Sparkly Lentils

I think this is the first time I have sat down and made complete sets of beads at one time.

Yesterday I stumbled accross the blog of Dora Schubert. Unfortnately she seems to have given up lampworking for the time being which is such as shame as she has a wonderful talent.

So these lentils are inspired by her work.

I like to think I have made them my own by adding some sparkly dichro. I am really very pleased with the way they turned out, they got better as I went along.

These are to go on a necklace I am making. Believe it or not these are all made with the same glass. CIM Plum Unique and fine silver wire. The two on the left have come out a completely different colour. The only thinkg I can see that caused this is that they were in the kiln the longest.

Blog catchup

I have to admit I have been a bit re-miss in my blog postings recently, so it's time for a catch-up.

I haven't done masses of beadmaking as I have been making some jewellery. I have also been making some beads for a secret bead swap, which means I can't show them on here otherwise the person who received them will know it was me!

As you can see I am still obsessed with spacers and trying to perfect my hollows with a 3mm hole.

You might find this interesting. When I made my 3d petal murrini on Astrid Reidals workshop, the end of the murrini looked like it might make a nice pendant. Now this is something I haven't done before as I had to anneal it in the kiln and then when it was hot re-introduce it into the flame and hope it didn't shatter all over the place. Luckily it didn't and I mananged to make a reasonable shape and a hole to hang it with using Sally Carvers special tool.

More spacers, more hollow beads and an attempt at a foxglove flower.

We have a lovely display of foxgloves in our garden, all self seeded. I wanted to have a go at making one but it was quite difficult so I only made the one.

Bead production for necklace

I nearly missed this posting. I've been making a necklace with some beads given to me by my Friend Sue. You can purchase Sue's beads from her Etsy store here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FlamingEck

I needed some spacer beads to compliment the beads that Sue made. The small ovals are made using my Pegasus Oval 8 beadroller in Effetre Light Violet in the second to smallest size and are just perfect in this necklace.



Astrid Reidal Workshop at Di Easts Studio Leicester

I was very fortunate to be a able to attend a fantastic workshop by visiting tutor Astrid Reidal from South Africa to Di East's Studio in Leicester. The course was over 3 days and covered a multitude of techniques.

These are the all the beads made on all 3 days

Astrid demonstating her 3d petal murrini

It's a bit of a monster!

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and meeting Astrid, she is a great teacher.

These are the beads I made

Linda

Fridays beads

Well apart from the wind we did get to see some sun yesterday but not when I had the time to take these photos so apologies for the dullness.

I think this is possibly the larges amount of beads I have made in one sitting so far. Mostly due to the large amount of spacers I made. I managed to get 19 on one mandrel.

I took these on a grey background so that they might show up a bit better.

They are from top to bottom

CIM Dirty Martini
Effetre Pale Blue 050
CIM Kruptonite
CIM Lapis
CIM Count Von Count
CIM Butter Pecan

I'm still making beads for my friends necklace. If I do them a bit at a time I won't get bored! This is the one on the right. The one next to it was a mistake as I melted it too much, so I went the whole hog and melted it all the way. I quite liked it and thoought it might look nice on Effetre Cool Green Tea 680, so that is the one next to it - third from the right. The frit is Rock your Baby from Cheeky Cherub Designs.

The four on the left are CIM Chai Unique 765-2/ Effetre Silver Pink 255/ Ask Silver Brown/ Effetre Pale Apple Green 073 all are wrapped in silver foil and the rolled in Zenobia a raku frit blen from Frit-n-glas.

The one in the centre is Effetre Black 104 wrapped in silver foil and then rolled in Toscana a raku frit blend again from Frit'n'glas.

I'm taking part in another bead swap. This time on the Frit Happens forum. The theme is Summer and I am so pleased with these discs made from Effetre Light Zucca 425 that I am tempted to keep them. I hope I will be able to make some more as they are yum!

A work in progress

I had to wait all day for the sun to come out as it was just too dull to take any pictures of my work.

Continuing with the Craft Pimp monthly challenge of Peacocks I had another idea for a bead using murrini.

This was my first effort. The bottom murrini was more what I was looking for.

This is the back of the bead and my second attempt. Unfortunately I didn't have enough murrini to complete the job. So I had a go at making my own.

For the murrini I used Effetre Light Tourquoise 232/ Effetre Pea Green 212/ CIM Dirty Martini/ Effetre Pale apple Green 072 and then Reichenbach Deep Black. The back of the bead had tourquoise and cobalt blue dots added to it.

I don't think it turned out too bad for my first attempt. To be honest I don't think I will be taking this any further this time, I don't have the enthusiam for it.

As you can see I am still into making spacers. I want to fill up a compartmentalised box so that I have a selection to choose from when I make jewellery. These are as follows.

CIM Ghee, Effetre Light Sky Blue 224.
Effetre Dark Green Grass 024
Effetre Amethys 040
Effetre Light Tourqouise 034 and
CIM Sangre, this is a striking colour which is why it's come out in all differrent shades of red.

Left to right

CIM Peace/Effetre Pale Emerald 031

This bead was made using the leftover murrini that I made.

CIM Peace/Clockwork. This one stayed yellow, it should be orange!

Pineapple Sparkle and yes it does sparkle, in the sunshine!

Carrot Sparkle

Effetre Lt Periwinkle/Rubino

Effetre Dk Periwinkle/Rubino

Jubilee torching sessions

I managed to get a couple of small torching sessions in over the long weekend. Still obsessed with making spacers for my jewelllery which is why I started lampworking in the first place.

The spacers are Effetre Rose Quartz, Effetre Baby Blue 038 and Effetre Pink 591 which I think is more of a pale peach colour.

Next is Peace/Rubino/Effetre Baby Pink 256 dots.
These three are DH Kalypso, wrapped in fine silver wire and then encased in Effetre Clear 006.

The monthly theme challenge on the Craft Pimp forum is Peacocks.
I was trying to re-create one of the feathers and wanted to get that frondy look. Not quite sure if I've achieved it but I think you can tell what it's supposed to be.

The base is CIM Tuxedo. Then CIM Elphalba, Goldstone, Efftre Light Tourquoise 232 and then Effetre Lapis Cobalt Blue 246. The stringer round the sides is Effetre Transparent Sage Green over CIM Elphalba.

From left to right

CIM Heffalump and Olive spacers.

CIM Peace/CIM Clockwork/Effetre Rubino with CIM Lapis dots.

CIM Heffalump with Lapis Dots

CIM Dirty Maritini, Effetre Clear 006 then Olive dots

Peace/CIM Simply Berry/Peace dots.

Frit Happens Monthly Theme Challenge and bracelets

Todays kiln haul and the inspiration behind it.

The Frit Happens monthly theme challenge is Angels and Demons. So I made a couple of Angels

Firstly L'il Angel, the face didn't come out that well so that is why this is a side shot - but you wouldn't see the wings with a full frontal should would you? well that's my excuse anyway!

and then I had another play with my goddess press. Unfortunately this bead has some tiny black spots in the white which I can only conclude came from broken bead release. I had trouble keeping her warm too and there is a crack between the legs.

I have been toying with upgrading my torch to a Carlisle Mini CC. It is supposed to work a bit hotter and the flame is more controllable to have a bushier flame or a more pinpoint flame. I think this may help when making something like this goddess and for fine stringer work.

Yesterday I made this set of beads up into a bracelet, which I am really pleased with.

I also made this charm bracelet. It is the first one I have made. I made all the beads and wire wrapped them all. I am so excited by this. Hence the mammoth spacer making session as I want to add some more to this bracelet. i also discovered that it doesn't matter if the spacer beads are different sizes, in fact it looks better if they are so I can be a bit less anal in trying to get them all the same size.

So with this charm bracelet in mind I made some cute tiny beads to add.

A while ago I made these beads and found this snake necklace in my local bead shop. I wanted to make some more beads to add to it. Unfortunately I picked up a rod of Dark Lavender 081 instead of clear. Must be one of the only rods I haven't labelled. I actually quite like the bead but also forgot that it needed to be made on a 2mm mandrel otherwise it won't fit the necklace.

And finally this was just an experiment.

Effetre transparent Cobalt blue 060 over a light colour (can't remember which). It is a lovely vibrant blue.

More Iris Orange

Still playing with Iris Orange and big hole mandrels.

Having had so much success with my big ring last time I torched, I thought I would have another play.

The two big hole mandrels you can see there are 19mm and 13mm. I got a bit carried away with the biggest one. I wanted to see if I could stack dots, the answer is no.

This is Effetre Copper Green and Reichecbach Iris Orange, covered in Effetre Clear 006, poked and then covered again.

This one is the same glass but much smaller. I was using up some shorts of clear and you can see they are a bit scummy. I really like this bead. I was afraid I was going to lose it as it was stuck to the mandrel. I was trying to keep the bead release as thin as possible - big mistake. Anyway I remembered reading that you can soak the mandrels in limescale remover, so I did that, gave it a little tap and away it came.

I made some more of these flower beads. The two on the left are the ones I made this time. you can see that I am getting a lot more colour our of the Iris Orange, I have taken this photo with the earlier ones I made so that you can see the difference.

I made a couple more beads for some sets I am working on and the others aren't worth a mention.

Frit Happens Monthly Colour Challenge

I finally got to do some more torching after a change in the weather which meant that the sun wasn't shining in the conservatory where I torch and we had caught up on the allotment. This is the results:

The monthly colour challenge on the Frit Happens forum is Reichenbach Iris Orange.

When I collected my bead making equipement from the Big Bead Show back in September last year, I saw some beads that were for sale on the Tuffnells stand and thought they were wonderful. I asked what glass they were made with and was told Reichenbach Iris Orange, so I bought some. I don't think this glass should ever be sold to beginners as it is so likely to dissappoint. There is a definate knack to getting some colour out of it and I am still only part way there. There is an extremely long thread on the Lampowork etc forum about how to get colour out of it but basically you have to heat the snot out of it and then rapidly cool.

I was shown how to make these beads on my lessons with Laura Sparling. Hers is the one on the far right. So I thought was a good opportunity to have another go. I did manage to get some colour. The base was CIM Tuxedo with Iris Orange dots and then Effetre clear 006 on top. The centre dots are CIM Peace. I will make a few more of these to make a set.

On another forum I frequent one of the posters made this gorgeous ring using Effetre Copper Green 219. It both inspired me and reminded me that I had bought some big hole mandrels from Off Mandrel when I was at Flame Off. I dug one out and had a play.

This is the result. It is a mix of Effetre Copper Green 219 and Reichenbach Iris Orange. I like the way the copper green has striated.

As you can see I did manage to get some hints of colour on the edges but nothing consistant. It was very heavy to hold and I was surprised at how hard it was to melt the glass. I'm assuming because the mandrel took a lot of the heat.

I temporarily made this necklace but can't decide whether it would look better on a plain necklace. I'm also wondering if it would look nicer etched. Opionions welcome.

The rest of my bead making was to continue with some sets that I am working on.

This one is CIM Count Von Count with Kerensa Frit by Frit en Glas. I miss judged the amount of glass I would need in my tab press as I was aiming for all beads the size of the smallest one. More practice needed.

I am making some beads for a necklace for my friend for her birthday in September.

This is Efftre Baby Blue 038 with Rock Your Baby frit from Cheeky Cherub Designs.

I am still persevering with my 3mm hollow beads, I don't like to give up.