Beads for ISGB Red Cross Fundraiser and a Few Others

I wanted to make some beads to donate to the ISGB Red Cross Fundraiser.  The proceeds go to the Japan Disaster Relief Fund.  I had made some nice black, white and red beads before so I decided to make a few larger focals for this.

The bead on the far left is just an extra bead for another project but all 4 red beads I plan to donate.  These are all quite a bit larger than my standard bracelet bead but you can't tell by this photo.

I also wanted to experiment a bit more with Raku.  I have used it a couple times in the past but recently read an article that sparked my interest to try it again.

These are okay.  Not as thrilling as I'd hoped.  There is some skill involved in getting the colors to come out of the raku and I have a ways to go before I get it to do what I would like it to do.

Purple seems to be a frequently requested color and while I have a good formula for a purple that works well for my standard bead I felt I needed to branch out and give Thai Orchid a try and make some beads that don't necessarily fit my typical style.

This was not what I was hoping for but hey, now I know that this particular purple is too dark to use in this manner.  It shows as black in the photos and in real life it looks purple if you take a good look but when customers want purple they want a purple that is easy to see right?  The far left bead in the second photo has dots of either crocus or count von count over white and it's a really nice purple.  The top photo shows the long beads I made with a bit of pixi dust and val cox frit.  None of these beads in either photo are anything special in my opinion.  I seem to be in a bit of a frump.

I have a bracelet request that is really stumping me for some reason.  Not sure if I'm just creatively burned out right now or what but the customer wants blue beads.  It's a gift for his daughter and she says she likes sky blue and when the customer picked out beads from other projects that he classified as sky blue, he picked aqua.  So I made a variety of blue beads trying to combine aqua with sky blue.  I'm just not feeling these beads - am I just burned out and these beads are nice and I just can't see/feel it?  I've made a lot of blue beads since I started doing this so who knows. I'm open for comments and suggestions on this one.

As always, thanks for reading my bead blog!  Spring is finally here in NWO so hopefully some fresh air and sunshine will bring back my creativity and I'll get a nice bracelet made and many other fun beads and jewelry. 

A Few Finished Orders

I've been busy making my lampwork beads into jewelry these past couple of days.  Lots of orders for Mother's day and graduation.  I was very happy that I had to make another "Industrial Squirrel" bead - this time in a large size for a necklace.  The customer wanted it on a simple chain and I think it really makes the beauty of the bead stand out.

 Other side:

The same customer asked for a second necklace and picked this bead from my stash.

I had an order for an eyeglass chain with 4 beads hand picked by the customer.

Last is this pretty little black viking weave bracelet.  I liked the way this one turned out!

That's all I have to blog about tonight.  All Mother's Day deadline orders are filled but  I have more jewelry to make.  I'll be back soon!

Tribal and Etching Fun!

I didn't get as many beads made over the weekend as I had planned but I did get a batch of tribal beads made for a piece I am working on.  These are always fun.

I made more of the "Industrial Squirrel" beads on a few different bases to see if I could create any major color variations but the Ocelot Spots/Ivory stringer seems to dominate whatever I put it on.  This batch I decided to etch and I am really liking these etched just as much as the non-etched.

Non-etched

Etched

The etched beads look like petrified wood - way cool!!!!!

I also made some more sea-glass beads but did not photograph those.  They are already sold!!!  And the Industrial Squirrel bracelet is also spoken for and not by me, although I may make another one of those for myself!  I have jewelry orders to fill this week along with some more bead requests to finish up -- my kind of week!