Its a Mad World

Every once in a while I'll get a song stuck in my head.  Admit it - it happens to everyone.  Right now, for me, for over a week, it's been Gary Jules' version of Tears For Fears' Mad World.  Folks say it's depressing but I find it hauntingly beautiful.  I'm humming it and remember about a verse and keep singing it in my head.  I've watched many versions on YouTube, including the original Tears For Fears version, which I don't like nearly as much and a bizarre heavy metal version that I clicked off of 1 1/2 minutes into the song.  I've also watched some Weird Al but that's the subject of a different post.

It's been pretty mad here.  The studio was 110 degrees for a couple days in a row and I barely torched at all, and now I'm on the weekend with Joe working and not torching as much as I'd like either.

 I have made some beads.  Above and below are some Breast Cancer Awareness Beads I made.  I'm donating some of the proceeds to the Susan Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.  I'm not crazy about the politics but I don't see the point in all the suffering cancer provides.  As October draws closer I'll make many more and have some annealing as I type.

 I'm tired of black and white.  Here are some colors with silver wire.

 The beads below I saved for last for a reason.  I really love the wild way they turned out.  The core, which isn't visible, is Effetre Apple Blush.  I love the way silver glass pops on top of it!  I made a twistie of opal yellow, Terra3 and Psyche and mixed with silvered ivory.  This trio I will quite cheerfully keep for myself if it doesn't sell.

What's mad about my world?  Not a whole lot, really.  It's just a pretty song.

October is for Breast Cancer Awareness

Looking for bead soup?  Here's the link to my reveal.
Here's Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party link.

It's been a fairly chaotic month so I haven't been working at the torch as much as I'd like.  I've made some new beads in honor of October's breast cancer awareness month.

The last batch of 456 rubino oro I got was very streaky and light enough to make into self spacers.  I was trying to use it in frit and rose cane, where it didn't work at all, but what it wanted to do was make a lovely, juicy fuschia all on its own.

 Here's where CiM cranberry pink gets it's name.  There's a pretty thick encasement layer over a white core and I love the way the transparent glass adds depth.

I made these with CiM Peace, Effetre medium silver plum and Effetre 256 dark pink.  I'm noticing at least with my hothead it wants to go lavender and I like that with the purple.

 The pink and lavender  works well on the heart beads in this set.  For stringer that's not melted in I'm not as sure unless it turns out uniformly varied (how's that for an oxymoron?)

This pink egg focal started life as a simple white heart round.  It grew up as a perfectly shaped egg.  I wish I could make this shape when I was trying to. 

I've got a new set with reducing Double Helix glass and some neutrals it likes to play with and some textured beads I'm working on now and should have ready to post soon.

Oh, Those Crazy Pinks

 I'm gearing up for summer and it's watermelon bead time.  I usually blend white with CiM cranberry to make the marbled pink for the flesh, but I have quite a bit of Effetre 456 gold pink and I wonder if I could substitute.

Probably not.  My apologies for the mess on the left.  The mandrels are numbered rather than the beads to avoid a wiring diagram of lines.

1--self spacers of my light batch of Effetre 456 on the left and a tiny bead of CiM cranberry on the right.  It was the tail end of a very skinny rod.

2--456 over clear, cranberry over clear, and a self spacer of my DARK batch of 456.  I only have one rod left  but striking this dark I don't need more.

3--dark 456 over clear and white

4--pale 456 on the left and cranberry on the right.  I think the colors over white show off the characteristics of each best.  The light is very pale and streaky, kind of hard to strike.  Making frit with this, it looks like a thin layer of 456 over a rod of clear.  I'm sure this is my imagination.  In comparison, both my cranberry and the dark batch are a uniform color all the way through.  The dark 456 does show a bit of streaking, though.

5--light 456, cranberry, and dark 456 over white all on one bead.  The dark 456 is almost a fuschia.

6--not that you'd ever know, but this is cranberry with dots of light 456 on the left and dark 456 on the right.  Both burned but can't be seen on the dark background.  My camera doesn't do well with a super light background.  This is why I usually use a grey steel dish to photograph on.

7--this bead is half light 456 on the left and dark on the right, with dots of cranberry on both.  It doesn't show up in the picture, but the cranberry actually burned a wee bit here.  This is the only time I've seen this.

Here's a better view of the half and half bead, and while you still can't see the dots of cranberry the line where the light stops and the dark starts is very visible by looking at the mandrel.

Here's a closer view of the cranberry bead with 456 dots.  I don't know that I can see the dots in this light (you can if you hold it up to the light at just...this...angle, which won't photograph at all) but the smudges of slightly burned bits show.

 Here are some watermelon beads I'm working on and some from last year.  I can't see any difference, and the batch of glass is very different.  Pretty decently consistant on CiM's part, I think.

I couldn't remember if cranberry or 456 made halos around copper green so I made a mixed frit of both for these lentils.  The 456 is the light batch. 

To sum up, CiM cranberry seems more consistant, less likely to burn, and easier to strike than 456, but if I want a streaky transparent pink, I know which glass to use.