Galaxy beads

Galaxy beads are a favorite with lampwork bead artists because there is so much room for individuality, yet just about anything you do looks fabulous.  For these beads, demoed by Margo in her class at Spruill Center for the Arts, we started with a thin layer of clear glass, then wound a layer of transparent cobalt blue glass followed by threads of clear.  From here we  improvised.  I added silver foil.  I trapped some of it under clear, but left some to burn away.  I also added silver mesh and allowed it to burn into beads.  I added small pieces of dichroic to one of the beads.  I spread the burned off silver foil by gravity on another bead to create swirls.  Finally, I encased them with clear.  Below are the beads, three of which have been prepared for use as pendant with silver caps and silver wire bails:

Garden lapidary lampwork bead

Last week at a meeting of Southern Flames, members had the opportunity to grind down a lapidary bead they had created to reveal the hidden layers underneath the outer coating.  We use equipment provided by Stephanie White of Beads by Design.  My bead consisted of a core of dichroic glass.  I then wrapped green filigrana glass around the core to create "vines, and added millefiori to resemble flowers.  After encasing in clear, I added opaque green enamel to hide the garden.  After grinding and polishing, this is what my bead looked like:

For full details and pictures of everyone's beads, see the Southern Flames website (www.southernflames.org).