Friday 24 May 2013

A galaxy in your pocket...

I'm still making spacey beads...and I love this one. Deep blue, with lots of silver foil and silvered glass frit, encased in pale aqua. The result looks just like a galaxy captured in a bead. It's a big bead and it's what I call a freeform round - meaning that it's not completely spherical. Because if you did manage to get hold of a galaxy and encase it in glass, it wouldn't be perfectly shaped, would it?


If you'd like your own personal piece of the universe, it's on Etsy now :o)

Monday 20 May 2013

Simple

It's amazing what you can do with just one or two colours....and a bit of fine silver foil. One of the things I love about working with glass is the different reactions you can get, some of which can be a surprise!

I've mentioned 'striking' glass before, which requires fancy flamework and a large dose of luck. This bead is simply clear, with a layer of silver foil followed by wraps of a striking glass called Chalcedony. On this occasion I was lucky and I got a myriad of warm, autumnal colours...and even some blues and greens!
The second bead was made with transparent grey, again wrapped in silver foil, with stripes of a mottled brown-grey glass called Sediment. The result is wonderfully organic, but with the surprise addition of some silvery blue bits on the ends.
I could spend ages looking at these beads, there is always something new to discover about them!

You will find them on Etsy over the next day or so.


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Oh, hello again, rain...

To think that only two weeks ago I was sitting in the garden wearing shorts...and now it's cold and rainy. Again. I'm optimistically thinking that because we've had such an awful winter and spring, we must be owed a wonderful summer! Here's hoping...

I've listed a couple of organic-y beads on Etsy - photographed on one of those lovely sunny days -  and I've just cleaned another new batch, so keep an eye out for those ones as well.