Simple chocolate truffle tutorial for Beads of Courage

  Chocolate truffle bead tutorial for Beads of Courage.  

These chocolate truffle beads are quite simple to make and  can be decorated any way you like. Below are a few "recipes" and decorating suggestions.To make these little chocolates, start by making a round bead in your favourite chocolate brown glass colour and flatten one side so they will stand up. I have flattened mine on a wavy pattern brass texture plate but if you don't have anything like that then just flatten the base on any suitable surface.

Effetre chocoalte brown 444 with a swirl of white glass. I have used commercial stringer here rather than pulled my own.

Effetre chocolate brown 444 dipped in "sugar frit" Kuglar's Lead Crystal Clear (K100) in a fine #00 grind.

 

CiM Ghee for a caramel looking truffle with Effetre chocolate brown stringer waves.

Effetre chocolate brown 444 with chocolate brown stringer waves.

Find our how to support BoCUK with bead donations in the new Beads of Courage UK Bead Artists Facebook Group.

Happy melting, Jolene x

 

 

 

Messy testing - London Fog, Unicorn, Summer Haze, and Lemongrass ltd run

This post looks at 4 neutral/pale shades of opal glass from the CiM spring collection that came out earlier this year. The first is called London Fog ltd run. It is a misty opal glass and it's really lovely! I have paired it up here with stringers and dots of Class M Planet.

 

 

Unicorn ltd run is a milky opal white glass, the same hue as London Fog. Milky opals are semi-translucent while misty opals are just ever so slightly translucent and let more light through. I have paired up Unicorn with Poi and purple encased stringer work.

 

 

Summer Haze ltd run is a pale yellow misty opal glass. I have teamed it up with Grumpy Bear.

Lemongrass ltd run (pictured below) is a pale yellow milky opal glass. It lets through more light than the original opal type glass colours from CiM which I personally like a lot. I have paired it up with Oobleck to make these heart pair.

 

Summer Haze and Lemongrass are another pair of glasses that are the same hue with different translucency. I find I tend to lean towards the Misty Opals generally but I much prefer Lemongrass from this pair.

Jolene x

Messy Testing - Paradise, Goddess and Lunar ltd run

This post looks at three blue opal glass colours from the spring 2020 collection of new colours from Creation is Messy.  These hearts are made with Paradise ltd run, a blue semi-translucent milky opal glass.

 

Goddess ltd run, shown here on the right, is another blue opal. This glass is the same shade as Paradise but CiM describe it as a misty opal glass. It lets more light through than Paradise and has a lovely glow to it when you hold these beads up to the light.

The last glass I'm showing today is Lunar ltd run. It's is a very pretty shade of opal denim blue. These simple leaf beads look so pretty.

Jolene x

365 Penguins Fan Art lampwork bead tutorial for Beads of Courage

These super cute beads were inspired by a book that I read with my children in January 2015 called 365 Penguins. It was written by Jean-Luc Fromental and illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet. Joëlle has very kindly given me permission to write a not for profit fan art tutorial to show how I make them so that others may also create them for Beads of Courage donations. With Christmas just around the corner I thought that now would be a great time to share.

Step 1: Wind a tube of black glass on to your mandrel.

Step 2: Use a roller or a hand held graphite marver to shape your tube into a bullet shape.

 

I'm using a CG bead roller BR9 small chunky oval  here.

Step 4: Press your bead between 2 heat proof surfaces to form a tab shape.

Step 5: Draw a rectangle using chunky white stringer.

Step 6: Fill in your rectangle shape with swipes of white glass.

Step 7: Heat the whole bead and press it again.

Step 7: Add 2 swipes of black glass to form the wings and a large dot to form the beak.

Step8: Heat your bead and it press flat again.

Step 9: Add 2 large dots of orange or blue glass.

Step 10: Spot heat the tips of the wings and rake the soft glass with a dental pick to create points. Repeat this process to shape the beak.

Step 11: Heat the feet and press your whole bead flat again. Spot heat one foot and use a dental pick to rake twice to create 3 "toes". Repeat this process for the other foot. Add two black dots of glass for the eyes.

Step 12: Add a large dot of white on top of  each black eye dot, then layer on a second dot of black. 

Heat and press for a final time. Heat the whole bead through well and then garage in your kiln.

 

Happy Penguin making, Jo  xx