First beads for April.....

New work...... 

I am working hard on making matched pairs of beads on the same mandrel...

fairly simple designs in bright colours.

Also I have recently been making a lot of encased ammonite beads, so loving the colours in this one!

I bought an impression plate with a butterfly motif (designed for use on metal sheet rather than glass) and used it to make these shank buttons but am not convinced the texture is deep enough.

Last up a bit of wall storage that I bought in ikea recently, it does a great job of organising my graphite tools.

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

New beads this week......

 Just a quick post run from me today, have a lovely day

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Cute sea creature beads....

Cute ocean critter heart beads

These are my favourite beads of 2024....so far!

Two tone glass hearts with a dash of silver leaf to bring out the organic caramel and sandy beach tones with teal instead of aqua for contrasting water element.

Decorated with cartoonis craba, lobsters and baby octopus with googly eyes.

Jolene x 

 

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Little monster fundraiser for CALM.....

Fundraising for suicide prevention charity CALM

Just 2 weeks ago my younger brother passed away from injuries he sustained during a suicide attempt. It is a very sad ending to what has been a decades long battle with mental health for him.

In my own way of trying to come to terms with what has happened I have started making these little monster beads with moustaches to raise money for CALM (campaign against living miserably) who provoke conversation around suicide, run life-saving services and bring people together to reject living miserably and get help when they need it s they don't die by suicide. 

I have all of the beads in an album on my facebook profile HERE with all the details of how you can adopt one of these guys and support CALM through my just giving fundraising page. 

 If you find yourself in need of support please reach out to one of the organisations set up to help....

CALM - https://www.thecalmzone.net

Samaritans - https://www.samaritans.org

and you can find a much larger list of websites and contact numbers for mental heath support on the Mind website here

www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/crisis-services/helplines-listening-services/

Jolene x

Bead sets ready now.....

 A selection of my glass beads in stock now....

Pansy Beads and more...

Still rebelling against the cold snap, I have made even more pretty flower beads this week. These top two mini sets are my first attempts at sculptural pansy beads. I enjoyed making them so very much and will ty to miniaturise the style a little for earring beads next week.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Springtime daisy beads

 Daisy bead sets...

I am so pleased with yesterdays studio creations, 3 large sets of beads in lovely springtime shades of transparent glass with a daisy motif. I have used the stepped heart texture plate to add interest, detail and scatter the light through the complimentary lentil beads in each set and on the back of the floral beads. Each set is completed with 8 pretty leaf beads and 16 matching spacers.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Purple flowers longing for spring...

Beautiful Purple glass...

I have used some stunning purple glass colours to make these pretty sculpted flower beads. The buds to the left are CiM Plum and Trapeze. The buds below are made with Cim Evil Queen and Trapeze and the flower topped buttons below are made with Effetre 072 and Simply Berry.

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Flower beads, buds and buttons....

Taking a break from making large sets with lots of detail to make pretty curvy beads that have the kind of curves and texture that glass seems to love to make. Some of these are beads and some are shank button style beads with big bold bright petals on top.

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

 

Beads inspired by c.1914 arts and crafts fabric

Voysey fabric inspired bead....

My third attempt at taking inspiration from the fabulous V&A Spectrum book.  

The print I have chosen today is from the Arts and Crafts movement, one of the Cumberland prints by Voysey. This particular furnishing fabric print has a lot of soft muted tones but the closest glass colours in my stash proved a bit more vibrant. 

This process is helping me to pin down what kind of beads I want to make as although this is a cohesive set I feel there are too many styles and base colours within it. I think that a sticking to only 1 or 2 base colours will create sets that are more pleasing to my eyes. 

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

17th Century embroidered cushion inspired beads....

More heritage beadspiration...

Following on from yesterday's post, this is my second complete set of beads using the V&A Spectrum book for beadspiration. 

This textile is a 17th century or early 18th century embroidered canvass cushion cover. In addition to using it for an inspiring colour palette I have picked out one of the flower motif's from it also.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads