Hephalump
I've lots of bits of grey opaque glass left over from a large stained glass panel I made quite a few years ago. You can see it here.
I also used some to make a suncatcher elephant, picture here.
Still with a bag full of bits, I decided to try a bead elephant and this is the second one I've tried.
Hephalump
I amended the steps I took to make the first one so that the head would come out rounder and the body less deep. The mandrell hole is in a north-south position whilst the first one I made was west-east. This orientation made it more difficult to position the head and trunk. At the next attempt, I'll probable change one or two things again and see if the bead improves.
At least this one stands up straight and the head is straight too.
Click on the thumbnail to get a larger view and then if you want to see a massive version, click on original image.
- Pat from Canvey's blog
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Comments
Really Good!
This looks really good! Is this something that you thought of trying after looking at the 'Sculptural Shapes' booklet I got you? The west-east orientation I agree would probably be better positioned if you were strining it into a necklace or something but I can't help thinking that having a hole right where it's butt is is not a good position.
(I've link-ified your web addreses for you :-) )
Sharon Peters Silly Sculptural shapes
I've been thinking of using up my grey glass for some time. I'd thought of an elephant, a seal or a rhino but thought I'd try the elephant first. I wanted to wait though until I had a bead kiln so that I could make some parts seperately and then put it all together. I did the head first and put it into the kiln to keep warm, then made the body and legs. I hadn't at that point made some thicker grey rod for the legs so it took some time using the dot method. I put the body in the kiln and had a short rest. Then put both bits together. I practiced this morning making thicker rods from my strips of sheet glass so that the next elephant will have better legs.
The head has no bead hole. I had a mandrel attached to a thicker stringer which I then attached to the head to form the trunk. So the full weight of the head was held on a thin mandrel attached to the tip of the trunk. Needless to say, the head and mandrel parted twice but I was able to pick it up and re-attach.
The bead hole in the body runs north-south and that orientation makes it much simpler to attach the head to the body.