Wonders of the Garden-The Cycle of The Poppy

As my latest batch of beads are still "cooking" in the kiln, I thought I would share some wonders of my garden with you.
I have these exquisite poppies that appear in my garden each year. Some years they perform better than others. This year they have grown prolifically courtesy of our very welcomed Spring rain.
I am totally enamoured of their colour and style and find them attractive at each stage of their cycle.
Here they are in all their glory.

Just opening up

Full bloom

Battered by a storm

The remaining seed pod

Cheers for now,

Jenni

Bead Stash

Well the Bead Expo has come and gone.

There were quite a few exhibitors this year and due to parking restrictions,  I didn't get around to see them all.

I still managed to buy, of course, and here is some of my lovely loot.


I purchased small sparkling aquamarine beads, faceted chalcedony and quartz nuggets and a small selection of Tibetan turquoise from B'Julde.

I'm really looking forward to putting this large turquoise drum-shaped bead in to a jewellery piece. It's quite pale coloured as far as turquoise goes, but such a wonderful shape, I just had to have it!

Some very interesting bone beads came from Mark Wang. He also sells at the Camberwell market every Sunday.

 Lampwork pieces that I purchased include another owl, robot and frit beads from Jawjee.
 Co-ordinating beads to go with the robot came from Belinda at Bellissimo Jewels .

Not shown are the pile of silver and copper findings I purchased from Kerry at Affordable Inspiration. She is emptying her shop of these items, so if there are any left, they are great value.

Till next time,
Jenni

Melbourne Bead Expo

The Bead Society of Victoria is hosting its 7th annual Melbourne Bead Expo.
The Expo is on from Friday 12 November until  Sunday 14 November 2010 at the Kingston City Hall,
979 Nepean Highway,  Moorabbin,  10am - 5pm each day.
Map Reference - MELWAYS 77D5

There will be many suppliers exhibiting.
You can purchase lampwork (hand made art glass) beads, gems, findings and tools from all over the world on this exciting weekend.

There is also a members' bead challenge exhibition which is always inspirational.

Also, some completed jewellery pieces made by members will be for sale.

A few of my friends have been working frantically, making glass beads to sell.

Here are a few photos of some of their gorgeous beads,  a mere fraction of what they both have to offer.


Georgie's owls, robots, butterflies and others are available at  Jawjee.

Belinda's beads can be found at Bellissimo Jewels. She has lovely little cupcakes, sugarbeads, large organic focals and many more.

Hope to see you there,

Cheers,

Jenni

"OPAL" TABS

It's been a while since I posted, I am still new to the blogging world!

This week I have made what I loosely call "opal" tab beads.
Opal, due to the gorgeous opalescent colours on the spots of these tabular shaped beads.

This lovely reaction is both easy and difficult to do!
It is easy to "bring it out" and difficult (for me) to make each dot a matching colour.

These gorgeous colours are a result of  "reducing", which is changing the torch flame balance to one that is propane rich, instead of a flame that is an even balance of oxygen and propane.

Once the glass dots are briefly touched by the reducing flame to bring out a glimmer of colour, the reaction is then captured by covering each dot with a transparent clear glass (although other transparent colours can be used).

I used two different rods of silver-laden glass for the dots - called Triton and Psyche. Both are manufactured by Double Helix Glass.

Interesting patterns on the base bead can occur too. On dark ivory glass, crackling or "webbing" is a result of the silver-laden glass in the dots affecting the ivory base - as in the picture below.

The other wonderful reaction that happens in glass is that the base colour also can change the colour of what goes on top, ie the dots in this case, so the resultant dots can be purple instead of blue!

This is truly the magic of glass to me. Sometimes, what I think will come out of the kiln is not what eventually comes out.  I think I have it (sort of) worked out and then it just surprises me with another extraordinary gift.


Cheers,
Jenni



Whatever you can do or dream you can, BEGIN IT.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Goethe.