Sunny side-up - fried egg mini tutorial

 A quick and fun bead to make that is  perfect for Beads of Courage 

 

Happy Melting, Jolene xx

Mandala beads and buttons

I'm so totally thrilled with this mornings kiln harvest. I've been wanting to try to make something like this for yonks but just didn't have enough skill and heat control to stop a large disc from just collapsing in on itself. These beads and buttons all turned out deliciously and I can't wait to get back into the studio to play with this style again.

Have a great day, Jolene xx

www.kitzbitz.com

www.kitzbitz.com my own website at last...

Last weekend I put on my big girl pants and set about building a website for my beads. I've spent the past week loading up the shop with pretty goodies, some of which you can see here :-D To celebrate I have a voucher code - 104U - for 10% off which is valid today and tomorrow (26th and 27th of May '15).

Come and have a look www.kitzbitz.com

Jolene xx

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

MEET me on UK Handmade

Morning, a quick post and run from me, there are carrot cakes to be baked and a trip up town to the Natural History Museum to prepare for this morning :-D I wanted to share my first ever interview with you, part of the MEET series on UK Handmade.

You can read the full interview here http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/meet-jolene-wolfe

Have a super weekend
Jolene xx

Mini Mo' August 2013 - Toffifee and Crazy Rainbows #Blogtoberfest13 day 20

I'm running a little behind on my Mini Mo' blogging and am planning to get up to date over the next few days, starting with August. My first collection is called Toffifee, it is a scrumptious collection of coffee, caramel and toffee tones.

Here is a fabby bead showing what the 3d flower murrini in this first collection look like under a deep encasing layer. I have a tutorial on my blog here showing how to use Tonbodama style 3d flower murrini.

This cool focal uses Toffifee cane to form the flower, stem and leaves. The flower sits on top of silvered Cookie Dough shards.

I made this set of shell using wraps of twistie cane. The reulsts are nowhere near true to life but is fun and effective.

This trio of kitsch mushies use toffifee canes to lovely effect as swipes to create petals, leaves and dots.

I love this bright collection which uses glass in every colour of the rainbow. In this Mini Mo' image you can see a rainbow flower murrini,  the tutorial here shows how I get the best out of using this king of glass embellishment.

This lovely set of autumnal pillow beads over CiM Nutmeg uses the orange and yellow canes as dots o make detailed petals.

I've used one of the blue caned to swipe on large petal onto this pretty partially encased barrel shaped focal bead.

A series of rainbow twistie wrapped sculpted Scallop shell beads. They are ever so bright and pretty.

It is now possible to join the Mini Mo' Club via Etsy for 3, 6, 9 or 12 month long subscriptions. Please check out my shop link for more info.
Frit N Chips lampwork supplies.

Have a lovely week, Jolene x

52 little things week 42 - #Blogtoberfest13 day 17

It's week 42! and there are only 68 day left until Christmas!! If you lampwork and are in the mood to make some cool Crimbo beads for the kiddies then check out this nifty free Santa tutorial by Laney Mead or Emma Green's sweet Plop the Penguin tute on the BCCA website :-D

www.bechildcanceraware.org/beads-of-courage/lampwork-tutorials/

If you have a tutorial that would be great for Beads of Courage booster beads on your website of blog and would like it to be featured on the Be Child Cancer Aware website then please do let me know xx


Here are a couple of links to some of our other fabulous Craft Pimp Year Long Challenge bloggers


Lynn of Nemeton
Heather of Heather Kelly Glass 
Sue of BlueBoxStudio
Linda of Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design

And here are some links for BCCA - Beads of Courage
http://www.bechildcanceraware.org/beads-of-courage
https://www.facebook.com/bechildcanceraware

Have a super day, Jolene xx

Work in Print - Autumn oak leaf turorial in Beads & Beyond Magazine #Blogtoberfest13 day 15

Morning, yesterday I spotted that the November edition of Beads and Beyond magazine is out in the shops now. Each month B&B feature a lampwork tutorial and this month it's one from me, Oak Leaf beads :-D

Have a super day
Jolene xx

Some unexpected publicity #blogtoberfest13 day 2

So this is mad as a box of frogs right, my pal emails me this morning and says I saw you in the paper again today....the whole thing draws a blank with me because I have no reason to know of lately to make the Uxbridge Gazette! Turns out that my pic must have been pulled from stock photos and the article was about the top 5 things to do locally this week - No 3 (with a pic of me from the first beadathon last year...the one where I had not slept for nigh on 24 hours!) advertising the Uxbridge Bead fair this weekend.

I decided to take it as a good omen, put my big girl pants on and rang to book a table! It will be my first ever bead fair and I feel quite nervous about it. Wish me luck :-D

Jolene xx

Applying 3D flower murrini #blogtoberfest13 day 1

I'm starting #Blogtoberfest13 with a bang and this lovely tutorial for applying 3D flower murrini that I wrote back in January this year but until now it was just in pdf form rather than on my blog. I hope you like it xx













Step 1
• Spot heat your bead where you would like your murrini to go, pick up your murrini with long nose tweezers or murrini hemostats and plunge the point end in to your softened bead.

Step 2
• Cap your murrini with a small dot of clear to protect the surface of the murrini and stop the pattern from closing up when heated.









Step 3
• Heat your clear cap in a low flame and press it gently so that the end of your murrini starts to flare out. Repeat this step as many times as you like to help your petals to open more but remember to heat and press gently each time, opening the bloom is a gradual process.

Step 4
• Melt a larger dot of glass on the end of the clear rod and drop the glass on top of your clear cap and then flame cut the drop from the rod. Check your newly applied glass for any scum or unwanted bubbles and remove this with tweezers. Checking and removing any impurity at this early stage whilst your murrini is still cool is best. Trying to remove a blemish in the clear layer when your murrini is hot may distort your flower.

Step 5
• Heat and pat down your larger clear cap
gently. Do this several times, working
slowly to prevent smearing your murrini.
Your clear cap at this stage should be
much wider than your murrini.

Step 6
• Heat your clear cap and allow gravity to
pull the clear down over the sides of your
flower murrini. You can use a pick at this
stage to ease the clear cap down at the
sides until it meets your base bead.
You can go on to fully encase your base
bead around your murrini “bumps” or
continue to use gentle heat and gravity to
shape your clear lens over the top of your
flower murrini.

I hope you have enjoyed my flower murrini tutorial, Jolene x

www.kitzbitz.etsy.com
www.fritnchips.etsy.com

A Facebook Page Celebration Giveaway, Chrissie pendant bead set....

Yesterday I reached 1500 likes on my Facebook Page which is a fabulous milestone and so I made a special set of beads for a celebration giveaway here on my blog.

For your chance to win them all you need to do is make sure you like my page www.facebook.com/KitzbitzArtGlass and leave me a lovely comment here on my blog under this post!

Of course it would be great of you followed my blog, subscribed to my newsletter or shared my page on twitter or facebook too but none of that is compulsory to be in with your chance to win.

I will draw a name at random to win this extra special set of Chrissie beads on Saturday 24th of August 2013 and I will announce the winners name here on my blog and also on Facebook too.

 If you are not commenting as a guest rather than with a blogger account please make sure I have a way to contact you by leaving me your FH, CP, LE or HAF Forum name or your twitter name or FB page link please. If I have no means of contacting you should you win I cannot accept your comment as a valid entry.

Good luck and have a super day Jolene x

Button Love

I've just started making lampwork buttons and it is fair to say that I am completely smitten with the process.... here is a little gallery of my very first ones.


These have all been created by winding a cabochon out of glass around a hand formed copper wire loop to form the shank and then decorated and encased with clear glass.



Jolene x

lampwork supplies Beads and Buttons and Bracelet Beads and Jewellery

52 little things - week 5

Craft Pimp Forum has a new project for 2013, a year long project to make 52 little things. people are making all sorts, a wide variety of small hand crafted items. I've decided to make a special bead each week for Beads of Courage. Here is the YLC (year long challenge) week 5 show and tell for you to go take a peek.

So this is my week 5 make, this bright bonny bead has been etched for a matt finish and has been faceted too. 

Jolene xx

New tutorial....Making Organic Shards

I've just finished working in my second lampwork tutorial for sale, It is a recipe book for my organic shard series and includes a beautifully illustrated tutorial on blowing shards and the details of how to make Red Riverrock, Point Break, Cloudbusting, Green Dreams and Choca Mocha and Sandbanks Shards.

This eBook is available via Payhip and an instant download

Buy eBook

 






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

Thank you, Jolene x

Frit N Chips lampwork supplies Kitzbitz Art Beads and Buzzword Bracelet Beads