Packing up the Studio.

Okay so I'm in the process of packing up my studio for the big migration back to the north and I'm looking at all the mandrels just sitting there with bead release on them.  I hate the thought of wasting all that precious bead release so I left out a little bit of color (glass rods) from my shipping boxes and decided to use whatever was laying around on my work space and make beads.  This way I would not be wasting little bits of glass, time spent dipping mandrels, bead release and even better,  I would have even less to pack up!  Yeah yeah, that's it - I really don't "need" to make beads, I'm doing it for the good of the environment and such.  So on to the good stuff...

I made beads on two different days so these are not in any particular order.  I'll just start with my favorite bead of the batch. 

Guess what this is made from?  Commando of course.  I had some large hole (Pandora style) mandrels I needed to use up and I thought it might be kind of nice to make a few of my Commando beads for my "Change a Bead" necklaces. 

These are too large for the bracelets but would be very nice on the necklaces. 

I made some more of the "Corina subtle striped beads" also intended for my "change a bead necklace" or other pendant style design.

Then I moved on to some twisties I had laying around from prior work and made some of my Pink Zebra beads on the large hole mandrels.  That got me to thinking I should try and make Aqua Zebra beads and Red Zebra beads to see how those colors would work.  I kind of like them but the pink is still my favorite for the Zebra Bead.

And of course I used up some of my "tiger/leopard" twisties too.  I know who will want these - I'll send them in the next batch Lowanne!

The rest are just photos of the other beads from my efforts to use up what I had laying around.  Some not so great but what the heck.  Sometimes people like beads I don't care much for and they end up with a good home too.  So here they are.

 These are on standard size mandrels - not large hole.

 Back to large hole mandrels

This last photo is a bit blurry but I wanted to include it because it's a new color I tried for the first time.  It's Kiwi 591620 and I get a lot of requests for green.  These are pretty interesting and the bead on the right would be a nice size for a Pandora style bracelet too.

I still have a few mandrels left just staring at me each time I pass by the table.  I may just have to make beads one more time before I finish packing it all up. 

Animal Prints & Sea Glass

Just a quick update with my latest experiments.  I've been working on those leopard print beads again.  Still trying to find the perfect background color.

The 7 beads on the left are my current formula and we will see what my customer thinks of them.  She also requested some more tiger striped beads so I made 3 standard ones (next in line) and then, I got to experimenting some more.  The last one in this photo I'm calling a snow leopard bead.  At least that is what it reminds me of.

The first 3 beads in this photo are more experiments.  They are light tiger striped beads.  I really like the new snow leopard bead but I think I prefer the old style tiger striped bead over the newer ones I show here (again the first 3 here.)  Now I know you are probably tired of seeing the next beads since I've posted them 3 times now but I just like to keep them in here for comparison for my testing reference.  I also did a little zebra experiment on that last bead in this series.  Not really a zebra because the stripes are too round and swirly for a zebra.  I like my original zebra style so I'll stick with those from now on.

And these two photos show my sea glass style beads.  I finally got to use my "Etch All" today!!!  I added some SIS to some just to see how it looked.  I know that sea glass does not come in all these colors but I like them all and it just seems like a perfect name.

I'll be away from my torch and computer for a few days but I'll be back at it next week.
As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think of my experiments if you like!  I always enjoy reading what you have to say!!!!!

New Beads - New Jewelry!

Well I've had a couple productive days filling orders!  I made beads yesterday and already turned them into finished pieces today. 

First up is a bracelet that I'm just loving!  I posted awhile back about the decisions my customer had to make about the style and while waiting for her reply I went ahead and put it together hoping she will like my design.  If not, I'll adjust or remake it.  So this one may end up for sale on artfire - unless I keep it for myself ;-)  The black viking weave does not show well in the photograph but it looks so nice with the pink and black of the beads.

I made these blue frit beads yesterday to fill this order.  I hadn't made these in a while so I ran a test and I actually like my new formula a bit better.  I made a bunch of these beads using Val Cox Winter Blues frit and bases of Lt. Turquoise and Blue Sky Lt.  They look so similar that the base simply does not matter with this particular frit mix so I can use which ever I have the most of next time.  I also made a few beads using the same bases but used DH Triton frit (not shown) and there is nothing special to them so I might as well use the less expensive Winter Blues frit for these.  All the beads are encased in clear.  My customer actually wanted a smaller clasp so the final piece is slightly different but I like the size and style of this clasp too.

I actually made these black and white beads a long time ago at various times.  I've been getting ready to make this necklace for a friend of mine whose birthday is coming up.  She had asked about a simple black and white necklace so I hope this is what she had in mind.  Guess I'll find out soon!

Most of these beads were made yesterday but a few of them I made a while ago.  They are simply black, white, light and dark turquoise.

This shows the full necklace.  I believe this is sold but if not, it will be for sale on my artfire site as soon as I know for sure.

I got the replacement coil for my kiln today!!!!  Now I will see if I can install it myself or if I have to wait till Tom is here to do it.  It looks pretty complicated.   I also got a shipment of glass and the Tonbo Dama -Japanese Glass Bead book (I've been wanting for a very long time and had patiently been waiting for it to go on sale) from Frantz today!!!!  It was a good Fed-Ex day!  Tomorrow I may try some of the new glass but if the weather is beautiful I may have to take a day off and head to the beach to relax and read my book.