HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone.
I wish new dreams, new goals and new hopes to you all in this fresh beginning.

With much love.
Ilknur.

WONKY VESSELS :)

Last night I had two hours to torch but all I could do was
these wonky vessels. :(




I tried to use Milliefiore Chips on this one. I can't say it was a
success but my husband loved it so he put it on his desk in our office.:)



Only this one turned out a bit nicer. :)

I used two transparent colours together with gold leaf and got this effect.


I am stil not able to shape them the way I want but the good news is "I didn't boil the transparent blue this time" I turned the oxygen a bit down and it worked miraculously.

This is all for now.
See you later.

Ilknur.

A SNOWY DAY... OR NOT..

It was snowing this morning when I got to my offfice.
This was the view from my office window an hour ago..



But five minutes later when I looked out
I could see the ships which were crossing from
Bosphorus.



But the sunshine didn't last long. :( The forecast says
we are going to have really cold weather until at least New Year.

Sorry, I've got no new beads or vessels to share with you.
I am hoping to torch for a couple of hours tonight though.
See you tomorrow.
Ilknur.

A BEAUTIFUL PRESENT...

I received a package on Monday from a dear friend "Janie Stvan" who lives in Fabius, N.Y. Inside the package I found this beautiful bracelet and matching earrings. (I am not wearing the earrings today so there is no pictures of them, sorry) I was so surprised and so happy at the same time.

Would you please look at this? ... Isn't it just gorgeous? !!!!

I love it, I love it, I love it. It's got all my favorite colours in it. Blue, ivory and black... I've been wearing it everyday since Monday. It makes me feel so good. Janie is such a talented bead maker. Also she is a fabulous person, great mother and a generous friend. I wish she had a website so that you could see her beads. I feel so lucky to have her as my friend.

"Thank you so much Janie. Merry Christmas to you and all your family. Would you give a huge kiss to dear Isabel for me,please"

Hope you all have a wonderful time...

See you later.

Ilknur

FIRST BOTTLE WITH NORTEL...

I had an hour to torch last night and I made this green bottle for
my dear friend Derya.

"Hii Derya, Hope you like it my dear. See you soon"

Ilknur

FOR MY DEAR SISTER ...

I made these two hollows at the weekend to achieve.....



a bead like this....



This purple bead is one of my first hollows.
I love it very much so I always wear it. But I am not the only person who loves this bead. My sister had an eye on it since the day she saw it for the first time. She made a point at me she would nick it if I don't make one for her :)

"Well my dear sis, I made two beads for you instead of one. So leave mine alone!!!! :) I know they don't look exactly like mine, but "Real art is so hard to duplicate" you know.
Love you. :) "

Ilknur

HERE IT IS. MY "NORTEL" AND "THE BEADS" I MADE WITH IT....

Hello everyone.
There you go. This is what I call "My studio" and you can see my "Nortel Minor"
Isn't it cute? Mum made those little cushions for me. (Please don't laugh!! They are so comfortable and I love them) I made those colorful mandrel stands with my left over polymer clays. They are soft enough to hold the mandrels and won't get stiff unless you bake them.




Last night I played with my new toy for a while for the first time after setting it up. All I could say is " I LOVE IT". It is so good. The only thing I found challenging was to work underneath the flame as I am used to work in the flame with my hot head because I needed all the heat I could get from it. Well, I know it'll take some time to get used to but "I will" at the end. And these are the beads I made last night, as you can see I didn't even have time to clean them properly. Sorry about that. The purple one is hollow. I was so suprised how quickly that glass melted, it was one of the hardest rods to work with the hot head.



Of course I tried to make a bottle too. But it turned out sooo bumpy that I'm not sure if I'd like to share it with you or not. All I can say that I burned the glass a bit because I hold it in the flame to long and the result wasn't nice. :)

See you later.
Ilknur.

LAST BOTTLES WITH MY OLD TORCH...

Greetings everyone.

I would like to show you some bottles that I've made with my hot head torch. It was a nice farewell to a loyal friend. I know for a fact that once I set up my new torch I won't need this one or have much time to work with it.

Here are the result of my last time at the hot head . :)










You don't see from the pictures but unfortunately all of them cracked because of me. I was so curious to see how they will turned out and took them out of the vermiculit a bit early. :( I am sooo sorry...... It's so sad to see them like that. I'll never ever be impatient again. Anyway, I'll keep them as long as they don't break into pieces as a reminder of this stupid mistake. :)
See you later.
Ilknur.

"ANTALYA"....

I am sorry that it took me a long time to write to you about "Antalya".We were there for just a couple of days to visit my sis. even though i was there for only 2 days that was enough for me to fall in love with the city. I really didn't want to leave its beautiful sea and clear skies. I am sure you'll understand why when you see the pictures.

My sis and her husband have found a really nice area to live. They seemed to be settling down nicely in their new apartment. Dave found a job quickly as an English Teacher. My sister is a yoga instructor and she has some private students and also has 3 sessions lined up with the local sports centre . If you know anyone who lives in Antalya and wants to learn yoga just let me know. :) You can't find a better teacher then her. I think I could stop worrying about them from now on.

Okey, let's start to put some pictures.

Looking at the mountains....

At The Marina....

Sister Sister.... :)

Duden Waterfall....
Nurg said if we were a bit earlier we could've seen the rainbows. :)




Sunset from Duden....



Well that's all for now.
Hope you like them.
Ilknur.

My New Torch a "Nortel Minor Burner"

I was right!!!!! The torch arrived Last Friday, the next day I updated the blog, without any problems. I found some frits and a couple of enamels in the package as well, courtesy of Bill, the man I bought the torch from. Thank you Bill, it is very kind of you. And again thank you so much Ari, for all the things that you've done for me to get this torch .... :)

I wasn't able to set the torch up the next day because I was in Antalya, visiting my sister. I had a fantastic time over there. (I'll write about it all in the next post with lots of pictures) When I came back, I called the number of the oxy supplier to ask if they sell regulators and flashback arrestors. Apparently yes, they do sell all the things that I need. And also, the man on the phone said if I buy all the equipment from them, they' will set it up and connect everything free of charge. That made me so happy because I was a bit concerned about setting it up on my own.

I was hoping to call them for this Saturday but I'm going to visit my dear friend Rose who lives in Izmit (a nice place - 1,5 hour away from Istanbul) and her new born son Evren Toprak (Topi). He is just a month old and I am dying to see them both.

So, the setting up my new torch will have to wait until next Saturday. Until that time I don't feel like working with my hot head torch. I am afraid there won't be any new beads until I start to work with my "Nortel". O.M.G. , this is going to be sooo cool... :)

By for now.
See you later.