Rainbow Nebula Beads

Using Double Helix odd lot TE-362 again, this time mixed with a twistie of Ekho and Terra for a swirling nebula look. The three striking glasses seem to enhance each other and strike better when mixed. I made three silver-cored beads. The first one is in my Etsy shop today:

Double Helix TE-362

Frantz Art Glass recently had an odd-lot of Double Helix for sale called TE-362. I bought a little and it has become my favorite striking glass.

It was advertised as an opaque Ekho, which is similar to how I'd describe original Terra glass. The difference between this glass and Terra is that it strikes faster, easier and better, and it gets a metallic shine when cooled and re-introduced to a neutral flame.

Here are some sets I've made recently with TE-362:
With Kronos frit, encased with AetherSpacers with metallic shineWith some Terra, encased with AetherI've heard a rumor that DH will be making this into a regular color!

Sterling Silver Dust

A customer asked me to make a set of beads for her, based on a style I made more than a year ago. I wasn't sure I could remember how they were done, but luckily I did, and here they are:The base is Kronos and the swirls are sterling silver dust. The beads are encased with Aether clear.

I first tried silver dust because I was looking for some other way to add silver to my beads besides wire, mesh or foil. Silver dust can be bought, but I made my own by taking a rough file to a piece of silver sheet and making a little pile on my marver. I was going to use fine silver, but I didn't have any fine sheet or bezel wire. The only fine silver I have is 28g wire. Too fine to file. I suppose I could have cut it up into tiny chips - another style idea. But the only silver sheet I had on hand was sterling, so that's what I used.

After making a Kronos base bead, I rolled it in the dust like I would with frit or enamel powder. I used a Kronos stringer to twist the line of dust into swirls. Then I reduced and encased with clear.

Here's another set I made for the same order. These are Double Helix odd lot TE-362 and Vetrofond Odd Olive, encased with clear:The customer wanted them to be 15mm, and the sizes to be uniform. I was very happy I managed to make most of them 15.5mm, with some at about 16mm. Whew! :-D

I keep a brass micrometer - or whatever you call those things, that we use to measure bead sizes - beside my torch, opened up to 15mm or whatever size I'm working on. Since it's brass I can put the hot/warm bead right between the brass openings and get an accurate measurement as I'm making it.
Do you have a way of measuring bead sizes while you're at the torch, or what methods do you use to make your beads come out all the same size?

New Website Design

I've got a new updated website. It's very simple, being basically a portal for where to find me on the web. I still have a few more pages to add.
Stop by for a look!