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.