Finding My Muse Again

I've been slowly finding my muse again after ages away from my torch. In the end, sitting behind the flame and just playing has brought her back! Hey, what can I say...it's been a rough year and it's going to get worse before it ever gets better. For that reason alone, I NEED to torch more!!!

What has come out of the flames this past week has amazed me. Some of the beadies, I knew I would love:

I was squealing with gless when I made the wavy stems on these flowers... And their matching set:

Some beads surprised me... like this color test that I was certain I hated so I failed to shape it as carefully as I should have... and was again squealing at the colors that developed inside the kiln!

Still other beads were just plain strange but still likeable in their strangeness:

And some delighted in their predictability:

I'm still not over my obsession with long skinny beads:

Or what can be done with them:

And finally, I took a little time to make something I've always wanted: A bobbin bead of my very own.

It's been a productive week with lots more to show... The beads you see here (except for MY bobbin) will be available on my glass bead site this week. (I list one or two a day.)

Thank you to those who have stayed with me... I appreciate it!

More wedding how-tos coming....

Here's Looking at You

The eyes still have it! The obsession continues....

I've had several requests for eye beads... I'm so grateful people appreciate these.

These two beauties are now listing on the glass bead website...where all my NEW work goes (except for holiday stuffs!). You can find them both HERE.

Eye murrini by the awesomely talented Ms. Janel Dudley. Be sure to check out her cool eyeball earrings if you visit her store!

Hopefully, I'll see you much earlier tomorrow. New Halloween beads for AF!!!!

The Eyes Have It

A while back I post this photo with little explanation other than a comment about finding my mojo again:

 I wanted to tell the story behind this bead and a few others.

I've never been one to "get" murrini. I've played with a few pieces and go "ick" and usually toss the bead in the water. I've never figured out how to use murrini with what I do. And sometimes, that's so frustrating. My goodness! My friend Lauren is such a murrini lover, she dedicates her Monday blog posts to murrini! And her work is amazing.

And my friend Janel makes the most amazing eye murrini and turns them into the most stunning necklaces:

Then Janel decided to write an Eye Bead Tutorial and asked me to try it out her way. She sent me some of her stunning eye murrini and some glass rods and OH MY! I was in LOVE!

These were my first attempts at Janel style eye beads:

First of all, I learned more about casing and what I was doing wrong from Janel's tut and I learned about coaxing that murrina to do what you want it to do. It's a great tut!!

But I never want to make a bead just like someone else does so I started trying to think of how I could use Janel's techniques. I've always been fascinated with eye beads. If you  don't know the history or meaning behind them, you may find them creepy.

Eye beads are meant to offer protection. Think of the third eye in Indian culture. The eye bead for protection is also really popular in Greece, Armenia and in Egypt. I've always been fascinated with Egyptian eyes and looked at lots of Egyptian artwork to come up with the background colors for that bead above. I also researched Egyptian symbolism to figure out what to put on the back.

I found out that a squared off version of a swirl... an image prevalent in all human art since the caveman era ... stands for home. What a better thing to offer protection over than home!

I loved the bead but got so entranced in the process of making it, I forgot a few steps! I wanted a casing of clear over the eye to magnify Janel's stunning murrina. And... it just seemed to be lacking something!

In the end, I realized that sand was probably a more fitting background as the bright colors of Egyptian art may not appeal to most customers. And I wanted it bigger! I do love those big beads!

Here's the final version:

And the back:

I'm finally excited about murrini thanks to Janel!

P.S. Her tut should be ready really soon!!!!

That Darn Blue Feather

This month's theme for the Art Bead Scene is The Blue Feather. Yes, it's another abstract piece and I don't do well with those. In fact, I'm so relieved it was called the blue feather because I would have NEVER gotten that otherwise.

I've Got Friends...

It just so happens I had been reading up on how to make a feather murrini. My buddy Janel Dudley is working on a tutorial for sale using murrini and asked me to proof / make suggestions. And... I SO don't do murrini. I look at them and go "Oh, those are nice...but what would I DO with them??" But that Janel - what a wonderful  and sneaky friend she is - sent me some murrini and some glass to actually try her tut out on the torch. And I LOVED it!

So that got me curious about obsessed with murrini. And while I didn't feel capable of pulling murrini as elaborate and stunning as Janel's, I wanted to try and pull something simple and since a feather is just stacked layers - about 16  layers - of glass, I thought I could give that a try.

The Blob!

My first attempt ended in frustration. It didn't look like a feather so much as a blob of glass! After I made a bead with it I realized it was a mistake to try and get gradient color in the feather.

My second pull didn't seem to look any different except there was this wonky part that I thought didn't get hot enough. After re-reading the feather tut, I realized that wonky bit was the IDEAL shape for feather murrini.  And after taking this picture, I realized they are all the right shape...I just pulled them too thin.

Color Me Blind....


So I tried applying it to a bead. I didn't really like this one... the colors between the bead and the feather are too similar. The feather just disappears. I also decided leave the flowers raised.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

So my final attempt, I went with a different background color. I used transparent lapis over a white heart. I also used a bit of brown to rake the murrina. And can I digress a bit to kvetch about digital cameras and the color BLUE??? WHY the heck doesn't that color photograph properly???  The bead in the photo below is THIS COLOR...not the crappy blue on the screen. This fact of digital bugs the crap out of me to the point I've got a GORGEOUS blue bead that's been on my desk for months and I won't list it for sale because I hate every picture I see of it!

[Stepping down off my soapbox] This is the bead I hope to use in my ABS entry... if the jewelry muse hits me over the head in time to enter!