Journey down the bead road

I've been playing with a new technique that I read about out in Internet land someplace.  Its called the tornado bead.  Really cool effect if one can get it right.  The blue green one was made using a couple of the silver reactive glasses which was reduced and then encased.  I love the colors but I'm still having trouble with the affect.  The yellow one is getting closer.  On the other side of the yellow bead I tried to put a flower on the outside and it is really nasty.  I used another reactive glass that just didn't quite react.  Well, not yet anyway.  I think that when it comes out of the kiln it may lighten up a bit.  Until then, the flower remains hidden....LOL  Use your imagination

Nessie Ice-Effetre Cool Color

I've been trying out a new glass from Effetre lately.  I got it from Frantz Art Glass,   http://frantzartglass.Com/ as a gift.  Apparently they didn't get the full shipment of it so they couldn't sell it, decided to give it as a gift.  It is one of the new Effetre Cool Colors, I sure hope they get more, this is a great glass  It is a striking glass, which means that you have to cool it and then reintroduce it into the flame for the colors to develop.  Beautiful shades of blue in crystalline shapes.  The only problem is that I used the old Luanscha clear and it yellowed when I swiped it on.  I'm going to try a different clear today.  For now, here are yesterday's results.

A new way to blog

I'm testing a new way to blog, by email. According to blogger I can send an
email with photos by email to my blog. If this works I'm going to be
blogging a lot more.

And to test the photo, I add the girls. Aren't they cutties. Piper is a
wonderful Westie and Sadie is a tenacious Scottschund.

The lampwork journey continued

I haven't posted any new beads in quite awhile. I've been so busy with my Etsy site and promoting it that I completely forgot. I can't decide whether I want to sell my beads as supplies or go ahead and make pendants out of them and sell them as jewelry. I'm not so great with wire but I can do it. Guess I just need to practice. Like everything else practice, practice, practice.

I've been playing around with the highly silvered glass from Double Helix, I just can't get enough of it. However, I've been having trouble with with black wisps of soot in my clear glass. I think I'm trying to get too much out of my torch or the oxy concentrator to be exact. I can keep turning up the propane but at some point there just isn't enough oxygen to burn off all the propane and it causes soot in the beads. So, at some point I either have to get another oxygen concentrator or live with the lower heat ranges that I get. Guess I'm just thinking out loud here. I need a bead annealer first. I use a fiber blanket to cool my beads and then batch anneal them right now, not the optimum way but it works and I rarely loose a bead from cracking.

Anyway, here are some my latest beads, I've put the silver glass away so that I can focus on getting good shapes. Occasionally I use a bit of it but for the most part I need to really learn the basics first.

The glass journey continues

I haven't posted in awhile. The glass has me in a trance. I just got some new silvered glass and it is so beautiful when done right. I finally had an ahhaa moment yesterday with something someone else said about how they reduce their silver glass. Couldn't wait to get down there today and try it. It worked!!! I made my first reduced encased silver bead. The new Double Helix glass Triton with a little Psyche thrown in just for fun on the surface. Truly amazing. (it's the blue one) The second one is a Vetrofond Odd glass called Lichen that I added some Triton dots to. Interesting how different Triton can look depending on what glass it is placed on top of. The third photo is a drippy heart with Triton in the center. I have included two photos of it because the sides of the heart are completely metallic. The sheen is amazing, I tried to capture it, not sure that I did a very good job. You will just have to try it yourself.