don't sneeze and torch

This cold socks.  I'm sneezing all over the place and don't feel like doing anything.  Forget torching today.  If I can stay awake long enough I'm likely to blow the old HH out when I sneeze. Out of an entire day off yesterday, the beads at the left represent my best efforts.  The purple in both is plum silver light--as opposed to dark.  I was hoping to scare a little extra sheen out of it but still no luck.  I wonder if the fact that it is machine pulled has any bearing on the lack of pearly lustre?  I have some machine pulled plum silver dark and some hand pulled.  Must do a test with the stuff I know works. As far as the decoration goes, the top bead is DH psyche, my best effort at reducing it to date, and the bottom one is DH aurae under clear dots, neat effect, I think.

 My stringer control was all over the place on these beads and the only saving grace I can see is that I managed to strike the pink opalino without cooking it and I like the effect of the aurae on the pink.  The top bead here is mosaic blue (would you believe) and the caliope prototype from DH, encased in clear.  I was hoping for some more of the fuming the mosaic blue did with the triton, and the ghost of a fume effect is visible at 8 o'clock on the dark bead, but nothing happening for me and I am generally disgusted with this bead.  I thought I would do a plain old floral on Effetre alexandrite pastel and once again my lighting is doing nothing for the bead.  I must take this to work with me when I'm up to leaving the house to see what it really looks like.  Must buy a decent lamp.

What to say about these beads?  Not what I was hoping for by a long shot.  The black is CiM hades with aurae dots encased in clear.  The beige is Cim stoneground with aurae dots encased in clear, and the monster is mosaic blue with triton ditto.  The black and beige beads could have come up more pink from the aurae and I would have been pleased indeed.  I do like the zig-zag effect on the beige bead, though.  The blue bead is an inch across and didn't crack, which is about all I can say about it.  The crock pot works.  One's mental and physical health have a definite effect on the work produced.  This cold is a drag.  Not enough to be interesting, just enough to take the joy out of life.  I'll probably be laying off the beads for a few days so I'll be organizing the material I have and drawing posts from that.  I ought to have enough for a week.