Last two torching sessions

There's a reason why I'm posting the last two torching sessions together - I accidentally wiped the photos I took of the first one - doh! So I don't have the pic of them on the mandrels, never mind not the end of the world.

I've been working on this necklace using some lentils that I made ages ago. I felt that it needed a focal pint so I made this lentil and heart. They turned out to be a bit big so I will be adding them to my Etsy store in the near future. Also, even though I used the same colour glass CIM Plum and Effetre Amethyst, they look darker than the lentils I had made before. I can only assume it is because it is a larger ammount of glass.

 This is the necklace. I made another smaller heart in my second beading session and I think it looks much better. Unfortuanately I seem to be making all the same style necklaces at the moment.

Believe it or not I am still trying to make enough hollows with the 3mm holes for my sister. I think I am finally there. I am still having some failures, so rather than waste them, I have been using them to practice my stringer control. I quite like them and will make some more.

 I finally got round to trying a recipe tutorial I've had for a while, as well as the frit I bought to go with it.

The tutorial is this one 75 Lampwork bead recipes by Gems in Bloom I won't tell you the recipes used in these beads, you'll have to buy the tutorial and find out for yourself!

They are scrummy though and I went on to make enough beads to make 2 sets and some tester spacer beads to match.

The spacer beads in this one are Effetre Red Roof Tile and the round ribbed spacer is CIM Adobe encased with Effetre Pink

These spacers are (clockwise) CIM Soylent, Effetre Apple Green, Effetre Dark Grass Green and Effetre Deep Red.

I decided to break up this set to make some jewellery.

I took the pink beads and made a heart to match as well as some spacer beads

These are CIM Peace and Effetre Baby Pink.

I decided to do an experiment. I am rapidly running out of room in my SC2 kiln. The bead door is the most stupid thing ever designed and waste's so much space, so I decided to see if I could make spacer beads and batch anneal them later. I figured that as the beads are made by making the first bead and then not going back to it, by the time I have got to the end of the mandrel the first bead would be cold anyway.

I made one set and put them in the slow cooker with the cooling bubbles and the second set I just left to cool. No cracks! I even cleaned them without breaking. So, I think this what I will be doing from now on. Batch annealing all my spacers.

I made these beads with a view to etching them, will post another picture when I've done them.

Here is the update photo of the beads etched.

I like them like this, they have a frosted look to them with a hint of colour.
A while back I bought some components from Kristi Bowman. She makes some lovely copper components and writes a great blog.

I've had in my head for a while that I needed to make some small lentils to go with them so when I made the fritty beads I thought the colours would go lovely with the copper.

Unfortunately I think they are a bit small and the one on the right doesn't have as much colour as the one on the left. Another go called for I think.

That's all for now.

Linda
x