Little monster beads frm Jolene Beads

Super cute handmade glass beads with a ton of quirky character available on my new website

www.jolenebeads.com

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

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

Mini Mo' March 2012 - Humbugs and Chocolate Limes

The first of my glasswork collections for March is Chocolate Limes. This Mini Mo's glasswork was made using CiM Sherwood and Effetre Dark Brown Special 448 with Nomalicious Choca Mocha shards. The colour inspiration for this set was given to me by the seat fabric and decor in my pals local pub in Leics!

The first beads I would like to show are a collection of sculptural floral beads using Choc Limes flat cane over Effetre Dark Brown and Effetre Dark Grass Green encased with 006 clear.

Here is a proper Pic N Mix shapes selection of Choc Lime twistie allsorts! This fun and funky set of beads shows what the striped and ribbon twistie canes look like both left raised and melted flat under clear encasement.

Next I'd like to show a recent bracelet bead collection made with lashings and lashings of Choca Mocha shards over CiM Ginger, Reichenbach Mystic Beige and Effetre light topaz.

In Keeping with the sweet shop inspired theme in March, my second collection is this delicious monochrome. Humbug Mini Mo' uses CiM Peace and CiM Hades with shimmering goldstone.

The beads here are stunning jewel toned rounds with lashings of raised goldstone shards decoration. Both the foremost turquoise bead  and opaque looking green bead at the back are made with Double helix Gaia and show how beautiful these shards look when silver fumed.

This striking monchrome raised floral set uses Humbug murrini flat cane and looks deceptively simple.

These beads below are the reason that I am blogging about March in August! I put my black and white Humbug twistie cane somewhere safe and it took me just about forever to find it again!! Because of that I have made something very different with it than I would have done back in March as I'm on a bracelet bead kick at the moment. This collection of beads features Humbug twistie over CiM African Grey and Silvered Ivory shards over Effetre Steel Grey transparent.

Both the Goldstone and Choca Mocha Shards have become popular staple lines in my lampy supplies shop, Frit N Chips on Etsy.

Jolene x

Frit N Chips lampwork supplies and Kitzbitz Art Beads

Adventures with Gunmetal

Gunmetal is pretty special stuff, it can be tweaked in the flame to give a strong shimmering silver patina. You can catch a glimpse of this as you are melting down a rod in the flame but I find the best and easiest way to create a strong surface patina with this glass is to flash your finished bead through a very small oxygen rich flame just before putting your bead away in the kiln.

This is the paddle pic for Gunmetal from CiM




I find that Gunmetal is a super soft glass to work with, melting just as quickly and easily as a white opaque glass. It also seems to hold the heat and stay runny longer once out of the flame in the same way as light opaque colours do. I have found Gunmetal can "cannibalize" surface decoration if used as a base and worked too hot, I have lost some of my white latticino surface decoration in to the focal in my test mini set.



I also find that it is difficult to get dot work to stick if there is the slightest patina of silver on the surface of a Gunmetal base bead so building up your base in a very slightly reducing flame works best for me when I want to add further surface decoration.



As shards, Gunmetal looks a deep transparent purple before application. For the best results I use the same technique to apply as I do with premium Effetre hand pulled Dark Silver Plum (DSP). I turn the torch flame right down with the propane dial only, creating a very small oxygen rich flame. The results are instant when you add Gunmetal shards to the surface of your bead, glistening and shiny silver. Very lovely indeed, and at just a fraction of the price of DSP.


Gunmetal shards over CiM Sapphire



Gunmetal shards over Reichenbach Antique Clear

I tend to work hot preferring transaprents for their stiffness and for that reason find working with Gunmetal a challenge. I adore this glass as shards.

Jolene

Welcome to my new glassy blog

Finally I have a place to jot my thoughts down and am looking forward sharing my passion for all things glassy.

Jolene xx