Mini Mo' Colour club in Febuary

I run a lampwork glass colour club for 14 ladies and each month I send out the little glasswork packages of twistie, shards and murrini that I call Mini Mo's (Mini Mojo's). There are three strands of the Mini Mo Club, Amethyst and Beryl and Chalcedony and so I make three colourways each month, one for each strand.

I love putting these collections together each month; picking my colour inspiration from all sorts of places......this month my colour sets are inspired by the frit blends I have been mixing lately and a very special colourway of ivory and green organics.

Amethyst strand - Brights



This month’s Amethyst Mini Mo' contains red, yellow and bright green ribbon twisties and some fine striped black and green twistie which would make excellent vine cane. The murrini are complex starburst with 7 layers and red over yellow stripes to finish. The shard element is purple red laced with Nero Insenso. The colours are inspired by a frit blend that I am sending out for testing this month.



My test beads are encased cores, with Orange Grove frit, decorated with thin stringer work and Brights murrini.

Beryl strand - Cottontail



This month’s Beryl Mini Mo' contains soft blues, baby pinks, a touch of purple and lots of scrummy Rubino Oro. Rubino Oro likes and oxygen rich flame and so I have encased the ribbon twistie so that it will be more friendly to the Mini Mo' Club members working on Hot Head torches. I have made some ultra fine baby blue Rubino striped twistie and rose cane too. The murrini are complex starburst with 7 layers and purple over white stripes to finish. The shard element is baby blue glass laced with Nero Insenso.



My beads have been made using the Rubino ribbons and ultra fine baby blue twistie with Cottontails murrini.



These are encased beads with a core of baby pink and Cottontails frit blend

Chalcedony strand - Seaside organics



This month’s Chalcedony Mini Mo' is a sea side inspired colourway, with green twistie for vines and fauna and ribbon twistie to give the impression of seaweed. The Barnacle murrini are striped with a striated earthy brown colour glass that I have hand mixed. The Barnacle murrini do not like to be reduced at all. The shard element of this Mini Mo' is silver infused Belgian Lace, a Vetrofond odd lot. It has turned golden with organic effects when kisses with silver in the flame.



I have made this first set of beads using CiM Creamsicle glass as the base, for a parched desert feel. The Barnacle murrini look almost fossilized against this backdrop. This bead set also contains my EZ Tiger frit blend



These pretty lentils were created for my first ever Etsy commission and use the ribbon twistie for a seaweed effect, Barnacle murrini and Gaffer Chalcedony frit.



I really wanted to show off the versatility of these simple looking organic murrini and here is an example of how they look both melted flat and left raised under a deep encasement.

You can find out more about my glass work and frit blends on my UK shop Kitzbitz Art Glass

Jo x

EZ Tiger, Hocus Crocus and Cottontails frit blends

I am so very proud of these, my first three frit blends. I sent them out for testing at the beginning of January and the feedback I have received has been 100% positive and even more fantastic than I could have hoped for.

I have just listed these for sale on my webshop Kitzbitz Frit Blends

EZ Tiger

Cottontails

Hocus Crocus

I post out Worldwide with a very reasonable flat rate postage, so there is no extra cost for multibuys.

You can find more of my beads and glasswork on Etsy and on my webshop too.

Thanks for looking, Jo x

Artists spotlight - Heather Goheen

Heather Goheen is an exceptionally talented Seed Bead artist and jewellery designer. She has a wonderful eye for colour and creates beautiful and challenging pieces of art incorporating the human form.



Heather creates exquisite and intricate beaded dolls, The Treasure Hunter - is simply stunning! And also my personal favourite. I love her grace and style, elegantly bejeweled in aqua and shine.



Disterbia is another favourite, cute and beguiling, unsettling in her prettiness and chains.



Heather is a keen blogger. You can find more stunning designs by Heather on Etsy at Heathers Haven and follow her Facebook fan page here

Mini Mo' Club in January

I run a lampwork glass colour club for 14 ladies and each month I send out the little glasswork packages of twistie, shards and murrini that I call Mini Mo's (Mini Mojo's). There are three strands of the Mini Mo Club, Amethyst and Beryl and Chalcedony and so I make three colourways each month, one for each strand.

I love putting these collections together each month; picking my colour inspiration from all sorts of places......this month my colour sets are inspired by the change of the seasons and blue....just because it is my favourite colour to work with.

Amethys strands - Turning Leaf



The twisites in this set are made with creansicle and a special handpulled Effetre glass called Red Copper Green, which does beautiful shiny things when you expose it to an oxygen rich flame. The Turning Leaf murrini also contain elements of copper green and the shard element of this Mini Mo' is silver infused coral, an absolute favourite of mine.



This first bead set shows the ribbon twistie under and encasing layer of clear glass and silvered coral shards, melted in flat.



To get the pewter shimmer from the Turning Leaf murrini, I apply them in an oxygen fich flame.

I call this kind of bead a fritty ruffle, and have created a free tutorial showing how to make them Here.



The fritty ruffle tutorial also shows you how to tweek the leaf murrini in to sHape with a cold stringer.

Beryl strand - Spring Leaves



The Spring leaves colourway is full of rich greens, opaque green over white, transparent olive over white and two tone ribbon twistie. The Sring leaves murrini take a similar form to those in the Amethyst strand Mini Mo' but are much more "juicy" in colour and shape. The shard element of this Mini Mo' os mid opaque green laced with strips of copper green which will give interesting yet subtle reactions in various flame coonditions.






Chalcedony strand - Crystal Waters



This month’s Chalcedony Mini Mo' is blue, my favourite. There is blue and white opaque twistie, and both aqua and baby blue ribbon twistie. The murrini are complex starburst with 7 layers and have been laced with fine silver. The shard element is silver infused CiM Chalcedony (you can find out more about CiM Chalcedony shards You can find my glassy offerings on Etsy at here )



These beads have been created using elements of the opaque twistie and Crystal waters silvered murrini.



A medley of beads each containing elements from the Chalcedont strand Mini Mo' for Jan.

You can find out more about my glass work and frit blends on my UK shop Kitzbitz Art Glass and on Etsy

Jo x

Tutorial - Fritty Ruffles with rose and leaf murrini

Welcome to my second photo tutorial. An extravaganza of dodgy poorly lit indoor photography with a diddy wearing digi in all its glory.

This tutorial does not cover all the nuts and bolts of melting glass in the detail that a beginner lampworker might require but is intended merely as a rough guide for combining several techniques together in one bead. Some previous lampworking experience is implied.



I am using some of my own handpulled rose and leaf murrini chips as embellishment in these fritty ruffle beads but any handpulled or commercial murrini will work just as well. Step one is optional: Pull some 1mm stringer – this will be used for cold tweaking your leaf murrini later.



Step two: Wind a roughly tube shaped base bead which is approximately 3cm long and 2cm in diameter.



Step three: Marver the tube in to smooth tube shape, pressing down slightly to create nice dimples.



Step four: Warm the surface of your bead and then roll your base bead in frit



Step five: Melt the frit in to the surface of your bead completely



Step six: press your bead flat between two heat resistant surfaces. Make sure you do not press your bead flatter than 3 times the width of the mandrel.



Step seven: Heat one side of your bead and then snip a groove in to the hot glass with old scissors. Repeat the process on the other side of the bead, this time snipping twice.



Step eight: Warm your bead through thoroughly to round off the corners of your cut ares.



Step nine: Flatten again gently.



Step ten: Turn your fame down and spot heat where you would like to place your rose murrini.



Step eleven: Take the murrini in long handled tweezes, move your bead out of the flame and then press the murrini firmly in to the molten bead surface



Step twelve: Heat the murrini through quickly and press flat, repeat this process 3 or 4 times, flattening the murrini a little more each time. This is where the murrini application process differs slightly from applying starburst murrini, where the murrini is heated strongly and pressed only once.



Step thirteen: Repeat steps eleven through twelve for each rose or leaf murrini that you wish to apply to your bead.



Step fourteen (for leaf murrini only): Spot heat your murrini in a low flame. Remove from the flame and pull a “tip” to your leaf murrini using your cold 1mm stringer. Flame cut the stringer from your tweaked murrini.



Turning Leaf murrini - created using Red Copper Green Effetre, apply in an oxy rich flame to get the pewter finish



Spring Leaf murrini - apply in a neutral flame to avoid any unwanted reduction effects

You can find more of my beads and glasswork on Etsy and on my webshop too.
Jo x

Freggs!

I have been burning the midnight oil this past week....tinkering with my brand new obsession of testing and blending C0E 96 Frit. Here are some of the fruits of my labor, fritty eggs, or Freggs as I fondly think of them. I now have 30 of these tactile little bonny beads, tagged with their names, stock numbers, behaviors and quirks. It is so much like glass alchemy, plus there is a great deal of satisfaction in creating my very own tactile colour chart.









Special thanks to my pal Freda Pouflis for coming over and taking pictures for me when my babysitter cancelled on me with the hangover from hell ;D

You can find more of my beads and glasswork on Etsy and on my webshop too.
Jo x