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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
