My button!

The button for this bracelet is a glass one I made myself.  I like making them, but I can only use so many.   This is a wide cuff bracelet, and the purples in the button bring out the purples in the beads.   Want to know how big it really is?  Well, the button is about 1.5″ in diameter!

Glass Glitter Mushrooms

I was playing around online, and found this stuff I’d never seen before called “glass glitter”.  Evidently it is being used to make cards and mushrooms like you see in the picture.  It was on the Meyer Imports site, and this is what they had to say:

Welcome to the world of Gorgeous Glass Glitter! Packaged conveniently in Take and Make packages, this finely ground colored glass is silver coated for extra sparkle and shine. Over time a beautiful patina ages the colors, to give you a really authentic vintage glass glitter look.  Available in a rainbow of colors and blends, German Glass Glitter also offers 4 different grit sizes. Ranging from the super fine 100 grit, to the super chunky 70 grit.

Produced in Europe by fine art glass glitter artisans, available exclusively from Meyer Imports.
Project suggestion: Use with our Craft Tac Glitter Adhesive to embellish any greeting card, scrapbook or paper art project!

Frit bead with spirals on top

Now anyone who makes glass beads knows this stuff by another name, frit.  We use it to make cool color patterns on beads.  In fact, it is what made the pattern on my bead here. Lots and lots of bead makers use frit, and lots of places sell it.  It tends to have sharp edges, and often has powdered glass in it that is bad to inhale.  So I can’t quite see using it on cards.  Has anyone out there done this?

Oh, and to see fancy frit beads, take a look at the Glass Diversions web site.  The center column is all frit beas, and they are delish!

Judy's mini-ornaments.

When I took Sylvie’s class, I got a ton of new size 15 seed beads in 10 gram bags. Well, actually I got 2 of each and sent one set to my mother in law, Judy. Judy is a beadaholic, and makes really cool things out of those teeny tiny beads. These ornaments are some that she made, and they are about 2 inches in diameter. Perfect for a mini Christmas tree! What I never thought I’d hear from Judy…. “You have satisfied my bead lust!”.

Sylvie's Dolly

Covering up boo-boos

I finally finished the dolly I started in Sylvie’s class.  I made her into a decoration instead of a bracelet.  The sleeve’s are different from the ones we learned to do in class too.

I did have a few problems with the neck, mostly because I didn’t measure how far around it was first.  So the neck didn’t fit in the dress.  Which meant I had to add around the neck, which gave her a really lumpy neck.  So I covered it all up with bead loops, and now you can’t tell at all!

I also had to redo the arms because I didn’t measure right for the hands.  Starting to see a theme here?   I think next time I will measure better.

Overall, she turned out really cute.  However I am not a cutesy person, so I think I’ll be making some skull beads to try the beading techniques with next time.

Inside out beads

With hubby visiting his family this past week, I have been very lazy.  Most of what I’ve done has been read books, watch movies, and take care of the dogs.  In fact, these are the beads I made during the Gathering in Rashan Jones‘ class.  I must say that I am really pleased with them.  Especially the one in the bottom right corner.  Of course, not all of them are wonderful.  The pink bead on the right got just a tad out of control.   If you ever have a chance to take a class with Jonesy, be sure to do it.  He is a fun guy and an excellent teacher.

In case you want to see how they are made, I included a video by Shannon Hill.

Big beads!

These are some more of the dicro beads I’ve made.  I like the big flat one with the ruffles, but hubby doesn’t think it will sell.  I guess we will see at the Gathering!  Just a week and a half to go until the biggest lampwork bead party of the year.

Dicro and black

I’ve been trying out some new shapes too.  Using different curved objects to roll the glass on to get different shapes of indentations.  I think these turned out pretty cool.  They are about 3 inches long.

Different bases and murrini

Here I was trying out some of the different murrini and stringer I had made using several base colors.  The ivory base didn’t work so well, but I’m really partial to the green bead with purple flowers.

hmmm.....

Well, these didn’t turn out like I expected.  I was aiming for something that looked like a field with flowers in it.  It didn’t turn out like expected.  I had used 3 different shades of green enamal and green stringer on a different green base hoping for something interesting.  Instead it looks kind of like mold.  And the flowers didn’t turn out well either.  Next time I’m not going to have so many petals.  They just turned out dirty looking.  Ah well, not every experiment can be a good one!

Experiment beads

It has been a whole week since I’ve been able to be online. Ack! I’m just glad to have this loaner laptop. I’ll be without again for a couple of days when mine gets fixed so things can be swapped around. In the meantime, I have beads to show. I’ve been getting ready for the ISGB Gathering… trying new bead styles out, trying to decide what people in Miami would like, that sort of thing. These beads are some of my experiments. I’m partial to the ones with the raised stringer designs at the ends.  Particularly the one on the right side.  I’m still trying to decide if it needs some of the white speckles like the one at the top center has.