It's 3:40 in the morning and I can't sleep.  I'm wide awake and feeling excited - I had a great day yesterday, Jane and I went to the Carp Farmer's Market and met the nice folks from Reid's Beads.  They were demo-ing glass bead making and it was the first time I actually got to see someone make a bead.  Paul showed me their wonderful collection of beads from really talented artists, absolutely incredible!!!  I think my very favourite was the Dustin Tabor pendant, the precision in the dots was unbelievable.

Aside from getting to drool all over their collection and their own beads (figuratively, not literally ;o)  ), I got to make a bead on their big oxy propane torch.  Wow!  What a difference from my little hot head!  The flame felt so soft and gentle but hot at the same time - it comes gushing out of my hot head like water under pressure, this big torch was so quiet, a totally different experience.

Who else should show up but Evelyn, who I met at the Bridge St. Bazaar, I think she'd understand if I told you she's crazy about buttons!  I just happened to have my buttons on me so she got to see them up close and seemed to be delighted.  I have to get busy now so that I can get things annealed hopefully later this week or early next.

There was also a lady who made me feel wonderful when she commented on my necklace, she seemed genuinely impressed when I told her I had made the beads.  Then she let me know she was the treasurer of an Ottawa bead group, so I felt very happy!!  I'm still basking in the excitement of the whole morning!

Friday night was Miracle in Merrickville Night - on our street at least!  I made this bead, and I still can't believe I made it.  I haven't been able to replicate it yet, so if anyone reading this has any suggestions on how I can do it again please let me know.  Bear in mind I am on the hot head at the minute.  This bead has a base of reddish orange and swirls of copper green - I've never been able to get copper green to do this wonderful thing before but hopefully with perseverence I can get it to happen again.  I won't apologise for being a picture hog here, it's my blog and I LOVE this bead :o)

The glass is unwrapped, sorted and labelled and the fun has begun! I'm experimenting with reactions between the different colours or 'families' of glass. Some pretty cool things can happen if you know what you are doing - and sometimes even if you don't.



Here's the latest!

These use a twisty made of edp and turquoise laid down next to an opal yellow stripe on the bead, the twisty smooshes into the yellow and all kinds of cool colours happen. Then I tried encasing same twisty - a very different looking thing happens.

Bead Soup anyone? There are a couple in here with copper in them, my favourites are the big blue hollow and a surprising reaction I got with the transparent uranium yellow bead (see close up 'Today's Pick' in the right hand column).

Introducing South Sea Mary and Porcinea Ham (don't you think she looks a little pig-like??)

.. note the nifty knew tip for taking photos - regular table salt acts as a great background, it's easy to position beads at the angle you want -- Just make sure they're dry before you plop them in there!!