I've been experimenting over the past few weeks on making shards: thin pieces of blown glass. The technique utilizes a hollow mandrel. a globe of glass is created on the end of the mandrel and when it is closed off and heated, it can be blown into a hollow ball of glass. The glass can be shattered into small pieces which are placed on a gather of glass. The result is a thin layser of color on a larger glass bead. For example:
The above beads are made starting with a gather of periwinkle blue glass. Shards of dark amethyst are added onto the gather after it is pressed into a lentil mold. Then a stringer of amethyst glass is added to the top of the bead, twisted into a swirl and accented with a cubic zirconium. This is just one of many possibilities of color combinations. See these beads as earrings on my etsy site: etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss.
