The Wonders of Black and White

I just finished a custom set of beads in black and white (and clear) glass and I couldn't help but appreciate how nicely these two "colours" work together.  I would absolutely describe myself as a colour person.  My first forays into art involved glossy, intense oil paints in vibrant hues mixed and melded to create even more colours.  Even when I sketch I tend to use coloured pencils so black and white isn't really a natural for me but every time I use it, I love the bright, clean, graphic results that can be achieved.

They're great glasses to use when trying out new techniques, too.  First, they aren't as horrifically expensive as some of the other glasses and they tend to work really well together.  They stay clean and don't blur and react the way some other colours do.

Also, I know that Effetre Black is actually a very dark purple but I like the way you can see that hint of purple when it's layered very thinly.  It gives the black and white beads a little colour which I find a bit more appealing than plain black and white.

Inspiration - Lampwork Beads

It's finally getting colder here in Canada and I've been feeling a little blah as a result.  So I started looking around for inspiration for new beads and found it in one place unexpected and in an old favourite.  Let's start with the favourite: design-seeds.com  This is a fantastic site for colour inspiration.  It is in fact, all about colour.  Beautiful photographs and lovely colour palettes to go with them.  I used this photo:

to create these two sets of beads:

Glass used in these sets include Effetre dark sky blue, antique green, oliva nera, dark chestnut, coral (sorry I have no idea which coral) and CIM Vanilla Latte.

And then for my unexpected inspiration.  I received the latest catalogue from Knitpicks with a gorgeous picture of their new yarn, Diadem.  So from this picture:

I created this set of beads:

Not quite as purple as I was shooting for but I really liked how they turned out.  The rich jewel tones with a cool, frosty vibe.  This set was made using Effetre transparent dark aqua, dark violet, dark turquoise, white, CIM glacier, and rainforest.  I kind of wish I'd put a bit of pale grey into the set but otherwise I was pretty happy.  Well, hopefully there's more inspiration around the corner.

Effetre Bright (Electric) Yellow

Effetre Bright (sometimes called Electric) Yellow is my all time favourite yellow.  It is technically a transparent colour but it quite often goes translucent when worked which creates a stunning cloudy, swirly yellow.  This colour is as clean and clear a yellow as you'll find anywhere.  No orange or blue tones, no brown murkiness, just a bright, true yellow.  Obviously with a colour like this a little can go a long way.  This set first started with thoughts of yellow and grey but I wanted to mellow it out with some caramels, browns and beiges.  Frankly, it turned out almost exactly as I pictured it in my head and that's pretty rare for me anyway.

For those bead makers interested in colour combinations this set of beads contains:  Effetre White, Effetre Bright Yellow, Effetre transparent Grey, Effetre transparent dark Grey, CIM Maple, CIM Adamantium, and CIM Vanilla Latte.  I did encase the Vanilla Latte in two beads and they seem to be fine.  I think some of my past cracking problems had to do with putting the beads in the kiln too cold.  I warm everything up a bit now right before plopping them into the kiln. 

Bright, Holiday Discs

I really don't know how people who make tons of spacer beads stay sane.  I thought making 40 disc beads in multiple, bright colours would be easy.  Not so much.  It took a fairly long time (although I imagine if I did it more often I would get faster due to sheer repetition) and by the time I was done, I really didn't want to see another disc bead again ever.  However, I love the effect of clear glass over a bright colour.  The clear glass seems to gather all the available light and give the beads a bit of a glow.  Very pretty and quite versatile.  I've gone ahead and listed them on eBay (even though I really don't like eBay) mostly because I have no idea what to charge for them.  If they sell, great, if not, then I may make them into something myself or pop them into my Etsy store.

I really like this picture just due the perspective.

CIM Greens - Shrubbery and Dirty Martini with Effetre Relish

I am currently in love with Effetre Relish.  It is just such a deep rich yellow ochre colour and it is perfect for fall.  It also works beautifully with pale pastel colours like the Effetre Light Pink and the CIM Dirty Martini that I've used in this set.  The other colours are CIM Shrubbery and CIM Key Lime.  I think the 3 greens contrast nicely with the pastel pink which is a bit bluer in tone.

I have to say that this is one of those combinations that needed to be etched.  I find that etching softens really vibrant colours and brightens more subdued colours and sometimes is necessary to help colours get along with each other.  

Before I etched them, the Key Lime, the Relish, and the pink all seemed to be fighting to be the dominant colour.  The beads just looked kind of busy.  After etching, they seem more balanced and the designs pop a bit better.

CIM Cookie Dough and Hazelnut Mouse and Nutmeg

Another set of beads made mostly with Creation is Messy glass.  I'm going to have to start using some of my other glass just to be fair.  This set turned into a creamy confectionery of pastel strawberry pink, milk chocolate brown and hints of sweet nougat.  I'm working on my fine lines which still need some practice but they are starting to come out the way I intended.

These are the largest beads I've ever made and I realized that it is harder to make large beads.  So much surface area to work with and it takes a lot of time to form and decorate.  However, they do look very pretty strung as a single bead on a chain or a cord.  I'm also trying to put out beads with larger holes so that they can be easily strung on chains or cords.

Three new glass colours used in this set are Cookie Dough, Hazelnut Mousse, and Nutmeg.  Nutmeg turned out a bit paler than I expected but it is a beautiful pastel terracotta colour.  Cookie Dough and Hazelnut Mousse are gorgeous neutral colours.  It's hard to tell them apart in rod form but I found when melted that Cookie Dough was a darker, rich tan colour and Hazelnut Mouse was a creamy bisque colour.

They're all great colours to work with, melting easily with no bubbling or shocking.  I will definitely be looking to stock up on these colours.

CIM Blue Steel, CIM Iguana, CIM Lichen

I just got a new shipment of glass and couldn't wait to play with it.  These beads are made with all CIM (Creation is Messy) glasses and most of the colours are green.  Until recently, I wouldn't have said I was a really big fan of green but lately I can't seem to make anything without it.  And, of course, for this set, I went over the top with greens.  To start with there are 2 light greens called CIM Lichen and CIM Sprout.  The bead on the right has a base of Lichen and the bead 3rd from the right has a base of Sprout.  Sprout is a lovely, pale green that almost seems translucent (especially went it's not etched).  It melts wonderfully and creates clean lines and dots.  Lichen is a pale, very greyish green.  It is a lovely neutral colour and also creates clean lines and dots with a hint of translucency.  CIM Iguana and CIM Fiddlehead look very similar in rod form but Iguana melts to a much brighter green with less grey tones.  You can see Iguana on the 4th bead from the right.  This is a streaky colour so lines and dots get a bit wavy but it has a nice vibrancy without being a neon green.

To contrast with the many greens in this set, I've used CIM Blue Steel.  This is a hard colour to describe and I believe it will look quite different depending on the colours you combine it with.  In this set, because it's contrasting with the green, the colour is a bit more purplish.  I think if it was combined with blues it would look a lot more bluish.  Again, it was a good glass to work with and behaved pretty well in the lines and dots.  A bit of blurring but not too much.

Vetrofond Gray Pearl Light Odd and CIM Leapfrog

Finally a new set of beads.  I have just been feeling so lazy the last few weeks and I'm not sure why. Must be the end of summer blues or something.  I really like how the colours in these beads sort of blurred and blended into each other for a soft, almost vintage like patina.  They start with Vetrofond Gray Pearl Light Odd.  There are a few things odd about this glass.  For one, I wouldn't really call it gray (or grey).  It is definitely more of a blue, a grey-blue no doubt but still blue.  Second, it goes transparent when you melt it like most of the ivory glasses.  I've never really seen a blue glass do this and it can be a little weird when you first start working with this glass.  The lines and dots are done with Vetrofond Yellow Ochre which is really more green than yellow, kind of chartreuse, CIM Vanilla Latte, the warm, pale beige and CIM Leapfrog, the darker, herbal green.

I did this set (or sets really) in two styles and with two sizes of bead hole.  The ornate/focal beads above have a 1/8 inch hole so that they can be used with smaller chains and larger cords and the rounded disc beads have my normal 3/32 hole which is good for smaller cord and bead wire.  I really like the idea of of mixed media (wire, leather, cotton, rubber) and sort of tying and wrapping different sections together with different beads which I think will work especially well with this set.

I've decided to list these beads on eBay just for a change of pace and so that I don't forget how. I'm not that fond of eBay for a few reasons but from a marketing point of view, I guess you need to use different channels once in a while.  To see them just click this link: 
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130977637603

Red and White Polka Dots with Black Metallic Lampwork beads

I'm still dealing with my polka dot obsession with no end in sight.  I think it's like contemporary art for me right now, just something so clean and simple about a dot (or dots).  This time using Effetre White, Effetre Red Purple, Effetre Black Metallic and CIM Sangre.  The Sangre beads are the 3 large disc beads and they are a luscious shade of semi-translucent, nail polish red. Effetre Black Metallic is another one of those glasses that can vary a lot from batch to batch. This one went heavy metallic on me to the point where the beads look almost electroplated.

There's quite a few focal sized beads in this set and they can be kind of hard to photograph since they all want to be the centre of attention.  I've used a great graphite bead shaper from Pegasus Lampwork tools for the large pin shaped bead, the egg shape, and the ornate tiered bead.  

I didn't think of it this time but next time I make a set of focal beads, I'm going to use a larger mandrel so that the beads will fit onto 2mm chains.  These beads will fit onto leather cord but wouldn't make it over the chain ends.

CIM Sprout, Key Lime and Mojito

There's something about summer that just makes me want to see bright shades of yellow and frosty shades of green.  Must be some kind of frozen margarita syndrome.  This set contains beautiful shades of yellow and green glass and altogether they create this fizzy, "look at me" set of beads.  For these beads I've used CIM Sprout a beautiful, pale cucumber green pastel, CIM Key Lime a brighter, more acidic pastel green, CIM Mojito a gorgeous warm, transparent green, Effetre Yellow Lemon Light Special, Effetre Pale Emerald Green and, of course, Effetre White.

These colours just look great next to skin tones and I think that using contrasting elements like red leather or red pearls would be amazing with these greens.  All the glasses were very nice to work with, melting easily and playing together quite well.  The Sprout and the Key Lime are a bit streaky and will mottle a bit if over worked but other than that they are lovely glasses.

Girlie Pink Lampwork Beads with Polka Dots

Well, you don't get much more girlie than a bunch of pink and white beads with polka dots (and a few hits of orange just for fun).  I have to say that I just love polka dots right now.  They seem to have a clean, almost contemporary feel while at the same time being a heck of a lot of fun.  This set is made with Effetre and CIM glasses including Effetre Dark Pink Alabastro, Rose Opalino, Rubino, Dark Pink Pastel, Sunset, White, and Transparent.  On the CIM end I've used, Gelly Sty, Pink Champagne, and Blush. This is 7 different shades of pink  with various matching polka dots.  I love how the Sunset, which is a layered rod of glass with pink, orange, and white, creates these textured, two-tone dots.

These are the kind of beads that you can either go completely kitschy with by using bright oranges, pink, and whites or get sophisticated with Bali silver and more subdued neutral accents.  I've also got a set of matching wheel shaped beads that I will be listing separately that has all the same pinks and other colours, but no polka dots.

CIM Linen, Adobe, Peachy Keen, and Ginger Lampwork beads

Another set of soft, pale, warm toned neutral colours.  I think my favourite part of this set is how the CIM Linen, a pale, slightly greenish beige works with the CIM Adobe which is a very soft, warm terracotta colour.  Really you could wear these colours with almost anything and they are perfect for summer tans and bright white t-shirts.  The disc beads, which are a juicy peach colour in natural lighting are made with a core of CIM Peaches & Cream which has been encased in Peachy Keen.

I had a small problem with cracking on one bead (which didn't make it into the set, of course) but I think it was my fault since the bead wasn't even encased.  However, I would strongly recommend NOT encasing Linen.  I think there are beads where it might work but I've had a couple crack on me several days after coming out of the kiln so I think it's a bit risky.  It's is beautiful as a base colour and very nice to work with.

Effetre Light Chestnut Brown and CIM Dried Sage

A new set of beads more in the earth tones than I've been using lately.  I only made these about a week ago and already I'm having trouble remembering which glasses I used.  I'm fairly certain that the light greyish colour is CIM Dried Sage although when I look at it now I think, wow that's really grey, did I use a grey glass?  I'm pretty sure it is Dried Sage so I'm sticking with that.  Other colours used are Effetre Light Chestnut (this is the amazing warm brown colour that looks like a ceramic glaze), Effetre Sage Green which is a greenish taupe, Effetre Red Roof Tile, Effetre Dark Grey opaque and Effetre Grey transparent.  The beads have a nice earthy, tribal feel and would look great with many of the jasper stones and darkened silver.

On a technical note, I'm finding that a lot of the newer CIM glasses don't like to be encased.  In this set, I encased the Dried Sage with the Effetre transparent grey and got mosaic cracking throughout.  I've had similar problems with CIM Sand Dollar, Linen and don't even get me started about Coconut Milk (do not encase Coconut Milk).  It's kind of funny because these are all neutral, ivory-type glasses and not the kind of colours that typically cause problems like orange and yellow but I've even tried remaking beads just to make sure and they cracked both times.  I think I'll stick with the neutral Effetre colours as a base from now on because I hate remaking beads when they crack.  They never seem as nice the second time around. 

Effetre Ink Blue and Pale Emerald Yellow

 

There's something about this colour combination that just seems very sweet and sugary to me.  I don't know if it reminds me of an actual candy that I used to have or if the colours are just very pretty together (which they are).  This set is made with two transparent glasses from Effetre called Ink Blue and Pale Emerald Yellow.  Most of the beads have a white glass core and then various lines and dots in white, purple, and green.

The set is fairly simple from a glass point of view but has lots of detail to add interest.  These beads would look fabulous with amethyst which would really bring out the purple in the Ink Blue.  Also, I could easily see these beads designed up into something fancy, however, the colours would work great with blue jeans and a white t-shirt.

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Vintage Circus Beads with Vetrofond Odds

 

These beads were inspired by the colours of vintage circus posters.  Colours that are typically very vibrant such as yellow, orange, and turquoise but now have that soft, faded patina that comes with time.  This poster in particular had the look I was going for:

 

 



Beautiful faded greenish turquoise, warm oranges and yellows and pale pistachio greens.  To try a attain these colours, I've used the following Vetrofond glasses: Yellow Ochre, Sunshine ODD, Biscotti ODD, and Candy Corn ODD.  This pale, slightly greenish turquoise is Effetre Antique Green.  All the colours were a pleasure to work with, melting easily, no shocking and mixing/ blending with each other very cleanly.  My one small negative comment would be about Vetrofond Sunshine ODD.  It is a very pretty yellow, bright but with a greyish tone but it has strange black flecks that appear in the beads but not on the rods.

The flecks actually kind of work with this set of beads since I'm going for a faded, worn, vintage feel and they'd probably be fine in any organic style of bead but it you were going for that clean, precise look, you'd be very frustrated by this glass.  And I don't think it's an over heating issue.  I work on a Nortel Minor and typically use a very low heat which gives me more control but tends to make everything take a lot longer so I don't think that it's anything that I did (but obviously I could be wrong about that). 

On a positive note, I'd like to say that I love this Candy Corn ODD orange.  It's a warm, mustardy orange that is almost a terra cotta colour.  It goes a brighter orange up against the blues and green in this set but still manages to retain a bit of that faded, yellowed orange feel. 

There's a lot of detail both on the top and along the sides of these beads.  Making them into pendants would be a nice way to see a bit of the side details and shown here:

I also think these beads would look fantastic with carnelian.  It would compliment the colours and bring out the dusty orange in the beads.

CIM Poison Apple & Key Lime Pie

 

This set of beads just screams summer to me.  It reminds me of a really nice drink that my mother makes during the summer that has lime sherbet, gin, and ginger ale.  It's bright and refreshing and sweet and tangy.  I've used all CIM glasses for these beads starting with Poison Apple, a lovely translucent green; Key Lime Pie a vivid, lemon-lime opaque glass which is part of their limited runs; and Mojito, a very pale, lime transparent glass.  As you would expect, the three citrusy greens come together wonderfully and create a really, "look at me" set of beads.



 

I think these beads would look great with beige and taupe or any type of grey.  Of course, you could always add bright green crystals and go for broke.

Favourite Beads - CiM Peaches & Cream

It's hard to say that you have favourite beads because, of course, you like all your beads and you wouldn't sell them if you didn't think they were great beads.  But some beads just seem to stand out for one reason or another.  They're a little more creative than others, the colours just seemed to work unexpectedly well, there's just that certain something that you can't quite put your finger on but, wow, you really like those beads.  Because of this, I've decided to catalogue some of my favourite beads in my blog.  It's an easy way to capture information and pictures, it's a nice way to share and, well, they're my favourites and I just like to see them out there.

This set was made with CiM glasses Peaches & Cream, Ginger and Peachy Keen and it's just peachalious.  The Peaches & Cream glass is a translucent glass that lightens and darkens depending on how long you work it and how long it stays in the kiln.  It is the base of all the round beads and it creates a wonderful light to dark peach effect not unlike peaches themselves.  I didn't know that this was going to happen so when I pulled these beads out of the kiln I was pretty amazed.  They're decorated with Ginger, a beautiful pale pastel peach which is easily in my top 10 favourite glasses and Peachy Keen, a lovely transparent peach both from Creation is Messy.

Warm, juicy and so flattering next to the skin. What can I say, these beads were just sooo peachy.  This set was sold to a very nice lady from Australia who posted her own pictures on her Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/SylviaBalleriniJewellery

New beads..at last

 

 

I finally made some new beads yesterday for the first time in about two weeks.  Not really sure why I've been so blah about making beads but it's been hard to get myself motivated.  I practically had to chain myself to my work station to make these and it felt like a struggle for every beads which is not normal.  Usually I love to sit down and mix colours and styles and see what pops up.  Anyway for all the effort it cost me I think this set turned out quite pretty.  I'm calling them "Peppermint Creams" because they remind me of those sweet, sugary mints that just dissolve in your mouth.

 

 

These beads are made with 3 lovely glasses.  The first is a limited run glass from CiM (Creation is Messy) called Sand Dollar.  This is a beautiful pale, opaque grey glass with hints of beige.  Depending on the light, it could also be called a very pale taupe.  Next is an odd lot glass from Vetrofond called Lemon Meringue light which is a lovely pale yellow that tends to blush to a darker lemon yellow.  You can see this most clearly in the little disc beads and the dots on the rounds.  Finally, one of my favourite glasses is dark lavender from Effetre.  A vibrant transparent purple that works wonderfully with these paler pastels.

 

 

 

All in all a pretty set of beads, kind of sweet and sugary and hopefully the start of some regular beading on my part.



I hate blogging and I haven't even started yet

I am not going to discuss the weeks of my time that I have lost and will never get back trying to configure the look of this blog.  I am done with that.  I am moving on with my life.  My original intention was to setup a blog to help promote my lampwork beads and discuss some of the ins and outs of making said beads.  Somewhere along the line I lost track of that intention and decided to become a web developer.  Arrgghh. Just shoot me.


Even as I'm writing this, I decided to change the colour on my blog title so I did.  I seriously need help.

OK, enough of that.  My name is Carey and I make lampwork beads.  I've been at it for about 7 years and I've sold beads primarily on eBay and Etsy.  I've recently downloaded some of my pictures to Pinterest and Flickr and will be linking to these sometime in the future.  I'll also be updating my Profile and adding info there and probably changing colours and layouts and widget/gadgets, etc.  I really just can't seem to help myself but in the interests of getting at least one post actually posted, I'm going to ignore my urge to configure and focus on these beads.

This is my most recent set of lampwork beads.  I bought a new graphite marver from Pegasus Beads in the UK and I just love this shape.  The ridges allow light to flow through the glass from different angles and create a lovely, airy effect even when the beads are quite large.  This set reminds me of frosty, coloured Popsicles where the colours are bright and sort of see through but not quite. 

 

 

I've used CiM's (Creation is Messy) Peaches & Cream glass in all of the beads.  Four of the beads have Peaches & Cream encased in pink, green, blue, or yellow transparent and three have pink, blue, and yellow encased with Peaches & Cream.  The beads that have been encased with P&C have an interesting antiqued kind of effect.  P&C is a translucent colour so it is sometimes opaque and sometimes a bit more transparent.  This means that sometimes the bottom colour shows through a bit and sometimes it doesn't.  You can see the effect best on the blue bead at the top.

 

Another thing I found interesting was when I encased the Peaches & Cream (which, as you can imagine, is a peach coloured glass) with a coloured transparent glass, the coloured glass typically changed or tinted the P&C so it's a bit more pink or a little more orange that type of thing.  This happened with all the colours except the blue.  For this bead, you can clearly see the blue glass on the outside and a very distinct peach glass on the inside which I think really looks neat with this particular shape.

 

Anyway that it's for now.  I'm off to find out how to add multiple blog pages and customize my pages menu and possibly put posts into pages.  I may never publish another post but if you check back you can probably see constant changes to how this blog looks.  Yeah.