My lampwork tutorials and EUVAT from Jan 1st

Tomorrow (Jan 1st 2015) sees the beginning of a massive change in EU law that sees VAT on ebooks and digital services charged at the rate of the country of the buyer..... an administrative and technical challenge that I am simply not able to meet as a one woman business.

(You can find out more about the changes on the EU vat action website http://euvataction.org).

Rather than withdraw my tutorials from sale completely I have been looking around for a 3rd party website that is VAT compliant and have decided to list with Payhip who are ready for the big changes on Jan 1st. My tutorials are only available on my blog for the time being.


 

6 Organic Shard Recipes and Shard Blowing tutorial is now available via Payhip as an instant download, £10 plus Vat for your country

Buy eBook

Tutorial details: 24 pages, 50 colour images, 9.58 MB and is written in English.

There is also a brill bonus tutorial on applying shards and making encased beads with a graphite roller.

Making Lime Murrini available Via Payhip as an automatic download, £12 plus Vat for your country.

Buy eBook

 

Tutorial details: 37 pages, 135 images, 6.2 MB and written in English

This eBook teaches you how to make my signature semi-circular lime murrini slices. There are 66 step by step images for this project accompanied by written instructions. This tutorial is aimed at for intermediate to advanced lampworkers and is not Hot Head friendly, a kiln is also required.

There are also 3 bonus tutorials

Amoeba beads for Beads of Courage
My favourite vine cane recipe
Chocolate Limes with the Kati was here! La Patisserie press
(which shows how to use pictorial murrini as raised decoration).


Jolene x

Messy testing - 50's Kitchen, Caboose and Butternut ltd run

Today I am looking at three beautiful opaque colours coming out soon from CiM. First up is a super pale green is called 50's Kitchen, it is quite similar to mint chip in many ways and looks lovely encased.

This pretty coral red is called Caboose ltd run' Caboose is streak free and every bit as bright and pretty encased.

Butternut ltd run is a beautiful autumnal bright buttery orange. And here is it under an layer of clear looking perhaps even more vibrant.





Jolene xx

Messy Testing - Frozen, Sakura, Nimbus and French Grey ltd run

In this post I am looking at four new colours that will be coming out soon from Creation is Messy. First up is Frozen is a new opal white ltd run  I made two Pisanka (Polish decorated Easter egg) style sets of beads from Frozen (at the front) and Marshmallow (at the back) for comparison. Frozen is more translucent and has a slightly blue tint when compared to Marshmallow.

This set of leaves and flower buds are made with a stunning new transparent pink called Sakura Ltd Run. I have swiped on petals of Sakura over Frozen for a very romantic combination of colours.

I adore the next two colours, a pair of soft looking opal grey melts. This first colour is a lush dark grey called Nimbus ltd run, a name that suits is very well.

The last new colour that I have to share today is called French Grey ltd run. I absolutely adore the way that white stringer (Effetre white) looks feathered at the edges over French Grey.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Aladdin ltd run and Loch Ness ltd run

CiM have been making some absolutely glorious new colours lately. This deep opal purple is called Aladdin ltd run and it's deliciously plumy and yum!

This next colour, Loch Ness ltd run, is a super saturated green which looks almost black in this little self coloured leaf bead.  Held up to the light though it is clear to see how well Loch Ness will work in canes and as fine stringer to give a bright vibrant olive green.

I tried Loch Ness up against Slytherin and Slytherin Unique-2 as fine stringer and it falls somewhere between the two in density of colour. In the picture below from left to right, these decorated egg shaped beads use Slytherin, Loch Ness and Slytherin Unique-2

Slytherin over Peace

 Loch Ness ltd run over Peace

Slytherin Unique-2 over Peace

I think I am going to enjoy using Loch Ness is my beads a great deal, especially in beads with striped cored under deep encasement.

Jolene x

Flower bud beads and spacer sized leaves.......

I thought a quick gallery style post to show the kinds of beads I'm loving to make at the moment would be fun :-D These don't tend to stay around long enough to make it over to Etsy, if you'd like to see more then please check out my Facebook page. Have a super evening, Jolene xx

Messy testing - Boysenberry and Cottontail ltd run colours

These hearts are made with a delicious deep opal plum purple glass which is a new melt from CiM called Boysenberry ltd run.
I like this colour a lot, it is really pretty and rich looking, though I find it very difficult to capture the beauty of this glass in a photograph.

The hearts on the left, decorated with silvered ivory ferns are made with Cottontail ltd run. It is another brand new opal melt from CiM, a delicious looking pale peach, unique to the 104 palette. It reminded me of Peaches N Cream ltd run so I made some more hearts with a silvered ivory band (on the right hand side of the pic) for comparison. The shades are both on the peach family and compliment each other really well.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Goldenrod, School Bus and Pollen ltd run colours

My next messy testing post looks at collection of opaque yellows, Pollen, School Bus and Golden Rod ltd run.

I've used Pollen ltd run to make the heart set decorated with black ferns. It looks fairly similar to Submarine ltd run in the way that it has remained partially transparent. It is a little darker than Submarine was though.

The trio decorated with murrini is made with School Bus ltd run. Though it does not show up very clearly in my comparison photograph, School Bus tends a little bit more towards orange than the other two yellows. The hearts made with Goldenrod are decorated with a  black band are an acid yellow, and is the brightest yellow of the three.

Have a lovely evening, Jo x

Messy testing - Birthstone, Zoe and Blue-yah! ltd run colours

Today I am making some direct comparisons between three new transparent blue melts from CiM and Pulsar. From left to right in this picture you can see Pulsar, Blue-yah! ltd run, Zoe ltd run and Birthstone ltd run.

I mentioned in my last post that CiM have had a lot of requests for new shades of blue recently and have been trying out new formulae. The first two colours I want to talk about  are Birthstone (at the back) and Zoe, they look very similar to me, a pretty mid aqua, but they have been given different names because they have different formulae which just happened to come out looking similar. The only major difference that I can see between them is that Birthstone was a bit easier to work with in terms of accidental boiling of the glass when working a bit hot (I have a bad habit of doing this!), if you like to work cool and love aqua then both are great.

Next up, a pic of Pulsar (at the back) against Blue-Yah! ltd run. Zoe and Birthstone are lighter and more towards aqua than Pulsar is, Blue-Yah! is a similar kind of intensity to Pulsar but a touch towards teal.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Chamomile, Chateau and Nectar ltd run colours

This set of floral beads was made with Chamomile ltd run and Vetrofond odd Candy Apple. I've not done any comparison testing at all for this colour as there is nothing at all similar in my glass stash to compare it with. Chamomile surprised me, in rod form it looked like it was going to turn out much darker than it did for me here. I really like the way parts of my beads have remained transparent whilst other parts have opacified more which looks especially lovely in  the leaves.

This bead kebab shows where about Chateau falls within the CiM palette, something quite close to (the now sold out) Fostoria ltd run from last year.  From left to right you can see Dusk, Fostoria, Chateau and Sepia.

This pretty egg focal and spacers shows Chateau ltd run off much better than my bead kebab does :-D  It's a very pretty deep golden amber brown transparent.

Last to show this evening is Nectar ltd run. This picture shows Nectar (with silvered ivory wraps) side by side  with  Peachy Keen (decorated with a silvered ivory fern). These glass colours could pass for one another but are named differently as they have different formulae.

Nectar is beautiful bright golden amber and it is also  beautifully well behaved in the flame, happy enough to be worked hot without boiling or pitting.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Royal, Anchor, Frost, Aegean, and Royal ltd run colours

There have been a lot of requests in for new shades of blue and so CiM has been melting experimental batches for new colours :-D The First of the new CiM blues that I have been looking at this past week is called Royal. It's a rich gem toned mid transparent blue unlike anything else I have come across in the 104 palette before.

Royal is saturated enough to lend itself to making lovely stripe cored beads where tiny dots of colour are placed around the edge of a disc bead and stretched out (and the colour diluted) under layers of clear glass. It is both pretty and versatile.

These two sets show a comparison between Anchor ltd run and Leaky Pen under clear as stripe cored beads. Leaky Pen is at the back with Creamsicle detail, Anchor is at the front with detail using Key Lime. Anchor comes out much bluer than Leaky Pen.

Both Anchor ltd run and Leaky Pen are super saturated transparent colours so a little goes a very long way. Anchor really comes into it's own when used as tiny dots and diluted and stretched out under layers of clear as shown withing the stripes and petals of this egg shaped focal.

Next to show is Frost ltd run, here is a side by side comparison of Frost againts some other pale aqua colours. From left to right there is CiM Ice Floe, Vetrofond 038, Frost and Effetre 038.

 Frost is a lovely subtle pale aqua, very close in tone to Effetre 038 but somehow just a tiny bit brighter. The bubbles in the egg shaped bead here on the right were incorporated by my laying down fairly messy wraps when building up the body of my bead. Frost is a lovely clean colour that is not prone to scumming or boiling even when worked quite hot (as I tend to do).

I imagine it would look delicious etched or tumbled but I have not gotten around to trying that yet....

Last to show today is Aegean ltd run. It is a truly beautiful deep teal which looks like a light version of CiM's Great Bluedini (Bluedini sample bead on the left).

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Duck Egg ltd run and Tortoise ltd run

This past couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to have a look at, and a play with, the newest batches of glass from Creation is Messy. That will be released in the near future.

The two I am blogging about today are called Duck Egg and Tortoise and they are two of my favourite from this round of testing.

Duck Egg ltd run is like a blue toned version of Dirty Martini (see above, Dirty Martini on the left and Duck egg on the right).

The photo on the left here shows how Duck egg looks with Reichenbach Multicolour Dark detail on the surface. They make a fabulous colour combo!

This trio of hearts is made with Tortoise ltd run decorated with silvered ivory. The Tortoise has struck to various shades between warm grey and pale sage green with the several pressings in a brass press. This has given an organic natural look to the finished beads, like weathered stone (but shiny!).

This egg bead was also made with Tortoise and silvered ivory but it has been shaped with a graphite roller as opposed to being chilled with brass tools. The overall colour variation is much less than with the hearts above. Tortoise and Duck egg are both gloriously olde-worlde shades that will be totally new additions to the currently available Colour 104 colour palette. Love them!

Jolene xx

Blogtoberfest day 17 - Colourful Friday

Blogtobefest day 11 Upcoming Kumihimo class with Kat Newman at Studio 2

I'm so pleased to be able to announce that Kat Newman is going to be my very first visiting tutor over at studio 2 in Ruislip. If you fancy a day learning how to make beautiful Kumihimo braids please send either Kat or myself a message.

Have a great weekend, Jolene x