Cube Beads

It's taking practice, but I love making cube-shaped beads.  Here are a few sets I've made recently.  This first set is made with Double Helix CE-352:

This set is made with Triton:

 

and these are Double Helix Elektra:

The Triton and CE-352 beads are available in my Etsy shop.

The weekend's almost here!  Woo hoo!!!  Happy dance!!!

Video: Silver Coring a Bead

February has arrived! Not my favorite month, but at least it's a short one and spring cannot be far away. I know most of you are buried in snow today... good time to curl up with a warm beverage and read blogs! :)
Here is my first bead video about silver coring. It's only the second video I've ever edited and completed. It doesn't go into a lot of depth because like my javalina video, it was mostly for practice. Maybe if the bead business doesn't pan out I have a future in Hollywood film-making!? Yeah!!!

Here are some beads that have emerged from my studio in the past week or two. This first set is made with Ivory and Gaia scroll designs:
These beads are made with an odd lot of Double Helix glass called CE-352G. They have a beautiful brown-ish gold color with streaks of opaque light brown:
I have a couple of Triton sets too. Click on the images, some of these bead sets are still available in my Etsy shop:
I'm editing my next video right now which is a demo of me making the Ivory/Gaia scroll set pictured above. I'll post it here when it's ready.

Are you following my Facebook bead page? I often post there first when I have something new because I'm already on FB 24/7 anyway (hee hee). Come on down for a visit! http://www.facebook.com/beadabundant
Stay warm!

Coffee Beads

I've been busy getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm hosting dinner for 16! My parents are arriving tomorrow, which means I've been housecleaning! Scrubbing the stove, re-arranging the furniture, scraping the kids' modeling clay off the floor... and I think I've located the dust bunny warren! All of this cleaning just makes me want to relax for a minute with a nice hot cup of cinnamon French roast coffee...I made this set of coffee bean beads and a coffee mug bead last week, it's listed in my Etsy shop. The coffee beans are etched and look very realistic! I thought I had sold the set a few days ago when a customer put it in her cart. She hadn't paid after a day, so I sent her a reminder. She replied that she could not figure out how it got into her cart, and then discovered that her 7-year-old niece had put it in there as a "surprise" for her! :-D Oh well, it's back on the market now!

Also this week, I've made a silver cored bead for a custom order. It has a base of Aurae Light:My customer emailed me about making a silver cored bead for her based on this set of Aurae Light and Kronos frit beads I'd made in the past:When I took this glass recipe and made a silver cored bead with it, the Aurae Light base glass struck to a reddish-orange color, I think because of the heat required for the bigger bead. The Kronos frit and the Aurae fumed nice blue, green a purple colors.

TGIF!

***ETA: My customer for the silver cored bead can't use it because of the orange-red color, so I'll be listing it in my Etsy shop soon. [Not having much luck with the sales of these beads this week, am I? :-D]

New Metallic Orphan Beads

I have two new sets of metallic and striking Double Helix orphan beads in my Etsy shop. This set of blue, green and gold metallics:And this set with pink, purple, orange and gold:Just a quick post tonight, I wanted to let you know about these sets!

New Silver Cored Beads

I have a couple new silver cored beads listed in my Etsy shop today:The first bead is made with Double Helix odd lot KA-356 and encased with Aether clear. It looks like a sunrise to me. I love the colors and the soft look. KA-356 is translucent so the bead has an inner glow from light reflecting off the silver core.
The second bead is Ivory with Aurae scrolls. It's a nice small bracelet bead, with lots of crackled Ivory detail.

I have 10 more big-holed beads sitting on my bench waiting to be cored. It's been a while since I've listed any new silver cored beads... that's because my Mom bought the silver Pandora bracelet I have been using as a prop in my photos. She asked me how much the bracelet cost, and I thought she meant how much I paid for it. When I told her the price, she wrote me a check for the bracelet. I froze for a second, suddenly realizing that she was buying my photo prop which I need to photograph my silver cored beads. But I couldn't turn away Mom, right? Mom should have what she wants! And if it inconveniences me, well, I think I've inconvenienced her a few times with things a little more dire, starting with birth. So, I've been saving my pennies for a new silver Pandora bracelet, which has now arrived, and is now pictured in my new silver cored bead photos. Whew! And Mom LOVES her bracelet, and now I get to make her a bunch of beads for it!

Latest Bead Sets

These two sets are new in my Etsy shop:The top set is made with a base of Nyx and flattened wraps of Triton glass. I love the colors of Nyx and the industrial look of these beads. The second set is made with (I think!) Terra2 glass and the Double Helix odd lot KA-356. I swirled the colors together, struck and then encased.

Next on the chopping block - perhaps for tomorrow - is a set of mixed metallic beads and a set of Pandora glass spacers, inspired by Gardanne! I'm still working on the Pandora set. Some of my beads from yesterday did not strike. My set is not turning out anything like the pretty earth-tone colors in Gardanne's set, I'm getting more purples and blues, in the beads that are striking anyway.

Visit my Fresh Green Glass Treasury on Etsy to see some lovely beads in various shades of green made by some very talented lampwork artists!

Terra2 Swirl Beads

I love the new Terra2 glass. This set is made with Terra2 and Double Helix odd lot SL-173. The SL is like Triton, it encases with a blue/green color, and it gave the green color to these beads. The pinks and purples are really nice in Terra2, if I can work it cool enough to keep the color from washing out. The encasing glass is Aether, and I left some area on the side of the beads unencased so it got a metallic shine. This set is in my Etsy shop tonite:

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?

Aurae Light Spacers

I bought a 1/4 lb. of Aurae Light from Double Helix a few weeks ago, just to try it out. I made a small set of spacers with it:The spacers pictured above turned out nice, but there were many more I made that did not turn out well. I found the glass to be more difficult to reduce than regular Aurae. Not that it doesn't reduce, it just reduces more quickly, or it heats up and strikes to a greenish cast more readily than Aurae. I found I had to hold it way, way out in the flame, like 6-8 inches from the torch face while reducing, and not get the bead too hot.

I think that making really shiny solid spacers from reducing glass is harder than using it as decoration. There is something about the smooth, round face of a spacer bead that lends itself to uneven reduction and striking from overheating. I think Aurae Light would be perfect for raised dots, raised decorations, and under encasing (which I've tried and it looks really pretty).

It's similar to the way Dark Silver Plum works. I learned this from Amber (Naos). If you try and make a smooth round spacer bead with DSP, it often stays black and shiny and it's tricky to get the peacock hues. Yet if you make a textured bead with it, it gets the matte metallic look and the colors much more easily. Reducing glass from Double Helix seems to be the same way in a sense - it's easier to get a nice metallic shine when there's some texture in the surface.

Does it sound like I'm complaining about glass? (There is some line about a craftsman who blames his tools... hmm...) Maybe it's because I've got a head cold right now, ugh! Also I seem to have lost my knack for reducing Triton lately which really has me upset. Is it that the recipe for Triton has changed? Have I forgotten how I used to reduce it? It's really weird. It reduces to a dark grey metallic, then goes right to an over-reduced green-tinted yuck right afterwards. Where's the shiny gold I used to get?

I hope you are healthy and enjoying yourself for the holidays!
More soon :-)

T-218 Accent Beads

A favorite Double Helix odd lot glass of mine is T-218. I'm not sure which production glass Double Helix considers it an odd lot of, or whether it's called a "test batch," but I think of it as an odd lot of Terranova. It strikes in a very similar way, only it strikes faster. It takes only short cycles of heating and cooling to bring the amazing colors out of this glass.

I've made a simple set of accent beads from T-218, and they're available in my Etsy shop:
Here's a previous post I've written about T-218:
http://beadabundant.blogspot.com/2008/10/odd-lot-t-218s-and-triton.html
The post features some beads I made with T-218 and Triton, pictured below. For some reason I didn't get the bright colors out of the T-218 in this set, but I like its earthy tones anyway:Now I'm thinking that the reason they don't have the bright colors is because my striking skills weren't as good back then. I've found that with striking glass in general, whether it's Terranova, Luna or Terra, etc., the bead has to get VERY COOL before it goes back in the flame for striking. I let it get very cool during each cooling cycle, and for the heating cycle I twirl the bead far out in the flame (8 inches from the torch face) so the surface heats up slowly and I can keep a close eye on the progress.

Keep having fun and have a nice weekend :)

More New Sets on Etsy

I've been away from blogging and Etsy for a few days because I had to have some dental work done. I am a true dento-phobe, yet every time I leave the dentist's office after a visit, I feel great and realize it wasn't all that bad. What was I so afraid of? The dentist is such a nice guy! Well, heh heh, lets just say this last visit confirmed every dental fear I've ever dreamed up from the deepest of my twisted imaginings!

Luckily two days have passed, the pain is not so intense, the blood is drying up, I'm feeling better and the horrific experience is beginning to fade from my mind. Back to the beads! :-D

I've just listed these three sets on Etsy. This first set has a base of Terranova2 with 'threads' of Triton:This is a set of spacers made with Double Helix test batch M-232:And this set is a favorite of mine. It has a base of Triton with Kronos frit, encased with Aether. The bead holes have metallic glass around them, which you can see more clearly in the second picture:Hope you all are having a nice week! Don't forget to floss, trust me! :-D

New Sets on Etsy!

Here are three new sets up for sale in my Etsy shop. The first one is a set of Pale Emerald Green and Triton frit crystal beads, another set from my recent crystal frenzy:
This is a set of spiral disk beads, made with M-232 or "pinky purple luster," a Double Helix test batch:

And last but not least, this cool set made with a Triton base and Copper Green scroll designs. I love the reaction between the glasses:

:-)

Mojo and the Reducing Angels

These disks are made from Double Helix test batch M-232b "pinky purple luster":
I have had several days recently where I have lost my "reducing mojo." It's frustrating for me when this happens, since I use reducing silver glass in pretty much every bead I make. Sometimes, for some reason unknown to me, I cannot get silver glass like Triton or Kronos to reduce. It just turns to mud. I try using a different rod, a different glass, adjusting the flame, waving my hand differently, yet my silver glass mojo is just up and gone.

The other day I was working on a custom order for several sets of beads with Triton and M-232b in them. This was one of my days when my mojo was gone. After a set or two of Triton failures and mounting frustration, I decided to call upon the "Reduction Angels" to make the wind blow in the right direction or adjust the phase of the moon so I could get this darn glass to turn shiny!

So I took a deep breath and just set the frustrating custom order aside for a minute. I decided instead I would make what I felt like making - M-232b spiral disks. I was determined to regain my mojo. I waved the disks very close to the yellow reducing cones. I was gonna make that glass reduce! No tip-toeing around 6 inches from the torch face, I was gonna put the bead right into the reducing flame! To my surprise, the disks quickly turned a pretty rose gold color! My mojo had suddenly returned! Yay! Reducing Angels, thank you!

The next morning, when I opened the kiln and saw what I expected to be the Triton disasters for the custom order, I was pleasantly surprised! The beads had turned out with beautiful shiny colors:On these Triton disks I had used multiple reducing/oxidizing cycles, because it didn't look like the reduction was working at first. I kept erasing the reduction with oxygen, then reducing again. I did that so many times on each bead that they ended up looking like mud, totally over-reduced and over-struck. I put the muddy Triton beads into the kiln, "tomorrow's orphan beads" I figured. As it turned out, it must have been the multiple oxidizing and reducing cycles that brought out so many different colors.

So had I really lost my mojo that day after all, if the beads actually ended up okay? Why did they look so bad in the flame but came out shiny and pretty from the kiln? Silver glass can be really fickle. I sympathize with those who are trying to figure out its mysteries!

Also, one thing I've learned is never count your beads before they've hatched out of the kiln. What you think is gonna be bad turns out beautiful, what you're sure is your life's masterpiece turns out to be a muddy disaster, I've seen it a hundred times now!

Here's another set I made for the custom order, CiM "Blush" with M-232b scrolls. I love this combo:

Happy day to everyone!

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!

Shards, Pt. 2

I broke up the big shards from my last post into small pieces for applying to beads:The shards are Triton Odd(r), and in this set I've applied them to a regular Triton base:I love the colors of Triton Odd! I do a cycle of reducing and then oxidizing to bring out the magentas and blues.

An on another set, I applied the shards to a Nyx base:These beads are part of my next set, which is on a base of Curdled Ivory:Figuring out how to apply the shards took a little practice, but now that I've got the hang of it it's really fun!

Shards, Pt. 1

I've finally made some shards! Here is my first attempt, a Dark Silver Plum bulb, slightly collapsed!This is my most recent shard bulb, Triton Odd(r). This one turned out better:My boyfriend Steve came up with a great way to break the bulb. First put it into the coffee can to cool. Then, hold the blowpipe straight up and down with the bulb resting on the bottom of the can and tap gently on the end of the blowpipe with a piece of wood. It breaks the bulb nicely and it's easier than trying to crack it with a hammer or some metal tool. Here are some of the shards Steve got from breaking it that way:Emboldened by Joe of Avenue Beads' shard techniques, I broke the shards up the rest of the way with my bare hands. So much easier than trying to wield a tool to crack off small pieces! And no, it never cut my hands.

Stay tuned for "Shards, Part 2" where I'll post photos of beads made with these Triton Odd(r) shards.

Odd Lot T-218s and Triton

Here's a set of beads made with Double Helix odd lot "T-218s" and Triton:"T-218s" was listed as a "light, pastel Terranova2 prototype" by Double Helix. Here's the photo from their website:This odd lot is definitely one of my favorites! It is similar to Terranova2, yet the rods looked a whole lot like Pandora to me. In fact, when I made beads from T-218s, they were transparent and milky green, just like Pandora. The color even struck in the kiln. It seemed more like a Pandora odd lot to me, or like a Pandora/Terranova cross. Very interesting and beautiful earth tone colors.

The metallic gold "bead caps" on each end are made with Triton glass. The beads are in my Etsy shop at the moment.