Fritty Stuff

For those of you who don't "glass," frit is ground bits of glass. It can come in powder form (Size 0) and in larger and larger gradations to about the size of an uncooked lentil.

It's also quite a business - creating frit blends (combinations of colors) - for lampworkers. Renowned lampwork artist Lori Greenberg is hosting a frit challenge.

I entered some squeezed heart beads made with my own frit blend that I call Denim:


This set and a set of matching squeezed beads are available on HollysFolly.com.

Holly's Folly Goldfish Necklace

Holly's Folly Goldfish Necklace
Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

My entry for the March 09 Art Bead Scene Contest, inspired by Henri Matisse's The Goldfish Painting.

I was shocked by all the bright colors in this month's inspiration painting, but upon reflection, knew I had the perfect beads... I had already made a series of Koi fish for a customer.

Since making the bead is the first hurdle to overcome in the monthly contest and I had several in existence, I felt ahead of the game and decided to try something a bit more elaborate jewelry - wise. The bright colors in the painting reminded me of bead crochet right away. I had longed to play with different shapes of beads and different sizes and this seemed the perfect piece to try that on.

As my luck would have it, I finished the necklace and was building the tassel and realized those koi I had made were way to big for the necklace. Working small is not my forte on the torch but I made three more tiny koi and they were just the right size.

The necklace is made of both metallic core and matte e-beads, 6 mm Swarovski crystals, Size 8 orange beads, and Czech pressed glass floral and leaf beads. All were hand strung to satisfy my strange brain's desire for "randomness" and crocheted on heavy cotton cord. Bali bead caps and sterling toggle clasp round out the basic necklace. I should mention I crocheted this with a 3 beads per round so this is much smaller diameter piece than I've made in the past.

The tassel is made on 19 strand beading wire woven through the necklace and crimped. The three art beads were worked in randomly and all ends were crimped for finishing.

Comments:

Islandgirl said...

I have pieces of mine sitting on the kitchen counter... guess that doesn't count as an entry!

March 20, 2009 5:31 AM

Eri Attebery said...

I love the Koi fish! Beautiful work!

March 23, 2009 4:13 PM

Fire Diva's Spring Fling

My new lampwork beads group is having a Spring Fling Sale on Etsy. Many of us are offering 25% off in our shops to introduce the Fire Diva's to the world. Several members are extending their sales to 1000 Markets and Artfire.

Just search for Spring Fling on the websites mentioned above to find sale items from my wonderful team members.

My own Spring Fling 25 % off sale is HERE.

MIA

I am buried under a mountain of tax paperwork and ... life keeps getting in the way. Today's fiasco involved a pack of labs jumping up on me while hiking in the creek. I later realized that had dislodged my car keys that "had" been safety pinned to my clothes!

Then the pupster ran off and got in some choyas. Her first cactus problem since she was a puppy and came home with over 200 stickers! Today was mild - under 30. But I still had to sedate her and it was a three person job to remove them. That cost me most of the afternoon!

Anyway, there are a bunch of new beadies up on the site and I'm trying to add one or two more every day.

Here's a few more teasers:

"Sasha"

"Robin Eggs"