Just a small Experiment to Share with you

No, this is not something that will cause me to blow up my house.

It's an experiment in glass.

 

I set up some rules, and I wanted to see what the results would be.

I'm really pleased.

I made 7 focals using these rules.

 

The rules were these.

1) Use a base of white glass.

2) Add a bottom layer of dark ivory.

3) Encase the white glass with a transparent color.

4) Roll the hot glass in raku frit.

5) Make one swirl on the front and one swirl on the back.

6) Add 3 dots on one side and two on the other.  Use transparent colors for the dots.

 

Ta-da!!

 

The reaction of  the frit on the transparent glasses surprised me.

The first focal was made with transparent gray glass.

I like the way the raku frit reacts with the gray.

The blue bead on top is just pretty to me.

It felt like everything went well.

The grape bead with the red dots reminds me of a kid when grape and cherry were my favorite colors and tastes!!  I like it.

The green bead is gorgeous!  I love the way the greens came out in the frit!

The pink bead next to it surprised me.  I thought the pink would be darker.  There wasn't much of a reaction with the glass. 

That's okay, I do like it anyway.

The bead on the bottom left reminds me of a honeycomb.  

The frit reacted well and blues came out in the flame.  

I added black dots.

Normally, those aren't my colors, but I liked this bead.

The red bead is one of my favorites!

I dotted it with green glass.

It just seemed perfect for the seasons.

I liked the way blues popped out of the frit.

I am hoping to list these in my Etsy store soon, 

so

stay tuned!

I took the Challlenge, but I did it Wrong! Ooops!

While reading "Copper Glass and Recycled Trash" a week and a half ago, I saw this blog post:  40 dots only Bead Challenge.  This led me to this link, and thank you very much for the information,
Heather Trimlett's page.  I downloaded the information, and I got to work.  I finished making my 40 beads two days ago.  I took a picture, and I sent it to Heather. 

I received a lovely note from Heather talking about needing to start a board on Pinterest for people who think outside the box.  She was very kind and gracious in her note, but said that she would not be able to use my photo because I didn't follow the guidelines properly.

What?  Not use my beads after I had worked so hard on this project!  What?

Well, turns out, I didn't follow the directions properly.  I really didn't.  I missed the part about melting in each dot on the bead.  Ooooops!  I guess that was kind of important!!  Oh, well, it was good practice, and I did get some lovely beads out of the project! 

Thanks you, Heather.  I'll probably try this again, later.  This was a great exercise in glass bead making.  It truly stimulates the creative flow of the muse.  Thanks, also, to Copper Glass and Recycled Trash for posting this on their blog.  I would suggest that if you do make glass beads to give this challenge a try.  Just don't forget the important details like I did!  It was well worth the work!

Do you dot?

You might, but I don't know anyone who can dot like Tera Belinsky-Yoder of Beadygirl Beads on Etsy. I call Tera the Queen of Dots. If I could dot like her, I'd die a happy woman. Take a look at some of her fabulous beads!












This is one of my current favorites in Tera's store. It's called Alien in Cream. Look at all of those fabulous dots!
















This set of beads is called Tabazuma. This time, Tera melted her fabulous dots into the bead and didn't leave them raised. Look at Tera's use of color, too. She has combined colors that I didn't think would go together. Wow!















Tera calls these beads Tiny Triangles! And look at those dots! Look at her use of color with dots. Amazing!


















Look at the intricate use of dots in this bead. Zuma Single 3 is the name of this bead. I am amazed at how Tera's dots lead from one to another into the pattern. Isn't it beautiful?

This is only a preview of some of the beads in BeadyGirl's store. Make sure you visit this store. You won't regret it!

Time to Bring the Beads Back to this Blog

There is a challenge happening on the Wet Canvas Forums in the glass section. The challenge is to make one or more beads with 100 dots or more. Hmmmmmm, I thought. Can this be done? Sundaisy, the person who started the challenge, said that it was all right to stack the dots. So, I thought, maybe it's possible. I made my first bead today. I counted dots as I worked. My total was 100. At that point, I stopped and put the bead into the kiln to soak. After the bead cooled, I cleaned it and counted the dots. The total was 92! I really miscounted. If there is a set of stacked dots in there somewhere that I didn't see, I guess it won't count. Oh, well. I really like the bead. I used my "shorts" to make it. I call it a Fragile Start to Autumn. As far as the 100 dots go, tomorrow is another day!