More Jewelry

Pink Grapefruit. Mmmmm! I love this colour. It is 2 colours of bullseye glass and the crystals are called padparadascha. Delish!

Jewelry

Silvered Sea - This is a set that I have sold. Really lovely shades that went with a blouse I had just bought. Guess I will have to make a set for myself. Oh well.

New Favourites!

I started to make this (more experimenting) simple black and white style with leaf cane and they look so cool that now I have made enough beads for at least 2 bracelets and have made a couple of focal beads for pendants too. I can't wait to get back to the studio and play with other colours using this same style. These beads aren't even as good as the ones I made today. This is gonna be great! I just discovered that if you are reading this blog and you want to see the beads close up, you just click on the picture and maximizes the image. Duh! In my post with the blue beads I said, "you cannot see the sparkle in the image", but if you click on the picture you can see the sparkle.

Hearts for ???

Hey! I love making hearts! I have a friend, also a bead maker, she made over 150 hearts for a wedding. She swore she would never make another but every once in a while I catch her making them again. She has a great pair of tools that can be used to make hearts. One squishs the big round blob of glass and the other pushes it to one end of the mandrel to make a cone shape. Then you hold the mandrel (the rod that the hot glass is on) vertically heating the shoulders of the cone and that gives the heart the nice rounded lobes. I don't want to tell my friend that I usually only make a heart shaped bead when a once perfect bead goes bad.

Blue Beads for Pendants

(Click on the image to see the sparkle!)
Experiments with Blue beads. Some I like better then others. Can tell which? Unfortunately the photo does not show the sparkle of the dichro or the aventurine. Nuts! Those are the ones I really like.
Top row left to right - made with medium blue with dichroic glass and blue aventurine; medium blue with frit; medium blue with dichro and filgrana; medium blue with silver leaf and intense black; medium blue with silver leaf + 2 small beads.
2nd row left to right - medium blue with silver leaf and intense black; white base with blue aventurine, intense black, intenseblue raked; dark blue with dichro and blue aventurine poked and twisted; next 2 dark teal with dichro and blue aventurine poked and twisted; light blue with dichro and gold aventurine poked and twisted.

Home town makes the headlines again...

Yes, I am from a small community north of Edmonton and anytime I read the paper and see the name of my hometown it always involves some tragedy or sensational news. The lastest news is 3 suspected murderers have been apprehended. Who could believe that a town of 2,500 harboured such dark hearts? Ha! That is where all the pyschos live their quiet lives before they become headlines. Happy to say I have no clue who these suspects are having never heard their names before.

Back to beadness... here are some beads I made in a class with the fantastic Alexx Cheng. I smile everytime I look at them. The class was really a lot of fun! Finetuning basic techniques of decorating a bead and learning some new tricks and skills too.

January 2007

Haven't worked on any jewelry since before Christmas. Here is piece that I made for a customer in New York. Yes, I know! How did I manage to get a customer in New York? A friend of a friend of a friend. The large beads are made using black and red twisted cane which is made separately from the bead. A length of cane, about 18", is prepared by melting the combination of colours together in layers and then slowly pulling and twisting in the flame to resemble a peppermint stick like piece of glass. The length is then cut into smaller pieces and melted around the base bead and then encased in clear. Very time consuming but the effect is very nice. The smaller accent beads were also handmade by me. All of the silver beads and the toggle are Bali Silver and the chain is sterling silver.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday was my birthday! No big celebrations, just did lots of shopping pre-birthday with my kind and generous hubby, Kevin. Getting my jewelry 'working' studio set up and more organized. So many fiddly little things to store and keep track of. Got a great cabinet at Costco that is actually a tool chest but I think it will work.

Had a quiet night since Kevin had to go on a call until late last night. Enjoyed some chicken chimichangas and a margarita then had birthday CAKE!!! I think I have a sugar hangover today.

Hope to make some beads today!