Beads with Canyon de Chelly Glass

One of my favorite earth tone glasses is Canyon de Chelly from CiM. It reacts in interesting ways with other glass colors. Here are some examples of beads I've made with Canyon de Chelly:

Canyon de Chelly base with ASK Caramel Apple scrolls, etched
Canyon de Chelly and Effetre Copper Green, etched
One of my favorites - Canyon de Chelly base with Double Helix Psyche scrolls
This might be my favorite set ever with CdC. The base is Copper Green and silver foil, the scrolls are CdC :) The beads are etched
This silver-cored bead has a Canyon de Chelly base with Psyche "flowers" I made from a striped CdC/Psyche latticino
Here's a set made with the Psyche flowers
So, there's a gallery of my favorite Canyon de Chelly beads to date! There are so many other glasses I haven't tried CdC with, but if I find some great new combos I'll share them with you here.

Hint: If you work with Psyche and Canyon de Chelly together, give the Psyche a couple rounds of reducing/oxidizing, getting it metallic, then erasing the metallic shine. This will develop more colors.
:)
Have fun on the 4th!
Love ya beautiful bead peeps!

P.S. Soon I'm moving my blog to my website. I'll let you know when that happens. I really don't want to leave the glass community here on the Blogger blogs though, so I'm still going to keep this blog open and post here too, to some degree, I'm not sure how it will all work yet!

The Fruits of My Summer

Happy Monday bead peeps! I'm back with a blog post after a long summer hiatus. I spent July and August hunkered down in the studio like an obsessed mad scientist, having a great time learning how to make silver charm necklaces. I'm now carrying this new line of custom charm necklaces in my Etsy shop! Here's one example:I have a variety of styles, or you can design your own. The charms can include crystals, pearls, and hand-stamped initials or designs of your choice. They are so much fun to make!
I've also been hammering out sterling bead caps and adding them to my silver cored beads:Here's a recent bead set, made with CiM Halong Bay and Aurae, a beautiful combination:More photos of my new work coming soon. Have a great week!

Silver Cored Beads on Etsy

Here are two of my latest silver cored beads. This first one is made with CiM's Mojito, my favorite pale emerald green glass color. The surface is decorated with raised designs of gold metallic Aurae. The Aurae fumes the Mojito to a golden color and puts a blue mother-of-pearl sheen on the surface:If you view the bead from the side, you can see the Mojito green color and blue sheen:
This next bead is made with Terra2 and Ivory, encased in Aether clear. I tried to keep the bead cool as I worked it to preserve the dark purple and red colors:
I'm doing some Spring cleaning of my bead stash and I'll be listing groups of orphan beads for sale in my Etsy shop.

Siver Cored Beads on Etsy!

I've been working on silver coring beads for a few weeks now. I have quite a little collection going. I love to gaze at them, polish them, put them on my Pandora bracelet. Trouble is, I love them so much I'm having a hard time letting them go. They are my babies.
:-D Lampworkers, you know what I'm talking about :-D

Yet all babies must one day venture out into the big world and find a new home and gainful employment. Such it is with my cute little silver cored beads. The separation anxiety has been a little tough, but I've finally listed a few on Etsy! Here are their photos:

Etched organic:Double Helix Kronos with Kronos frit:CiM Mojito with Triton (2 photos):CiM Slytherin and Mojito with Triton:

Have a nice Monday and happy beading :)

Etched Scroll Design Beads

I have a few new bead sets made that I'm working on photographing and listing on Etsy. Here's a preview of one of the sets, made with a base of CiM Canyon de Chelly and scrolls of Effetre Copper Green. I love the reaction between these glasses! I've etched them to brighten up the Copper Green and reveal the nice dark lines around the design:I find most of the CiM glasses, like Canyon de Chelly, are a dream to work with. They have a really nice, smooth consistency, like butter or soft taffy. Effetre's Copper Green is a long-time favorite of mine, either etched or un-etched. Here is an example of un-etched Copper Green, with the grey metallic patina still on the surface:
Today I travel down to Phoenix, about a 2 hour drive. I'm picking up my 14-year-old daughter at the airport who is just returning from canoeing camp up near International Falls, MN. I bet it's a heck of a lot cooler up there than it will be in Phoenix today. According to the forecast it should be 112 degrees. At least that's cooler than last weekend when I was in Phoenix and it was 114. Ha ha. I know there's a lot of torchers down in Phoenix... how do you folks do it? Even up here in Sedona, it's not cool enough to make beads until 9 pm!
Ok, enough complaining about the summer, which I longed for all last winter. Time to enjoy this 'dry heat.'
Have a wonderful day and weekend, and stay comfortable :-)

Metallic Scroll Design Beads

I had another special order in April for some beads with metallic scroll designs. Here is the set I made for the order, using a base of clear and CiM's Leaky Pen with Triton scrolls:
Leaky Pen has very dense color, so I thinned it by mixing a rod of clear and a rod of Leaky Pen together in the flame, creating a big blob of mixed color and then pulling it out to a 5mm rod. I then used this mixed rod for the base bead, encased it with another layer of clear only, then added the Triton scrolls and reduced.

I have more metallic scroll beads available in my Etsy shop. This set is made with Pale Emerald Green and Triton:and this set is made with Amber Rose and Triton:Stop by my Etsy shop to see more beads and photos.
Enjoy your day!

CiM Chalcedony and Triton

Thanks to a comment from sassyglassdesigns on one of my previous posts, I've experimented with more glass colors to see how they react with Triton. Here I've tried a blue CiM glass called "Chalcedony" and I got a sea green color!Triton scrolls seem to fume base glasses with a yellowish color, so I think it's a matter of how nice the color looks with yellow added as to how the beads will turn out.

Here is a photo of some plain Chalcedony rods, so you can see the before and after color difference:
And another photo of this set, available in my Etsy shop!

CiM Heffalump and Triton

A few days ago, I wanted to make a set of beads using CiM Crocus and Triton glass, like the set in my last post. I sat down at the torch to start making the beads. I grabbed a purple glass rod from my CiM shelf, assuming it was Crocus, and began making the set. The color looked a little strange as I was putting the beads into the kiln, but glass sometimes looks different when it's hot, so I didn't give it much thought. The next morning when I opened the kiln to see my cooled-down beads, I knew these beads couldn't be Crocus! Oh no! What the heck glass color is that?! Ooops! Maybe I used Heffalump!Indeed, I had used Heffalump. Here are the beads next to the Heffalump rods. The beads had turned a very different color from the original Heffalump lavender:It's interesting the way the Triton glass fumed the Heffalump, making the beads a tan/cream/purple color with a pearly surface sheen. I think the beads would look good paired with freshwater pearls:
Another interesting aspect to this set: some of the CiM colors have the property of changing color when viewed in florescent lighting. Heffalump is one of these colors, as well as Crocus and Larkspur. Under florescent lights, these colors get a green tint. Here are my Heffalump beads under florescents:
I'll be putting this fascinating set up in my Etsy shop today.
:-)

CiM Crocus and Triton

"Crocus" by Creation is Messy is one of my favorite glass colors, especially for Spring. It's a beautiful translucent pinky-purple glass, similar to an Effetre Alabastro, but easier to work with. Here is a set of Crocus beads decorated with Triton scrolls:This set is in my Etsy shop.

I'm getting back into the CiM colors lately. Next post I'll have a picture of *what happened* when I combined CiM "Heffalump" with Triton!

CiM Sepia with Triton

My most favorite brown glass color is CiM Sepia. Here I've paired it with scrolls of Triton. This set is for sale in my Etsy shop:

Just a post and run for today!

Enjoy your weekend!

Etched Copper Green Beads

Browsing through the Lampwork, Etc. message board can be a good way to find creative inspiration when the glass muse is taking an untimely nap. I saw mentioned in one of the threads that CiM's Canyon de Chelly has a nice reaction with Copper Green, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I made these round beads with a base of CdC and Copper Green scroll designs. They measure about 12mm x 15mm. I'm really happy with them! It's fun for me to use non-silver glass once in a while! They're etched, which is a good thing to do with Copper Green beads to get rid of the grey metallic patina they sometimes get. This set is in my Etsy shop right now:

I just pulled a set out of the kiln made with a base of Vetrofond Odd Olive and Copper Green scrolls. I'm going to etch them, and if they turn out semi-cool I'll post a photo of them.
Have a beadyful day!

Metallic Scroll Designs

I've made a few new scroll design bead sets, this first one with a base of Amber Rose and scrolls of M-232b or "Pinky Purple Luster," the Double Helix test batch:This set has a base of CiM Hades and scrolls of Triton:

A big Thank You to my Etsy customers for shopping with me this month!

Another big Thank You to my blog readers for visiting and writing comments, you really make my day and keep me inspired!

It's snowing here in northern Arizona. Stay warm everyone!

Translucent CiM Glass

Just a little sharing tonight of some beads made with translucent glass from Creation is Messy. Their translucent glass has a beautiful opalescent glow and it's very nice to work with.

This first set was made with a base of Kryptonite and a partial encasing of Effetre Pale Emerald Green. The scroll designs are Triton. Depending on the light, the beads look either jade, mint or lime green. The translucent CiM colors are really magical!This set has a base of Crocus and an encasing of Larkspur. They can look pink, blue or purple depending on the light.

CiM Sangre - A Luscious Pomegranate Red

Mmmm... Pomegranate!It's the end of the fruiting season for the beloved pomegranate tree in our back yard. This is the pomegranate's last clinging fruit, named by my daughter "The Tiniest Pomegranate Ever." It's about the size of a ping-pong ball! While I was sitting outside cleaning beads, she picked it and brought it to me. The skin had burst open, revealing seeds the exact color of the beads I was working on.

The red glass is called "Sangre" from Creation is Messy. It's a beautiful blend of transparent and opaque red, making a visible spiral where it's wound around the core.

I've used Triton for the scroll designs, and I was happy to discover that the Sangre did not get sooty and dark when reduced.

Sangre is a great color, definitely my favorite red for the way it holds its yumma-licious color even when worked hot for a long time, and it doesn't have a bad reaction with silver glass. Its mix of transparent and opaque red gives it a lot of depth and lets light in through the bead.

Eye See You!

I made beads the night before Halloween, and this is what emerged! I've always wanted to try an eyeball. I used a base of CiM Marshmallow, the absolute perfect eyeball glass! The iris is made with a Kronos/Intense Black twistie, the pupil is an Intense Black dot, and I added a lens of clear over the top.The hardest part was rounding out the bead without distorting the iris. I realize now that if the Marshmallow base bead were much bigger in comparison to the iris, more like a real eye, it would be easier to make round.It was a lot of fun to finally try this. Maybe some of you have seen the amazing glass eyes that Pipyr makes? They're like dragon or creature eyes. She has a tutorial on how to make them for sale on her website.
Practice, practice, practice!

Stone Ground and Pinky Purple Luster

Here's a set I made using CiM Stone Ground and Double Helix "Pinky Purple Luster": "Pinky Purple Luster" is the name for Double Helix odd lots M-166 and M-232b. The glass on these beads is the M-232b, but I've also used the M-166 and they seem to be identical. A gorgeous, light, bright gold with pink highlights. Similar to Triton in some ways, but a lighter gold color. One of my favorite glasses!

I love the CiM Stone Ground. It's easy to work with and has nice color. It's similar to the color of ASK Caramel Apple or Effetre Opal Yellow. On these beads you might be able to see that the M-232b fumed the Stone Ground and gave it a subtle purple iridescent sheen. Here's another photo of the set: These beads were inspired by Hayley Tsang.
Have a beautiful day everyone!

CiM Crocus and Larkspur Beads

Last week the 10 lbs. of CiM glass I won arrived in the mail. The colors are gorgeous! I haven't found time to play with them all yet, but I did manage to dive in to some of the new opaline purple color "Crocus" and the gorgeous lavender transparent "Larkspur." TDF! These beads have a core of Crocus encased in Larkspur, with Triton scroll designs:They're in my Etsy shop right now!

I Won 10 lbs. of CiM Glass!

DOIN' THE HAPPY DANCE!!!!In July I entered a contest held by Creation is Messy (CiM) glass company. They needed photographs of messy creativity in action for their website. Well, I have a plethora of material for a contest like that! In this post you can see one of the photos I sent in.

I was stunned to get an email yesterday from Kathy at CiM, telling me I'm one of the contest winners! You can see the CiM August newsletter here that has all the photos that won.

Now I get to go through their color palette and pick out ten pounds of glass! What an incredible experience this is!

Check out the DragonJools blog for some great in-depth information about CiM's new colors: Evil Queen, Marshmallow and Crocus! Must have... Can have!!! Yay!!!
Happy Autumn everyone! Or Spring that is for some of you!

Double Helix Pandora

A new crop of Double Helix odd lot glasses has arrived!
I've had the chance to play with a few of them. One of my favorites so far is not an odd lot glass, it's their new color, Pandora:Here are my first test beads:From left to right, the first two beads are plain spacers. They turned out a nice, vivid but dark purple and blue. The third bead is Pandora swirled over Triton, the fourth bead is Pandora swirled over CiM's Canyon de Chelly, and the fifth and sixth beads are Pandora spacers encased in clear.

With small beads like spacers, I think the color is darker and more limited in spectrum, possibly because there is not much of a cool/hot temperature variance in the small amount of glass to encourage the development of a broad range of color. I think large or sculptural beads will have more variety of color than the dark purple and blue I got in my small beads.

Encasing, however, works great with the small beads. In addition to blue and purple, I also got red, green and yellow. The encasing lightened up the color a little and extended the spectrum.

If you're a lampworker and are wondering about how to use Pandora, I garaged these beads at 940 for 4-6 hours and annealed at 950 for one hour. That is my regular annealing schedule. I formed the beads without any special heating, striking, cooling or reducing. I just shaped them and put them in the kiln as though I were making an Effetre bead.

When the glass goes into the kiln it looks transparent green, maybe with some opaque light green streaks. There is no color on the beads at all other than green. All the color striking happens during the hours it spends in the kiln. When I took my Pandora beads out of the kiln in the morning, I was totally amazed at the color that had bloomed. It was so easy!

Now, back to the torch to make some more Pandora beads!