Happy New Year!

My greatest wish for 2008:

Wishing everyone a wonderful and peaceful New Year!

I have a gallery of my favorite beads from 2007 set up at BeadArtists.org.
Come check it out!

More Silvered Glass

This is Double Helix odd lot K-108:

I can't get enough of these silvered metallic glasses. Years ago when I worked with tiny seed beads, all of the Iris colors like Iris Blue, Brown, Green, Purple and the metallics like Gunmetal, Silver and Gold were my favorites. My tastes haven't changed, I still love this look. I even changed my avatar today to a picture of some of my favorite beads from this past year - disc beads made from Nyx glass.

BeadArtists.org Gallery

If you'd like to see a gallery of my work, visit me on BeadArtists.org.
Click this link to see my gallery:
http://www.BeadArtists.org/BeadAbundant
Thanks and Enjoy!

New Double Helix Odd Lots

Double Helix Glassworks recently put up bunch of new odd lots and test batches, new Khaos glass and old Terra glass for sale on their website, and I was lucky enough to get a hold of some before it sold out.

Here are some test beads I've done with a few of the glasses. My aim wasn't to make great beads, just test out the colors.

Here's a bead made with Khaos glass:


These are made with H123-b. I like the color on the un-encased middle one. The outer two are encased with clear:


This is my all-time favorite of the test batches I've tried, K-102. I will definitely be making more beads with this glass:


More photos to come as soon as I can get back to the torch. I can't wait to try my old Terra, I've missed that glass so much!

More Psyche Beads

Here is another set of Psyche beads for your viewing pleasure. This is Psyche swirled over Dark Topaz:


Sometimes I make a set of beads that I'm not ready to sell because I love them so much. This is one of those sets! I'm going to hang on to them for a little while! The photo shows a close-up of some of the beads, but there are actually about 20 in this set. Each one is a little different from the next.

Psyche Experiments

Here are some test beads I've done with Psyche glass, trying it out on different base colors:


The base glasses are, from left to right:
Vetrofond Moss Agate, Opal Yellow, CiM Thai Orchid, Medium Topaz, Vetrofond Green Ochre, Dark Topaz, ASK104 Caramel Apple, CiM Hades.

There seems to be an endless variety of colors and styles to be gleaned from Psyche, depending on the base glass used. You can see the sets I made with the Moss Agate and Dark Topaz in my last post.

Messin' with my Psyche

Over the past several weeks my glass bench has become littered with little stubs of used rods and stringers of Psyche glass by Double Helix. I've been obsessed by the endless effects Psyche produces, depending on the color of the base glass it has been applied to.

Noticing last week that my Psyche stash was getting dangerously low, I called to place an order with my glass supplier Frantz Art Glass. I found out that Double Helix has suspended making more Psyche for the time being while they work on producing more of their much-anticipated new batch of Terra glass. In other words, Frantz was out of Psyche with no word of when it might be in stock again. Sheer panic overtook me, and I proceeded to scour the web for anyone who still had some Psyche for sale. I found some at ABR Imagery, and now I have an entire pound of Psyche with which to continue my late-night experiments! (....maniacal laughter....)

In a recent post, I showed you pictures of my "Earth Gems" sets which were made with Psyche on a base of Canyon de Chelly glass by Creation is Messy (CIM). This week I've completed several new sets with other base glasses. These are going up in my Etsy shop:

Psyche on a base of Vetrofond Moss Agate:

Psyche on a base of Dark Topaz:

More Psyche photos coming soon. Thanks for checking in and have a wonderful day!

New on Etsy - Etched Terranova!

Here are three new sets I have up in my Etsy shop.
The first two are organic sets with large 3.5mm holes:

Silver Cinnamon, silver foil and Silver Plum "rivets"

Ivory with silver dots:

This third set has an Ivory base with silver foil and Terranova scrollwork. Like its cousin Terra, Terranova does not etch easily. So, I put this set into the etch bath and got a nice matte Ivory base with shiny, un-etched blue-green Terranova designs:

Click on any of the images to visit my Etsy shop!

Silver Plum 'End Cap' Beads

I have some new focal beads for sale in my Etsy shop. They are from my series that uses silvered glass and Silver Plum "end caps." I love the metallic look of Silver Plum, and I loved making my own end caps with it on these focal beads.

Clicking on the images will take you to my Etsy shop.

I love the rough look of this one:

This is one of my absolute favorites. I've encased the bead with varying thicknesses of clear glass, which made the Kronos stripes underneath undulate in 3-D wave patterns:

This is another favorite:

The weather continues to be cold, snowy and rainy, but the snow is really beautiful on the red rocks, especially when the sun comes out. Here's a photo from Airport Mesa, at the vortex:

Have a lovely day, and stay warm!

A Snowman in the Desert

We had our first snow here yesterday. Snow is an exciting event in Sedona, because most years we only get a few snowy days or a dusting of snow here and there. We might only have one or two days each winter that are decent snowman-making days.

My 12-year-old daughter ran around in the falling snow yesterday - and got soaking wet, like kids are supposed to do - and she made this cute snowman. I took this picture around mid-day today, so he had already melted a lot. He's kind of sad looking now, but I had to document this rare snow art opportunity with a photo!

Fun with Psyche

Psyche glass by Double Helix might just be my favorite of all their silver glasses. A wide range of color can be coaxed out of this glass, depending on the number of reducing and oxidizing cycles I put it through in the flame. The two sets below are my latest favorites, though both of them sold quickly on eBay and Etsy and I had to send them out to their new homes. Selling is great, of course, but sometimes there are sets I really get attached to! I've named these sets "Earth Gems."

Here's a photo of the full set I had on eBay:

And a close-up of the large beads:

And a set of round beads I had on Etsy:

The brown base color on these sets is "Canyon de Chelly" from CIM glass. Over the past few days I've been experimenting with different base colors, and each one produces a totally different reaction with Psyche. I haven't photographed them yet, but when I do I'll post the photos here.