Month: June 2018

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A favourite combination

recycled glass necklace

This would have to be one of my favourite colour combinations. With beads made from a Hendricks Gin and Fever-Tree Tonic water bottles I think it’s timeless in terms of colours, and also very elegant in terms of styling. This necklace would work so well with so many things in MY wardrobe, especially during the winter.

I am working towards 4 SALA exhibitions this year, and I can’t wait to take some of these beads and add a little something else to them! Stay tuned, I am hoping it’s going to be amazing (but I could be wrong)!

recycled glass necklace

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Meet the maker

Julie Frahm Glass Jewellery

Hello!

Yesterday I did a big road trip with the kids, and I didn’t have any energy left after that to be creative! I thought about it, but I was just up too early and home too late. So in lieu of yesterday’s creativity, I am sharing a photo of myself!

I have been making glass beads from recycled glass objects for about 9 years now. It all started when my daughter was born, and that was around the time of the Global Financial Crisis. In Australia our government was handing out money to try to stimulate our economy, and it was likened to the Great Depression. Well, that got me thinking about Green Depression Glass, and the history that has with regards to trying to stimulate the US economy at the time of the Great Depression. I found some Green Depression Glass and started making beads from that! Then I found some more glass objects and made beads from them.

My first exhibition “Anti-Depression Glass” was held at Lustre Galleries and ended up being the runner-up in the Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design award as part of the SALA awards that year. People resonated with the theme, so I kept going.

This year I am involved in 4 SALA exhibitions. I’ll be sharing more details about them as they get closer but to keep it simple I’ll be exhibiting at Bethany Wines, The Adelaide Remakery, Pepper Street Art Centre and T’Arts.

Julie Frahm Glass Jewellery

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Mixing things up a bit

I had some beads leftover from yesterday’s batch of flower beads. So, I added some small round beads that I made from a black vase that I found in an op-shop to make this cute flower necklace.

I like the contrast in this necklace. It’s a little bit 1970’s.

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My favourite orange cup

recycled glass beads

I was a bit sad when I dropped my favourite orange cup the other day! Don’t worry, I didn’t  cry. I just thought it was a shame that my favourite cup was broken. And then I thought “well, why not make some beads from it?”

So I made some flower beads, and then made these earrings. I was worried that the colour would burn out in the flame but it didn’t. Very happy to open the kiln this morning to find these.

recycled glass beads

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Mixed blue recycled glass bead bracelet

recycled glass bracelet

I was scrolling through my instagram photos this morning, wondering what I should make today. Trying to make something a bit different from what I have made, because that’s kind of the point of this year! To make all sorts of jewellery from recycled glass objects.

I realised that it had been quite a while since I had made a blue bracelet. I have made some blue necklaces, some blue/green bracelets, some blue/brown bracelets…but not a mixed blue bracelet for quite a while.

So without further ado…

recycled glass bracelet

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Making recycled glass beads

recycled glass bead necklace

Today I made a necklace featuring beads from wine, gin and tonic bottles. I love taking the time to talk to people about how these beads are made, so here goes:

  1. I get lots of donations of gin and wine bottles (thanks to everyone who takes the time to do this). When I get the bottles I have to first of all clean them. This involves soaking them in hot water to remove the labels and clean the inside of the bottle. Sometimes the labels are a bit sticky, so I will use Eucalyptus oil to do the final clean for me.
  2. The next step is to smash the bottle! I put the bottle in a pillowcase and hit it as hard as I can with a hammer. I then take the broken pieces out of the bag and put them in a container with the same type of glass. It’s important that I don’t mix glass as they may not be compatible.
  3. Next it’s time to make the beads. Before I start making the beads I heat the glass on a hot plate. The reason I do this is because glass is temperamental! It does not like to be heated up too quickly (and it does not like to be cooled down too quickly). If I were to place glass straight into the flame it would just smash into a million pieces. So warming it up helps a lot. Less wasted glass.
  4. My torch runs oxygen and LPG (which is the gas you use for BBQs). I use really long tongs to pick up the warm glass and then carefully introduce that to the flame and warm it up enough to make it melt. Once it has started to get a bit “drippy” I will wind the glass onto a stainless steel mandrel (coated in bead release) and start using different tools and techniques to make the beads.
  5. Once the bead has been made it goes into the kiln to go through the annealing process. This is where the molecules align and the bead is strengthened. The beads stay in the kiln until I have finished for the day. They will sit at 510 degrees celsius for a further half an hour before I start ramping down the kiln.
  6. The next day the kiln is cool enough to remove the beads. They then need to be removed from the mandrels, and the holes then need to have the bead release cleaned from them.
  7. Phew! After that, the beads are ready to use to make necklaces like this:

recycled glass bead necklace

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Niobium earrings #4

recycled glass earrings

This is the final pair of niobium earrings to show you. I had four different colours to play with and all of them were great and worked well with the different beads that I teamed them up with. I think this is the most simple colour combination, which might make it the most versatile.

recycled glass earrings

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Asymmetrical earrings

recycled glass earrings

Yesterday I was looking through some old photos of my jewellery. I came across some old work that I had made for a Flame On exhibition at Kirra Galleries. The earrings were asymmetrical and I really liked them. I think most of the earrings sold from that exhibition, so it made me wonder why I hadn’t made more like them, or even remotely similar to them. This morning as I was trawling through my beads, trying to find pairs that matched for earrings….I had a sudden realisation….I didn’t have to match them if I was going to make them asymmetrical. Yay, that made it easier to find some lovely beads that all kind of worked together, hence this pair of earrings:

recycled glass earrings