Flowers in Glass

A new tutorial by Lydia Muell helped my encased floral beads enormously. This particular bead took an hour to make and each floral "panel" has 9 layers of glass. There are five panels going around the bead. Time consuming but one of my favorite beads now. I'm anxious to try some with different colors. I used pre-made goldstone stringer on this one and it's a little washed out so I ordered some goldstone chunks to pull my own stringer. That should give me a narrower, but more eye-catching gold outline around the panels.

Speaking of color, CIM glass has a color called Crocus that is drop dead gorgeous. It's almost translucent and it positively glows. Not quite purple and not really pink, but a very soft color that works up beautifully. Here's a shell and spacers made from it (borrowed the shell idea from Maggie (maggieet on Etsy). Isn't it yummy?

Been Away too Long!

But I'm back now. Seems like the summer got away from me. Did a couple of local festivals and sold some jewelry and beads. Also sat up the Blue Lagoon Bead booth at the local Farmer's Market and that's always alot of fun.

I've been playing with some different tutorials and learning new techniqes. One of my favorites is a tutorial by Sarah Hornik on using Rubino D'Oro glass. Here's the first bead I made following the tutorial:



It's like stepping back to the 60's Flower Power days! I've always burned my rubino in the past but Sarah's tutorial has been hugely helpful as I learn to control the heat and where I hold my glass. I'll be making more flower power beads!

Lovin' these Silver Lined Beads!

These are really addictive! I'm doing them by hand with dapping tools and a chasing hammer and I'm thinking about selling my bead liner tool since I have better luck doing it by hand.

Scenes from a Small Town Independence Day Parade

It all starts with people getting ready along the parade route.











It's coming!

Honoring those who've helped preserve our nation's freedom.




And every parade needs kids and tractors!











And horses too!

And the fire truck brings up the rear.











Happy Independence Day!

I Finally Did It!!

I've been trying to add a silver core to my lampwork beads and it's been a frustrating process, resulting in cracked or broken beads, collapsed sterling silver tube, and more than a few creative combinations of swear words. I finally gave up trying to do it with my bead liner tool and figured silver coring wasn't going to happen.

Then a fellow lampworker posted a tutorial on the Lampwork Etc. forum and armed with a dapping set from Harbor Freight tools, I gave it another go. Done entirely by hand with the dapping punches and a chasing hammer, this was the first bead I've ever cored without cracking or breaking the bead. It still needs polishing and the picture isn't the best but hey, it's a totally usable, uncracked silver cored bead! Yep, I'll be doing that again!!

Summer's Here!

Summer has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest with temperatures in the upper 90's and no breeze. It's hot. Some watermelon would be just the ticket to cool down.

I listed these beads in my Etsy shop this week. They were alot of fun to make - using two shades of green wound together to make the "rind." I used Bullseye glass for these since they have such great pink colors and I've got so many more colors of Bulleye than the other types of glass. Hmmmm - that just means I need to buy more of the other types of glass!!

But What KIND of Bird is It?

We've seen this bird and some of his friends at our feeder for a few weeks but we couldn't figure out what kind of bird it was. Slightly larger than a sparrow with Oriole or Meadowlark coloring, but a thicker beak. We finally snapped a picture of him and went page-by-page through our bird book until we found out what he is - a Black-headed Grosbeak. He eats heartily but he's pretty and brings his friends so we'll keep setting the table for him!