2019 Gallery - Pastel with bright greens.......

CiM Eucalyptus, solid base and encased with Effetre 006 clear. Decorated with Elphaba, Effetre grass green, and Smurfy.

Jolene x

2019 Gallery - Leaky Pen and Frost

Tumbled with silicon carbide grit to give a chemical free sea glass finish to these pretty blue beads, CiM Leaky Pen and Frost bases decorated with CiM Smurfy, Leaky Pen and CiM Peppermint Cream.

Jolene xx

2019 gallery - Chocolate, hazelnut and cream

CiM Ginger and CiM Nectar decorated with Efftete tongue pink, CiM Emperor, Lauscha faded pink and Autumn ltd run.

Jolene xx

2019 Gallery - Blue swirl heart focal

Swirl heart, layers of blue and green stringers, heavily encased in clear glass and pressed in to a pleasing heart shape and finished with a tiny daisy murrini flower on each side.

Jolene x

2019 Gallery - Chocolate and honey beads with stacked dots and fine lines

These warm chocolate and honey beads are made with just 4 Creation is Messy colours, Toto ltd run, Maple, Butter Pecan and Yellow Brick Road ltd run.

Jolene x

2019 Gallery - Pale peach and purple rounds with stacked dots and fine lines

CiM Butter Pecan and Effetre Purple rounds - Visit my Facebook group here

Jolene x

2019 Gallery - Teal rounds with stacked dots and fine llines

Fresh baked beads.... See all of my new work first in my Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/JoleneWolfe/

Thanks Jolene x

Glass testing - Bullseye glass and bubbles

Bullseye tints with brass "frit" inclusions. The brass creates bubbles when encased and heated. Only a very little bit of brass is required to get quite large bubbles. The more heat you give the bead the larger the bubbles grow.

Top left - Neo-Lavender
Top right - Aqua blue tint
Bottom left - Light leaf green tini
Bottom right - Erbium pink

Bullseye tints with copper oxide powder inclusions. The copper oxide creates bubbles and leaves a blue residue when encased and heated.  This reaction is very difficult to control, less powder is more effective and easier to manage in terms of keeping the bubbles small.

Top left - Light aqua blue tint
Top right - Erbium pink
Bottom left - Light leaf green tint
Bottom right - Neo-Lavender

Jolene xx

2019 Gallery - Blue swirl lentils

Fresh from the kiln, a set of small encased lentils with lots of shades of blue swirled inside.

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2019 Gallery - Bright stripes

Front and back images of a very bright swirly Bullseye glass lentil focal with dichro with murrini chips/

2019 Gallery - Tiny beads packed with detail

These colourful round beads measure just 11mm from hole to hole. It was  quite a challenge to pack this much detail on such a small surface area.

Jolene xx

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2019 Gallery - Big red flowers

I'm totally thrilled with these little lentil beads with big red flowers. Especially loving how they look over turquoise glass.

Jolene xx

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2019 Gallery - Colour Pop beads

Bright doodle beads made with bright colours that really pop!

Jolene xx

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2019 Gallery - Faux Boro and Dichroic Inclusions

A mix of CoE 104 glass using faux boro elements and brass "frit" to create bubbles and CoE 90 beads with Dichroic glass inclusions.

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Jolene xx

Glass testing - Schott clear with metallic inclusions

Yesterday I started looking at how different types of metallic inclusions can add colour and bubbles to clear glass. These beads are made with Schott clear which is compatible with Bullseye glass as it is CoE 90. Each of these beads has a core or clear glass that has been rolled in or burnished with some kind of metallic substance with a heavy layer of clear encasement over the top.

Top left: no inclusion, just lots of poked holes using a florist pin frog.
Bottom left: Brass "frit".
Top middle: Silver leaf encased outside of the flame and super heated.
Bottom middle: Reichenbach Iris Gold frit.
Top right: Copper oxide powder (a tiny amount).
Bottom right: Copper leaf encased outside of the flame and super heated.

I have used a neutral flame only, none of the colour in these beads comes from adjusting the flame chemistry.

Thanks for looking, Jo

2019 Gallery - Encased swirly lentil beads

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Messy testing - Wisteria ltd run and a look at more CiM opal purples

This new colour from CiM is an absolute stunner. Wisteria ltd run is designed to be a misty opal version of Crocus - misty opal means just a hint of opacity. This glass utterly delights me, the result is this precious looking glowing lavender purple.
Wisteria seems to have a very slight colour change/reaction with fine silver foil. These floral hearts have been decorated with encased stringers - Effetre white encased with Gypsy ltd run and Elphaba encased with Eden ltd run.

For comparison I have made a set of similar beads with the original CiM Crocus formula, a very beautiful opal glass which is almost completely opaque. 

This too reacts slightly with fine silver leaf to give small areas of colour change.





 

When I opened the drawer to find Crocus I rediscovered lots of other pretty purple opal/moonstone colours and it was an irresistible temptation to take out a few more to melt and include in this show and tell blog post.

This lovely pale blush pinky toned pastel purple is called Bubblebath ltd run. It's name is very evocative and this glass is so pretty it's own right that it doesn't seem to need much or any other decoration.

Plum is a staple in the Messy Color palette but surprisingly I have not created beads with it often over the years. It is much paler in rod form than as finished beads, a pretty mid purple that can be struck to a couple of different shades as you can see clearly in these heart beads. The subtle colour variation makes me think of Lavender Jade.

The last pretty opal purple I want to show today is called Byzantium ltd run. It is a rich dark purple semi transparent opal glass. CiM describe this colour as a purple moonstone and I can totally see why, it's lush.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Mantis and Eclectus Parrot ltd run and a look at Dark Velvet ltd run

Creation is Messy have been experimenting with the translucency of their opal glasses in their newest collection of CoE 104 ltd run colours.

Here we have leaves made with Mantis ltd run (left) and Eclectus Parrot (right). These lush greens are the same basic colour but Mantis give what CiM call a misty opal look - a barely there opal quality that seems to give these leaves an apparent luminescence.

Eclectus Parrot - henceforth known to me as EP is engineered to be a translucent opal - so an opal that lets just a hint of light through and gives these beads a kind of semi precious gem like quality.

Here are some heart beads showing a direct comparison between how the light travels through both greens. I have used Dark Velvet ltd run, another of those lush super dense purple glass colours that CiM do so well, to create encased stringers to decorate them with.

Mantis, on the left, is decorated with stringer made from Poi encased with Dark Velvet ltd run. EP on the right is decorated with a cane made from Glacier encased with Dark Velvet.
By switching up the core colour you can create some wonderful subtly toning stringers.

Again we have Mantis beads on the left, EP on the right, and some more ideas on what you can do with some lovely thin encased Dark Velvet stringers. The vines and leaves here were made with layered canes that have a core of Elphaba encased with Eden ltd run.

The lentil pair below are made with EP and dots of Glacier/Dark Velvet encased stringers.

These last beads I want to show today show what tiny dots of Dark Velvet over white look like inside an encased floral bead. Very delicate and pretty. The other glass colours I have used here are CiM Poi, Vetrofond light purple and Effetre clear with a bit of Elphaba/Eden layered stringer.

Happy melting, Jolene

Messy Testing - Bayou, Porpoise, Little Boy Blue, Peppermint Cream, and Eden and ltd run

In this post I am looking at 5 new colours that will be arriving in  the UK very soon including a densely saturated green called Eden ltd run.

Bayou ltd run, Porpoise ltd run and Little boy blue ltd looked quite similar in rod form. When used to make beads they are the most lovely green, grey and eggshell blue opaques. These colours are muted and lovely, like vintage paint samples.

The hearts on the left are Bayou decorated with a layered cane of white and Gypsy, and vine cane made of Elphaba layered with Eden ltd run. The middle pair are Porpoise decorated a layered cane of white and Cleopatra and the same vine cane. The pair on the right are made with Little Boy Blue decorated with a layered cane of white and Midnight and the Elphaba/Eden vine cane.

I've used these 3 colours again to make two tone hearts separated with a line of Elpaba/Eden cane.
Left we have Bayou with Glacier which is my all time favourite blue. The middle pair are Porpoise with Weeping Willow (also coming out soon).
The pair on the right are Little Boy Blue and Peppermint Cream ltd run which is a new super pale green

From left to right the bead colours are Peppermint Cream/Bayou/Porpoise/Little Boy Blue. These textured ammonite beads have been burnished with fine silver leaf. The only glass showing a colour change reaction from the silver is The Peppermint cream bead.

Eden ltd is a saturated deep green glass which looks close to black as a solid bead. I usually use CiM Loch Ness to make my layered vine canes but find I like Eden even more! It is an emerald green colour when pulled down into stringer over a core of vibrant green Elphaba. Eden looks black as a solid bead and so by way of giving a direct comparison I have made a solid bead and also put dots Eden over dots of Glacier inside this layered floral lentil to give the impression of big leaves behind the flowers (I have used Gypsy dots over Glacier dots to make the petals). With Eden, a little glass will go a very long way in adding pops of colour to your  beads.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Aiko, Troi and Weeping Willow ltd run

Today I am looking at a trio of new colours coming to the UK from Creation is Messy this spring. The first I want to show is called Aiko ltd run. It is a very pretty mid teal transparent shade.

This first set of beads have been made with a core of Aiko encased with Effetre clear glass. I then used a diamond saw blade to take little nibbles out of the surface of the beads and tumble etched them for a couple of hours to give them a matt finish.

The body of these pretty flower bud beads is made with another gorgeous new colour, Troi ltd run. It looks like the perfect opaque version of Aiko to me and these colours work so so well together. Both colours are a pleasure to work with, Troi melts smoothly and has a buttery texture and Aiko does not scum or bubble even when worked quite hot.

Another Troi/Aiko combination, this time with a wrap of silvered ivory stringer to separate them. Troi seems to give some streaks and striations depending on how you layer it but I like the additional detail this can give to a  bead and I don't consider that to be an unwanted quirk in the slightest. There are no effects of fuming from the silver in this stringer on either colour.

This lentil was made with a core of Trio encased with Aiko then decorated with Troi stingers. The  dots and stringer lines have darker pooled areas of colour giving the illusion of that a second layer of dots and lines were placed on the bead.

The larger round bead shown here has a core of Aiko encased with Effetre clear and has been decorated with Weeping Willow ltd run stringers. As fine stringer, Weeping Willow is very close to the same shade as it appears in rod form.

This pair of heart beads are a Weeping Willow/Aiko combination with a wrap of silvered ivory stringer to separate them. As with Troi, you can see some striations and streaks that give clues to how additional glass was added to form the shape. I think it looks very pretty!
Weeping Willow does not seem to be affected by fuming from the silvered ivory stringer.

This colour would be perfect for making little glass leaves!


16.1.19 Edit to add one last picture, some Weeping Willow leaves...

Jolene xx