Hollow glass shells

Now that summer has arrived, I've been thinking about beaches and beach combing and a recent issue of Soda Lime Times gave me some ideas for making shell beads, using hollow beads.  The results, still experimental are shown below:

The one in the lower left was made on a puffy mandrel, using two layers of glass, a transparent pin, and ivory.  I purposefully left one spot thinner than the rest, and as I kept blowing that spot ballooned out until it popped.  Then I played with the edges to produce a shell-like shape.  The others were made by first laying down a thin tube of pink (CIM Desert Pink).  Then I built up discs of ivory or CIM Butter Pecan at either end, pushed them together and let nature take its course in making a hollow bead.  When I achieved the shape I wanted, I heated one spot until glowing, then pulled that part of the bead with my pliers and when sufficiently cool, I cut it with nippers and opened up the resulting hole, again playing with the edges to mimic a shell.  There's plenty of room for improvement and improvisation!

Autumn colors

The temperatures and the humidity are dropping in Georgia and there is a definite nip in the air.  It's time to start thinking about fall.  I've made an attempt to reproduce the Pantone fall colors in lampwork beads and here's the result:

As usual when attempting to reproduce the Pantone colors, its sometimes difficult to find an exact match in lampwork glass.  The glass I have selected is as follows, from top left to top right (Effetre unless otherwise noted): Alabaster turquoise (352), Lipstick (CIM 140), Avocado green (210), Weimaraner (CIM 811), EDP (254), Leaky pen (CIM 508), Heat wave (420), Desert pink (CIM 957), unknown color (label lost in the move from Fort Wayne to Atlanta), Lichen (Vetrofond 986).  All of the beads have a stringer of silvered ivory wrapped round the equator of the bead with silver wire melted in, and have been distorted out of round to add interest.  They are currently on sale in my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss.