Lush Style

Do you like my style?


I love to play around with different stringing materials and enjoy coming up with alternatives to traditional tiger tail, with metal crimps and clasps.

Its actually a few years ago now that I first came across some wonderful 3mm PVC tube in a stunning array of frosted colours, I bought a bagful, stashed it in a drawer and waited for inspiration ... and waited ... I even bought some more ...


I have no idea what finally got me going but eventually I pulled all that lovely tube back into the daylight and rediscovered its fabulousness!  

When I realised that such good quality tube in this size was so hard to come by I decided to bite the bullet and offer it for sale to my friends and fellow lampworkers.  They loved my Lush Loops so much, they keep selling out!  

Lush Loops are perfect on their own for simple bracelets and chokers, and I also enjoy chopping up any leftovers and threading them onto cotton cord with a random colourful mixture of beads and ... Lush Hoops!  

Oh oh oh, look at all those colours!  I can't believe how happy a bunch of rubber Hoops can make me feel (except that they keep selling out too!).


That lovely silver clasp was made specially to compliment these designs by George Harper East - check out mizgeorge on Etsy.

So if you need a little inspiration, if your mojo could do with a kick to get it going in a new direction, take a look at my website and check out the new pages: there's Lush Loops, Lush Hoops in 3 sizes (the Small Hoops won't fit on the Loops but there's plenty of other uses for them), and Lush Style, where you can pick up cotton cord, and large seed beads to bring your designs right up to date!

And if that lot doesn't get you going, how about a Kit?!

Testing

I've been playing with a few rods that were sent to me for testing.  First up is the new silver glass by Double Helix, Notos.

Billed as "a silver saturated super-luster with a subtle blue-grey-green tone" I definitely agree with the grey/green tone, that's exactly how I was describing it to myself when working with it.  I found it really easy to reduce and achieve a shiny silver, which turns more golden when worked more in a cool reducing flame.  I had a little play to see what would happen if I allowed it to glow when reducing - as expected, Notos did then turn murky but I could mostly burn off the murkiness and reduce it again (something I can never do with Triton).

I had very little success with encasing Notos.  A few faintly lustred wisps was the best I achieved under clear, but its lovely when simply reduced on the surface.  I shall be interested to see what more those with more silver glass skills can achieve.

I made this heart from Verde Muschio with a Notos shoulder and spots.  The Verde Muschio - which I think means Moss Green - is really surprising.  

It starts out transparent, develops a bloom as it cools and ends up cloudily opaque - I love it!  The heart is a darker green than the lentil, probably due to the fuming effect of the silver glass ... interesting ...

Vetrofond Mauvelous is simply marvellous!  Its a pretty pale creamy mauve with a beautiful lustred sheen and just looks fabulous on its own. My torch tends to be a little reducing, so a more neutral environment may produce less, or more even, sheen.

Effetre Sandstone and Sediment are two lovely organic glasses that also work so nicely on their own, together or as an organic base.  I haven't yet had chance to try them with silver but I can just tell they'll be great.

I tried Pinky Winky once before and didn't really get it ... and I must admit, I still don't get it.  Its an odd combination of pink over blue, and I find the blue just makes the pink look a bit dirty.  But that just might be down to what I did with it!


Let's get a little brighter ... Vetrofond Orange Punch, Dreamsicle and Transparent Orange are next.  

Orange Punch is a rich, reddish orange.  

Dreamsicle is bright, with lots of lovely depth. 

Transparent Orange made my mouth water like a juicy ice lolly, its not really transparent at all, more like a CIM opal, brilliant!

I also had another very quick play with the new Effetre Cool Earth and Streaky Denim.  I managed to avoid Streaky Denim reducing this time and I'm pleased with the purple (just a touch of reduction on the edges).  

Earth is a strong, rich blue with a touch of green.

Let's finish with another look at that Mauvelous heart!

Arts Markets!

I've been working hard this month, getting new jewellery ready for a series of Arts Markets I'll be attending this year in Malvern and Hereford (list of dates on my website).


Without actually meaning to, I appear to have come up with a whole new range of jewellery and packaging and I've even made Kits!  I'm very pleased with everything and really looking forward to the first market, which is tomorrow!

Here's a quick pic of the new stock, as you can see, I've made rather a lot!

And the kits - which heavily feature my new Hoops and Loops.


However, I've discovered that I'm not actually Wonder Woman (well, who knew?!) and my planned Listing Day on 1st April is going to be a much quieter affair than the last two months.  Its just not been possible to focus on producing new bead stock with all the excitement of the new jewellery flying around my head.  I promise to try harder next month!

I've got a plan ... Stan

I'm know I'm not the only one that works best under pressure.  

Take bead fairs for example, they're usually in my diary at least 6 months in advance and the sensible approach would be to start stashing bead stock away from the outset.  Ha!  Check me out 3 weeks before a fair and the frown lines are appearing, I'm starting to lay a few bits away.  A week later and I realise that 4 sets and a couple of focals are going to put on a pretty poor show on that six foot table, so I get much more serious and get my "production" head on.  Fast forward another week and I finally get my act together: emails go unanswered, commissions start to pile up, the house is uncleaned, the washing is unwashed and the only time I come up for air is to walk bluddy dog.  Instead of spending most of the day fiddling about cleaning beads, photographing beads, looking at photographs of beads (blah beads blah blah beads) I actually get stuck right in to making beads, from early in the morning till late at night and I fall into bed exhausted, satisfied and excited to open the kiln next morning.  I get deep deep deep into "the zone" and I LOVE IT!


Thing is, I don't do many bead fairs any more (although watch out for my next post when I tell you what I'm going to be doing instead).


I stopped doing bead fairs for a number of reasons, but one thing that always happened, whether it was a great fair, a so-so fair or a downright dead fair, I would slog back down the motorway, unload the car, put everything away, photograph all those unsold beads, get em up on the website like fresh sheets on the line - and get the most satisfaction from posting them out to my lovely customers all over the world.  


But since I stopped selling at so many bead fairs, I've missed indulging in that period of concentrated production, and I just end up grabbing good studio days when I can, uploading a few listings here and there in dribs and drabs and constantly berating myself for being a bit rubbish and never getting enough done; even though I seem to be always running round in disorganised circles.


So its time to get organised!  And tell you about my plan!

Listing Day! A kind of virtual bead fair, once a month, on the 1st of every month to be precise (or as near as possible), no need to buy a ticket or look for a parking space :0)

For the last week of every month I hereby promise to get In The Zone. Dib dib dib! Steam will once again be seen coming out of my studio till the wee small hours and my bead stash will grow like it used to.  I'll send an email to my mailing list members (sign up on my home page) to remind you of Listing Day and I will restock my virtual shelves on the 1st of every month for at least the first few months of 2012.    

Let's see how it goes, shall we?!


P.S. Don't forget, if you want to be reminded of Listing Day, sign up to my mailing list and keep me informed if you change email address.


P.P.S. A month is a long time, so I'm bound to list new items for sale on my website or in my Etsy shop at other times too, but I aim to give this monthly mega-upload a good go!

Tag!

I fell in love with this photo that popped up in my Flickr contacts by Russian artist, Sasha Kulakova, recently.

The simple shapes, the bright contrasting colours, so stylish and just crying out to be made in glass.  

Sasha was really pleased to have inspired me, so she took up the challenge and recreated my Poppin' Buttons

Wow!  Crochet?! Incredible!

I just couldn't leave it there though - Ring Toppers!

Playing Tag! like this has been brilliant fun, I'd love to hear if anybody else has been inspired across media in a similar way.

Do check out Sasha's photostream and blog, her work is beautiful.  I'm loving her stress relief cats and funky birds ... black, white, orange, mmmmmm ...

Easy Heart Bead Tutorial

A simple method for making a hand-shaped heart bead - no press required!

Start with a round bead - I've used Effetre ivory as its soft and easy to shape.

Roll at an angle on a graphite marver to taper one end and create a cone shape.

Make the first shoulder by swiping glass from left to right on one side, don't touch the mandrel.

Make the other shoulder in the same way.

Gently heat the shoulders to round them out, keep the mandrel turning to avoid either shoulder slumping against the mandrel.  

Use the marver on the edges shown by arrows to straighten the sides.

Flatten gently against a marver to define the shape.  

You could use the rounded end of a knife to mark creases.  Decorate! 

Some Messy Testing

Tuffnell Glass sent me some of the latest Creation Is Messy Uniques and Limited Runs to have a play with.  Rods from the top: Hollandaise Ltd Run, Mulberry Ltd Run, Ghee Unique 1, Midnight Ltd Run, Marble Ltd Run, Pumpkin Unique 5, Plum Unique 1, Lipstick Unique 3, Crocus Unique 2, Jade Palace Ltd Run, Celadon Unique 2 and Desert Pink Unique 1.

Here's a closer look at the full set of beads, both shiny and etched.  

I wrapped each bead with Effetre silvered ivory stringer and fine silver wire.

Next I made a bunch of lentils - glass testing and replenishing my show stock at the same time!  Click the pic twice for a closer look.  I used Midnight in the first 3 beads, thinking it was black - I later discovered its not! Marble is a nice opal white which has fumed a little from the silver.  Jade Palace is a lovely rich opal green. In the third row, I love the Plum Unique, its so streaky, and Desert Pink Unique is a good solid shade.  Ghee Unique and Lipstick Unique are great together, in fact these colours are all over New Look at the moment! (Hey, I have an 18 year old daughter, I can't avoid New Look!) The Mulberry is very dark - I think I prefer it etched, and the Crocus Unique is very light - definitely prefer the regular version but I think this shade is useful too.  And that final bead ... well, I just love the Ghee Unique with silver leaf - in fact, I think the Ghee Unique on its own would be fantastic too, so variable, and perfectly organic.

Now to compare the Uniques with their regular counterparts.  Desert Pink Unique is pinker, Pumpkin Unique is brighter, Celadon Unique is greener, Crocus Unique is paler (much, much paler!), Plum Unique is richer, Lipstick Unique is lighter and really its hard to be sure about Ghee Unique, in this pic it would certainly appear to be darker, but there is so much variation in Ghee regular and unique that I haven't completely made up my mind yet.

I said earlier that I originally thought that Midnight was black, but I pulled a stringer to check its density - I was expecting to see purple like Effetre black, or maybe a green tinge like Hades, but I found it was really very light grey.  So I tried it over Effetre white, and yes, Midnight is definitely grey!  I'm going to be trying this out some more, its a lovely shade and definitely worth investigating further.

Here's a ring topper in Desert Pink Unique - with a little purple rose frit on the centre.

And another ring topper in Marble with a swirl of raku frit - like other opals, the Marble doesn't bring out the best in the Raku, but I still like the finished effect.

Hollandaise, on the other hand, is brilliant with raku, and silvered ivory and is just a gorgeous colour for autumn.