Moo!

My Moo cards arrived. Yay. I love them! The quality is great, the paper is very thick, the printing is excellent. I can't wait to give them out to my friends and customers.

I designed 50 cards, so the pack of 100 has two of each card design. All of the cards have the same info on the back - my business name, web site, etc.

I'm waiting for matching stickers to arrive any day now.
Here's a photo of the cards and their nifty white PVC box:I will definitely be ordering more of these. I think 100 cards is gonna run out fast.

I also think these would make great Christmas gifts, especially the Moo sticker books. Hmmmm... wow, it's really not too early to start shopping for Christmas. Yikes!

Pandora and Triton

Re-visiting Pandora again, these beads are a base of pure Pandora with Triton scroll designs. I love the purples and magentas in these. I annealed some for 5 hours and some for 3... the 5-hour Pandora definitely got more color, but the 3-hour was nice, too. I'm still figuring out what works best in my kiln. The best way to see the color in these beads would be full sunlight, but here are a couple of studio-lit photos:

Etched Cubes

Here's a set I've just finished and posted in my Etsy shop:These beads were made with a base of black, then rolled in Terra coarse frit. After striking the Terra just until dark brown, I formed each bead into a cube. This process took a little while and the heating and cooling struck the Terra the rest of the way.

The next day I etched the beads in an acid etch solution. Terra doesn't etch very easily, so only the black glass etched and the Terra stayed shiny!

I've been teaching myself how to make a cube shape for a few months now. It's kind of tricky! I've found that parallel mashers don't help me very much, I just flatten the sides with my hand-held marver. PPP!

Psyche Scroll Beads

Here's a set of beads I made for a customer this week. They have a base of Effetre transparent brown and scroll designs in Double Helix Psyche:I made a set similar to this for a customer a few weeks ago. She sent the beads to someone to string into a bracelet. When the bracelet-stringer saw them, she liked them so much that she ordered a set for herself! It's fun when things like that happen - you never know how a customer will find you!

Beaders Showcase

I've discovered a great new site called Beaders Showcase. It's a social networking site for lampworkers, seed beaders, and beadists of all kinds. I've set up a gallery there, commented on other people's galleries, joined the Lampworkers group, and made a few "friends"! Here's a widget with photos from my new gallery:

I hope you stop by and set up a gallery of your own! I'm accepting friend requests!

Triton Focal Bead

Here's my favorite focal bead of late, made with Triton, some Kronos frit, and clear. It's in my Etsy shop:I don't often make focal beads these days, but when I feel inspired to make one and it turns out nice I'm really happy.

I think the reason I don't make focal beads much is because of a decision I made about a year ago. I decided that for the amount of time I spend on a focal - 15 minutes to an hour - the same number of minutes could be spent making 2-5 smaller beads. (I obsess over business details sometimes!) With a focal, if something messes up in the design that I can't fix, there goes 20 minutes or more plus all the glass right into the bead orphanage. Instead I could make small beads, and if one messes up, then I've only lost 5 minutes and a tiny bit of glass. Or, I can cover over the top of the messed up small bead and make a bigger bead or focal out of it. It works out that the percentage of good beads coming out of the kiln the next day is much higher when I make small beads.

What I like a lot about making focal beads is the large surface area I have to work with and the possibility of a more complex design. Also an issue is kiln space. If I'm making large focals all day, I always have enough kiln space for the whole torch session. With small beads, I can work for about 4 hours tops before the kiln is full.

This reminds me to check back on Lampwork, Etc., where someone mentioned they have a technique for packing more beads in the kiln. I'd love to know if anyone has any brilliant ideas they could share on this!

Pandora and Terra Sets

I've got two new sets up on Etsy:
Pandora and Triton
Terra and Triton Odd(r) (an odd lot from the last Double Helix sale)I really like the Triton Odd, it seems to have even more rainbow-oil-slick color than the regular Triton!