Bead sets ready now.....

 A selection of my glass beads in stock now....

Pansy Beads and more...

Still rebelling against the cold snap, I have made even more pretty flower beads this week. These top two mini sets are my first attempts at sculptural pansy beads. I enjoyed making them so very much and will ty to miniaturise the style a little for earring beads next week.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Springtime daisy beads

 Daisy bead sets...

I am so pleased with yesterdays studio creations, 3 large sets of beads in lovely springtime shades of transparent glass with a daisy motif. I have used the stepped heart texture plate to add interest, detail and scatter the light through the complimentary lentil beads in each set and on the back of the floral beads. Each set is completed with 8 pretty leaf beads and 16 matching spacers.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Purple flowers longing for spring...

Beautiful Purple glass...

I have used some stunning purple glass colours to make these pretty sculpted flower beads. The buds to the left are CiM Plum and Trapeze. The buds below are made with Cim Evil Queen and Trapeze and the flower topped buttons below are made with Effetre 072 and Simply Berry.

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Flower beads, buds and buttons....

Taking a break from making large sets with lots of detail to make pretty curvy beads that have the kind of curves and texture that glass seems to love to make. Some of these are beads and some are shank button style beads with big bold bright petals on top.

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

 

Beads inspired by c.1914 arts and crafts fabric

Voysey fabric inspired bead....

My third attempt at taking inspiration from the fabulous V&A Spectrum book.  

The print I have chosen today is from the Arts and Crafts movement, one of the Cumberland prints by Voysey. This particular furnishing fabric print has a lot of soft muted tones but the closest glass colours in my stash proved a bit more vibrant. 

This process is helping me to pin down what kind of beads I want to make as although this is a cohesive set I feel there are too many styles and base colours within it. I think that a sticking to only 1 or 2 base colours will create sets that are more pleasing to my eyes. 

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

17th Century embroidered cushion inspired beads....

More heritage beadspiration...

Following on from yesterday's post, this is my second complete set of beads using the V&A Spectrum book for beadspiration. 

This textile is a 17th century or early 18th century embroidered canvass cushion cover. In addition to using it for an inspiring colour palette I have picked out one of the flower motif's from it also.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

 

16th Century textile wall hanging inspired beads....

Heritage Beadspiration...

I bought a wonderful just before Christmas last year while on a trip to the V&A. It's called Spectrum - Heritage patterns and colours. It is full of interesting textiles and prints and a breakdown of their main colour components.

I took it in to the studio with me this morning for inspiration and used this image to pick out glass colours that I never would have chosen to go together all by myself. This pattern is from a 16th century textile with a Tudor rose motif. 

As you can see my colour choices are close but not exact. There are only a couple of hundred shades of glass in the studio as the moment which may sound like a lot of choice. It's seriously not though when it comes to beginning a bead project in this way of trying to colour match from source material. Plus mixing glass to make new shades like you can with paint is not an easy thing to do at all. 

I am pretty happy with the results and have already picked out another pattern form the book for inspiration for tomorrow's studio sesh.

Jolene x

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

 

Colourful round beads..........

Some bright and colourful beads...

I am not usually a fan of yellow glass and rarely choose it as the main colour for my glass bead making sessions, but purple glass I just adore and melt all the time!

I am planning to push myself a little in 2024 and focus on pleasing colour combinations, work on my stringer control and creating consistent dotted patterns. To make a start on that I have put together a couple of sets this week that have made me feel really happy. 

Jolene xx

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com

Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com

and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Some new work for 2024

Happy New Year....

I've kicked off 2024 by revisiting some previous bead styles and continuing my love affair with Reichenbach Multicolour glass.

Texture tools available at jolenebeads.com
Lampwork beads available at jolenebeadsjewellery.etsy.com
and also in my facebook group here www.facebook.com/groups/joleneBeads

Jolene xx