First Beads for Fall

 I made these Saturday, before I officially decided to change my color diet. In fact, these beads helped me to see that it really was time for a change.  Apparently, I'm not the only one because 3 of the 4 sets I made up are on their way to their new homes.

Of the batch, the beads on the left are my favorites.  They were made with CiM lapis with psyche and sis.  I love the way the ivory fades into the lapis.  I don't think I noticed this in my initial testing, but for this set it really works.  Besides, the blue violet is such a lovely color.

 On the right is a set made the same way with CiM olive.  This one reminded me of an aerial view of grass-covered sand and streams.  These are the most fall-like colors so far, but green is a lucky color that works in any season.

I called this set water flowers because of the colors and patterning, primarily.  The lentil is copper green with sis like the spacers, but I added a blend of 456 rubino oro and CiM cranberry pink dark frit.  I love the way the pink frit reacts with the copper green, separating it into a halo and an area that looks almost like it was thinly encased in aqua transparent.  I was also surprised to see that the pink picked up some of the silver from the stringer it contacted and moved it to its far edge.  I don't know who could have predicted that.

I'm not an orange person.  I tend toward cooler colors and shy away from ones that make a bold impression like these beads do.  I have to say I like this one.  I like the way the streaks of blue, purple, yellow and pink show up against the plain coral.  The glass I used is Vetrofond petrified wood and it's not on the diet, but that is primarily because the glass is so pretty on its own that I can't see adding anything else to it.

Naturally, the beads I made yesterday were useless.  I did make one that looks good, and another that was probably the prettiest bead I've ever made.  The good looking one is a base of light pumpkin with silver foil, sis, and psyche, decorated with bordello bumps.  I'm going to play with that combination more.  The really pretty one was too pretty.  I wrapped a core of lapis with trails of psyche and bordello, rolled it in silver foil, melted it in and reduced it, encased it in clear and decorated it with half a triton swirl flower.  Unfortunately it looked so good after I reduced the triton that I didn't want to mess up the reduction by heating it too much and it cracked from thermal shock.  The two halves are still together and it looks like the crack only goes partly through the encasement layer, but I can't use it.  I hope to come up with a solution to this problem.

New Diet

I haven't been sticking to my color diet, and the reason is that as I'm starting to gear up for fall the colors in it aren't appealing to me.  Above is a new palette I'm going to try out.  Melanie Graham, in her Mind Melt blog, got me started on this, and it is a good idea, because it stretches my creativity and allows me to go in directions I wouldn't have thought to.  I will start out with this palette and work from it for exploration, but I'll switch out colors if I find that I have run into a wall on them.

The colors I will be starting with are

1. CiM olive
2. CiM lapis
3. CiM bordello
4. Effetre light topaz transparent
5. Effetre light pumpkin
6. Effetre kelp transparent
7. Effetre light brown transparent
8. Effetre dark red special

I can use, in addition to the above colors, black, white, clear, copper green, ivory, opal yellow, adamantium, silver glasses, and metal.  I may also schedule for myself a holiday or two.  I know, for instance, that I want to play with Effetre apple blush.  I could put it down as a replacement for another color but I don't know which, if any color will retire.

I should have some pictures of beads made with the new colors starting tomorrow.

Now what do I do?

Pricing stuff.  Always a touchy subject, and one I shy away from if there's any way to do so.  But if I'm going to offer beads or anything else for sale, one I and every other seller out there needs to address.  Many factors need to be accounted for,  plus several I haven't yet discovered.  The cost of materials and tools is obvious.  Labor is too, but less tangible.  Overhead is even less easy to nail down if you work out of your home, and then there's the category I've labeled "other" in my mental ledger.

This is my "studio" taken many months ago.  Since then, things have grown by about 500%.  Even looking at the amount of glass, mandrels, and tools visible here, there's a fairly high cost for materials and tools.  Perhaps I could have picked a less costly medium.
It should be easy to see by this photo that my overhead is pretty low.  I don't have to maintain a separate studio and the only utility that rises with my lampworking is the electric bill. 

As far as the cost of my labor, I make beads because I love it and have been reluctant to put a price on that.  I seldom work for more than 45 minutes at a time because, frankly, I run out of steam quickly and that's about what I can do without getting tired and burning something, like me.  When I'm not working I'm photographing, listing, and promoting.  These are parts of my labor that I hadn't taken into account.  Nor is it fair to discount my time on behalf of others.  If I choose to sell myself cheap that's my business, but it affects everyone out there selling similar products.  I recently realized that I am not even giving myself minimum wage.

And then there's the "other" category.  In my "mental ledger."  Maybe if I had a real ledger and sat down and thought about what should really be in it, I'd actually have a chance.  What should be in it?  Listing fees, office expenses, postage, packaging, and advertising, if I ever decide I'm flush enough to invest in it.  Where do batteries for my camera fit in?  It's a stupid little expense but one that will bring the whole thing to a screeching halt if I can't supply it.  Bead release:  I'll be needing more soon and where is that in the budget?  I'd want a computer with high-speed internet anyway but if my computer dies I'll need another one, and I can't list items on dial-up.  I should get a better camera and take a lesson or two.  And, as far as that goes, I would benefit enormously for a few lessons in lampwork.

Take the picture above and do the math.  Figuring $7.50/hour minimum wage and $0.50 toward overhead and "other", the cost to produce the earrings above is $6.25.  I am asking for $12 in my Etsy shop for these earrings.  So, I am asking less than wholesale if the standard formula is cost of production x 2.   Buy my stuff, it's a great bargain!

I need to do a lot of thinking about where I want to go with this.

Spacer Madness

 It's been too hot to do a lot of torching this week.  Normally, I do a little bit every day and try to get listings up as they are ready.  This has not been such a week.  I decided to follow the lead of many other lampworkers and give it a rest, to cut down on energy usage and increase my own comfort.  A side benefit of this plan has been that I have had the time to go through my to-do list and actually do some of it.  Many items I have been meaning to list have been listed, including some of the countless spacers that seem to multiply as I look at them.

 Above is a set of black and white that I made with various blacks and Effetre white pastel.  The only bead I can absolutely state was made with a specific black was the white one near the center, which was made with intense black stringer.  The black stands out so well it can only be that.  Everything else might be Vetrofond black or CiM tuxedo, or even CiM hades.  I know I didn't use Effetre black, because I have never bought any.

The blue and white ones at the right were made with Effetre 060 cobalt and Effetre white.  I love blue and white and seem to have made quite a few of these.

Here are two cylinders made with Effetre lapis cobalt and one of the trans cobalt, all with white stringer.  I was wondering if I should stick to just cylinders or throw in a few bicones and rounds as well.  I'm still thinking and may modify this listing.

I wanted a blue less likely to be mistaken for black with these and went with Effetre pastel light cobalt with these.  I like the way they are still very blue but are a softer contrast.

Here are some made with CiM hades on Vetrofond dark ivory pastel.  I love the way the hades curdles and webs over the ivory.

I've played with ivory and turquoise a lot, but not silvered ivory.  I love the way the silvering takes the reaction between the two past its usual grey line and out the other side.  I'm going to try this on some of the greens as well.  I was thinking of CiM sherwood and Effetre copper green and Nile green.

These came out so awesome.  I love the way the Vetro dark ivory curdles when you melt DH Triton into it, and you get a halo reaction also that is also fab.  It reminded me of ancient writing on stone, hence the name, petroglyphs.

This is one of the new Vetrofond colors, biscotti, with scrolls of Triton which were melted in and reduced.  The Triton fumes the biscotti to a huge degree and there is another neat reaction line around the Triton.  The combined effect gave me the impression that the designs had been burned into the beads so I had a little fun with the name, smoldering runes.

The weather is supposed to break soon, so I'll be back at the torch in no time.  I might just make more spacers....

Creation is Messy

My blog was recently awarded the honor of being mentioned on the Creation is Messy Website!  So, being the conscientious, thoughtful soul that I am, how did I repay this?  By including the links they sent me in a blog or two and filing the rest in my "to-do" email folder.  I must amend this situation.  I will back-link all the posts and first I will put them all here.  It's the least I can do after their representative, Kathy Seamands, went through all my drivel and picked out her gems.  I only wish I had been more complimentary on some of them, because CiM really is a fantastic line of glass.

The one I was happiest with was for CiM plum .  Here's the post from my blog that was mentioned.

Here's one that I wish I was more aglow over.  It really is a fantastic color.  I just didn't think CiM pumpkin
looked like any pumpkin I ever carved.  This is my post on CiM pumpkin.

I compared CiM bordello to Effetre very cherry.  Here is the post for very cherry that was referenced.  I have to see what happened to the one I'm sure I did for bordello.  I know I made the beads.....

One of the beads I'm proudest of, from my Art Nouveau set, was made on CiM Slytherin. My blog links for Slytherin were for Scratch Oneand What Was I Thinking?

I compared CiM glacier to Vetrofond pearl grey

One of the reviews I liked the best was for CiM smurfy

Another of my Art Nouveau beads made with CiM poi also made the cut.  I love that set.  Must do something similar again, just for me.  I got 2 pictures up for poi, one from my the diet continues post and one from Finally

CiM Gelly's sty is very well behaved indeed as long as you follow the simple rule:  work it hot and when you're done, put it away.

I think I got them all.  It's a fabulous line and in my journey through the website I (naturally) found a few colors I don't own and many colors I have meant to do something with and forgotten about.  Lots of projects to do now!

Today's Feature

Many bloggers take a day each week to honor an artist they admire.  I haven't done this before and I think it's high time I do this once in a while.  Chris Maj is a very talented seed beader who did me the honor of sending me pictures of the necklace she made with one of my beads.  I love it!  The necklace is so much better than the beads that make it up.  This is the great thing about sharing!  What happens when someone else takes an idea and runs with it never ceases to amaze me.  Chris has an Etsy shop where she sells other wonderful pieces, and here's the URL http://www.etsy.com/shop/beadn4fun

Just as a teaser, please click on these links to see some of my favorite pieces from her shop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50102444/raku-swirl-pendant-and-necklace
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50990180/window-to-the-sea-pendant
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50841613/beadwoven-designer-cuff
http://www.etsy.com/listing/47565680/forest-green-russian-serpentine-pendant

I wish I could figure out a way to post the pictures of her stuff, but if you don't believe me, click the links above and see.  Way to go!

Handcast Findings

 This was so not worth it.  I will not be offering these at any time soon.  Yeah, they're different, but too much work and not different enough from all 2 million other products out there for a fraction of the cost and labor.  It was a diversion but I'll not be repeating it.  I'll wait until I get casting silicone.

The original idea with the headpin was to have a wire incorporated into the casting during the pour, but I couldn't get the wire to stay in place and no way I was going to hold it there, even with protective gloves on.  The gloves work in the sense that if you pour pewter directly onto your hand you have enough time to put the ladle back in the pot and rip the glove off before it burns bad enough to blister.  And the degree of fine motor control is about as good as you'd get trying to thread a needle wearing mittens.

I like the findings.  I'll use them, for myself.  I'm not sure I trust a pewter headpin and the ring part of the toggle came out offcenter.  Not something I would sell, even if I could find someone willing to pay for them.