Scientific beadmaking

After a week off work spend flitting between this and that and not achieving much, I have finally got around to listing some beads on Etsy...and they are all examples of the science influenced beads from my last post.

Organic, gemstone-y ones;

Out-of-this-world cosmic;

And energy and light;

Hope you like them!

Catching up

Hello! Long time no speak! How are you?

I'm okay, just very busy! As if I didn't have enough to do with a full time job and making beads, I've now started a degree with the Open University as well. I decided it was high time I started studying rocks instead of just talking about them and am now doing a BSc in Natural Sciences with Earth Sciences.

Why am I telling you this? Well, firstly because it will probably mean that my blog posts will be even more sporadic than they normally are. I'm still around and I'm certainly still making beads, but if I suddenly disappear for a bit, it'll be because I'm up to my eyeballs in an assignment.

Secondly, I've found it interesting that my latest beads have been influenced by what aspect of science I have been studying. The first module of my course is general science and I made some very organic, rocky beads whilst studying geology, cosmic beads during the book on space and now I'm studying energy and light I'm making bright and colourful beads!

I've always said that my style of beads is influenced by what is going on in my life and where I've been, so it's going to be interesting to see how my style changes throughout my studies...especially during the chemistry book!

Anyway, that was a very wordy post, so here's a picture of Bob to finish with...just until my next beady post!

Happy Easter/Ostara/Sunday!

Now I've celebrated by eating my Cadbury's Buttons egg, I've listed some beads on Ebay...

Millions of murrini

Definition of murrini from Wikipedia; Murrine (common pluralization murrini) is an Italian term for colored patterns or images made in a glass cane (long rods of glass) that are revealed when cut in cross-sections.

Whilst listing my latest batch of beads on Etsy just now, I started to notice a common theme...every single bead or set contained murrini. I certainly seem to go through phases with my beadmaking when I'm making lots of a particular style or colour or using a certain material...and at the moment it seems to be murrini! I love them, they just seem to fit into every style of bead I make!

Unfortunately, I haven't yet learned to make murrini myself yet, although it is definitely on my to-do list. The credit goes to fellow bead artists Kaz, Julie and Linda and I am more than happy to carry on using theirs!

Busy

I've just had a week off work...not very relaxing, what with birthdays and family coming to visit, but lovely all the same! Now everything is back to normal, I've finally got around to putting some new beads on Etsy.

The Lightening Rocks are a bigger, chunkier version of some I've made before -

And I've made a lot of bluey green beads lately...I didn't realise quite how many until I came to photgraph them all! Serenity is the first to go on Etsy, but if you love blues and greens, keep an eye out as I'll be adding lots more!