A look what the kiln fairies brought me today.

Lots of lovely beads.

First up, more spacers. From left to right.

Effetre Rubino Ora, this is a colour that likes to be worked cool. The bottom four beads have come out a lovely deep pink colour. The top two are more transparent and a ruby colour. It will be interesting to see what these look like etched.

Effetre Transparent Kelp 090, no surprises here, a lovely pale yellow colour.

Effetre Electric Yellow 069, I guessed this was a striking colour as it changed on the tip of the glass after it was heated. I only got a splash of colour in the first bead that I made and even though I struck the rest I couldn't get any colour to appear. Luckily it seems to strike in the kiln as they have all come out a lovely yellow. A slightly brighter shade of yellow than the transparent kelp.

Lastly CIM kryptonite, I lost a couple of beads to cracking. Some of the beads have lost their opalness and gone opaque - A lovely pale blue. Howver I can't remember which ones were worked more than the others, so might have to try again working a bit cooler.

Test Beads
Each time I do some beads I like to do some test beads to try out different colours and makes of glass.

From left to right.

Reichenbach Opaque green, I found this very hard to work. It devits really easily. This is the first time I have actually turned down both the oxygen and the propane in search of a cooler flame. It did work but required a lot of patience because of the extra time it took to make the bead. Not one of my favourite glasses. Glad I only have one rod.

Next up we have Reichenbach Flamingo. I was reading about this colour on the Mind Melt blog yesterday and remembered that I had a rod so this is what I discovered. Like the Opaque green this is another colour that likes to be worked cool. I didn't get any colour resembling flamingo - more of a mid brown. I also tried a second bead which I reduced. I struggled to get an even reduction but got there eventually. However it didn't stay evenly reduced when it came out of the kiln.

Effetre Teal 026. I have used this glass in spacers and it stays true to the rod. A lovely transparent teal.

CIM Pinks

I think this is all of the CIM pinks that I have at the moment. From left Dessert Pink - a nice pale pink, Chai - slightly darker. Both opaques.
I couldn't really tell the difference between the next two. Rose Quartz and Gelly Sty, both opals (I think, will have to ask someone before I keep calling them that!). I have some Gelly Sty on order so don't think I will bother to get any Rose Quartz. All colours were very easy to work and stayed the same colour as in the rod.

I was quite pleased with this one. This is Effetre Carribean Sea with Finn McCool murrini from Cheeky Chreub. Think I will make some more of these.

 This is My Funny Valentine fine frit again from Cheeky Cherub on CIM Kryptonite.

 I had another play with Iris Gold frit. I didn't reduce it this time. I have done some investigation and found out that this also likes to be worked cool with absolutely no reduction. Apparently it looks goof over Effetre transparent cobalt for greeny blue colours and over rubino for ambers with lilac shades. I'm going to take some with me tomorrow and hope that someone can give me some tips.

Following the succes of the sugar bead that I made with the Effetre Rose Quartz 067 I had another go with CIM plum. It wasn't quite as nice but I think it might look nice etched.

This was to be another spiral bead to go on my pvc hollow tube necklace. Unfortunately the CIM Plum didn't show up very well on the CIM Kryptonite. It almost looks grey.

Buttons

 I think I am getting a bit better at these. On the left is Effetre Apricot Yellow 419, Effetre clear 106, Effetre Light Red 428 with Effetre Tourquoise 232 dots. On the right, CIM Plum, Effetre 106 clear, CIM Peace with the same colour dots. I will be posting some tips later on how to make your own button mandrel.

Unfortunately space became a little bit limited in the kiln by the time I made this button and dissapointingly it must have rested on another mandrel and has made a dink in one of the petals.