Silvered ivory stringer

I downloaded Jacqueline Parke's ebook "Gems in Bloom" about a month ago, and I have been having fun playing with silvered ivory stringer.   First, heat the tip of an ivory rod and roll it in silver foil.  Burnish it in, then burn if off and heat until it forms a gather.  Pull into a stringer and use it to decorate beads.  Some of mine, suggested by Jacqueline's color combinations, are shown below:

From left to right, red roof tile with black, ivory with black, copper green with a little bit of EDP thrown in, and CIM Canyon de Chelly, all with stringers of silvered ivory around the middle of the beat.  Effetre glass unless otherwise noted.

Next, I played with swirling the glass and adding a 1mm clear cubic zirconium:

I've always had trouble holding the cubic zirconium in tweezers, so I decided to do a search for other methods and found that you can use a drop of white glue on the tip of a mandrel to pick up the flat side of the stone.  Place the mandrel upright in a rack until the glue is dry, then use it to place your stone on the bead.  The glue will burn off without a residue.

I've had so much fun playing that I haven't had time to make jewelry with any of these stones, but expect to see finished pieces in my Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss) soon.

Lacy lampwork beads with intense black on dark ivory

I've recently retired and moved to Atlanta where I am enjoying my new glass and metal studio.  I've been taking metal working classes at Chastain Arts Center and lampwork beadmaking at Spruill Center for the Arts.  I'll be sharing what I've learned as well as discoveries of my own on this blog.

First off, an easy but stunning reaction between dark ivory and intense black that Margo Knight demoed in class.  Make a base bead of dark ivory and shape it.  Then add thin stringers of intense black randomly on the dark ivory.  Put the bead in the hot part of the flame and watch for the lines of intense black to break up and spread out on the surface of the bead, creating a lacy effect.  Here are some of the beads I've made:

Look for jewelry made with similar beads in my Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss) soon.