sea slugs, glass, gouache and art

A cheer when the sun went away, a cheer when it came back.

who doesn't love to push a button

I don't post them much anymore but these guys are still the most popular thing I've ever made, by far.

I mailed off glaucus atlanticus number 996 today.

(link)

Added all remaining and forgotten sea slugs to my shop here!

(If anyone ever wants to link others please use this url, thanks! https://indolentjellyfish.etsy.com )

They'll probably be somewhere between $100 and $150, and they probably won't be listed for a while so you've got time. also thank you!

Some of them will be! They are not listed yet because there's a few things I have to do before that, but eventually.

Squid glass dip pens!

I didn't get much torch time this summer so instead of trying to churn out a bunch of the same old I decided to learn a new skill. I haven't perfected it yet but I'm getting there.

There's a promotion for $10 off any ETSY purchase over $40 now until tomorrow (Oct 11th) if anyone's interested.

use coupon at checkout: YES10

(here's a link to my shop but it works site wide)

some of the glass pens I've been working on, I love them.

Someone has very kindly been letting me use their personal glass torch for a few hours a week all spring/summer so I do have some new stuff to share, I just need to get around to photographing all of it. Hope you guys like increasingly niche dip pens.

That's wonderful to hear! You have my permission but only if I get to see it c:

As for tips you probably already know the most important thing is to keep it equally hot as you work on it, as hot as you can just before the glass changes shape gives you the most time to put on details.

To make a sea slug I melt a rod to get a mass of glass, make a rough body shape, attach a pointed clear glass rod on the opposite end as the punty, add on the design of the body and shape some more, then add the "tail" and "ears" and finally heat up long metal tweezers to hold onto it and then melt the punty off and stick it directly into a hot kiln. You could also let it cool down and aneal it later.

The easiest glass to work with are transparent colours, opaque glass melts really fast and loses details quickly while semi-opaque or milky glass shocks and cracks really easy while having a smaller window of time to work with. Using a colour like blue, green, or black will let you see the orange heat in the glass so you can better judge how cold it is getting, clear makes it more difficult to see the heat.

And the real most important thing is to make sure you are wearing an apron, glasses, and have proper ventilation, you don't want to breathe in heavy metals or get nasty burns on your torso, trust me.

Please let me see your creations when they are done! Glass is a really tricky medium but as with anything, repetition and thinking of your moves ahead of time makes it doable. If you have any more questions I'd be glad to share what I've learned so far.

I've been teaching myself how to make glass pens, it's going well.

back at it again with the sea slugs