More beads...

So, I didn't get anything new done yesterday but, I did get some of the old ones cleaned up.

This Ocean swirl set has been around here since I did a bunch of them last summer. I just love them and this morning, I dunked them in an etching solution.

It clouded the clear parts of the beads and brightened up the copper green.

I liked them before, but even more now.

I took them along on a bead shop visit today and sold them on the spot. Glad I got a picture before they were gone.

This little vessel (I even put a dime in the picture for comparison) was an experiment with using a solid base and building on it with a couple of different transparents. It's Ink Blue with light blue used to close the center. You can see the gray-blue base bead at the neck of the "pitcher".

Couldn't resist running a ring of raku frit around it too. Maybe I just can't leave well enough alone these days!

Getting back to the torch after a spell away is in some ways like starting all over again except that I have had a lot of input from viewing others' beads online and I guess I'm feeling pressure to do some of the things I've seen.

Maybe I need to stay away from the show and tells and just work on my own for a while.

This one was just an end of day experiment.

I made a very thin base of ivory and started adding rings of various transparents. Then, after melting it all in, I raked the rings up and down around the bead.

See the reaction of the purple - like a veil coming down in a V? You just never know what will happen with some of these mixtures. I'm not sure if it's a good reaction or if I just burnt the heck out of it!

With a little more playing with other colors and raking more precisely, this could be a pretty cool technique.

This one is pretty small too. For a real focal, I think it should be bigger. It could, however be a nice focal on a bracelet - and it seems like it would go with just about anything!