Saturday, April 23, 2011

Beads and Jewelry Sketches

I saw these plaid type beads on a bead making video a while back and I can't remember who the artist was for sure but they were fun to make and it was a good exercise in stinger control.  Plus they look a little Easter like to me too.
 I made a sketch bracelet with these beads.  I think it looks nice with the black viking instead of silver.

This next batch all came from some testing I did with Val Cox Ocelot Spots frit.  Some are made with the frit alone pulled into it's own stringer, some made into a stringer with ivory and some with copper green.  I especially like the ones made with ivory frit stringer and applied to ivory bases.
This bracelet may be my next personal use bracelet.  Not sure if I will keep the center bead or change it out for another bead in the set.  The bead that will go on the other side of the clasp on the finished piece will be one of the two beads on the rod.

Next are beads I made with hufalump and count von count.  I heard that count von count is a color change glass depending on the light and as you can see in these photographs it truly is.  It looks purple in florescent lighting and very blue in natural lighting.



I ran a test on some orange glass.
From left to right: clockwork, clockwork encased in rose quartz, batch one of phoenix, batch one of phoenix encased in rose quartz, batch 2 of phoenix, batch 2 of phoenix encased in rose quartz.  I had made these rose quartz encased beads before and they had turned out a very cool shade like the inside of a pink grapefruit but that didn't happen with this batch.

For spring I made these beads again on request however, they (the color) did not turn out the same as they did when I made them last time.  Another example of why I tell people I can never create the exact same bead twice.  It was also hard to capture the true color of these beads no matter what light I put them under.


I usually make my tiger striped beads with clear encasing but I had seen another bead artist make them without the clear encasement and I liked the way they looked.  I gave it a try and while I am not all that happy with this particular bead I think I would really like this application if I used a dark transparent brown instead of (or with) medium and light transparent brown.  The new style of tiger striped bead is on the far right.  The center bead is made with a twistie and the wavy application I discovered a couple of months ago.  Also gave a green and white twistie a try that I had laying around on my work space.

Next up are some extra beads I tried while using ink blue and dk. aqua on ivory and accented with raised black dots.  A bit too dark for my taste.


And lastly I am posting a bracelet I am working on for the customer who asked me to make a green version of my pink zebra bracelet.  It's a work in progress but so far I like the way it looks.
 
 The additional bead on the rod is the bead that will go on the other side of the clasp.
 The two additional beads on the rod are the ones to be used for the earrings if the customer decides they want them.
And the large bead on the rod is for the necklace.  I love making this style of bead and bracelet.

Well I did find a few more beads from my last bead making day.  I have decided I want to work on my stringer control and get better at scrolling.  These beads are my most recent pathetic attempt at scroll work.  But I won't get any better unless I practice, practice, practice.  I think I will always be a dot/pattern girl at heart but I love the look of the beautiful scroll work I see out there by other lampwork artists so I will keep trying.  I want to post these for my own benefit so some day I can look back and laugh at these and see how much better I got - keeping my fingers crossed!
I do like this color combination!  It's light steel gray (two of the beads are over white hearts) and scrolling is done with copper green.

Happy Easter!

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