Disc Challenged!

One of the most challenging shapes in beadmaking for me has always been the disc. I love Karolen / Beadabundant's sets and bought a glorious Triton set from her so I may admire the perfectly formed discs in person.

No matter how careful I am with the touch down of the glass, I always end up with a tiny bloop of glass sticking out on the mandrel on one side of the hole! I finally asked for help at the ISGB's forum and got a few tips. Off to practice I went and here are a few discs that turned out fair. The latest one is the one in the front . . . made with my current favorite silver glass, Double Helix TE-265. I am quite pleased and hope to one day be able to make a full set of decently shaped silver discs!

Double Helix TE-265

I have been obsessed with this test batch of Double Helix glass lately. It's the most amazing silver glass EVER, imho. There is nothing in the market quite like it. It both strikes and reduces - and the result is glorious iridescence in hues of the entire color spectrum! AND it retains the mother-of-pearl opalescence under encasement.

Can't decide if we will list this on eBay or keep it for our private collection! ;-)

Now . . . waiting to see when Double Helix may make this again!!!

* click on the image for a larger view!

New eBay Listings!

We have decided to start listing on eBay. Two seven-day auctions are up now, ending on Sunday 24 May.




Moon Beam - our Leaves Series big-hole bead, we love the amazing mother-of-pearl effect of this Double Helix test batch. Cored with sterling silver tubing custom made to fit Pandora/Biagi style chain.





Patterns - five small focals make up this pretty set of patterns and scrollwork. Vetrofond Light Ivory and ASK Silver Rattan are definitely one of our favorite combinations!

Gaffer Chalcedony

The latest striking silver glass hype is all about a COE 96 glass from Gaffer in Auckland, New Zealand, called G109 Chalcedony. Of-course I had to have some!

If you are used to COE 104 glass, you will find Gaffer quite a bit stiffer. The workability of the glass is more like Bullseye, which is COE 90. I only had a chance to make a few test beads and found that shaping the ends with a stiff glass was quite challenging! As you can see, I had to dust off my lil' bead stand for the photography for my bicone didn't stand on either end!!! ;-)

The range of colors is quite astounding! Depending on how you work the glass (and I need to explore this much further), colors from soft pastels to dark jewel tones bloom!




Perhaps it's time to dust off all the COE 96 glass - Reichenbach, Uroboros, Zimmerman and Caliente!

Silver Twisties Recipe e-Book Update

My initial anticipated release date for this e-book was late April. Unfortunately while I was gathering my notes on all the beads I wanted to feature in the e-book, I realized that on many of them, I used A LOT of glass that was not readily available.

After the thread on lampworketc forum where complaints were launched against tutorial writers using "rare" glass, I have put this e-book project on hold while I decide how best to approach this issue. . .

• proceed as planned, for the beads that utilize no longer available glass for the twisty recipe, recommend substitution
• re-make all the beads with "rare" glass using readily available glass

I apologize to everyone who has been waiting for this e-book.