Etching Terra beads

I've been experimenting with etching beads that are decorated with Terra. Terra glass itself does not etch. Yet, when Terra is used as a decoration on an etch-able base glass, it results in beautiful contrasts of texture and reflection.

Here are a couple of photos of my experiments. One is made on a base of opal yellow (with pure Terra spacer beads) and the other is a base of black Effetre.
Enjoy!

Purple!

Here are a few of the new beads I've been working on.
The eclectic set of pink and purple is not my usual style, but I love the way they turned out. I seem to be better at making sets of identical beads these days, so making each bead different was a challenge. I also rarely make beads this feminine. I thought I'd push my envelope a little and make something different. This is the set I was working on using the CIM glasses, including the Simply Berry. I really love this set and the experience of making it, so I'm going to make more!
The second set of blue and purple buttons is etched ASK104 glass.
Enjoy the photos!

An Abundant Bead Week

The past week I've been making a lot of beads. I'd like to post photos here, but I haven't had a photography day in a while. Lately I've been inspired with new bead ideas, so I'm taking advantage of that and working at the torch every spare moment.

I have a new glass color I've been working with by Creation is Messy (CIM) called Simply Berry. I'm in love with this color... it's a beautiful, rich magenta purple. I've spent all day today making a set with this color combined with two other CIM colors, Ginger and Rose Quartz.

I'm also in the process of starting a team blog with a few other beadmakers. We're going to be posting photos of our works-in-progress for everyone to see. I'll post a link here when we get it rolling, but if anyone's interested they can see Lori Greenberg's Bead Nerd blog. The Bead Challenge is closed right now but stay tuned because at some point it will be open to more members.

It's a beautiful day here, hot with afternoon showers to cool things off.
I'm back to the torch. Cheers!

New beads

Here are some photos of some new sets I've been working on. The large focal is made on a base of CIM Ginger, with silver foil and swirls of Leaky Pen and Violet Ink Blue. It's a 1 1/4" lentil. It's the focal bead of a larger set I'm calling August Rain.




The pair of beads are done on a black base with "windows" on each corner showing Kronos blue flowers. I really like this design, and I've made a huge set of them for my website. I'm still in the process of cleaning and photographing them.

The pair shown is for sale in my Etsy shop.

It's been another gorgeous day here in paradise, what can I say. I'm sitting outside with my laptop watching the sun go down and the quail squabbling over something.... over women or food, probably!

Peace everyone!

Terra Love/Hate Relationship

Another beautiful day in paradise here in Sedona.

I've been making a lot of beads the past few days, yet still having a challenge with Terra. I've gone through nearly a 1/4 pound and still don't have anything really great to show for it except a few spacer beads that have good color. Sometimes I'll get good color on a Terra bead and put it into the kiln, but the next morning when I take the bead out it has turned brown. Very mysterious.

I'm continuing to read the extensive thread about Terra on the Lampwork, etc. message board. It has been very helpful and I agree with the tips everyone is giving. I think getting the colors out of Terra is an intuitive process to some degree. The point at which to stop striking the color or how much to heat the bead is more of an intuition based on experience from practicing with it.

I'll be doing photography today and I'll post some new pictures up here later.

New Set on eBay

I've got a new nugget set up on eBay tonight. Here is the main focal bead:


Click on the picture to go to the auction page.

It's been a beautiful, sunny and warm day here. I've been making beads today, and I'm just about to get back to the torch after I write this. I'm saving my Terra bead experiments until the end of the day, so they don't spend too long in the kiln and potentially have their color washed out. I'm thinking now, though, that washed-out color comes more from over-working the glass rather than my kiln temp or annealing length.

Back to the beads!

Terra!

My new Terra glass from Double Helix has finally arrived! For the past few days I have been completely obsessed with it. I'm quickly turning into a Terra-ist.

However, so far my luck with pulling bright colors out of it has been Terra-ble. It's a very finicky glass that can't be re-heated too many times. I think what I need is practice!

I will post a couple of pictures here of my better Terra beads. The spacers are unencased, and the barrel is encased.




I've learned a lot about how to work with Terra by reading a thread on the Lampwork, etc. message board. Here's a link to the thread:
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52452

Good luck to all you lampworkers who are doing great stuff with this glass!

Multi-tasking

It's a beautiful day here in Sedona, and I've been doing a variety of bead-related things such packing and shipping, cleaning beads, photographing, photoshopping, working on my website and posting to my Etsy store. Doing all the many important aspects of the bead business except the really fun part -- making the beads!

Yesterday, however, I did get some bead time in and I've been working on another set. It's based on a set I've done before called Spring Rain. I'll post a picture of them here. I'm also waiting by the mailbox for my Terra glass to arrive from Double Helix!