A Good Day Lampworking!

You know there can be days that you sit down at the torch and work all day to have nothing thrilling come out of the kiln. How that happens I can't say but it does!  lol   But I had a good day a few days ago.  I was pleased with a couple new beads I tried out. The first

was a new shape of an old color combo and I love it!  I should have made this shape all along.  I also used light ivory as  base instead of dark ivory on the top half of the bead. The base color for the second half is called lipstick red unique. It is one of my favorite colors ever - sort of a school house red. ( the photo is a bit light.) I then used terra frit melted in on the top and bottom then rings of olive green and Picasso blue silver glass melted in. The finishing touch is 99% pure silver wire wound around the base and melted gently. What do you think? I love this color combo!

My next new bead was born out of determination to use that damn! gold leaf that has been laying around for years because it is so expensive.  It was placed on a light ivory base, gently heated and then powdered glass in pinky peach and green was alternately added and melted in. Then blue silver glass accent stringer was added. I love the organic look of this combination!

I made a round donut bead to go along with it in the same colors. I want to use this combo again for more beads - perhaps on a different color base. What base color do you think it would be good on?

Another Lovely Autumn Walk

I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since my last walk post. OK, I admit - I haven't taken that many walks this week. And I just realized it yesterday. I sort of scurry through my day  ( I have been tweaking things inside the house - nesting for the coming winter) accomplishing things and then the day is done and no walk.  I did go out yesterday and it was very pleasant to go to the little wood again. I took just one doggie Jessie - sorry her pretty brown eyes are all shined out. As you can see from the second pic she is very goofy and it makes me love her more.

 She ran through the little wood again like a puppy although she is almost 3 years old.
The weather here has been very mild - we had a little rain last night but for the most part it has been sunny and around 60 degrees.
I picked some pretty dried grasses I found  in the field in front of the wood. As a child I would  pick the round , tall grass pieces when they were still green and suck the sweet out of the bottom of the stem.
 I called the fluffy grasses fairy grass.  I saw a painting once where the fairies were dancing on the tips of these type of grasses.

I also found some fabulous grape vine that has died for the year. It is great to use in various art makings.  I like to use it on my velvet pumpkins. well, off for more coffee. <3

Oh, and the 20% off sale is still going on in my Etsy store. :o)

Back Trouble and New Copper Components

You can't keep a good woman down -  Darn it all! I have been having hip pain and just found out I have 2 bulging disks as well as something wrong in my hip! Well, I may have to stop doing the heavy lifting but I can still make beads and jewelry and components. Yay!  And here are some new etched copper components I have just listed in my Etsy store. Super lots of them.  I hope you like them. I will drill holes where you want them. Everything is 20% off in my store, including all of my lampwork beads.  <3

small tribal pendant/charm/connector

1 inch seashell pendant/charm

light weight 1" earring pair disk

1" sun face pendant/charm

1.5" dog bone pendant/connector 

golden 2' long tribal pendant/connector

2" long koi pond pendant/connector

`2.75" long Mendi paisley pendant/connector

purpleish 2.25" long Sunflower Fields pendant/connector

1.25" light weight whimsical flower earring/pendant

Clearance Sale Ends Sunday at Noon

Just a heads up that my 40% OFF clearance sale ends This Sunday the 20th at noon. I have etched copper  components including handmade head pins, handmade lampwork beads, and finished jewelry.  I have alot of new items listed in the last few days in the made to order lampwork and ready to ship components.
Come on over and look at what's available for your jewelry designs and ready made gifts in my Etsy Shop.

Here's a few:

Blue Heron/ Egret Pendant

Seashore Pendant

Whimsical Flower Pendant

New Etched Copper Cuffs

I love copper etching as the designs are so fabulous and organic.  Copper is such a warm metal and looks good on all skin tones.  I have just finished some new copper cuffs that are 1.25 inches wide. These cuffs are 6 inches long as that is the standard length for cuffs so they will fit a 6 to 8 inch wrist.  My new cuffs have fabulous flowers on them! I am an avid gardener so that much be why I love them so much. :o)  The first one pictured has sweet happy flowers on it. The second has a beautiful design with hibiscus flowers and foliage. They can be found in my Etsy store right now at 20% off.  I also have a sweet pair of fairy wing pendant/earring pieces that are beautifully golden.

Frit Bead Review!

A fabulous artist Kimberly Roger of Numinosity Beads has written a great blog post about glass frit and it's various used in bead making. 
You can find her post here:

http://www.lovemyartjewelry.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-10-04T05:00:00-04:00&max-results=2

I love frit due to the variety of applications you can use it for. You can layer it on your bead and melt it in completely, leave it partially raised or even encase it with a transparent color or clear. It can be used a s a background like on my first bead shown in this post or as a main design element.You can even use it on metal! Frit can be used in a multicolor mix or a single color. There are also color changing frits.

 You must be careful when using frit as there is almost always some powdered glass in the bottom of the container. If it becomes airborne  you must leave the room as it never can be cleared out of your lungs once breathed in. A special mask is recommended to be used when working with frit  as well as a good ventilation system in your studio.

Here are some sets of my beads that  I use frit to create. There are so many various applications. It is one of my favorite bead decorations! Check out my beads in my Etsy shop where everything is 20% off right now!

New Fall Color Beads.

I have two new sets of squeezed flat beads made in the colors of fall leaves. I made a frit mix in the same color mix for these beads.  I love fall and part of it is because of the changing of the leaves. With beads we can wear the changing leaf colors on our wrists and necks! I made one set in transparent and one set in opaques.  I do take special orders if you want just one or two colors for your creations. Right now my whole shop is 20% off to celebrate Fall!

New Lampwork Beads In My Etsy Store

I also am having a 20% off sale right now!  I love to make small bead sets as well as focal beads so I have been making pretty bead pairs to use as accent beads for a larger focal bead or as earrings!  I have some new colors for fall right now. The photo immediately below shows my new colors: green purple and red for this fall!

Here are my green, purple and red earring pair colors with my fall leaves frit melted into them with silver foil and silver wire melted in for lotd of sparkle.

This is my light amber pair.

This is a set of 2 each pink transparent and pink opaque with pink frit melted in and silver wire.

And one of my fav colors medium blue with silver foil and amber frit with silver wire adding sparkles!

A New Sale

Well, the coupon sale was a new experience for me. I think it's a cool idea but it's over so I am back to a straight 20% off in my whole Etsy store. Come on over and shop for new fall beads and components for your jewelry making or find a new piece of jewelry! I have a bunch of new fun and earthy earrings listed!

New Set of Organic Fall/Winter Color Disk Beads!

I am excited about this new set of disk beads.  Organic wintry shades for a sophisticated look!  Etched transparent, white, creamy beige and earthy silver glass color all edged with pure silver foil, silver wire, terra frit and shiny silver glass! I love them! On sale in my Etsy store.

Huge Markdown on Cellini Spiral Necklace!

If you love cellini spiral like I do you will be excited to hear that I have marked down the cellini spiral necklace in my Etsy shop ANOTHER $40 from the 20% off price which brings it down to $131.20!!
 It is a beautiful piece that is 22 inches long and the gorgeous handmade glass ammo-nite pendant is 1.75 inches.The glass focal bead is handmade with one side cut away and polished to reveal the colored spirals inside. It matches the colors in the necklace perfectly!  I used tiny size 15 seed beads as the smallest  and size 8 as the largest size with size 11 in the middle. That gives a deep indentation and keeps it from being too hefty which can happen when size 6 seed beads are used. It is delicate and beautiful in fabulous shades of green, blue and copper for the fall season!

New Lampwork Beads! And 20% Off!

I am so gearing up for Fall! I love Autumn and I need to make more beads with fall colors so that is what I am doing. I remade a made to order  focal that I had listed a year or so ago. It needed updating and I am so happy with the new bead. My whole store is 20% off right now so get some beads for your fall jewelry.

Here is Pond Flowers. It can be found in my Etsy store here.

I have a few more that I will list tonight as soon as I am done cropping the photos.

I love this focal frit bead. The bright orange id actually very pretty dark fuchsia. Impossible to photograph!

And with this organic focal size bead the murrini is not so bright actually burnt orange!

This 1 inch wide disk bead is a gorgeous silver glass deep pink!

And another Pond Flower focal. I love these colors.