Little monster beads frm Jolene Beads

Super cute handmade glass beads with a ton of quirky character available on my new website

www.jolenebeads.com

Jolene xx

Robot beads raising funds for Beads of Courage UK

Something new from me in 2023, you can now buy my special robot beads exclusively on my new website and help me raise some money for Beads of Courage UK. £5 from the sale of every robot bead will be gifted to BoC UK to help support this amzaing program. UK shipping is £3.50 first class signed for and £7 for international airmail tracked service.

Jolene xx

Jolene Beads online store

Jolene Beads Store 

I have recently opened my very own online store with shopify and to celebrate I am putting up some very special discount codes online including here on my blog

Save 20% on everything in your basket with the code 20blog at www.jolenebeads.com

To give you a little sample of the kind of beads and jewellery that you will find in my store, here are a few images of some of the lampwork beads, necklaces and bracelets that I currently have in stock.

Buddy bead bracelets 

Opal glass buddy beads with bags of personality and googly eyes. They are strung on hypo-allergenic 2mm stainless steel ball chain. I have 8 shades in stock right now with blue, green or mismatched eyes.

Candy heart bracelets

Deliciously mouth watering and colorie free!

 

Hand crafted glass heart beads for your wrist in 6 delicious looking combinations including banoffee, caramel, milk chocolate with strawberry sauce and heart chocs dusted with 24K gold.

 

 

 

*Made of glass - do not eat :-D

Lampwork animal beads

You will also find super tiny detailed glass animal beads in my new shop, including piggy beads and hedgehog beads with little belly buttons. You can  also find bunny beads like this fella with the most adorable feet. Awwwww 💕

Colour swatch jewellery

Summer is the the newest combination in my color swatch jewellery range. This hot trio of colours was inspired by citrus fruits, limes, lemons and satsumas. 

You can find matching hoop earrings here.

The other colours in my colour swatch range are called Ocean, Thorn, Heather, Buff and Brick.

Patchwork Heart Necklaces

Every single lampwork patchwork heart I create is a one of a kind design - totally unique. These chunky heart beads have a big visual impact and certainly make for a wonderful statement necklace.

Dragonscale disc necklaces

I adore making these elegant stacked disc beads in super bright shades of glass. These unusual glass beads certainly have a lot of visual interest and impact. They look amazing on too!

Happy Apple lampwork beads

These happy apple beads are totally adorable! They are tactile, tiny and have big eyes. Each one has a tiny caterpillar friend to hang out with.

 

For luxury handcrafted jewellery and lampwork beads visit me at

www.jolenebeads.com

 

Jolene xx

 

 

Messy testing - Birchwood, Cafe Au Lait and Saddle Leather ltd run

Thes ocean hearts are made with neutral and brown CiM ltd run colours that will soon be available in the UK to buy. I have teamed up Birchwood, Cafe Au Lait and Saddle Leather ltd run with blues an teals and a touch of fine silver leaf...

...and boy do all 3 of these glass colours love silver leaf! There are earthy and organic reactions galore....

To create these darker patches and shiny silver droplets I burnished parts of the cream/brown colours with silver leaf and vapourised it the torch flame.

Please ensure you have adequate ventilation if you are using any kind of metal leaf or foil in your lampwork bead making.

First up is Birchwood ltd run with Effetre mid blue. In rod form Birchwood is a pale cream opaque glass. 

In the areas where I have added the small pieces of silver leaf the glass has darkened to a deep caramel toffee colour. I am loving the effect.

The second combination I have put together is CiM Cafe Au Lait ltd run with Poolside. I rod form this glass is a warm creamy looking mid brown. 

The areas where I have added the silver leaf have darkened up  beautifully. The shade of the reaction is very similar in hue to what I previously saw with Birchwood.

This heart is made with CiM Saddle Leather ltd run and Aegean.

The areas burnishes with silver are very dark indeed. There is a wonderful organic looking earthy crust with a smattering of silver droplets. Yummy!

Check these lovely beads out on Etsy...

Jolene xx

 

 

 

 

Messy testing - Pizzazz ltd run

I'm focusing on just one colour today, a stunning new purple glass called Pizzazz ltd run which will be available from Creation is Messy soon.

 Pizzazz ltd run is a beautiful colour. It's a vibrant opalescent mid-purple which seems to have its own special kind of internal glow about it!

It is a stiff but well behaved glass to work with and fall into the what you see is what you get in terms of rod colour compared to the finished beads.

This next bead is made with Pizzazz ltd run which I have decorated with Reichenbach deep black dots.I'm guessing this shade is going to sell out very quickly!

Happy melting, Jolene x

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Messy testing - Elegance, Douglas Aster and Glycerin Milky ltd run

In today's blog post I am showing beads made with 3 very pretty new CoE 104 glass colours from the Creation is Messy spring 2022 release that will be available to buy soon. 

First up is this utterly lovely soft pastel pink opal glass is called Elegance. It's so beautiful!

Like all premium pink glass rods, I imagine Elegance ltd run will have a premium price tag attached, but oh boy is this one special!

The next new glass colour I am showing today is called Douglas Aster ltd run. It's a soft and pretty shade of pastel purple.The top pair of hearts have a core of Douglas Aster which I have encased with Effetre 006. The other two pairs of Douglas Aster hearts are decorated with Reichenbach dense black. This one is a beauty, such a lovely lavender colour.

Only one pair of the hearts in this last picture were made with Glycerine ltd run. I wanted to compare Glycerine with some Diaphanous misty and milky hearts from my last glass testing blog post.

The Glycerine hearts are the pair at the top that look the most opaque (let the least light pass through). Moving around in a clockwise direction, the next two hearts are Diaphanous milky and the last two hearts are Diaphanous misty (white dots). Aside from looking obviously more opaque, Glycerine has a much cooler icy looking tone. Diaphanous looks positively toasty in comparison!

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Diaphanous, Fjord, Pond Slime and Aquamarine Ice ltd run

Today I am looking at some of the new colours available soon from Creation is Messy. I have beads made from 4 new opal colours, all of which are available in a Misty and Milky  version.

The first hearts here are made with Diaphanous ltd run. The beads on the left are Diaphanous Misty decorated with white dots. The heart pair on the right are Diaphanous Misty decorated with Reichenbach black stringer and dots.

Both pairs of these off white glass hearts are beautiful though for me the more translucent misty version just has the edge. 

Fjord ltd run is a stunning new aqua blue opal addition to the CoE 104 palette. I find the misty (white dots) and milky (black stringer) versions have a similar opacity with the Misty version only looking more obviously translucent when the beads are held up to the light.

Creation is Messy make absolutely fabulous opal green glass and Pond Slime ltd run is no exception. Again the misty (white dots) and milky (black detail) versions appear to be quite similar until you hold them up to the light and then it's easy to see that the Misty version has much more translucence.

Arctic milky ltd run looks to be a pale opal blue shade in rod form. When I opened the kiln I was very surprised to find these lovely warm grey hearts. 

As before the misty version of this glass has more translucence (white dots) but also I find that Arctic milky opal looks more pastel than it's misty counterpart.

 

Additional pictures taken under bright artificial lighting....

Jolene x

New listings on Folksy this week

New listings on Folksy this week  

 

Messy testing - Lumen, Gossamer and Avalon Misty/Milky ltd run

There are several new opal glass shades in the spring 2021 range of ltd edition glass from Creation is Messy, which have just become available to buy in the UK.

These pairs of fish beads were made with Avalon ltd run which is a very pale pastel green opal glass. It is available with two levels of opacity. The set with Fremen (light turquoise) fish is are made with Avalon Misty ltd run. The pair with Oobleck (bright lime green) fish are made with Avalon Milky ltd run. 

It's easy to see the differing levels of translucence between the two as spacers but less easy to tell them apart as larger beads. 

These little fish beads are made with new white opal colours. There are two shades with different hues and level of opacity.

The set with Fremen (light turquoise) fish is are made with Gossamer ltd run. The pair with Oobleck (bright lime) fish are made with Lumen ltd run.

Gossamer is much more translucent than Lumen and seems to me to have a pretty ice-like quality to it. 

Jolene x

Messy testing - Orange-zilla, Kniphofia and Marmalade ltd run

Zing! This bright orange is called Oranze-zilla ltd run. It is described as a dense transparent orange on the CiM website.

Both under encasement and as a solid colour bead it looks opaque to me though. Orange-zilla is pure sunshine in glass form. I wouldn't class Orange-zilla as a striking glass as it didn't loose it's colour when first melted and so didn't require and cooling/heating cycles to bring the colour back.

To the right are encased hearts are made with Kniphofia ltd run and Effetre 006 clear. It's a bright opal orange glass. Sometimes I find that opal colours can look quite dense, especially if they are heated and cooled several times. These encased hearts though look both opal and translucent. Sadly this photograph doesn't quite capture just how bright this colour is in real life!

These imprinted hearts were made with Marmalade ltd run encased with Effetre 006 clear. Maramalade is the last in the trio of new orange glass for spring 2021. It is equally as bright as Kniphofia and Orangezilla but it is a true transparent. It did require a little striking to coax the colour out but it wasn't tricky to work with.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Dinosaur Bone, Howlite, Starry Night and Almandine ltd run

For this post I have picked 3 new CiM colours from the steamer range that have an opaque base rather than a clear or pale transparent and one new shade from the Cloudy transparents range. A little disclaimer, to the best of my knowledge these first 3 colours are going to be available from North America only and the last will be stocked in France.

First up is Howlite ltd run. It's a very pale ivory glass streaked through with pale grey stripes. I clipped chips from the end of the Howlite rod and used them as murrini chips to embellish these small heart beads.

Dinosaur Bone ltd run is very similar to Howlite but it is streaked through with orange and grey. Both of these two ltd run colours would be great for sculptural beads or painted landscape type beads I think. The streaky effect is very subtle.

Starry Night ltd run is lovely! It reminds me very much of Pachamama, a ltd run colour that I completely adored working with from 2020. The are both streaked through with blue giving very pretty striations. Whilst Pachamama could show areas of ochre yellow and tan mixed with two tone blue, Starry Night seems to tend to stick more towards the blue palette.

Starry Night will be available exclusively from Ed Hoy's only.

Almondine ltd run is one of what CiM call their Cloudy transparent range. Cloudy transparents are clear glass rods that contain pigments is colours that you just don't normally see in the 104 glass pallette. The colour of Almondine makes me think of mulled wine or lipstick .

Almondine will be available exclusively from L'age du Verre in France only.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Lingonberry and Pink Pansy ltd run

Pink Pansy ltd run is a stunning shade of light pink, delicate and rich. It's an absolutely stunning colour all by itself for spacer beads. I am itching to try this glass to create petals for sculpted flower beads. It's definitely on my shopping list!

This patchwork lentil was made with Ettetre opal yellow, Fremen, Poi and Pink Pansy dots over a base of CiM Ginger. Each of the larger opal yellow dots was topped with Pink Pansy.  This is a combination of colours I would usually put together to use with CiM Cranberry or Effetre Rubino Ora.

The Pink Pansy, capped over the top of the opal yellow looks like a barely there trace of pink when used in such a tiny quantity. I was hoping it might strike a little darker.

Lingonberry ltd run is a rich deep fuchsia pink, another glorious pink that looks really pretty all by itself.

Here is another patchwork lentil, this time made with made with Ettetre opal yellow, Fremen, Poi and Lingonberry dots over a base of CiMGinger.

The overall effect of Lingonberry over opal yellow was to became shades of burnt butter  and butterscotch. Not what I had expected, more of a happy accident, but actually a glass colour combination I would happily use together again.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Solar Storm, Carnival, Carefree and Robert E ltd run

Today I am showing off a few more of the the new streamer glass rods that will be available very soon from CiM. The first is called Solar Storm ltd run. I have used Solar Storm here as an encasing layer over a thin core of Brown Eyed Girl ltd run. The rod is predominantly clear glass with fine lines of red and orange running the length of it. Solar Storm is described as containing purple stripes too but I am not seeing them in this trio of hearts.

Here is a little set of spacers made with Solar Storm Streamer glass all by by itself. 

These spacers are made with a streamer rod called Carnival. Carnival is a streamer rod which has a base of blue rather than clear with fine lines of orange, yellow and white.

The hearts below were made with a core of Effetre dark teal encased with Carnival streamer glass.

These blue hearts were made with a thin core of Robert E ltd run encased with Carefree ltd run. Carefree is also a clear glass rod,this time with stripes of blue, green and purple.

Robert E is a very pretty shade of transparent mid blue.

This pair of dotty heart shows what Robert E looks like as a self coloured bead. I have teamed it up with dots of Fremen surface decoration.

Last up for this glass testing post, I would like to show you what Robert E looks like as an encasing layer. I have layered it up here over a core of Effetre mid purple.

Jolene x

Messy Testing - Birds Nest, Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and Burnt Sugar ltd run

Today I am looking at three new shades of transparent brown glass from CiM. This first picture shows how each of the colours looks as a solid colour bead finished with Alley Cat dots.

From left to right - Horehound ltd run, Burnt Sugar ltd run and Brown Eyed Girl ltd run.

Horehound is a very pretty light honey shade that looks even prettier under encasement. Burnt Sugar is a golden shade of transparent brown with a slight orange tone to it which makes me think of Topaz. Brown eyed Girl is the darkest of the 3 new colours and more of a true brown rather than tones of amber or topaz.

This next trio of heart pairs show how each of the transparent browns looks when encased with one of the new range of Streamer glass rods. I have teamed each of the colours up with Birds Nest ltd run. I am really enjoying using streamer glass rods as they give such delicate trails of colour and detail.

From left to right - Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and Burnt Sugar encased with Birds Nest.

This last collection of hearts have a core of one of the brown shades encased with a thick layer of Effetre clear. They have been tumble etched to give them a matt finish.

From left to right - Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and finally Burnt Sugar.

Something about the look of the tumbled encased Burnt Sugar hearts in this picture makes me think of the last drop of Cola in your glass after the ice cubes have melted!

All 3 of these transparent colours were wonderfully well behaved in the flame, no boiling or micro bubbles at all.

Jolene x  

Messy testing - Dollhouse and Beeswax ltd run

CiM have been working towards a more standardised amount of opalescence across their Milky and Misty opal glass lines. They have also simplified the naming by giving a single name to the hue followed by the tag Milky or Misty.

These pretty pinks are called Dollhouse. The beads on the left are made with Dollhouse Milky Opal ltd run and below is a picture of Dollhouse Misty Opal ltd run beads.

Beeswax is a new opal yellow glass hue which has also been formulated with two shades of opalescence. On the left is Beeswax Milky ltd run. Below is Beeswax Misty ltd run.

The difference between Milky and Misty glass in these two shades is much easier to see when you have the beads in your hands. I have found it very tricky to capture in a photograph.

 

The last picture I have to show toady is a side by side comparison of all 4 pairs of beads. 

Milky beads on the top row, Misty beads on the bottom row. 

I hope it gives an idea of the very subtle difference between them. 

Milky beads look whiter or more pastel to my eye.

 

Thanks, Jolene x