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).

Turquoise and enamel

I've already done quite a bit of experimenting with enamels on glass and below is a combination that I like:

Thompson Enamel transparent beryl green (9443) on top of light turquoise (Effetre), with and without melted silver wire.  I like the ocean waves effect.  Look for these soon in my Etsy shop:  www.etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss

Lily pads

I bought a new frit color a while ago, Lily Pad from Glass Diversions, and I have been experimenting with it on different backgrounds.  Below is the frit on Nile Green Opalino (Effetre):

I've already made earrings with the combination and they are for sale in my Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss);  bead sets of these beads will be on sale soon.

New toys

I just bought new mandrels and some new glass from Franz Art Glass and Supplies:

On the bottom, new mandrels (3/16 in) for big hole beads, in the middle Effetre Nessi, a limited edition transparent blue-green glass and on top, Effetre Spanish Leather, a shade of terra cotta.

I'll be experimenting with these over the next few weeks and I'll share what I find out.

Metallic black on black

I've been doing more experimenting with shards, this time using metallic black.  This Effetre glass is more viscous than other glass that I've used for shards, so I haven't been able to get the shards as thin as I'd like, but they still look nice on CIM Hades with a cubic zirconium for good measure:

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

On the beach

After a brief vacation to visit my daughter over the Easter weekend, I'm back in Georgia, experimenting with stripped beads reminiscent of a beach landscape.  Here are some of the combinations I've come up with:

The small beads are made as described in the previous post:  a single color with a stripe of silvered ivory around the equator, accented with silver wire.  The larger beads made with stripes of various Effetre colors laid over Seashell Swirl (Vetrofond 955):  light turquoise, Nile green opalino, transparent teal and light lapis with a stripe of silvered ivory and a twist with a cubic zirconium in the middle.   The larger bead on the left has been fitted with sterling silver bead caps and a bail made from silver wire fitted with a silver bead.  As usual, similar beads will soon be on sale in m Etsy shop (etsy.com/shop/DeborahDRoss).

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.