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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