A simple way to wear lampwork beads!

You have seen a beautiful set of lampwork beads and don't know what to do with them.  Well, here is a very simple solution to your problem ..... pop them onto a sterling silver chain and you have a very quick and simple item of jewellery.  The great thing about this is that you can change the beads very easily to match different items of clothing within your wardrobe.  This is something that I do very often.  

I quite like the simplicity and versatility of this.  I can wear one bead, a set of beads, mix and match them with other sets of lampwork beads and create statement peices of jewellery that I know I will be complimented on and that no-one else is wearing.

You could purchase some sterling silver rondell or round beads to place in between each lampwork bead to bring out the designs within the beads.  This creates a very effective look as well.  I love using sterling silver with lampwork beads and keeping things simple because it compliments the designs within the lampwork beads. 

Photo by Vicki Ritherdon

When you are purchasing your silver chain just make sure that the end is smaller that 2.5mm and rectangular in shape.  I do have sterling silver chains available should you wish to make yourself a statement piece of jewellery.  All you need to do is contact me. 

If you would like to see more beads that you could place onto a sterling silver chain .... please visit my shop on Etsy by clicking on this link -  Beadscrumptious

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

Ribbons.

 

I made this set of beads a few years ago.  I really liked the colour combinations and the way in which the ivory base reacted with the transparent green and blue.  It produced a gorgeous almost watercolour effect.  A couple of weeks ago I was looking through my selection of beads for inspiration and stumbled across this set of beads and remembered how I wanted to develop this watercolour effect further ...... so I did .....

 

 

I made these beads in pretty much the same way as the first set.  I used an ivory base and added a strip of transparent blue and transparent green.  I super heated the bead to help invoke a reaction with the ivory and them mixed things up a little with my faithful set of pliers.  The bead was re-heated to make a round bead and to create the puckered ends around the bead holes.  I have a thing about bead holes .... you may have guessed.   I prefer them to be finished to a very high standard.  I like my bead holes to be puckered and rounded in towards the bead hole.  There are no sharp edges to my beads they are finished to a very high standard.

 

 

 

 

Whilst I was making these beads I thought to myself "I wonder what these would look like if I sculpted a design onto the surface of the bead?" I had a go and instead of melting the colours into the glass, I created this ribbon sculpture on the surface of the bead.  It looks quite effective.  I love the way the glass moves when you heat it just right.  It is very fluid and keeps this illusion when it is cooled.  It gives the jewellery designer many different ways in which they can string this bead to great effect.

 

 

This was a great set of beads to make and I will definitely be developing the sculpted ribbon bead in more detail (so please don't copy this design).  I have plans to make a whole set of these beads in various different colours, designs, etched and not etched ..... the list is endless ..... my sketch book is full of ideas .... pages worth!

 

 

This bead set is available in my shop on Etsy.  If you click on a photograph a link will take you straight there.

 

Sarah xx

www.beadscrumptious.co.uk

www.hypersmash.com

 









Delightful Lampwork Beads!

Here is a set of lampwork beads that I developed in my wierd quirky style in cranberry pink, teal and turquoise.  I made a very similar set of beads called Elise and wanted to experiment and see what the beads would look like in this style. 

 

CIM Cranberry Pink is a gorgeous coloured glass.  One of my favourites but I do try to use it sparingly because it is very expensive.  It is also produces interesting spreading results when you use it for dots .... let me explain ...

 

 

 

I started out with a plain turquoise bead and added some small widely spaced, pale blue dots.  Normally as the dots melt into the glass they will retain their shape and remain widely spaced.  That is until I add cranberry pink dots on top of the pale blue.  The cranberry has the effect of making the dots spread until they hit the next dot and form pentagon/hexagon etc ..... shapes taking up all the available space on the bead.  A very clever effect!  This can be achieved without the cranberry by adding very large dots, close together on the surface of a bead and melting them in, but it never looks quite as effective as when you use a colour like cranberry.  It creates a very interesting pattern and also has a great effect on the colours as well. It almost concentrates the colours around the edge of the shapes ..... I have written another blog post about this glass so I will stop for now but there is more to come later .....

 

 

This is one of the reasons why I like working with glass.  There are so many different techniques and effects to experiment with.  It makes it very exciting and as long as you are not having a creative block, every moment at the torch is different.  I am one of those people that need to be challenged all the time and I thrive on this, so for me lampwork is great.  My little brain is doing star jumps trying to work out new ways to create with glass. 

 

But, all of this does come with time and from starting with the basics.  If you are new to making lampwork beads, make sure that you take time to practice making a round bead, adding equally spaced dots, experiment with colours and be patient with yourself.  It will all come with time. 

 

 

Anyway, enough of my ramblings ..... about the beads .... This is another great colour combination. Bright pink and bright turquoise balancing each other out and looking very delightful!  Hence the name ....

There are 13 beads in the set. These include 7 decorated beads and 6 spacer beads. The beads range in size from 18mm across to 9mm width to 15mm across to 8mm width. The spacer beads range from 12mm across by 7mm width to 11mm across by 5mm width. All of the beads have a 2.5mm bead hole.


These beads are available in my shop on Etsy.  All you have to do is click on one of the photographs and a link will take you there ....

 

Sarah xx

www.beadscrumptious.co.uk

www.hypersmash.com

  

 

 

Entangled Beads!

I have spent the last couple of weeks having a complete mind block.  I have sat at my torch with ideas but nothing seemed to work.  I would open the kiln the next day and think "mmmmmm" rather than "WOW, that's cool!" Then like a bolt of lightning something triggered in my brain and I made these beads .....

Annoyingly, I have made beads like this many times before but have never explored this technique further.  Perhaps like many things in life I just needed to wait for the right moment.  Now, I have re-discovered this I am on a roll ...... I can't stop myself ..... I am thinking of new colour combinations in my sleep.  I am once again disappearing up to my shed/studio/shed to make lots more.

These beads form a new collection of beads called my Entangled Beads.  All the wisp and tendrels of colour trapped within the glass, entangled and twisted together ..... you get the picture and if you look at the first photograph you will probably see where I am coming from.

This set of beads - Earth Filaments comprise 5 lampwork beads handmade by me.  I have used the same combination of glass for each bead but every bead is OOAK (one of a kind).  The beads range in size from 17mm across by 12 mm thick to 12mm by 10mm. The bead holes are approximately 2.5mm.

My beads also look fantastic strung from a sterling silver chain. The advantage of this is you can swop and change the beads as often as you like to create individual jewellery statements. If you would like some ideas about what to make with my beads click my Amber Shock Post.

I had a very lovely compliment the other day from a friend who didn't realise that I took all of the photographs myself.  Every photograph included in my blog/facebook/website/twitter/shops has been taken by me.  I hadn't realised until now that I should be quite proud of this ......

If you want to purchase these beads or view more of my work then all you have to do is click on one of the photographs and a link will take you straight to my shop.

Sarah xx

www.beadscrumptious.co.uk

www.hypersmash.com

  

  







Speckled Blue Blossom.

 

My speckled blue blossom beads remind me of blue speckled eggs!  I love the way the light passes through these beads highlighting all the different colours within the glass.  I made these beads as part of my Monday Glass Challenge : Something Blue!  These challenges are great because they help to stop those moments of artistic block by challenging my brain to think of new ideas.  

 

 

This set of beads were made using a lentil press.  I started my making a oblong shaped bead in transparent glass and then I rolled the bead in mixture of frit and pixie dust (sparkle, sparkle).  For those of you new to lampworking .. frit is basically ground up chippings (I suppose/my interpretation) of glass.  There are frit blend experts out there that mix different concoctions of glass to produce some beautiful blends.  You can create some wonderful effects using frit.

There is a real sparkle to these beads and I only wish the camera could capture this.  They really are very pretty beads. I call this style of  beads by blossom beads because all the mixtures of colours within the frit look like tiny blossom petals.

 
Are you a lampwork artist that uses frit blends in your beads?  What are your favourite blends/mixes?  Do you make your own? 

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



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



Jungle Fever!

 

Jungle Fever : A stunning set of lampwork glass beads handmade by me in warm amber colours.  I can't believe I haven't written about these beads before.  The colours are fantastic, deep rich shades of amber, .... very warm.  You can almost feel the heat radiating from them.  There is so much depth to these beads.  They would look fantastic combined with Vintaj charms and findings or just strung simply from a sterling silver chain.

I used the same colour combinations of glass for each bead so they all match.  The only thing I altered each time was the design.  I started by making an amber floral bead.  This bead is composed of five separate layers.  I started by creating a central core of deep rich amber and swirled lucious green foliage on the top.  I encased the bead in clear glass to prevent any colours bleeding into the next layer and then added the flower petals.  I trapped tiny bubbles of air in the center of each flower and then encased the bead in another layer of clear glass.

I am a perfectionist when it comes to encasing my beads in glass and I always make sure the bead is entirely encased with a perfect dimple surrounding the bead hole, as you can see in all of my photographs.  

I suppose I should explain why this is important ..... and this is something you can look for next time you purchase a bead or set of beads. Take a good close look around the bead hole of the bead and inspect it to see if there is a dirty looking line where the different colours meet. This is because the bead has not been entirely encased in glass and the colours within the lower layers of the bead have bled into the clear glass. If you like this kind of effect then great, but I prefer to encase my beads completely to avoid this. 

 

All of my lampwork beads are made to a very high standard. They are all kiln annealed, cleaned of all bead release (which is a very nasty substance that you don't want to breathe in) and thoroughly inspected.  As a lampwork bead artist, I take all of this very seriously .... as you can tell!

I also included one of my signature implosion flower beads in the set.  They look fantastic photographed like this but also look stunning when viewed from the side.  They look as though all the petals are rippling in the glass ... very pretty ... but then I would say that!  In the photograph above you can also see the remaining two beads in the set.  Swirls and swirls of deep rich amber coloured glass.  It is a shame you can't appreciate the depth within these beads from the photographs.

This bead set is available to purchase from my shop on Etsy at £18.00 for a limited period only (normally £25.00), just click on a photograph and it will take you there.  If you would like to keep up with any offers, competitions and my latest work please come over and "like" my facebook page and you will be kept up to date with everything I am up to - Beadscrumptious on Facebook

As all of my customers know, I always include a little something extra ....

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