New addition to my workshop

I'm back after an incredible vacation in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Before I got started making beads again, I decided to invest in a reconditioned oxygen concentrator, to avoid hubby having to cart heavy oxygen cylinders back and forth from the gas supplier (although the oxygen concentrator is heavy on its own).  The one below was purchased at Flametree Glass in Roswell, GA.

Here it is:

It doesn't deliver as high a flow of oxygen as an oxygen tank, but it is adequate for my torch (a minor burner).  So far, I haven't experienced any problems working with it.  Its flow rate is adequate for the size beads I usually make.  And its nice not to have to worry about running out of oxygen---it's there when you need it.

Happy Holiday Season

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.  It's going to be rainy here in Georgia, but the weather will be warm so we don't mind.  I'm going to take a break from beadmaking and blog-writing until March, when I will be back in full spirit.  See you then!

Devardi blues

I mentioned buying an assortment of green glass rods from Devardi recently.  At the same time, I purchased an assortment of blue glass rods:

Most of them have a distinct turquoise hue.  I've been using them for larger hole beads, some for 2mm leather and some with big holes (greater than 4 mm):

It looks like these colors will expand my available colors in the turquoise range.

Transparent-opaque mixtures

One of the glass rods which I worked with in the "40 shades of blue" project at Spruill Arts Center last summer was a rod which looked like it was a mixture of opaque sky blue and transparent blue-grey.  It was labeled "Capri", but it wasn't the shade of aqua blue normally associated with that color.  That gave me the idea of mixing transparent and opaque glass.  I take two rods, tape them together and use them as one rod to layer glass on my mandrel.  This is the result:

I like the effect and I'll be using the beads in my jewelry.  Watch my Etsy site (www.etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss).

Devardi greens

My kiln is waiting for a new relay, so in the meantime I'll report on a project I've been working: playing with a stash of Devardi green glass I recently purchased from Amazon.  The glass is a mixture of rods of various colors and transparancies:

Using different frits, enamels and pixie dust, I've come up with an interesting assortment of basic round beads to use in future jewelry projects:

I especially like pixie dust---more on that later.

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.

Purple

Awhile ago, I purchase Timeless Purple frit from Bead Goodies.  I've been experimenting with it and one combination I like is the frit over a base bead of Plum (CIM 658).  After melting in the frit, I let the bead heat up and flow under gravity.  When I like what I see, I cool the bead, add dichroic sparkles (magenta), encase the bead in clear, and shape it.  Then I add cubic zirconium or two for good measure and this is the result:

Similar beads will be on sale in my Etsy shop soon (www.etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss).