Looking at Bullseye part 8 - Mint Green Opal, Teal Opal, Chartreuse

This first set uses Mint Green Opal and Chartreuse with a tiny sprinkling of pretty and glittery Blue Fairy Ocean Deep frit blend.

I'm loving the Mint Opal but am not so sure of the Chartreuse which in rod form looked much more light and limey. I;m on a real bright kick at the moment'
This second set combines Teal Opal with Chartreuse and some commercially made 1mm stringers which are fabulously time saving. 

Have a lovely day, Jolene x

Messy testing - Coronation Day ltd run

The last of the June 14 release limited run colours from CiM that I will be blogging about this week is called Coronation Day. The very first beads that I made with this glass (both sides of the same beads pictured left and below) showed heaps of colour variation - all of which are beautiful shades of dark lilac to rich purple - considering they were all made with a single rod of glass this variation had me intrigued.

To try to get to the bottom of what factors were at play to achieve this colour fading effect, I made a series of nugget beads in various different flame conditions, two each in an oxygen rich, neutral and propane rich flame. As you can see there is no obvious effect on the colour of these beads caused by varying the flame chemistry.

The hearts above were put thorough several heating and rapid cooling cycles in the process of their making. I work pretty hot (Mini CC on two oxycons) and used a brass press to shape them. The nugget beads above were shaped with a graphite paddle and were heated, cooled on graphite when being shaped and warmed through again only once.

 I did manage to reproduce the a similar effect again though in making this sweet set of tab beads. They were put through several cycles of heating and rapid cooling by using a heavy brass parallel press which seems to be the secret to teasing out the darker opal purple tones. The effect is so pretty!

Have a super day, Jolene x

Messy testing - Heartthrob ltd run

The next of the June limited run colours from Creation is Messy that I want to show you is Heartthrob. It's a gloriously rich dark red that looks fantastic with black details.

There are very subtle lines on these beads that show the joins between the wraps of glass I put down as I built up each bead.  That result is quite beautiful and gives this rich red a lot of depth and interest.

The black I have used on both of these sets is Reichenbach 104 dense black.

Have a super day, Jolene x

Messy Testing - Tiger Lily ltd run

This morning I would like to show you Tiger Lily ltd run. It's a deliciously vibrant orange opaque that is just so perfect for summer beads. It's awesomely bright!

I've found that Tiger Lily looks a touch paler under clear encasing. The set here was created with a Tiger Lily base, Elphaba twistie and a generous layer of Effetre 006 clear glass. The green and orange just zing against one another and a bright citrus splash!

Have a lovely day, Jolene x