ImpoZters

Ok I am finally ready to show you all what I have been working on... As you might have read earlier I had become totally inspired by Sarah Moran's Beads (Z-Beads).

In case you are wondering about the title... It is "impoZters" because it is my spin on Sarah's beads. the capitol "Z" for "Z-beads". Clever huh? I thought so ;)
I began my adventure of really trying to come up with my spin on her spectacularly executed beads. I totally skipped out on stacking dots long ago because I am a totally impatient person and I worked on a hot head for many years(yeah, Sarah did too and she STILL made those style beads before upgrading) . Now that I finally moved up to my minor I thought it would be time to explore some of the things that I deemed impossible or pretty much too time consuming. Below are those ideas I was telling you about where I jumped out of the shower naked to grab my sketch book!

In red you can see where I wrote notes about how my experiments turned out and what did and didn't work

Wow! Sure is a lot of FAILURE in this type of bead. If you stack just a little off or use a color that decides to spread, man are you in for it! It's a wonder she didn't give up on these beads! I guess her expertise comes from YEARS of practice! Failure is hard for me being a perfectionist. I want to be good at it the FIRST time not the twentymillionth! I kept at these beads for days because I was so pleased at how the "good" ones turned out! OMG! They have so much depth, and texture. Before I show you the "good" ones I will show you the rejects.

You know I realized that people think that lampworkers always make good stuff all the time and I am here to tell ya, we DON'T! LOL. There are sometimes a lot of flops before we get what we want. Ok so I will tell you what is wrong with the beads above...

The eyes on top- Ok as you can see the silver did not particularly like the orange glass and it turned black on the first eye. You can also see where the orange glass didn't strike and where the white "peeked" though.
On the second eye you can see that yellow spot where the silver actually fumed the surface.

The one on the left was going to be called "Double Bubble" or "Crazy 8's"(remember that game?). Not a bad idea, but still needs some work on design. The same with the one on the right hand side. My hubby said it looked like "boobs". Figures!

The one in the middle of those two beads was going to be called "Wavy Gravy". Don't know if that really worked out.

The heart on the bottom reminds me of Gobstoppers or the Power Puff Girl's heart. My newer design worked a little bit better.

And finally the lips. You know how they made that piercing called a "Monroe". Yeah, I'm not totally fond of it. Mostly when people get it done its a huge ball and looks pretty stupid. The ones that are better looking are the teensy ones that just look like a speck of glitter. Anyways... this was my bead trying out the "Monroe" look. As you can see the clear actually popped off. The CZ did manage to stick in the glass.

You have to be VERY careful with those little babies. If you manage to get them to stick to the glass without falling out , you need to then apply some transparent glass. After burning off the glue from poking the CZ into the surface of the glass you need to cover them with a transparent glass to keep them from burning. You have to do all of this in a split second! if the glass gets cold from trying not to burn the CZ when you apply the hot blob to cover it, it will pull the CZ off of the surface where you just placed it. BOO!

The reason I have taken you the "long way" to the final product is so that you have some idea of the time it takes from inspiration, to experimentation to something worth sharing ;)

*Pulls back the curtain*

Here is a group shot of all of the ones I deemed to be "good" beads. The heart with wings design needs to be revamped a bit, but I thought it might want to be with it's friends. On the top left you will see my "pea pod" bead. It didn't have another beady to group shot with, so it got it's explanation here.

You know there HAD to be EYES since I have had a teensy obsession with them ever since I have been doing art. I even got a tattoo! The tattoo is by David Bolt.

My tattoo is on my back just below my neck(so my jewelry isn't covering my tattoo) and above in between my shoulder blades.Here is a pic of my color faded make up and my eyebrow piercing that I totally LOVE!

Here are all of the one's with CZ's. Soldered pendant is by Diane Thaemart.
Hearts. Who doesn't love being in love and of course RAINBOWS since they have the most color! I'm still working on that heart with wings design. I don't think it's quite done yet.
The flames since you know all lampworkers LOVE fire!

Sarah- Thanks again for all of your inspiration. You and your beads are truly AMAZING! I hope to add some of them to my collection(as soon as that money starts roll'in in!). I have learned more things from my brief encounter with you than you probably realize and I am forever grateful!

Thanks to everyone else for reading.

Much love,

Genea