Bicones revisited - a "man-bead style"

Hello readers,

Well, I managed to get a little time in the studio this weekend and all I could seem to make was large bicone shaped beads - well they are pretty large for me!

Slightly more than a year ago, I did a bead-making course at Blue Dog Glass in Moorabbin, Melbourne, which was organised by the lovely Sue from Bead Glass in Patonga N.S.W.

The guest instructor was Jim Smircich from U.S.A.
Jim's speciality is control of heat whilst making beads. He seemed to favour the bicone shape at the time (that seems to be a favourite shape of his).
We were shown how to shape this style of bead using heat and gravity and minimal marvering.

I think I did a flurry of practice immediately after the class, but have not made very many of this shape since then.
However, I do love the shape - although it is a shape that can be challenging to feature in a piece of jewelry.
Simply suspending a bicone from a chain or leather cord can be an effective approach.
I think because of this simplicity of style, the bicone shape can be appealing to men.

Men!  Yes men.
( I can hear a strange and rather nervous guffaw coming from my husband when I say this.)

"Surely you are not going to make me WEAR beads now....?"

So... here are a few of my "man beads" from the weekend........

 

Light Fossil base with reactive Intense black, light ivory ends.

 Rear- Base of medium fossil with twistie of Vetrofond purple-red, Effetre apricot yellow and Kugler Light Beige (used to be called ASK Moroccan Swirl) and Effetre Dark Ivory.

Front left - Base of Opal Yellow with twistie of Effetre Opal Yellow, Effetre Copper Green, EDP and Intense black. (very reactive).

Middle Right- Base of Vetrofond Yellow Ice, stripes of CIM Stoneground and Effetre Coral, raked. Dark red-brown "caps".

Rear - Effetre Silver pink with twistie of copper green and Double Helix Triton.

Triton "caps" reduced for a shimmering finish.

( I love this bead, however it is pitted, so I am going to try and make it again)

The tab beads in the front are made purely from Dark Fossil.

I absolutely love this glass, it looks like marble or granite.

The little bead is Effetre pearl grey which turned  a soft caramel colour with the application of silver foil.

That's it for tonight folks,

Cheers,

Jenni

Pantone color of the Year

Hello dear readers,

As discussed in a previous post, I have been exploring colour and colour palettes.

I have recently discovered the world of Pantone.

“Pantone is a standardized color matching system, utilizing the Pantone numbering system for identifying colors.”

According to Pantone, the 2011 color of the year is Honeysuckle.

The Pantone website describes Honeysuckle as:

"A Color for All Seasons. 
Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing “everyday” about it."

Once upon a time I had a lot of clothing in this gorgeous colour.

I remember a particular dress (well it was the 8o's!) that had panels of this colour pink, combined with panels of bright blue and teal. And I admit I totally loved it!

These days, I find this particular pink a bit bright for my taste, however I could still be tempted to have a few small accessories using it, especially in the warmer months.

After reading about the colour of the year, I started to wonder if I had any glass rod colours to match it.

I was astonished when I started to go through my studio how many different pink rods I found.

I don't think there is one that is an EXACT match, however I'm pretty sure that I could get close to the Honeysuckle colour, especially if I layered one colour over another.

Here is a picture of some of the pinks in my rod collection.

From left to right they are..

1.Effetre, Rubino Oro

2.Effetre, Rubino Oro, a different batch

3.CIM, Rose Quartz

4.CIM, Blush

5.Vetrofond Poppy, probably the closest match in the rod, however , unfortunately the colour can go a little orange after being heated in the flame.

6.Bullseye odd, Berry Blast, gorgeous in the rod; goes quite vivid when heated in the flame.

7.Rheichenbach, Pearl Rose

8.CIM, Desert Pink unique

9.Vetrofond odd, Bubblegum

10.Gaffer, Pale Rose

11.CIM, Chai unique

12.Effetre, opalino, Pale Pink

13.ASK, Passionate Pink

What do you think of the Colour of the Year?

Is it a colour you would wear?

See my previous post on colour palette here.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Jenni

An Amber Story - the Tears of Trees.

Hello readers,

Well it has been quite a while since I wrote my 'Garnet Story'
I would like to write this gemstone story about Amber, another of my personal favourites.

Amber is the fossilized, hardened resin of the pine tree. Some call it the "tears of trees".
Why this mass weeping of resin occurred so long ago (about 50 million years ago) is not entirely known.
One theory is that it was as a consequence of global warming; others suggest it was a matter of evolution.
Over the years the amber resin dripped from the trees and was absorbed into the soil.
It then solidified and the long process of fossilisation began.

One very interesting event that sometimes happened during the solidification process was the entrapment of insects in the still soft resin as they crawled over the forest floor.
Amber samples that have insects embedded within are both fascinating scientifically and extremely valuable.

Baltic Amber with insect 

Amber deposits are mostly found in the Baltic; the largest deposit in the world is west of Kalingrad, Russia.
A lot of amber is still buried deep, hundreds of metres underground, hidden forever.
Some amber deposits that were not so deeply embedded in the folds of the earth were washed out by the action of glaciers and rivers and are still being found today.

Amber is very light and will float in sea water.
There are still places in Poland that go "amber fishing" today, searching amongst the shallows of the sea with nets for amber pieces.

Amber, of course, like many other gemstones can be imitated and, these days, as we know, some copies are really good; it's almost impossible for the untrained eye to spot the real thing.

As I have mentioned above, it is very light and will float. That is one indicator of authenticity.
If you apply nail polish remover to amber it should not be affected in any way. If the amber is actually plastic, it will become sticky.
Another test is to light it with a match.
Real amber will give out a nice fragrant pine smell, noxious fumes if plastic.
However, it's a bit difficult to do the latter test in a shop!

My Grandmother's amber necklace

This amber necklace (I think) belonged to my Grandmother, the same one who wore the Garnet ring.
(I say think because I remember the beads being larger and the strand longer, strange how things seem smaller now that we are adults!)

I remember sitting on her bed as a child and trying this necklace on and running it through my fingers.
She told me that the amber would take on the warmth of the person wearing it, and to me that was magic!

(These facts about amber have been taken from a wonderful book, Jewels, by Victoria Finlay, an amazing book full of history and travel stories of these 'miraculous oddities of nature'.

(Photo of Baltic amber with insect taken from Wikipedia).


You can see 'My Garnet Story' by clicking here.

Cheers for now,

Jenni

Tag Fire Lotus, New Batch

Hello dear readers,

After the excitement of my first success with Tag Fire Lotus glass, I decided to stock up and order some more.
I was a little disappointed that I did not achieve quite the colours as I did from the first attempt.
I put that down to user experience (the lack thereof)!

However when looking at the rods I noticed that my first glass order of Fire Lotus rods were significantly darker in colour than the second order, and now I am wondering if this has anything to do with the more muted reaction?!
When I inquired at a glass supplier this morning about this, I was informed that this variability of rod colour and associated reaction is normal for this glass manufacturer.
(boy am I going to hoard my first order rods!)

The other thing that is bothering me, is the fact that I keep on getting little 'pits' in the bead.

I always thought this was from working the glass too hot, but this time I felt I had been more careful of doing that, so any suggestions on how this could be prevented would be GLADLY welcome!
(The pits are quite visible in the first photo in the long bead between the two murrini.)

Cheers for now and have a great day!

Jenni.

It's Wednesday.....!

Hello dear readers,

Well, it's Wednesday again and that means time to post to BTW, which for those who don't know stands for Bead Table Wednesday!
You can see participants photos on Flickr. Click on the btw logo on the left to take you straight there.

On my bead board at the moment is a selection of  faceted, pale grey chalcedony drops, amazonite nuggets and smooth ovals, caramel coloured Australian Mooakite and small Peruvian pale blue opal rounds.

I am playing around trying to decide if the lampwork focal beads I have go with this colour scheme or if I should make up a glass focal that is something a little more "watery" in colour.
Certainly the yellow- caramel coloured mooakite goes well with any of the focals...

Or maybe I need to add something else with a "pop" of colour?
 It does look a little pale and lifeless at the moment!

Colour palette mixing is something I do struggle with.

I usually spend ages just moving beads around until I am happy with the mix.

If not, I tend to let it sit for a while on the board and then go back to it, possibly days later with a solution.

Until next time,

Happy beading,

Jenni

Fire Lotus

Hello dear readers,

I have been playing around this weekend with Fire Lotus glass , made by Tag.
I am thrilled with the colour I have been able to coax from it this time.
In the past I have not always been successful with some of the silver-laden glass varieties.

This last Friday at a lampworking group get together, ( The Flaming Matildas), we were shown by Georgie how to coax the colour from fire lotus.
The trick was to initially heat it until almost white and to then allow it quite a longish cool, followed by deep, gentle re-heating high in the flame to bring out that next layer of colour.

I am happy to have coaxed out the lovely purple and magenta colours that have eluded me in the past.
(unfortunately there is a little pitting on the tab bead, must have heated it a little too much!)

The murrini are made by Jet Age Studio and the gorgeous greenish/yellow one is a reduction murrini called Goldrush. It gives a super metallic shine when reduced.
On the bead on the left I also included a small amount of a silvered ivory shard.

Here in Australia both the glass rods, murrini and shards are available at Affordable Inspiration.
In Melbourne the rods (on sale at the moment) and murrini are also available at Hot Bead Box

(Actually there is a murrini sale also at Affordable Inspiration  right now, so a good time to buy and try them all out!)

I know I will be topping up!.

Enjoy your day,

Jenni.

Australian Gemstones.

I bought these great Australian gemstones from Beads Online.

Trying to support my own country when I can!

Picture Jasper from Karratha, Western Australia, Mooakite from Cattle Station, Carnavon, Western Australia, faceted Unakite nuggets from Alice Springs, and gorgeous faceted citrine.

Have a happy weekend.

Jenni

Bead Table Wednesday 2

Goodness, the week has flown!

As I received my Bead Soup Blog Party beads from Grace in Philadelphia this week, I have started to think and plan how I may best put them together.

Which pearls to use?
Which gemstones to use?
Which colour combination do I like the most?
Will I add a lampwork bead to the mix?
Will I use wire?

I am totally in love with the crazy lace agate focal bead she made me, so, although I have shown a photo of this on a previous post, (after receiving the "soup"), I  am showing it again!

So this is what I am working on this Wednesday, there is a lot to think about.....!

Cheers and happy beading,

Jenni