Photos and stuff

Ugh finally.. Don't you HATE it when machinery won't work right for you? What am I talking about?... well cameras in particular. I hate it when they don't "see" things they way our eyes do. I spent a long while trying to photograph this amazing bead I made. The picture still does it NO justice, but you can see a little bit of the iridescent sheen that appears on the bead in the lightbulb light spot. I was making some Valentine's day beads and decided to venture off into other colors besides pink and red. I wanted to use some of R4's Sasha's Silver and remembered something from a thread on LE about how certain silver glasses fumed the surface of a bead just by adding a design. I saw a Dirty Martini bead in particular that piqued my interest so I decided to try this out for myself. I wish I could find the exact photo from the thread, but I dug through the whole "Lets see your glass made with CiM glass" and couldn't find it. Anyways, the bead is made with a base of Dirty Martini and then I used Sasha's silver for the stringer. When I reduced the stringer the silver glass fumed the surface making it this rich golden color. When you hold the bead in the light you can see iridescent "oil slicks" all over the surface of the bead. It looks like the way bubbles do when you see them in the light! I just wish I could capture how beautiful the bead is as a digital image!

So I bet you are tired of reading and want to see this bead huh? ;) I knew you would...

Here is the image I sent to Kathy at Creation is Messy. See that little "oil slick" I was talking about where you see the light bulb reflection? Pretty amazing huh? This photograph will be added to the Dirty Martini gallery and will be in the newest Creation is Messy newsletter that is scheduled to go out today.

Here is another pic of it in my hands. Can you believe how yellow the glass got?

Here is a picture of the paddle I swiped from the CiM site. Isn't amazing how different the glass is? You would have never guessed. I think if I didn't know what I used I would have guessed Ivory or Opal Yellow. How 'bout you?

So I made a few more new Valentine's Day things and some other hearts. I also made some KICK ASS eye beads as well. I spent the better part of the morning trying to get all of the images on my computer and edited. I will upload a few of them for your viewing pleasure ;)

Here is a winged heart made with CiM Sangre. If you have not already checked out this glass I would highly recommend it. The photo doesn't show the red as bright as it really appears in person. It's a lovely red and that is coming from someone that loathed red. Loathed red? Yep... Why? I look like shit in red since I have red hair >:D lol. I am finding a special place in my heart for red now a days so I'm getting there.
Another heart in Sangre with a keyhole in the front of it and a key. I didnt know if people would get it so I thought if I included a key it would make sense. It is entitled "He who holds the key..." I am assuming that you all know how the rest goes, but if you don't it goes "He who holds the key can unlock my heart". This was from a sterling silver necklace that had a heart with a picece missing where a key would fit. It came with two neckalces. One with the heart and one with the key.
A heart with an eye. Imagine that ;) I was a little disappointed with how the purple turned out though. The purple is a Kugler color and the rod looks like this more purply Dark Periwinkle. When it came out of the kiln it was this dark gray purple. Doesn't anyone understand that we all like BRIGHT, PURPLE purples?! CiM has made one that I love called Grape Ape. It actually stays purple with no metallic sheen! Very exciting.
I thought this would be cute. I love daisies. They are such happy flowers. I used some nice lime green polka dots to set off the red. This heart makes me happy and cheerful inside :)

Here are those eye beads I was telling you about! the one on the left was a remake of an older eye bead I made that is featured in the newest The Flow Winter 2008 issue. The difference between the old and new one is that I stacked and raked layers of green under the pink iris than I did on the original. If you wondered who has the original it's ME of course! it was too pretty to let go :D I used it as the pendant to a necklace and hanging below it is a heart with wings bead from Green Girl Studios. I LOVE their stuff! It's very whimsical :D I have several of their pieces. Anways, back to the beads. I Absolutely LOVE the pink one as well. The base is CiM Cranberry pink. Cranberry pink actually very closely resembles a BE odd lot. I forget the name of the color, but it is really pretty. The super awesome thing about Cranberry Pink is that you can use it with Orange and Coral glass. For more info on that subject you can visit the Clockwork page at CiM's site.

Here is one of my favorite ideas I came up with. This is a bottle of love potion called "Infatuation". I love to make these each year for Valentine's day. The new addition to this bead was using CiM's Blush pink to be the color of the potion instead of just a clear bottle.
I really LOVE skulls too so I made the Emo Valentine heart focal and the lentil skull set this year that has a little cracked broken heart as the center bead. Those beads are new designs this year and the other bottom set is an older design from fall. I like the more sculptural skulls better than the lentil ones ,but the lentil ones worked best for the set.
Isn't this the saddest thing ever? It's a red broken heart! I know there are V-day haters out there and this is for them ;) You know V-day kinda sucks if you don't have a sweetheart!
Here is my Red version of my Emo Valentine heart. This bead was made second so I thought maybe some cute polka dots would dress it up a bit.
My "Passionate Heart" heart. This one turned out so awesome. I love the flames on it! The flames are made with CiM Clockwork Orange and V Pineapple Sparkle odd. I have had this latest obsession with making beads with fire. Imagine that being a bead maker!

Well I suppose I should go shower and get dressed... Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea