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!

Aurae!

Finally the Aurae arrived, yay! I've made two sets with it so far and I'm working on two more. Here are the completed sets:
Aurae Accent BeadsEncased Aurae and Kronos FritToday I'm working on the next two sets, one with Aurae and Ivory (nice reaction!) and Aurae and CiM Stone Ground. The Aurae fumes a pretty metallic blue sheen onto the Stone Ground. I'll post pics when they're done.
Have a great day!

Blue and Metallic Frit Beads

I recently made some bead sets using Triton, Kronos frit and clear, and I was really happy with the way they turned out. They were all made using variations on the same basic recipe.

This first set has a base of Triton, with Triton and Kronos frit. I reduced the base bead, then added random dots of clear on top. Then I reduced again and encased the whole bead in clear, then reduced one more time to get some metallic shine around the holes:This set was made the exact same way, except that I didn't do a final encasing:For this set, instead of random dots of clear I applied the clear in an even pattern, and put air bubbles in the centers. This is my ultimate favorite set of late:All of these sets are now sold, but I had a really fun time making them so I think I'll make some more.

I've finally ordered some Aurae glass from Double Helix. It should be here in a few days. I can't believe it has taken me this long, but I've been using the Aurae test batches M-166 and M-232 for a while and they're running out. I'm really excited to get the Aurae, as I see there is quite an Aurae frenzy on eBay! With good reason, it's a gorgeous glass.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and have a scrumptious weekend!

Organic Bead Set

I enjoyed making this set of organic beads the other day. The base glass is Ivory, decorated with enamel, silvered ivory stringer, gold leaf, silver foil and Triton:*click on these images to enlarge them, you get a much better view of the detail*The beads are encased with a layer of clear. The clear magnifies the designs underneath, revealing roots, trees, rocks and streams! Truly 'organic'! This set is available in my Etsy shop.

Pale Emerald Green and Triton

I hope you had a nice St. Patrick's Day! I'm recovering from the *evil dentist* visit, taking life nice and easy for a little bit, pampering myself and all that. I have had a very enjoyable week making beads, and tonight I've got a new set up on Etsy. These are transparent Pale Emerald Green with Triton scroll designs:I made a set a few days ago that I really love. These are Triton and Kronos frit beads encased with Double Helix Aether. I shaped them with Zoozi's Crystal press:I love the shiny metallic around the bead holes. They were inspired by a similar set of beads that had a donut shape, like this set (pictured below) that I made recently for a customer's special request. The recipe for the beads is the same, the only difference is the shape:
Happy beading! :-)

Crystals

I had an order recently for a set of crystal-shaped beads, and it got me on a crystal bead kick. I used Zoozi's Crystal press for these.

This set is Luna 2, encased with Aether:
These have a Nyx base with a little Triton frit, encased with Aether:
These are original Terra, encased with Aether:Somehow the beads look better in person than they do in these photos. They're very sparkly and colorful in the sunlight! I have another set of Pale Emerald Green and Triton crystals I'm cleaning now. I will post a photo when they're done.
:-)

Focal Beads

I hope all of you had a loving Valentine's Day or simply a pleasant and peaceful February 14th!

I don't often make focal beads, but inspiration got hold of me recently and I made a few of them. The heart above is Medium Amber with Triton scrolls. The next two focals are Triton with some clear encasing and a little Nyx:
This focal has a swirled Triton and Pandora core, with clear encasing and Triton ends:The Triton focals are in my Etsy shop.
Have a nice weekend!

Re-Striking Pandora in the Kiln

I tried my experiment of re-striking the pale Pandora beads in the kiln (see my previous post). It kind of worked! 'Kind of' because only two out of the three beads got more color.

The beads told me that they would have preferred to be struck properly during the first go-round in the kiln to get the best color, yet they patiently endured a second hot night in the kiln and did their best to make the colors I wanted.

Here are the three pale beads from yesterday:and here they are today:I could have put them in the same order to make it easier to see, but the bead on the left in the first picture is the same bead as the one on the right in the second picture. That's the one that didn't get color. The other two got more blues and purples and very closely match the colorful five beads that struck properly the first night.

Also, when I re-struck the three beads in the second kiln run, I raised the temperature from a 940(F.) garage to a 950 garage and anneal. I let them sit in the kiln for 8 hours at 950. I thought all of them would re-strike, but two out of three ain't bad.

My verdict is that it's better to get the beads to strike right the first time, and if one attempts a re-strike, don't bank on the results. Maybe it's just because these beads are encased. Exposed Pandora probably re-strikes easier. I must say I'm happy with my two out of three though, because it's like taking what would have been an orphan bead and making it into a good bead!

Everyone has a different kiln and kiln environment, so my advice might not be worth a thing to you! Your best bet is to try Pandora and see what works best for you. And, if you end up hating Pandora and you can't get it to do a thing, don't throw it at the wall - sell it to me!!!

Good luck everyone!

Encasing Pandora

I made a slew of encased Pandora beads yesterday. The photo shows all of the beads in the basic order they were made, starting from the beads on the right which were made first and the beads on the left which were made last. The first five beads (on the right) spent 7 hours in the kiln, and the three beads on the left spent 5 hours in the kiln before ramping down. You can see the color difference:Maybe encased, especially heavily encased beads, need to stay in the kiln a little longer than unencased beads. I think if these beads were made unencased, all of the beads would have dark purple and blue color.

In my last post, you can see two encased beads that were annealed for only 4 hours and got great color. Yet the beads on the left (above) annealed for 5 hours and got not much color. What's up with that? I think it's because the beads above have a much heavier encasing than my previous encased Pandora test beads.

I read a post this morning on the Lampwork, Etc. message board written by a beadmaker who got great color on her encased Pandora beads, though she only annealed them for a short time in the kiln. Ugh, I'm so jealous!!! Her kiln temp might be higher than mine, which I've heard is part of the "secret."

I'm taking my three pale Pandora beads and putting them back in the cold kiln right now. I will ramp my kiln up and leave them in there to anneal for another full cycle tonight. Hopefully they will change color, wouldn't that be cool?!

Double Helix Pandora

A new crop of Double Helix odd lot glasses has arrived!
I've had the chance to play with a few of them. One of my favorites so far is not an odd lot glass, it's their new color, Pandora:Here are my first test beads:From left to right, the first two beads are plain spacers. They turned out a nice, vivid but dark purple and blue. The third bead is Pandora swirled over Triton, the fourth bead is Pandora swirled over CiM's Canyon de Chelly, and the fifth and sixth beads are Pandora spacers encased in clear.

With small beads like spacers, I think the color is darker and more limited in spectrum, possibly because there is not much of a cool/hot temperature variance in the small amount of glass to encourage the development of a broad range of color. I think large or sculptural beads will have more variety of color than the dark purple and blue I got in my small beads.

Encasing, however, works great with the small beads. In addition to blue and purple, I also got red, green and yellow. The encasing lightened up the color a little and extended the spectrum.

If you're a lampworker and are wondering about how to use Pandora, I garaged these beads at 940 for 4-6 hours and annealed at 950 for one hour. That is my regular annealing schedule. I formed the beads without any special heating, striking, cooling or reducing. I just shaped them and put them in the kiln as though I were making an Effetre bead.

When the glass goes into the kiln it looks transparent green, maybe with some opaque light green streaks. There is no color on the beads at all other than green. All the color striking happens during the hours it spends in the kiln. When I took my Pandora beads out of the kiln in the morning, I was totally amazed at the color that had bloomed. It was so easy!

Now, back to the torch to make some more Pandora beads!

Encased and Shiny Triton

These two sets were in my Etsy shop recently. The first is encased Triton with shiny Triton scroll designs on the outside:To make the core of these beads, I started with a small Triton bead and added a few dots of Kronos, then dots of clear, then more dots of Triton. This gave the core an organic, textured look. Then I reduced it and wrapped a large blob of clear around it. When I melted the clear down, it stretched out the Triton designs underneath. It's difficult to see the true beauty of these beads in a photo. In this photo, you can see the layers a little more clearly:Here is the second set, some Triton rondelles that got a nice pink color:

Eclectic Set and a Focal Bead

Here's another one of my mixed sets, this one with mostly Triton but also a lot of Nyx and Kronos. This is one of my favorite sets so far. There are some interesting beads in this mix, and I love the purple color on the bead on the far left. That purple color is from Nyx!This is a Triton/Kronos/Nyx focal bead I made recently. It has a little bit of gold and silver leaf, and it's encased in clear:

Silver Glass Sets

I'm continuing my obsession with making these funky silver glass sets, and working with silver glass in general. In fact, the only other glass I've used in the past two weeks besides Double Helix is Vetrofond clear! Okay maybe a tiny bit of Ivory and some River Rock, but basically I just love making sets with silver glass these days. The metallic glasses in particular. Each one has its subtleties. Here's a recent set made with Triton and Nyx:A set of encased Triton and Kronos Rondelles:
Cheers!

DH Odd: TN-200

These beads are made from Double Helix odd-lot TN-200 which was a test batch for their re-formulated Terranova glass.
I've encased these beads in clear. I love the blues and purples! It's very easy to strike, too.

(These beads are sold)

Terra Beads and a Focal

These beads are up in my Etsy shop right now. The first is a set of Terra beads encased with bumpy clear. The second is a focal bead made on dark Ivory with M-166 Double Helix odd-lot scroll designs. The M-166 fumed the Ivory to a warm golden color, I love it! There's a little bit of Triton mixed in with the Ivory, too.

DH Odd: T-114 (Ivory Luster)

This is a beautiful Double Helix odd lot Terra glass. The color is similar to the original Terra, but the T-114 gets an incredible luster in a neutral flame. It's like having Terra and a metallic glass combined in one.

Here are some beads made of plain T-114.
You can see some luster on the sides. I burned off most of the luster in an oxidizing flame so the colors would show:

T-114 encased

Metallic Beads on Etsy

Here are two new sets I've got up on Etsy. This first set is encased Kronos rondelles with 3.5mm holes. The edges of the beads are left un-encased which produced a beautiful metallic deep green color that was hard to photograph:

This set has a base/center of Dark Silver Plum with an outside layer of Psyche:


Very metallic! :-)

Kronos Rondelles

Here's a simple set of encased Kronos rondelle-shaped beads, going in my Etsy shop today. I love the variety of blues that show up when I put clear over Kronos.

By the way, the lines in the beads are not cracks... they are a design on the surface of the Kronos that happens at the point where the clear encasing is first put down.
:-)
Enjoy your day!

New Bead Style!

Here is my latest project - a new bead style! (New for me anyway!)


If you're a lampworker: I made these by creating an encased triangle bead, then heating each end and letting gravity (and a tiny bit of marvering) stretch it down the mandrel. They take an incredibly long time to make. Just coaxing the glass down the mandrel takes me about 35-45 minutes.

These beads are a real skill challenge for me. I usually make small beads that only use one or two colors. I wanted to expand my horizons, so I tried making an encased triangle bead but accidentally stretched it down the mandrel too far. I really liked the look of it though, so I just kept going and voila, a new style!

Okay enough blabbing. Here are some more photos. None of these beads are for sale yet because I can't let let them go!




If you're interested in what clear I used, some of these beads have CiM clear and some have Vetrofond Crystal Clear. With both clears, I got some scumming and some bubbles. The pictures show it up more than you can actually see in "real life." It's hard to find a clear that stands up to very long working times.

I found that the CiM clear was a little stiffer than the Vetro, so ultimately I went with the Vetro because it melts over the base bead more quickly. The whole secret/challenge to these beads is getting the encasing all the way to the end so the colors don't leak out and bloom across the outside surface.

Hope you enjoyed the eye candy!

Psychedelic!

This bead was made using Terra glass and a little black, encased with clear. The Terra and black reacted with each other to make the patterns. I love the colors and the look of this bead! There's so much to see in it, too. One person saw an eye (I see several eyes!) and I also see ocean waves and a colorful star nebula. What it really reminds me of are the psychedelic oil and water designs that are projected on the walls at dance parties, if anyone knows what I'm talking about! This bead is in my Etsy shop right now: