought the ends up and around, I created a really pretty spiral finish.

Around this time, a woman I’d seen around the show came by my booth. She was on a bicycle with a small, white, curly-haired dog in the front basket. She’d caught sight of me working on the wire wrap as I sat at the table in my booth. She also does wire work. I told her I’d just started and showed her my pieces. (By that time, I’d also bought a small glass-fronted box to hold and display my work.)

We chatted for about 45 minutes. She complemented me on my work, pointing out how nicely I’d used the swirls to fill the white space on the stone with the pink and black speckles. She said that the labradorite piece I’d chosen was not a good one, showed me how to look for features in labradorite, and explained the importance of finding good stones by “cherry picking” them. She told me about a big booth on the other side of the show that had decent quality, inexpensive cabs, as well as where to find more wire in a shop in town. She pointed out that the swirls in one piece could move if they were caught on the wearer’s clothing and gave me a tip about preventing that. She also told me about some inexpensive wire-wrapping classes being held evenings at the QIA building not far away.

While we talked, I tried to work on the piece. The distraction is probably what screwed it up — I accidentally shifted one of the thick wire frames while trying to weave it to the opposite side. My wraps were okay — neither good nor bad — but I’d made one side much smaller than the other, thus screwing up the bevel.

I had to run out to the post office so I closed my booth early. On the way back, I stopped at Hardies Beads and Jewelry in town. They sell mostly beads and jewelry (as you might expect) but do have a good selection of wire-wrapping wire at the back of the store. I wound up spending about $32 on a selection of wires in colors and styles, including an interesting 21 gauge twisted silver wire and various thicknesses of antique copper wire. I now had just about all the wire I’d need to move forward with additional projects.

My fourth piece was an incredibly boring round piece of rose quartz that I dressed up with fancy twisted silver-plated copper wire.

That evening, I tried to fix the bevel piece but failed miserably. I took a few photos of the design (which I won’t share here) so I could remember what I liked about it, then took it apart. I tried two other wraps on that stone and gave up before putting much time into it. But rather than finish the day with a failure, I picked a round rose quartz piece and did a wrap on that using the new twisted silver wire with a narrower wire for the wrap points. The stone was extremely boring — I honestly don’t know why I picked it — but the fancy wire and swirls I added really dressed it up a bit.

So at this point, I have four completed pieces, three of which can be worn.

Next Steps

It’s Saturday morning. Before I open my booth for the day, I’ll stop by that shop with inexpensive cabs and buy a few interesting ones. I feel better qualified to choose them now that I know how I can work the features of the stone into my work.

After I open my booth, I’ll settle down with my little bin of cabs and tools and wire. I’ll pick out a cab and work up another piece. And maybe another after that.

And I’ll likely do a few others on Sunday.

On Monday evening, I’ll bring my collection to Dorothy for her critiquing. I hope she’ll be honest and frank. I also hope she can offer good advice on doing the wraps and twists I find difficult. And teach me how to do bevels!

It might take more than one evening. That’s fine. I’ve told her I’ll pay for her time, although I don’t think she expected that. (She is a professional; she should be compensated when sharing her expertise with a novice.) We’ll both be here at least until January 25, so we have time for a few lessons. I’ll post an update on my progress — if I make any!

A Profile Trifecta

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Maria Langer

Another 45 minutes of fame?

In 1968, Andy Warhol shared the immortal words, “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” If that’s true, I got another 45 minutes worth this past week when interviews with me were published in various formats in three publications.

The Saturday Evening Post

The first was, of all things, the Saturday Evening Post. Yeah — the same publication famous for Normal Rockwell Americana paintings on its cover. I honestly admit that I didn’t know it was still being published. But it is and one of my former editors at Peachpit (I think) and InformIT now works there. She passed my name along to a writer, Nick Gilmore, who does their “Second Chapters” column about career changes. I think he was surprised to hear that I had not one but two career changes. He focused on the second change in his piece about me. You can read it for yourself here: “Second Chances: Write or Flight.” I think he did an amazing job, cramming a ton of information into fewer than 1200 words.

The Mac Observer

A little after my interview with the Saturday Evening Post, I was approached about doing a podcast episode for The Mac Observer‘s “Background Mode” podcast. Podcaster John Martellaro, who is also a pilot, flattered me a bit by calling me a “legendary” Mac author. Our talk was remarkably similar to the Post interview, touching on many of the same topics. Oddly, it was released the same day as the Post piece. You can listen to it here: “TMO Background Mode Interview with Author, Photographer and Pilot Maria Langer.”

The Good Life

If I’d known that a photo of me would appear on the front cover of the magazine, I probably would have put on some makeup and brushed my hair.

For a short while last year, I belonged to a writer’s group here in the Wenatchee area. That’s where I met Jaana Hatton, a world traveler (literally) who had settled in the Wenatchee area and was building a career as a writer. She asked if she could interview me about my beekeeping activities for The Good Life, a local monthly magazine. I said yes, mostly to help her out. She came out for a chat one day and a magazine photographer came a few weeks later for photos and a video. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a photo of me, looking typically disheveled, would appear on the front cover of the magazine’s August issue! If you’re interested, you can read the article here: “BEE RANCHER: Keeping the buzz alive.”

People Find Me

What amazes me most about all three of these profile pieces is that in each case it was the author/podcaster who tracked me down for an interview. I wasn’t looking for publicity — the days of me wanting or needing that are long gone. But apparently people think I’m interesting, which is rather amusing to me. I’m just moving forward with my life. There’s nothing special about me — anyone who is driven to make the most of their life can be interview-worthy, too.

Free Bees, Courtesy of Migratory Beekeepers

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Maria Langer

Catch a swarm without even trying.

The cherry trees are blooming in the Wenatchee area and that means the bees are back.

Every year, thousands of beehives are shipped to the area and placed around orchards to pollinate the flowers. Apricots are first — although there aren’t many apricot orchards in the area. Then comes cherries and then apple and pears. The season has just started and it should go on for at least a month.

My friend Tina and her husband Bill have a cherry orchard in Malaga, not far from where I live. Although they usually keep one or two of their own bee hives, that’s not enough to pollinate their entire orchard. So they rented about 30 hives, which were delivered the other night, likely right from California. (Migratory beekeepers move bees at night when they’re all inside their hives.)

The other day, Tina excitedly texted me that the bees were swarming. Turns out that they’d found her empty bee hives — her bees had not survived the winter — and a swarm had moved into one of them.

If you’re wondering what all this means, you might want to read a post I wrote back in 2013, “Bees: Capturing My First Swarm.” It explains why bees swarm and what’s usually involved in capturing a swarm. But Tina didn’t have to do any of the work. The bees just moved into an empty hive on their own.

I told her she should put other empty hives out to see what else she could catch and she said she did. Then I asked if I could put one or two of mine out. After all, if more than one colony was swarming, it would be great to catch as many of them as we could. Great for the bees, since they’d get a new home easily. Great for us because we’d get free bees. And it didn’t affect the migratory beekeeper since the bees were going to swarm anyway. If we didn’t catch them in our beehives, they’d end up somewhere else.

Keep in mind that buying bees usually costs about $100 to $150 per colony, depending on how many you get and how you buy them. And where you buy them from, of course. Since it’s common to lose 50% of your colonies over the winter here, a lot of folks spend a lot of money buying new bees. I replaced 6 colonies one year and swore it would be the last year bought bees. Now I make new colonies through splits and try to catch a few swarms every summer.

So yesterday I cobbled together two complete hives with ten frames each. Each hive has a mix of frames from a failed colony — three of my eight colonies died or disappeared over the winter — and frames from extracted honey. There’s lots of room for a queen to lay eggs and lots of room for incoming bees to store honey and pollen. And even a little honey to get them all started.

It’s kind of like finding a roomy apartment, fully furnished with just the kind of furniture you like, and a fridge with food in it.

I put one hive near the one Tina had already caught and another right near where half the rented bees were set up. And then I left.

Today, I dropped off some spare equipment to help Tina set up a few more hives. Not complete setups, but hive boxes (also known as supers) and tops. She’ll still need bottoms and frames.

In less than 24 hours, bees had moved into my empty bee hive.

This afternoon, Tina texted me: “Look what you got!” And she sent a photo of the hive I’d placed near hers with bees all over the front of it.

It looked as if a swarm was moving in.

I texted back, asking if I could pick it up on Friday morning so they’d have enough time to settle in. She agreed. Then I suggested that she put a box where I had that one when I moved it. Maybe she’d catch another one.

There aren’t enough bees around this hive box to assume a swarm has moved in. When I pick up the other one, I’ll take a peek inside this one.

She sent me a photo of my other hive, too. There was some activity around the front, but not much. Robber bees, perhaps, or maybe some bees just checking it out. Maybe she’ll send another photo tomorrow.

My beekeeping season has been off to a slow start. It only recently stayed in the 40s at night and we still have cool, rainy days. I checked the hives when I got home from my winter trip, just to see how many survivors I had and to seal up the dead hives so the other bees wouldn’t be tempted to rob. When I bring the new bees home, I’ll spend some time opening up my hives, shuffling frames, and seeing if I can spot the queens. I’ll do hive splits on my healthiest hives — I know that two are going like gangbusters — and put the splits on my little bee trailer. But rather than put four occupied hives on it before taking it up to Wenatchee Heights, I think I’ll try leaving one of them empty, just to see if I can attract any other migrants looking to settle down in the Wenatchee area.

An Eclectic Mind

Web site and blog for Maria Langer, writer, video producer, jewelry artist, boat captain, and helicopter pilot. Blogging since 2004.

Category Archives: Hobbies Gone Wild