Showing posts with label handmade lampwork beads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label handmade lampwork beads. Show all posts

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Elise - Lampwork Glass Beads.

I am finally having a summer moment, even though the weather is still freezing cold and showing no sign of spring!  Here we have bright, hot pink and turquoise to brighten up any jewellery design.  It is a great colour combination that could form the basis of a beautiful piece of jewellery or "wearable art". 

 How did I make these beads? .... for any future lampworkers out there .....

Glass Used :

Effetre Dark Turquoise 591236
Effetre Teal 591056
Effetre Soft White 591208
CIM Heffalump 511645
CIM Cranberry Pink

Ok, I used Dark Turquoise and Heffalump as the base colours.  I then added a strip of Cranberry Pink on top of the Heffalump and a strip of Teal on top of the Dark Turquoise.  I melted the transparent glass into the base bead to create the effect you can see in the photograph.  The white glass was used to create the pretty little flowers that you can see on each bead.

Creating the flowers is very easy .... Add three blobs (very technical term) of white in a triangle on the surface of each strip.  Melt these in.  Then push a sharp pointy tool (another technical term) into the centre of each flower (gently).  Re-heat the flowers and the bead carefully to maintain the shape of the bead and to ensure the hole that you created closes over.  You should be left with a pretty little flower.


I will add pictures to this blog post next time I make a bead with little white flowers.  It is true, a picture paints a thousend words but I hope that this will be ok for now.

This is a very pretty set of lampwork beads ... but then I would say that and do quite often.  But I was seriously contemplating keeping this set of beads for myself (and will probably make myself a set next week). The colours are rich, vibrant and full of promise that we will have a beautiful summer in Britain this year!

I would also like to mention that whilst I was writing this post I had an audience of three stray chickens .... quite surreal and slightly wierd as they were not mine!  They just decided to wander up to my garden and sit with me in my shed/studio/shed all afternoon.  They are now wandering across the field to their real home for the night ....

Sarah xx
www.beadscrumptious.co.uk
www.hypersmash.com



Monday, January 7, 2013

Beadscrumptious in Bloom!

Periwinkle Beads.

Britain in Bloom!  This is a competition held every year by the Royal Horticultural Society.  Villages, Towns and Cities are transformed with beautiful floral displays to win the Britain in Bloom award for that particular year.  It was started in 1963 by the British Tourist Board until 2002 when the Royal Horticultural Society became the lead organiser.  Quite often on our family travels we have passed through towns and villages displaying their Britain in Bloom winning plaque! 




2012 brought my own little tribute to Britain in Bloom!  I made quite a few lampwork floral sets, in many different colours and usually inspired by a particular flower I had seen that morning on my walk back from the school bus.  So to finish 2012 and welcome in the New Year 2013 (I love odd numbers) I thought I would share some of my own 2012 Beadscrumptious in Bloom!

My adventure making floral beads began with this little bead!
 
 

 
 
This developed into the Periwinkle series of beads at the top of the page.  I used these beads to make some pretty pieces of jewellery.
 

 


Well, it is no secret that the weather in Britain this year was a complete washout! So, to keep myself sane because I really do love blue skies, flowers and summer time.  I just kept making happy flowers trapped within the glass, suspended in time ... a bit like our summer this year!
 



 
I had my own little summer happening in shed/studio/shed!  To finish off my year I made myself some periwinkle beads with a little extra sparkle!
 



 
I haven't quite decided where I am going with the floral beads this year but I am sure I will have some fun along the way.
 
Some of the beads featured in this post are available in my shop on Etsy (soon to be on my website shhhh don't tell anyone yet)..... Beadscrumptious on Etsy!
 
 
Sarah xx
 

Monday, December 3, 2012

A Journey through Love!


You send my heart all a flutter!
 

 

Love ..... falling in love ...... being in love ..... falling out of love ..... unloved!  Love accompanies us on our journey through life and can take many different forms.  Somewhere deep within my subconscious I have been exploring this journey through my art work ....
 
When you first fall in love it is all consuming and sends your heart all a flutter .... Quite by accident I stumbled across turning an implosion bead into a lampwork heart focal bead!  Ideas have been ransacking my brain ... no taking over all of my thoughts of how this can be developed further ... Valentines Day preparations are already taking place in the land of Shed/Studio/Shed .... watch this space as they say. 
 
So let me take you on a visual journey of Love!
 
Intense : Queen of Hearts!
 

Pure Decadence!



Love Flies!




Darkness (Confused).

Complicated!



Wisp (Fragile Heart).



Christmas Sparkle (New Hope).




Spring, fresh, Summer Love!


 
Plain and Simple : True Love!




I have lots more hearts waiting in the wings ..... many more ideas to be explored!
 
Some of these hearts are available to purchase either in my shop on Etsy ..................
............................................................ or as jewellery on Wow Thank You!
 
Sarah xx
 


Sunday, November 25, 2012

CRAFTfest is Here!





Ok thought I would write a short blog post to let you all know that CRAFTfest has now started!  There are over 250 stalls selling a range of handcrafted items so you don't need to look any further this Christmas.

You can sit back in the comfort of your own home and shop contentedly!  There are no crowds, no parking fees, no over stressed people to make your shopping experience unpleasant and you can have as many coffee's as you want without having to take out a second mortgage!  Enjoy shopping from the comfort of your armchair, desk, bed whatever ......

Support Handmade!

CRAFTfest!

Sarah xx
 


 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Regalicious!


I have been so busy making beads that I haven't had the chance to write about these yet.  I am really enjoying making these bead sets.  It is quite liberating, actually!  I like just letting the glass flow, mixing up the colours and seeing where it takes me. 

As you can see from the photograph, I used transparent red, pale transparent green and ivory.  I also added some silvered ivory here and there for a contrast.






Some red coloured glass can be quite tricky to work with.  The red glass rods that I used for these beads start off a very pale straw colour.  When you heat the glass in the flame it changes colour or 'strikes' to form red.  But, it isn't always as simple as that.  With the glass I used for these beads there is a degree of 'striking'.  After each application of heat, the bead needed to be cooled slightly and the heat re-applied to bring out the richness or intensity of the red colour.  I could see the colour developing in the flame.  This is great but there were times where the colour wouldn't developed throughout the whole bead and these beads had to be scrapped.  It was quite frustrating!

I have a few more colour combinations that I want to try before I develop these beads further and to be honest I am enjoying where this journey is taking me .......




This bead set is available in my shop on Etsy - Beadscrumptious on Etsy!


Sarah xx








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