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.