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?

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!

Back from My Blogcation

I've taken a long vacation from blogging this past month, longer than I intended really, and now I have a backlog of new work to show you! During April I was busy with a few special orders. I had fun working on one order that used a lot of Terra and Ivory, two of my favorite glasses.

Here are some photos of the beads from that order. The first set is etched but the Terra stayed shiny. (I think if you click on these photos you can see an enlarged view, and then you can really see the detail in the crackled Ivory!)

These are made with Vetrofond River Rock and silver foil:
Some Triton leaves:
and some Triton beads with Ivory scrolls:
I'll be back again soon with more news and photos.
Happy May!

More Etching with Copper Green

I really like how these Vetrofond Odd Olive and Copper Green beads turned out. The reaction between the two glasses made a dark line between them and gave the scroll designs an organic look. They're etched:I also tried Copper Green over Vetrofond Moss Agate, and I love the results of this mix too. These are also etched:The Moss Agate set is available in my Etsy shop right now. The Odd Olive set has sold! :-D