Triton Shard Beads

Once again it's been ages since I've blogged! I thought I'd put a picture up of my latest bead set. These are made with Triton glass as a base, then covered with shards made from Triton Odd glass:The set is in my Etsy shop right now.

I've written two posts about making shards, you can read them here:
Shards, Pt. 1
http://beadabundant.blogspot.com/2008/12/shards-pt-1.html
Shards, Pt. 2
http://beadabundant.blogspot.com/2008/12/shards-pt-2.html
Happy beading 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.