Reshoots and some new additions

Drumroll...

Here are the first sets I have got put together of my new beads, some are reshoots from the previous post but there are some new ones in there too! I'm really happy with the design of these, the shape makes them feel quite elegant, and the ivory and silver tops are accented with silver glass - I've used Triton and Tibet, most of which is reduced to a pretty metallic blue/green sheen.

I'm listing each set at $20, they'll be going up on Etsy hopefully in the next few days, but if you just can't wait, drop me an email and we can work something out with Paypal. Colours may vary slightly from monitor to monitor, I've got them as close as I can.

More pictures and measurements are available of each set on request. All these beads have 3/32" inch holes. I've used Moretti, Vetrofond and Reichenbach glass.

Tangerine Dream - or maybe it should be tangerine dreamsicle!

January Rain - little raindrops almost appear to have been painted on this bead, in very delicate almost rainbow colours.


Cosmos - I used raku to achieve the swirling clouds of colour - it's quite trippy!


Coastline - if you look carefully you can almost see the coastline hovering above the grey sea, I see a house and cliffs, if you look you'll probably see something different.


Fossil - this bead has a very earthy look and there does appear to be a fossil of some kind buried deep beneath the surface!


Neptune's Gift - silver foil over oxtongue black creates this wonderful patina'd blue, topped with silvered ivory and iris gold it really does feel like something Neptune may have held.


Sea Storm - crashing waves and surf the sea is rising high tonight, lit by a silvery moon hanging in the sky.


Firestorm - swirls of colour, almost molten lava-like, the metallic blue compliments them wonderfully


Deserted - If you are wondering about the name -an idea for a name for this one deserted me! There's raku in there and a Vetrofond colour I'm not sure of, this bead was hard to get a good picture of.


Rainbow Fields - beautiful Raku colours swirling around! Colours I could never achieve with my hot head torch come flying out of the glass now - I'm thrilled!


Agua - I used dark teal glass for this bead which is much prettier than the picture actually shows, the 'water' is rippling, reflecting light off the surface.

Celtic Moss - I think the Vetrofond colour may be called Swamp Moss, but oh my! It's just beautiful! Definitely a mossy colour and combined with the ivory and silver in this bead, it just made me think of all things Irish.


MORE TO COME!

What a difference the LIGHT makes!

It's come to my attention that certain people have found the following pictures a little.. shall I say titillating, which leads me to wonder exactly what kind of lives they lead!! I have learned my lesson and would like to assure everyone that in future I will be more careful about the placement of the beads in my photos!!



I've been making some beads that I really like! I wanted to share them here, so took pictures this morning. I'm not very happy with the pictures, it's a dull day out and I didn't want to use the flash, the colours are not the greatest and I will be re-photographing them.

Here goes....





Irish Moss

This set is a gorgeous dark green mossy colour, with variations running through it. I love it! Too bad it looks black in this picture. I used Triton for the tear drop shapes at the top of these beads - again, you can't see it in this picture but the Triton is reduced to a pretty mirrored finish.



Sea Storm

Same style of bead except the ivory looks more like raging waves which led me to add a moon to the sky.



Rainbow Fields - you can see the reduced Triton a little better in this bead. I used Reichenbach 104 Raku to get the rainbow of colours.



Here's the rest of the group, some I like better than others but thinking of making spacers to go with these as well ;)

I have some Boro hollows to photograph too, I hope the light is better later.

My computer or keyboard is doing something weird, it's making typing difficult, here's what it looks like if I don't orrect what it keeps doing, it's skipping letters and I have to keep going back to type in he letters it's skipped. I's pretty annoying and I end up with a buch f letters that were skipped all jined together at my cursor!! oonttc

Going to check and seeif it's some kind of virus, I'v got scanners running so I should be sfe but you never know these days. ae

What a time to run out of gas!

Well, I guess there really is no good time. But I was particularly happy with two beads I made this morning and wanted to see if I could replicate them. Poof! half way through - no gas :o(

Here are the two beads -

I'm calling this one Talisman, it's a new shape for me, well a progression of the cone shape I like. I love the way the colours shift from on end to the other, something I wasn't expecting at all.



Spirals

And this one is Spirals, the ivory and silvered stringer is just beautiful!

Holo-Boro

Here they are - my very first hollow boro beads!







The dotted one is my favourite, part of it reduced to a silky gold finish, now I want to see if I can get a whole bead that colour!  The pictures don't capture that unfortunately.

Michelle, you asked about boro on the mega minor.  I have nothing to compare it with, but found that with my oxycon I could melt it quite easily.  I think my challenge is going to be getting used to the way the boro melts, it doesn't flow like the soft glass does and I'm realising I have to get it really hot to get the beads smoothed out nicely.

Here's a chart on Artistry in Glass' site that might help anyone looking at torches and oxycon's and wondering what they need for the most heat.

Torch and oxycon chart  - it says my combo will do small & medium boro which I figured would keep me happy for a while.  I decided to push the budget with the oxycon as I didn't want to be disappointed.

A BIG Day!

Today I melted my first rod of Borosilicate glass!!!  It's a big deal, I've been dreaming about it for a long time!

I'm thrilled with the results, just because I can't believe I finally did it.  Feel free to have a snicker at my very first boro pendant - here it is in all it's quirky, clunky, wonky glory :oD





Isn't it beeeeautiful!! (Don't worry, I understand it's the kind of beauty only a mother can feel for her child)

After I did that I attempted some beads, yep, they are wonky too, but OH the colours in this glass!  Oooooooh MY!!!



I have to say I LOVE my mega minor!

On the soft glass front I've been experimenting with Triton, a new silver glass - not inexpensive at $4 a rod - I certainly won't be making any big beads out of it, but it's wonderful as a decoration on top of other glass.



It's really easy to get the lovely metallic sheen, here's another where I didn't reduce the Triton (it's the blue at the bottom of the bead)





and one more for luck!

A collaborative piece

Valentina Miletic has used one of my beads in a whimsical and fun necklace!



I'm delighted because it is very different from anything I would have thought of doing with this bead - what fun to see how two different artists can create one piece.

Valentina is very talented, you can see her latest jewelery creations here, she's constantly creating and jewelry making is just one of the things she excels at.



She's called him Mr. Importante - quite fitting I think!  Thank you Valentina, he's one funky Importante!

Do you read blogs?

I know I have several that I like to visit, and it used to be a bit of a chore going to all the different web addresses only to find that they hadn't been updated.  Then I learned about RSS feeds!  This is a way where you can save all the blogs you visit in one place.  You can visit one site ( I use bloglines, but there are others), and see which of the blogs have been updated.  You can read the updates right there on the bloglines site, or you can click through to go to the actual blog page you wish to read.

If you've got a blog - consider adding a 'feed' button to make subscribing easy for visitors, and if you read blogs, take a look at bloglines -it's free and gives you one stop blogging!

A picture?



I love looking at bits of beads in closeup!  This is one of my organics with silver foil, isn't the silver pretty!

Dandelion Festival Pictures!

Here are a few pictures of my demo at The Bead Store in Kemptville at the weekend. My trusty helper is Jane, you can see she's very good for a person's self esteem! ... and she doesn't usually wear silly hats like that! (If you see your picture here and you'd rather it wasn't, let me know and I'll remove it ;o) )









Thanks to hubby David for taking the pics! And big thanks also to Jane for standing by me, and to Jeannette for inviting me to spend the weekend in her store!

After, we went hog wild!

A quick post before I start the day!

Demo day at the Dandelion Festival has arrived, I got everything set up yesterday so hopefully things will go smoothly! I'm excited and nervous!

I've made some Dandy Lion beads for the event and turned them into little pins-



Here are a couple more faux boros, or unoboroboro beads. I can't help it, I'm addicted to making them, I love the colours!

Dandelion Festival - Kemptville, Ontario

This coming weekend, June 7 & 8 is the Dandelion Festival in Kemptville. If you are in the area check it out!

I am going to be at The Bead Store / Rideau School of Art, on Prescott Street both days. Store owner Jeannette Froese Leblanc has invited me to be her guest artist for the festival. I'll be setting up my hothead torch, bringing some glass and lots beads. If you want to see how a glass bead is made I'll be doing demo's throughout Saturday and Sunday and would love it if you can stop by!

On the home front I have a new family member to introduce to you. He arrived the day before yesterday from the Lanark Animal Welfare Society shelter in Smiths Falls. His shelter name was Raff, and so far he's keeping it. Somehow it seems a fitting tribute to our beautiful old boy Raffi who we had to have put to sleep a few weeks ago at 19 years of age.

You can see, he's making himself quite at home!



Its no wonder the speed at which I can work at the computer has slowed to a crawl!



Aww look! Raff is waving!



Now does he have BIG paws or is it my imagination?



Nap time at last!

I've just left him exhausted in the living room after giving him a sprig of catmint that's growing outside. He really enjoyed that!