And the lucky winner is...........

I've assigned everyone who left me a comment in my competition blog post a number in the order of  posting and will now use www.random.org to pick a number between 1 and 27.....and the winner is lucky number 15......

Abyjem! Congrats Faith I hope you love Chrissie when you meet her :-D

A huge thank you from me to everyone who has liked and shared my Facebook Page and supported me by entering my little giveaway competition.

Have a super weekend everyone
Jolene xx

52 little things week 33 and 34

We are 2/3rds through this year! Here are pics for the week 33 and 34 beads in my year long project to make a special bead each week for Beads of Courage. I have recently been looking a lovely tutorial on making focal sized shell beads by Diane Woodall and have taken inspiration from it for my latest BoC beads.

for week 33 I made a Dark Ivory Sand Dollar and for week 34 I made a green twistie covered shell bead encrusted with barnacles.

If you would like to take a peek at what some of the other on the Year Long Challenge project have been blogging take a peek at their fab blogs..


• Linda of Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design: www.earth-shine.co.uk
• Sue of BlueBoxStudio: www.blue-box-studio.blogspot.co.uk
• Jolene of HeatherKellyGlass: www.kalorlo.wordpress.com

and on Craft Pimp Forum too

Have a lovely weekend, Jolene xx

Messy Testing - Hazelnut Mousse, Cookie Dough and Nutmeg

The last of the June 2013 release CiM ltd run colours that I'm blogging about this week are Nutmeg, Hazelnut Mousse and Cookie Dough.

Nutmeg

First up is Nutmeg, a neutral yet warm muted caramel brown. It is a lovely shade, perfect for autumnal beads. Maybe that why I have left this trio of glass until now to blog with the very first signs of Autumn on the way. If I have one criticism of this glass is that you can see clues in the base bead to how I swiped the glass in layers to build up the pillow bead shape. That is easier to see in my second picture of the reverse side of this set.

Next up is Hazelnut Mousse, a delicious beige opaque that is a dream so work with, really smooth and creamy. On my alphabet bead (see bottom of this post), like Nutmeg, you can see join marks between the separate swipes I laid on when making the bead so I decided to roll my pillow beads in fine silver leaf this time. It reacted with the silver to become a golden amber. Delicious!

I love this next picture, a close up of some silvered Cookie Dough shards. Cookie Dough in rod form looks quite similar to but darker than Hazelnut Mousse in a green/grey kind of way. As you can see here Cookie Dough just loves silver too, a brilliant organic reaction and marriage made in heaven.
 

My free form focal shows below how these scrummy Cookie Dough shards look on a bead.

Silvered Cookie Dough shards over Effetre light grass green transparent glass

Wishing you all a lovely weekend
Jolene x

Why not check out my Alphabetised CiM Colour Chart HERE

A Facebook Page Celebration Giveaway, Chrissie pendant bead set....

Yesterday I reached 1500 likes on my Facebook Page which is a fabulous milestone and so I made a special set of beads for a celebration giveaway here on my blog.

For your chance to win them all you need to do is make sure you like my page www.facebook.com/KitzbitzArtGlass and leave me a lovely comment here on my blog under this post!

Of course it would be great of you followed my blog, subscribed to my newsletter or shared my page on twitter or facebook too but none of that is compulsory to be in with your chance to win.

I will draw a name at random to win this extra special set of Chrissie beads on Saturday 24th of August 2013 and I will announce the winners name here on my blog and also on Facebook too.

 If you are not commenting as a guest rather than with a blogger account please make sure I have a way to contact you by leaving me your FH, CP, LE or HAF Forum name or your twitter name or FB page link please. If I have no means of contacting you should you win I cannot accept your comment as a valid entry.

Good luck and have a super day Jolene x

52 little things week 31 and 32

 A little catch up post to show you my special beads for BCCA Beads of Courage for week 31 and week 32 (because it is the start of week 33 today which means...shhhhh....19 weeks until Christmas *ducks*)....

I've chosen to make fairly grown up beads as part of my 52 little things project because there are young adults as well and babies, toddlers, kids and teens on the program here in the UK.

There are 4 separate layers of flowers withing this bead separated by layers of clear glass to give this flower garden bead a lot of depth. the burgundy glass is such a favourite of mine, it is called Multi Dark.

My week 32 flower garden bead is cherry red with lots and lots of different shaped flowers and leaves inside. They are pretty large scale beads, and inch or so across and were really fun to make.

September is fast approaching and with that comes childhood cancer awareness month. My September BoC beads will all be in gold (ok, bright yellow :-D) the colour of childhood cancer awareness and BCCA Ribbons. I had better get my thinking cap on!

Have a great day

Jolene xx

Messy Testing - Fiddlehead, Iguana, Lichen

Last week I grabbed some studio time and had a play about with three of the newest limited run opaques. Pale grey green Lichen, deep rich green Fiddlehead and a lovely vivid mid green opaque called Iguana.

I did a quick test bead showing how these colours looked etched in my last messy Testing post on Aloe Juice. They all look lovely with matt finish and so I decided to team up these greens with Reichenbach Antique clear which one of my "go to" glasses for etched beads.

Above is a pic of my half and half nuggets before etching.

Lichen is beautiful, a very pale grey green pastel shade. It works up much lighter than in the CiM paddle picture, somewhat similar in tone to Dirty Martini.

Filddlehead is the darkest in the new opaque green trio. It is rich with a lot of striation which I really like, it is useful glass characteristic for landscapes, organic beads and in vine canes for floral designs.

Iguana is my favourite of the three, both in the glossy finish and etched finish. It's such a bright and happy shade without that acidic tone that Effetre light grass green seems to have.

The picture above shows how the nuggets beads came out after a being acid etched. The striations in the Fiddlehead beads look lovely and Lichen looks almost cloud-like grey.




Last up, here are a set  of beads made with Iguana, Ink blue and Peace with a touch of Effetre light grass green used in the heart decorated focal. Iguana and Ink blue work beautifully together. I've used Iguana to create tiny little dots on many of the beads in this set, they are crisp and do not bleed when melted flat like you often see with other bright green glasses as you can see in heart focal above made with Effetre light grass green.



Jolene x

Messy Testing - Aloe Juice

This week I have also been looking at Aloe Juice ltd run, a new light green transparent from CiM and a welcome addition to the CoE 104 palette. Aloe Juice is ever so delicate, pretty and fresh looking.

I have a huge crush on how this colour looks when etched, it has a kind of icy minty glow to it. Aloe Juice is another yummy ltd run that I would love to see stocked in the UK and made a permanent fixture in the CiM range.

This chunky bead has a central tube shaped core of Aloe Juice which has a thick encasing layer of Effetre 006 clear glass.  I've decorated this bead with dots and hearts using Fiddlehead ltd run, Effetre white and Indigo ltd Run.

Last up and a little off topic, I want to show you a very quick test bead. I was curious to know how Green Lantern moonstone and the three new green opaques from this last release of CiM colours would look etched. I'm not too keen on the rough tumbled and textured effect that acid etching has left on the surface of Green Lantern but I do like how each of the three opaque swipes have come out.

The top stripe is called Iguana
The middle swipe is called Fiddlehead
The bottom stripe is called Lichen

Have a lovely week,
Jolene x

Messy Testing - More on Ink Blot and Indigo

Yesterdays post didn't show anything near just how beautiful Ink Blot ltd run and Indigo ltd run really are so I spent some quality playtime in the studio yesterday putting these two super saturated transparent colours through their paces as tiny dots and white cored stringer. In addition to the two CiM colours I have also used CiM Peace and 006 Clear.

The gorgeous rich blue shade in these beads is Indigo, I have used it to make striped core and a petal beads and tiny stacked dot beads. It remains vibrant even when heavily diluted using these layering techniques and the edges of the dots are crisp and clean over white.

The subtle soft grey lilac in these beads is the Ink Blot. It makes a very pretty petal cane over white and it makes a wonderful compliment to Indigo. the little Ink Blot spacers look much darker than in the places where I have used it to make stripes and petals. This may be because I have used it directly over clear rather than over white. Another interesting thing about Ink Blot is that it appears to give a subtle reaction line when dotted directly over a base of Peace.

You can find more form me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kitzbitz

Have a lovely weekend, Jolene x

Messy Testing - Lavender Water, Raindrop, Eventide, Ink Blot and Indigo

Yesterday I took a look at three of June release limited run colours released by Creation is Messy, Lavender Water, Raindrop and Eventide. I also had a play about with two of  and two earlier  limited run colours, Ink Blot and Indigo.

Starting with the lightest bead and moving anti clockwise you can see Lavender Water, Raindrop, Eventide, Indigo and finally Ink Blot.


 
The first picture shows each colour as a solid bead. The second picture shows solid colour beads which have been acid etched and the third shows each of the colours used as a thin core with a thick encasing layer of Effetre 006 clear.

Lavender water is a very pretty light grey transparent which tends to be rather bubbly in the flame (likely made worse by the fact I tend to work hot on a Mini CC and two oxycons). The nugget bead above has a lovely sparkly seeded effect to it so the bubbly is not at all a bad thing. In the picture on the right you can see that it etches beautifully and looks like pale smoke.

Rainwater looks pale grey with a hint of brown to it, something like a dilute version of Fostoria ltd Run. This also etched well (pic right). Again I found this colour a bitmbubbly but all the more pretty because of that.

Eventide is a dark grey transparent and is another that I think lends itself well to being etched. All three of these colours look so pretty together.

Ink Blot and Indigo are so saturated with colour, although they look very different from one another in rod form, as solid beads it is hard to tell them apart even when etched. You can begin to see the difference in them when used in small amounts under a heavy encasement of clear glass, more so when held up to the light than I have managed to capture here.

 Indigo (pic above, bead middle right) is a super dense blue and Ink Blot (pic above, bead top right) is a super dense purple violet colour, both of these encased nugget bead are very pretty when you hold them up to the light. These colours would lend themselves well to twistie making and teeny tiny layered dots over pale opaques. More playtime is called for to see what I can get them to do.

Have a lovely weekend, Jolene x

Latest batch of Amoebas........

A quick post and run, just wanted to show snap of my latest batch of amoeba beads for BoC - BCCA. I make these from the tail end of canes that would have otherwise been destined to go for scrap. It is lovely to avoid waste and do something lovely with them instead, these seem to go down very well with the kids too. Bonus :-D

If you would like to see how they are made please check out my tutes on simple twistie making and making an Amoeba bead for beads of Courage.

I hope you have had a lovely sunny weekend, Jolene x

Messy Testing: Green Tea and Green Lantern

This week I've been looking at some of the newest colours to come from Creation is Messy and have a series of blog posts planned to show you some of the cool things I have found out.

First up is Green Lantern limited Run, an emerald green moonstone colour. It puts me in mind of CiM Peacock Green but is much darker and richer in colour. The name bead on the left shows how this glass takes slight milky cast when worked in the flame, though when you work quite quickly the moonstone effect is quite minimal (see nugget bead pic at the bottom of this post).

The most exciting thing I have found when working with Green Lantern is that it does that cool reaction thing with Reichenbach dense black stringer (posted Oct 2012 deep black stringer reaction tute). The stringer I have used on the bead here is no thicker than 0.5mm  and 0.1mm respectively and you can clearly see the white reaction line thing doing it's thing over Green Lantern.

Next up is Green Tea, a sweet and pretty light apple green transparent. It's a gorgeous shade, that slots in the 104 palette somewhere just before Effetre Light Emerald in hue. I can imagine that it would look wonderful etched so I'll try that out later in the week when I take a look at Aloe Juice.

The trio here are all made from Green Tea with Reichenbach Dense black stringer and some silvered ivory stringer too. As you an see there is no reaction at all between the Green Tea and either the black or the ivory and silver.

A set of quick nugget beads made with Green Lantern and Green Tea

Pop back later in the week for my posts on Aloe Juice and Cookie Dough :-D

Have a great week, Jolene x