The Latest

Well, it's been a busy week. For some reason, I got a cleaing bug and managed to get the house in really nice shape.

Delivered orders, took care of a lot of details I've been ignoring, made some soap and even managed to visit the new slots casino!

I also sat down and torched for the first time in a while and almost everything I made was a success.
For one thing, I tried blowing shards. I've been seeing some really beautiful things online made with dark silver plum shards and so, I got out the hollow mandrels I bought for a class that never came about and used them to blow shards from Dark Silver Plum.

This bead is the result of applying shards to a caramel apple bead and then reducing it to bring out the metallic sheen of the shards.

It's a start!

Then, I worked with some of the glass I bought last summer at Beadfest from Wale Apparatus. This vessel and bead are made with a combination of Desert Chameleon and Dark Topaz transparent. The Desert Chameleon has a bit of an almost opalescent gleam about it and the topaz, as always is just liquid amber... I'm very pleased with it. I finished another 4 of the beads, so there are now 5 of them which will make a great bracelet or an interesting necklace to wear with the vessel.

I made a couple other new vessels yesterday along with some other beads, but haven't had a chance to photograph them yet, but stay tuned, because I think they are a couple of the best vessels I have ever made!