Third Eye Gypsy(Genea Beads) 2011 by Parigo Studios 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Inspired by fabric

Hello friends!

Today I have some fun beads to share with you inspired by some fabric I used to make one of my "Love Puff" hearts! I am even going to share with you my trials in cane making trying to make the perfect bead to match.Here is the heart that started it all! I kept looking at it and trying to figure out why I loved it so much. It then dawned on me that it was lime green, aqua and orange. Lol, go figure huh? I have this new love for coraly orange since they make the most beautiful glass rods in many, many different varieties.

I used the following glass for all of the beads below. Messy Creamsicle(orange), Messy Smurfy(aqua), Messy Mermaid(teal), Messy Soylent(grass green), Messy Elphaba(lime green) and Messy Clear.

Before we get super in depth into my testing results, lets hop over to the shop and see what new goodies are there!

NEW IN THE SHOP.....
Here are my "Fruit Rind- Stripes" beads. I used the colors form the above fabric to make this fun set of encased stripe beads. The colors are orange, aqua, lime green, teal, and grass green. I chose to make this style beads because a lot of the greens are very reactive and "mushy". They tend to "frazzle" giving them this organic look. They like to swallow dots and do all sorts of things so they don't all "play nice" with eachother. I also like the way this set mimics the starburst pattern on the fabric. How did they get their name? The stripes also reminded me of the stripey rind of a watermelon :)"Fruit Rind- Spots and Stripes"- Here is a fun little set of 3 beads. A freckly striped focal bead and two freckled spacers. Colors are: Lime green, teal, aqua, and orange.

"Fruit Rind Freckles"- What are beads without some fun spacers?! This little set of 5 teeny clear spacers are so much fun with their freckles of: orange, lime, teal and aqua.

"Chubby bubble button- Fruit Rind"- What is a series of beads without a button clasp?! This cute little flower bubbly button has a mirrored button dot in the center and little creased petals in orange. The shank is lime green with freckles of teal. What a perfect button for a clasp or closure for other creative projects.

How much fun could you have by putting this whole super set into a design? LOTS! :) The stripe rounds would make an awesome bracelet or necklace with the spotty spacers. You could make a pendant and earrings with the mini set and the button closure could finish off the clasp for the bracelet or necklace!

So now you are probably wondering about my trails in design right? Ok well let's go take a look at the tests and see what we got.

COLOR AND CANE TESTING....
All but 2 of the test beads were made with a base of Messy Creamsicle. The other base color for beads 2 and 3 are effetre odd Peach Coral which is no longer is stock. You may be able to find stashes of it around by checking the garage sale on LE or just doing a web search.
The original design idea was to make a set on Messy Creamsicle with flattened melted in starburst cane dots with the above color combinations like in the love puff heart.

Bead #1- Base of Messy Creamsicle with a starburst cane made with Messy Soylent and Messy Elphaba. As you can see the cane does have the little starburst in it, but is very organic and frazzly looking. Not quite the crisp starburst I was looking for for my design. I wanted the starburst to be more pronounced. The can was applied to the surface, melted off, flattened, melted into the surface, poked in the center and then melted flat.

Bead #2- Base of effetre odd Peach Coral with a Creamsicle core, encased in Messy Elphaba with effetre Light turquoise stripes. For some reason it's not loading Frantz Art Glass' page for me so I don't have an attached link for the effetre color. The application for this cane dot was placed by heating the cane, flattening it to the surface melting off the cane and then melting into the surface. As you may have noticed the cane is off center and kind of looks like tye-dye jelly fish.

Bead #3- effetre Peach coral base with the cane from #2's description. Cane application was heating the beads surface, plunging in the cold cane, then breaking the cane off, and melting into the surface.

Bead #4- Creamsicle base with a starburst cane out of Messy Elphaba and effetre Light Turquoise. Cane is applied by melting a dot onto the surface, flattening the dot, melting it into the surface, poking the center, and melting flat. You can see the stripes- there is some chemical reaction ghosting, but it looks like the light turquoise and creamsicle have a dark line reaction.

Bead #5- Messy Creamsicle base with #4's cane. Cane applied by melting in dot, flattening, melting flat and then poking the center. Added a dot of Messy Mojito to provide the encasement and enhance the color of the blue and green cane. Still not quite the effect for which I was going. It seems that the Mojito isn't a saturated enough color to enhance the green and blue.

Bead #6 Messy Creamsicle base with a starburst cane in Messy Elphaba and Messy Mermaid. Cane application was a dot added to the surface, melted off, flattened, melted flat and then poked into the center. You can see that Messy Mermaid and Creamsicle have a dark line chemical reaction.

Bead #7 Messy Creamsicle base with a large dot of Messy Mermaid with a cane dot of Elphaba and effetre Light Turquoise starburst cane. Mermaid dot is organic with a bit of a curdled effect and a dark outline. Cane starburst is stripey, but hard to see.

Bead #8 Messy Creamsicle base with Mermaid dots. Cane dots of Messy Elphaba and effetre Light Turquoise. Little accent dots of Messy Unique Pumpkin were added for interest. The Mermaid has an organic curdled look and starts to "swallow" the cane dots.

Bead #9- Creamsicle base with a starburst cane of Messy Elphaba and Peach Coral. Stripes are visible, but not crisp and clear.

Bead #10- Creamsicle base with a new cane and cane style. Cane is made like a Corina style vine cane where the Elphaba core is creased with a tool. Thick stringers of Light Turquoise are put into the creases. I then melted this flat(which is not in Corina's instructions, but what I do so that you don't trap air bubbles when you encase the cane), then encased in effetre Light Grass Green. This can is applied to the surface by melting a dot and pushing the glass flat on to the surface with the cane, then pulling away and cutting the cane with the flame. All cane dots are applied in this fashion. Then I used a medium stringer of Messy Unique Pumpkin to heat and poke the centers of each cane dot. I then broke of the stringer and melted the whole cane dot into the surface. As you can see when the cane was melted into the surface the effetre Light Grass Green left ghosting lines on the Creamsicle base. Encasing in green still didn't keep the Light Turquoise lines from making a dark line when they met the Creamsicle surface.

Bead #11- This is the bead pictured on the heart. This cane was placed on a base of Creamsicle and applied in almost the same fashion, but the difference was after placing the cane dots and flame cutting the cane I used a plyers to pinch off a tiny bit more glass from the center of the cane dot. I then heated the can dot and pushed the cold stringer into the center, broke off the cane and then melted the whole cane dot into the surface. This produced the sharpest defined line starburst with a cool dot center. Can you believe it took that many tests and beads to get the desired effect for my bead? Didn't realize that lampworker's go through all that work to make beads did ya? ;)

Well I hope all of that made sense lol. I guess it will make more sense to the people out there that lampwork, but it gives the rest of you an idea of the process of canemaking, application and finished beads. :)

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?....

Well I did make my Calorimetry out of cotton for the spring and summer. As you may know wool is WAY too hot for the warmer time of year.Well I did indeed get it made, but I f*d up the pattern. My knitting guru told me different directions than the pattern! I can still wear it, but as you can see from the glass button it's fastened up the side of the hat instead of at the ends. Incase you wondered the glass button is made from Messy Great bluedini, Mojito, and Sapphire. Now you may notice all that you can visibly see if Great Bluedini because it's so saturated, but they are all there, I assure you ;)

Well this concludes my update for the week. Have a great one!

Much love,

Genea

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

More Vortex Flowers!

Hello friends!

Wow are you BRIGHT! I got to borrow a flat panel monitor from my friend Mike. I can't believe how much these things GLOW! I do hope that the colors of my photos still represent my work as I see it with my eyes. I did my best to match everything up.

I only have 3 items for my shop to list today. Why only 3? Well I have been making more jewelry, and doing some other side projects instead of making tons of beads, which I need to do. You all have been buying me out as soon as I list something, which is amazing! :D

I have also FINALLY gotten to work on my gallery piece necklace that I had been dreaming up. It's coming along nicely. It has been one of the projects I have dreaded the most as I came up with the beads before really having a vision for the necklace. Usually this is the opposite. I had to work as I went with trying to figure out how to connect everything to the necklace for it to hang appropriately. I am just about half way through. I have taken a few pictures of the necklace construction just for fun so I can celebrate the process of it's creation. It's always very satisfying to see the pieces all come together :D

NEW IN THE SHOP...
MORE VORTEX FLOWER NECKLACES!! You all bought me out so fast that I had to make more! I have some wonderful color combinations that are sure to please!
Vortex Flower "Peach Passion"- Can you believe that peachy pink on the flower's edge?! The glass just harmoniously mixed that one up! You can also enjoy some cranberry pink, glittery tangerine orange, swirly pink, and coral cane and some yummy pinky orange coral! Pendant comes with matching silk for a necklace!Want to be the envy of all of your friends?! My Flower Lantern "Peach Passion" earrings are the perfect compliment!

Vortex Flower "Jungle Twilight" Swampy blues, and greens with amazing streakiness and glitter! Bright yellow green, olive, turquoise and aqua are also in the mix. A darker delight for all of your intensely dark color palette lovers! Comes with matching silk cord!
Want a crazy contrast pair of earrings to make that yellow green band pop? Grab this pair of "Sour Fizz" Tendril earrings and make a statement!
Maybe pastel is your passion? Do you LOVE pink and purple? Vortex Flower "Lilac Embrace" has swirling layers of streaky cranberry, lavender with blushes of pink, fuchsia, lilac and soft petal pink! Comes with matching silk cord.
How about that matching pair of earrings to go with?! Flower Lantern"Violaceous" is at your service! Dreamy pink, circles of fuchsia and lovely lavender deliver!

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...
Just dreaming up new designs. I have a few ideas I need to translate into glass! See you next week!

Much love,

Genea


Saturday, March 13, 2010

NEW "Flower Lantern" earrings

Hello friends!

As you may have noticed I am DAYS behind on my blog about my most recent Etsy listings. I figured you all would rather have a shop update than a blog update. I figure if you are sneaky you generally have an idea of when I list and have most likely seen the new goodies :D

I only had a few goodies to list this time because it took until YESTERDAY to get my bells! Did I mention that they were a PITA to find? No one locally had them. I am excited that my bead alma mater did indeed still carry them after 13 YEARS! Go Tropic Jewel! Here is their wholesale website if you want to check them out. They don't have the 3mm bells on the site, but you can ask Shelby for them and she will get you hooked up! They also have bells in other sizes, so if you want more sizes ASK :)

METAMORPHOSIS OF A DESIGN....
So as I was falling asleep this NEW design came to me. It is pretty similar to my "Tendril" earring design, but is extra FLOWERY :D It has a little more "fluff" and texture so naturally if you LOVED the "Tendril" earrings like me, then you are going to LOVE, LOVE the "Flower Lanterns".Here are the Groovy Hippy Tentril earrings for a comparison. I just LOVE this color combo. Mmmmm.

NEW IN THE SHOP.....

Flower Lanterns- "Peach Passion"- A dreamy combination of peach, pink, coral, cranberry and sparkly tangerine with bunches of flowers and leaves.
I have now included a picture of the earrings in my ears as a demonstration of length and how they will look when worn. Flower Lantern- "Violaceous"- You can thank the glass makers at Bullseye for this GORGEOUS combination of odd lot and stock glass in hues of: bubble gum pink, vibrant fuchsia, and deep streaky lavender.

Flower Lantern- "Inferno"- This color combination was inspired by the AMAZING variegated leaf colors. These leaves just glow! The flower bouquet that sits under the lampwork bead also inspired the use of Messy Bordello. So let's take a closer look at these beads and glass. No, come closer. Is your nose about to touch the screen? Ok, then you are close enough. Just LOOK at the RED in the lampwork bead! Wow, huh? It is such a deep rich red. Now look at the Czech glass flower bouquet just under the lampwork bead. WOW, huh?! It is so RED. Now that is definitely a red I could get to know better. Now lets move on down to the leaves. Pretty huh?!
This pair is called Flower Lantern- "Aqua Topiary". This was the very first pair. This pair is SOLD, but I thought you might like to see it as well. Now you know this was my FAVORITE pair because of my love for lime green and aqua. This pair was made in the amazing Bullseye glass as well. There is even some aventurine sparkle in the center of the poked-eyes. YUMMY!
WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...
OMG, can you believe this *was* my desk?! UGH... So why was it left like this? Well these designs were in progress, but were stopped by the need of my 3mm bells. I just HAD to do something about this rats nest. I got everything tidyied up and now the designs are still out, but not to messy. You know I felt a bagillion times better as soon as I got the desk cleaned up. I really think seeing messes clutters up my thoughts!

So what was I making?Here is a late set of lentil beads I made for St. Patty's day. They are called "Irish Gold". They are already SOLD, but they were really pretty so I thought I would show them. You may not be able to tell by the picture, but they are layers of greens with ivory stringers. They really glow :)
Next I made this little gift for someone who I think is AMAZING. Hopefully this doesn't ruin her surprise ;)I made some more "Heart Puffs" for Kathy. I thought they were so pretty hanging up so I thought I would share. Having one of these amazing hearts hanging from your door knob really does cheer me up. Maybe I will offer some in the shop? Maybe not. I dunno. lol

Well I guess that about sums up my update. I hope you enjoyed my better-late-than-never post lol.

Have a fantastic rest of the weekend!

Much love,

Genea

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Dandelion - the metamorphosis of design

Hello friends!

Sorry for the delay in my blog. You may have noticed that the shop was updated and the posts were linked to Face Book. It just took me until now to get my blog typed up :) Today I would like to share the process of my NEW dandelion designs! I always love to see the progress of a design and thought you might like to get an insider view.

FINDING THE RIGHT DESIGN....
Ok so when I get a design in my head I hop on down the the torch and start creating. There are many design elements that got into picking the perfect glass for your design. First I had to decide on the base color.Here is the first design I tried to make. In this photo are the small dandelion puff flowers with a stem. The first bead to the left has a base of Uranium Yellow(which looks yummy lime green to me). The flower is a dot of effetre white with Messy Cirrus on top. This dot was flattened and then creased with a razor. Unfortunately you can't really tell that I used Cirrus on the bead, it just appears to be clear.

Next I thought that maybe Cirrus would better show up on an opaque base. The dandelion puff flower is the same combo as above, but on a base of effetre pea green. As you can see Cirrus still appears to be clear. Bummer! Cirrus is this fantastic color that is a white opal that I thought would be perfect for the hazy, fluffy puff of dandelion seeds!

Then onto the final design. Same base of Uranium Yellow, but this time it was etched to add some inner glow, which I think looks fantastic! As you see I have also changed the dandelion puff design. This tiny flower has tremendous detail for it's size. For the new dandelion puff design I used Messy Marshmallow which is more of a hazier white opal. Now this color was PERFECT! I accomplished the hazy translucent white that was perfect for my dandelion puff! Flattening the dot of Marshmallow gives it a bit more of a transparent look since there is a smaller mass of glass. The decorations on top are hair fine stringers of filligrana to give it the details of the seed stems and seed bottoms combined with the fuzzy puff appearance of the dandelion. SUCCESS! This was the final design for my "Dandelion's Life set"!

LARGE DANDELION PUFF...
Now that I got the small dandelion puff flower figured out it was time to do a larger detail puff flower close-up bead.Again you can see I tried a few different bases before deciding on which I liked best. The first bead is the same puff combination on a base of Messy Dirty Martini. As you can see the Marshmallow shows up very well on the base, but it was still not quite the right green that I wanted for the design.

Next you can see the same dandelion puff combo with an etched Uranium yellow base. I liked the puff design, but still wanted to add some more detail to the puff.

The last design which became the design for the "Dandelion's Life" set and "Fly Away" bracelet is the same dandelion puff on the Uranium Yellow base etched, but I added some curved details around the flattened dot of Marshmallow. I really liked the way it gave extra dimension to the dandelion puff.
Here is a photo of the beads etched and shiny for comparison. The dandelion puff's main flower was painted in nailpolish as a resist to the etching leaving it shiny while the base is etched! Below you can see the dandelion seed design, which I think is SPOT on!

YELLOW DANDELION FLOWER...
Now to figure out the yellow dandelion flower design. As you know dandelions are 2 shades of yellow with little stringy petals.For the first design I used 2 shades of yellow, one being Vetrofond odd Sunshine yellow, and one of the effetre dark yellows for contrast. I then creased the flattened dots to simulate the petals of the dandelion flower. It made a pretty cool sunburst design, but it wasn't quite finished.

The second design I added a flattened yellow dot to the center to simulate the center of the dandelion flower. This little addition made the perfect design!

NEW IN THE SHOP....
Now that I had my dandelion designs all figured out it was time to create beads for sets and jewelry for the shop!Here is "Dandelion's Life". This set was a bugger to photograph! The etched green turned out more vivid green that it was and the yellows turned out more dull than they were. The green is a nice pale yellow green and the colors are much more orange than they appear. Also in the photograph the details don't seem as sharp, but they are much more apparent in person.

As you can see the set is a fantastic representation of the dandelion's life cycle which I think turned out fantastic! Here is "Dandelion Seed". This sweet little etched 3 bead set has a focal lentil with a dandelion seed and 2 round spacers.
Here is the AMAZING asymmetrical "Fly Away" bracelet. The bracelet got it's name from the bali silver butterfly charm and the "flying away" of dandelion seeds as you blow them into the wind. This design has beautiful etched spacers, large dandelion puff, and dandelion seed lentils, along with Hilltribe silver lentils, stamped spacers, sterling silver rounds and white opal Swarovski crystals. I absolutely LOVE this bracelet! I think it's my favorite piece aside from the "Dandelion's Life" set!
This necklace is actually SOLD, but I thought you might like to see the design anyways ;) This little beauty is a simple dandelion seed pendant on a lime green satin cord.
Here are the "Glowing Green Trapeze" earrings to complete the set. These sweet little earrings are etched yellow green spacers suspended from teeny chain. Wire wrapped to the top are Swarovski crystals in white opal that hang from my FAVORITE ball earwires! These earrings are so pretty and dainty. They are so light you can't even feel them in your ears!

I had just 2 little St. Patty's designs for you Irish fans out there!

Here is the "4-leaf clover- Heart petals" shamrock pendant. As you can see it has lots of yummy greens with some Swarovski crystals and a pressed glass shamrock dangle!

Here is the "4-leaf clover- petal leaves" shamrock pendant. This also has lots of layers of different transparent and opaque greens with Swarovski crystals and a pressed shamrock bead dangle.

NEXT WEEK IN THE SHOP....
I will be working on some more super VIBRANT Vortex Flower pendants! I made the new flower's in some BEAUTIFUL Bullseye glass in regular stock and odd lot colors! Lots of yummy PINKS, PURPLES AND GLITTER GLASS! I also made a flower in pink, peachy pink, orange, and orange glitter, and one with darker blues, greens and glitter! Stay tuned!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Much love,

Genea