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!

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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!

Bead Du Jour

Just a quick fly-by this morning, thought I'd share my favourite bead of my last few days torching -

New Beads!

Some new beads to share!  The first are big hole beads - or bigger at least! I did them on the 3/16" mandrels.



These were experiments with faux boro colours and silver.  I think the silver was fuming my clear glass which didn't make them look so good,



even though there were bits that I really liked!



Then Deborah posted a bead on Wet Canvas that had rubino over silver and I thought it looked just like what I needed!  This is two sides of the same bead and I'm getting closer to what I was aiming for - happy day!

Finally! Torching weather!

It was mild yesterday and I don't think I've got as much heat out of my hothead since last fall! What a great feeling. I'm experimenting with silver. I have an idea in mind, but haven't quite got there yet.

I've tried using my Lee Valley Tools mandrels and have run into a problem - the beads don't want to come off! I think it's the cold pressed steel and have a feeling it's more porous than stainless causing the bead release to stick really well. I'm going to try something involving beeswax, ...figure I'll either go up in flames or will have better success. I will report on it later!

I really like the size and shape of the beads these bigger mandrels are giving me but it's surprising to see how different the feel of making them is and I do believe it's harder to get them nicely rounded because of the extra amount of glass. Wondering if this will be solved with my new torch and extra heat.

OH! I ALMOST FORGOT!
I received my copy of The Flow - I've been waiting not so patiently as three of my face beads are featured in the Canadian Gallery! I'm thrilled to bits, and delighted with how much info there is in this magazine - gorgeous tutorials, full of colour photos, many talented artists - I'm looking forward to reading every bit. It's fun to see how many of the names I recognise from The Canadian Lampwork Forum and congratulations to everyone who made it in there!

Here are my beads that made it to The Flow!

New beads to share!

Finally I have a few new beads to share.  I'm trying to put some small sets together to sell.

I tried a tutorial for 'Dragon Scale Beads' from Amber/Naos on the lampworking boards.  Her beads are so beautiful.  I was quite pleased with my first attempts and am fighting with myself on whether to etch them or not.  The purple is moretti EDP, and it's such a gorgeous colour!!!  I haven't really used it before, but I'm getting purples, pinks and oranges in these beads - like a lovely sunrise!





Sorry for the bits on the single bead, I guess it's dust from the rice.

Also more in the unboroboro series, though these are not as 'airy' as the earlier ones.  I had some Vetro amber that I used and it produces a more solid colour than the straw yellow.  I still like them.

Etched

It's too cold to torch, I know, I'm sounding like a broken record, or perhaps I should say a scratched cd.  I'm antsy so I pulled out my old jar of etching cream and thought I'd try etching a couple of beads.

I didn't take before and after shots, but this first one I did not like much before etching, now its pretty dreamy

.

The second one was just downright ugly, but with a bit of etching I can almost imagine it as an ancient bead dug up from somewhere. It's still not my favourite but I think I saved it from the junk pile!

Just when I think I've found the most amazing thing about the glass I'm using, I do something else and get blown away by what happens!!

These are the latest, the base beads are wrapped in silver foil, which is then burned off in the flame resulting in that wonderful colour and texture!!
 
I've put dots on top, and also used glass that will reduce in the right kind of flame giving a metallic shine to them.  

The reducing part is a bit tricky, I seem to get the effect but end up with one part of the bead where it burns off again, I guess it's another case of PPP -- I have to make more of these beads....
** A word of caution - silver fumes are toxic, so if you are going to use any glass with silver make sure your ventilation is VERY good!**