New Glass

Huzzah! I finally got a striking color from Double Helix that worked for me! Following the directions on their website, I wound off a simple bead and popped it in to anneal. The second one was heavily encased in, as it turns out, Effetre whisper instead of the Effetre super clear I thought was on the table. In my lousy lighting they looked the same.... At any rate it's blue and ruby with a little green and looks pretty good by me. Good to know it doesn't react with the whisper, but next time I'd rather do clear. These were garaged for about an hour at 965 then soaked for 2 hours at 1000, then ramped down 100 degrees/hour to 500.

These beads were DH Nyx, which didn't do anything funky and organic, but didn't do anything ugly either. The bottom bead was heated to soup but otherwise left alone. I attempted to reduce the middle one but I don't see any difference other than less striking. The top bead was reduced and encased in whisper again. Now I don't know whether the brownish green streak was my technique or a reaction with the whisper. Further testing will show.

The green bead is CiM Ephalba, just because I like this combination. The bead directly above it is made with CiM Evil Queen, which I was forced to buy because Frantz stopped carrying my fav, Thai Orchid. It is not brown but isn't the rich purple of the Thai Orchid either. The bottom bead is Effetre Sedona, because it was on the table I take these photographs on and I thought it looked good with the other 2.

CiM's new super saturated aqua, Azure. Remains very vividly turquoise transparent over white. I'm not sure whether it is CiM Peace or Effetre Anice White. Definitely not white pastel.

Finally, Effetre Pale Emerald handmade by itself, over the same white and Effetre Uranium Yellow by itself. I wanted to get CiM Appletini but Frantz was out.

New Jewelry and Hope

 It's been a couple months, but I finally have something to say.  I have made the odd spacer or two, for my own consumption since I don't feel comfortable selling beads that may crack.  I haven't been enjoying lampworking though since my lack of a way of annealing them properly and the loss of some really nice beads has put a damper on my creativity.  I've also been getting used to working with a pair of diddys.  The soda flare never really bothered me but I talked to an eye doctor about torchwork and she scared me into buying a pair.  I don't know whether it's the lack of the cue of the soda flare or being rusty, but suddenly all my beads were coming out lopsided and I was having the devil of a time with all kinds of other basic issues.  I've finally worked out my shaping, heat control and stringer placement issues and produced the necklace, bracelet, and earrings above.

I lost some weight and my wardrobe needed an update, and purple is one of my favorite colors, so I needed some nice jewelry to go with the new duds.  I like the way these colors come together and have always favored many different shapes in one color group.  The set is made up of CiM Thai orchid, Effetre silver plum light and dark and a few violet transparent.  For decoration I mostly used black metallic with some CiM tux, which has a different kind of reaction with the Thai orchid I used it over.  I restocked headpins and finally got some that will work with 3/32" holes.  I didn't have them when I made this pair of earrings, hence the wirewrapping, but will have them when I get back to beadmaking for real next week.

I still have a bit of time for benchwork because I recently had minor surgery and am able to sit and torch but not walk around for extended periods or lift more than 10 lbs.  I'll have to have Joe set up my new annealer when it comes on Thursday.  I'm so amped.  It's brand new, straight from the factory and hasn't been ruined by anyone else first.  It says it can't be used for PMC but I think if I place a ceramic shelf that's all that is usable from my old kiln in it, it will work fine.  ANYONE WHO HAS ANY FEEDBACK ON THIS IDEA, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT.  After waiting so long for a proper annealer, I don't want to mess it up.  I haven't done PMC yet and can put it off indefinitely if it means I can make beads that won't crack.  I stole this picture of the chilli pepper I'm getting from the Heritage Glass site in my links.  They have some really good prices and ship really fast.  I had thought about the small Paragon due to its firebrick sides and floor, but decided on the extra bead space, since I can't see making only half a dozen beads and quitting for the day.

So, to sum up, I've been pretty busy.  I lost some weight, started taking better care of my eyes, had to relearn how to torch, had surgery and am looking forward to a new annealer and glass.  I even caught up on some of my housework.  Hope can give you so much energy.  Right now I'm hoping I can get a little momentum with the positive changes I've made to tackle some more of the stuff that's holding me back.

CiM Thai orchid

CiM Thai orchid has been criticized for being a lot like other colors in this line.  It is, a lot.  Pictured below is a strand by strand comparison between CiM lapis and Thai orchid.  Next to each other, no problem telling them apart, but in a blind taste test, both would taste like glass.  Of course, so would all the other colors I've tried, but the point is the shades are very similar.

 The biggest difference between the two that I can see is how the lapis reacts more with silver foil than the Thai orchid does.  Next up is that I wanted to see what DH aurae did so the Thai orchid row features that.

Thai orchid doesn't do that brownish thing with silver foil, which I am glad of, and the encased beads look very nice.  There is something going on in the aurae unencased bead on the purple but the glass is so dark I can't tell precisely what it is.  I love the way the encased aurae turned out.

Finally, from left to right are with copper green, tuxedo, intense black, ivory, silvered ivory stringer, EDP, and plum silver dark.  I like the way the Thai orchid makes the EDP pop.  Looking at it now, I'll have to do a head to head bead to see if I can tell the difference between plum silver light and Thai orchid.

A very pretty shade of purple, and one I will buy again, because it's purple.