Some beads just happen

Sometimes I can struggle, squint my eyes, poke out my tongue, hop from foot to foot, say the magic words and still end up with a bead that is so-so.

Every once in a while everything comes together and magic happens!

This is one of those moments, I'm so happy with the way this bead turned out :)

[caption id="attachment_518" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cosmic Storm - **sold**"][/caption]

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

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!