Bead sets

Working from Pantone's colors for Spring, 2015, I've been preparing bead sets using glass that match as closely as possible with the Pantone colors, such as aquamarine, classic blue, lucite green, custard, strawberry ice and tangarine:

 Some of the beads utilize the frits that I have posted on previously.  These bead sets will be on sale in my Etsy shop (Etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss) in early April.

Spring colors

Even though we haven't made it through winter yet, I'm thinking ahead to the spring.  The Pantone colors for spring, 2015 remind be of a Caribbean vacation, aquamarines, classic blue, mint green, orange, yellow, rose pink.  To get ready for the season, I prepared two frit blends incorporating these colors.  The first one is made up of cool colors and reminds me of the Caribbean ocean:

It's a mixture of Effetre colors, including light and dark turquoise, dark aqua (transparent, and nile green opalino.  I've made two beads with the frit layer on clear and then encased in clear, with a strand of fine silver (28 gauge) melted around the equator.

The second blend reminds me of a colorful beach cabana:

It's made with light and dark turquoise, tangerine (Effetre 591412) and a yellow glass that I can't positively identify.  Unfortunately, some of the labels on my glass were lost in the move to Georgia.
Beads made using this frit with the same technique as described above are also shown in the photograph.

As usual, expect to see beads made with these blends in my Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss).

Sedona stripes

A few years ago, my husband and I took a road trip to Sedona to visit my step-daughter.  I fell in love with the landscape, the red rocks, the pine trees, the sunsets.  These beads are a homage to Sedona:

I start the bead with a base layer of red roof tile (440), then add stripes of yellow ochre (460), EDP (254), light turquoise (232) and Vetrofond tangerine (944).  I place a layer of silvered ivory between the turquoise and the EDP, and wrap a few inches of fine silver wire (26 gauge) over the silvered ivory and burn it off, forming beads of silver.  Before I place the bead in the kiln for annealing, I heat in the hottest part of the flame to remove the white deposits which form on the EDP.  When the beads are cool, they are ready form make into jewelry which I sell in my Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss).

Purple and pea green earrings

I've been busy with Christmas preparations, cards, church bake sale and holiday bazaar among other things, so my bead making has suffered.  I've been experimenting, but nothing concrete.  One thing I have accomplished, however, it to make earring to go with a new top I made.  The material is colorful:  purple, pea green, orange, fuchsia, black and white.  I figured that dots would be the best way to incorporate all these colors in a single lentil bead.  So I made a base bead of white, a little smaller than my lentil press and placed dots of black, pea green, eggplant (CIM 655), EDP (Effetre 254) and Tangerine (Vetrofond 939) to cover most of the white bead.  The results are shown below, along with a scrap of leftover fabric:

The EDP had to be heated in intense flame to prevent the devitrification reaction, which was only partially successful, but I don't think it looks that bad on these beads.  The bead on the left has spots of Effetre Pink Stripe (253) instead of EDP.  I don't think it looks very good over white, it seems more apricot than pink, but by itself it produces quite a nice deep pink---more on that in a later post.

I've got a pair of earrings.  A necklace would be lost in the colors of the fabric, but a bracelet might be a nice accessory.