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!

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.

My latest and favouritist

I love this little bead! I'm extremely happy because the pattern is even all the way round, the encasing is about as good as I have managed so far - it goes pretty much to the holes AND this little baby is so perfectly round! Usually I seem to end up with thicker encasing on one side of the bead than the other, but this bead was born pretty close to perfect :oD

It's one of my unboroboro beads.  I had trouble photographing it, but this pic is pretty close to how it looks.





Look at how nice and round it is!!!

The Dark Side is Calling....

The dark side? Yes, borosilicate or boro glass. I keep seeing the most wonderful beads and vessels made from this glass. I am totally in love with the colours that swirl and create universes of such depth and beauty in these creations.

Here is just one for example -



This stunning vessel is made by Samma - see all the colours at play in the different angles of light - I am dreaming about this stuff at night! Samma is creating amazing vessels, if you like this one you should visit her blog by clicking here I am going to add it to my links.

Since I am using a hothead torch at the minute, boro is off-limits. I don't have enough heat to melt the glass. In order to work borocilicate glass you need a torch that uses both gas and oxygen. I am so obsessed at the minute I've gone back to experimenting with my unboroboro beads, they are looking quite pretty, but they are not the real thing...







Valentina, if you are looking at this I AM SORRY!! I KNOW I am supposed to be making you some silvery drop beads, please forgive me! I'm in a very dark place at the minute, I am trying hard not to let the Dark Side win! (yeah right!)

Women’s Fair and CL’s Necklace

With the Women's Fair coming up I thought I should make some Christmassy themed beads so here's a preview of some I'll have available that day -



I've wanted to make some Goddess beads as well, but can't bring myself to try the torso type so decided to take another track. There are some beautiful torso's out there, but I don't think I could bring myself to wear a naked body round my neck (it's the prudish side of me coming out I guess!!), so here's what I did instead. I've got some ideas to progress with these which might be fun to try. Don't pay too much attention to the trees, they will require YEARS of practise!



And here at last is CL's necklace, I am really pleased with how this project turned out, there are so many colours in it I think it would go with anything. I took the beads into the local bead store to see how best to string them and got such a positive response from the owner and other lady that works there that I came away on cloud nine.

I got my glass order at the beginning of the week and have finally had a chance to play with it.

I got some Reichenbach reduction rods which can be used to create the 'faux boro' effect I tried before.

The colours are very pretty that show up in the glass but you have to be careful not to use too much as it's not the same COE as the Effetre which means the two are incompatible.

I'm trying to get the necklace made for CL, but the coral that came is more like orange so I'm wondering if I can use some of these faux beads in her necklace instead.

There are different types of glass used in beadmaking. Each glass has a different melting temperature. The most commonly used is soft/soda glass bought under the name of Moretti. Other brands are available too, but Moretti is the one with the most colours and most common.



Hard/Pyrex/Borocilicate glass has a higher melting temperature and requires special eye protection for artists who work with it. The rewards are many including the colours that are visible within the glass.


The difference between the two types has led many users of Moretti to try and emulate the look of borocilicate glass. To acheive the beauty without the extra equipment and knowledge.


This is what I was attempting with the beads below. When Iris Gold is combined with Straw Yellow, very pretty things happen! These beads are the result, I layed a twisty over different colours of transparent Moretti and then encased the beads to give the full effect.


I had several crack on me sadly, I was trying to figure out why, and it turns out that the Iris Gold is a different type of Glass to Moretti. It has a different COE (Co-efficient Of Expansion), and this is what the problem is -- too bad because they are quite beautiful when the light shines through them. There's an unwritten law that says don't add more than 5% of a different COE to your bead, so perhaps if the twisty was used very sparingly the beads wouldn't be so prone to cracking. Who'd-a-thunk making pretty things required all this Science????

Med blue transparent (I think) base

Dark amber base

Red transparent base
Uranium Yellow base

So, I'm not sure if I'll pursue these beads - the iris gold is quite expensive - too expensive to go into the cracked bead pot anyway! I did learn good things though and I'm starting to understand how to encase a bead. Previous attempts have been pretty futile, but I'm starting to get a feel for how the hot glass goes onto the bead to give a nice clear layer without disturbing the decorated layer below.