Sunshine, Moon Beams, and Stardust- NEW Jewelry!

Hello friends!

Eerie.. I know. I'm here again. Too much of a good thing? Are you sick of me yet? Oh you are? Then I must be doing something RIGHT!  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA >:D You will be seeing A LOT of me coming up. I have tutorial, after tutorial come out in Bead Design Studio, I will be in Jewelry Stringing Magazine for the Beads 2013 issue, and I have just been asked to write up a jewelry tutorial for Soda Lime Times! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! 

Oh and I am here too... The new Bead Chat Magazine :D One of my large style organic hearts got featured in the latest issue. :D:D:D

So I am here today to share some new jewelry designs I made *gasp*. I KNOW... hard to believe. I dump so much of my funding into glass my jewelry supplies are sadly neglected. However, like most of you, I am a bead WHORE-der and have many lovely things tucked away in their little "bead museums"(you may refer to these things as bead boxes). My beads were just screaming at me a lot lately so lots of designs came together. First I will share the new jewelry in the shop. 

The "Q&D" version for those of you that have better things to do with your time than hang out on my blog :P

"Midnight Moon & Setting Sun"- Rich golden yellow ocher, washed amethyst, and corn flower blue with lots of rainbowy raku in a batik style. 

The back is so pretty too! 

"Shooting Star" bracelet- A simple little star surrounded by swirls of shimmering stardust on recycled sari silk ribbon.

"Sunshine & Stars" - originally made to match a different necklace it just so happened to match this new set as well! BONUS! Gorgeous golden yellow with "burnt edges" of golden brown and whispy cream opal hang in these happy hoops.

Last, but not least. A special design that has finally come together with some very special components I have received at different times. The universe finally called to be assembled in this very peaceful spiritual piece that so many loving hands have separately created. 

This is my "meditation" necklace. A  necklace

 I created for myself with some very special 

pieces I received from friends. I have had these amazing pieces for a long while just waiting for the perfect piece. I received the buddhist prayer bead from Staci Louise Smith, the patinated hoop and chain from Karen Totten, the Om charm from Maire Dodd, the beautiful hilltribe silver chain from Melissa Fortner, and I created the little balled copper dangle. I am so honored to have put such special things together in a necklace from people I love  Thank you all! 

I will be on my way to the studio after my day off with Ricky tomorrow so it may be a little bit before you hear from me on my blog again. Don't fret, you can always find me on facebook ;)

xo Genea

Double Helix Zephyr - Quick glass testing.

Hello friends!

It's been awhile since I posted a blog about my findings. I am always on the hunt for the "perfect clear". One that melts well, is free from scratches on the rods, bubbles, one that is compatible with the glass I use, one that only needs a quick wipe in windex or alcohol to be cleaned. I am excited to say I've found it! I added a few new clears to my last glass order and Double Helix Zephyr was one of them. I had wanted to try their clear for awhile and decided this was the time. Now what I am posting is only Zephyr. These are just my very quick glass tests to see how the glass "behaves" with things I like to use in my work.

Here are the quick tests- (from left to right) Raku encased with Zephyr, yellow filigrana encased with Zephyr, Rainbow dichroic encased with Zephyr, and Zephyr.

All of these tests were done to see if there was any incompatible cracking. As you can see it passed with all of the glasses! This means that I can safely layer these with Zephyr in my work without worrying if I will run into any troubles. The last thing you want to do is make a gorgeous focal bead only to have cracks appear after your annealed bead comes out of the kiln! 

The last bead is just Zephyr by itself. You may not be able to tell, but the glass is AMAZINGLY OPTICALLY CLEAR. No bubbles, no scratches, no anything... AMAZING! It's crystal clear! The glass has the perfect melting consistency. It's not too stiff, but not mushy soft either. 

This next test was to see how Zephyr reacts with silver leaf. On the left you can see what silver does on the surface of the glass. It is a bit shimmery with some gold looking tones. On the right the silver leaf has been gently heated as it was encased. Some clears will make silver leaf look gold when encased. Zephyr leaves silver leaf looking silver when encased.

This last test was to see if Zephyr could be used as a clear core for problematic glass, and to test how it reacts with baking soda. I have learned that yellow, coral and some orange glass tend to cooler faster than other colors. I was having some HORRIBLE cracking issues with some XL focal beads. I bought up this problem in the International Society of Glass Bead makers group on Facebook. They were kind enough to give me the tip of using a clear core as a base for these types of colors to avoid the cracking. So as you can see I have pressed the Sunburst Coral bead super thin and no cracks have appeared! 

Breakage- Sunburst Coral with no clear core.

The last test was to see how Zephyr reacted with baking soda as you all know I am totally diggin on my stone textured beads. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but the glass has a layer of white on it with very little pitting.So for the baking soda test I know that this will not be a clear I will use for the stone textured beads. This really isn't an issue since there are plenty of other clears that pit very nicely for stone beads. 

This test also tells me that whatever is in the formula for Zephyr keeps the glass protected from things that would want to destroy it's clarity. 

So what is my review? BUY IT! It's AMAZING! It's worth every penny you spend on it! 

Below you can see some of the clear in action.

 Beads with Double Helix Zephyr.

 Beads with Double Helix Zephyr.

I hope you found these tests to be helpful and that if you were thinking about trying Zephyr that this would give you that extra push to add it to your order.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

xo Genea

New Jewelry in the Shop!

Hello friends!

Surely this should be some kind of record. I get an award or something, right? ;) I guess I just have had a bit more time at the apartment than usual. I am waiting for a big glass order to arrive so I am planning my studio trip around that.

I managed to get some perfect light for photos this morning. Some of these colors are so hard to photograph in direct sunlight. The nice cloudy sky provided some perfect pictures for todays jewelry pieces.

The "quick and dirty" post so you can skip to the next thing you happen to be doing online, but still get the jist of what is going on here ;)

"Ancient Tapestry" necklace-A gorgeous herringbone woven pendant with a stone textured pendant simple worn on recycled sari silk. A perfect everyday necklace.

"Ancient Tapestry" earrings- YUM, right?! These earrings are the perfect balance of bright and muted colors with that wonderful earthy feel from the fibers and stone textures. You may remember seeing these featured on the Wooly Wire Etc. page a little bit back.

"Tangled Rain"- Some gorgeous pale ice aqua recycled bottle drops are accented with some rain drenched muted blues,and yellows with some hints of warm brown and burgundy. These are done in the same style as my "Space-Age" earrings featured in Bead Design Studio February 2014. Isn't it amazing how different this design looks with a different color palette?

"Earth and Stars" earrings- A beautiful balance of greens and blues with earthy tones and splashes of bright vivid colors. These would go great with the "Love Earth" necklace!

Well that concludes my update for today. Never know when you will see me next. It may be soon considering my recent record ;)

xo Genea

NEW Beads, Clasps, and Jewelry!

Hello friends!

Well I am sad to say that *most* of the new beads are already sold from the Facebook preview, but some amazing clasps made their way into the shop! I even listed a necklace! Woo hoo! The winter sun is kinda cramping my style with the little ray of sunlight I get upstairs on the 3rd floor. I only get a few photos before I lose that little bit of sun. So wanna see the goodies??

Here's what you missed if you didn't manage to snag some of this awesomeness from Monday.

Here is a shot of all of the beads I created. A smaller batch for my normal haul, but I had some other things I needed to make this time around that are not pictured here. I was so pleased with my haul! I am really diggin' this half shiny, half stone oceany feel. So high maintenance to do the stone finish, protect the shiny surface, and clean, but so worth it!

Here's a closer look. UM... YUM!! So pretty huh?!

Here's a closer look at those headpins. The top and rainbow buttons are shiny and the bottoms are stone textured finish and matte. I really love the look! I totally dig the aqua bottoms too! 

So what is still available?

I managed to make some more clasps since I needed to make a clasp for my latest tutorial magazine submission. I took that time to make a few extra clasps. I did the "Desert Jewel" clasp you have seen in the past, a new "Midnight Jewel" with a black base, and I got to try out a Sea Urchin clasp!

"Desert Jewel" s-clasp- Wow just look at all of that rainbow goodness! 

"Midnight Jewel" s-clasp- sometimes things are just as gorgeous on black. I was excited to give this clasp a black base since so much of my work is on a black or ivory base it's nice to have both.

"Rainbow Urchin" s-clasp- If you've seen my sea urchin beads then you know what to expect with this clasp. It's a mini version of the amazing sea urchin textured pools you will see on the focal beads. Just mesmerizing! 

"Love Earth"- You may have recognized this piece from earlier in the year. I went back and re-worked the design and I am SO happy with the new results. The necklace has some wonderful balance and negative space going on. It lays so nicely across the neck and is fairly light weight for it's "bulky" look. 

Well that is all for today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

xo Genea

Space-Age Earrings Tutorial in Bead Design Studio February 2014!

Hello friends!

Have you seen my tutorial in Bead Design Studio February 2014?! Pretty freakin' exciting! This is my first published jewelry tutorial. Way to take forever huh? Lol. I have to thank Pam for approaching me at Bead Fest Philly last year and signing me up for 4 tutorials. Had she not asked me to submit I still may never have done an article ;) 

So thinking about this post I think I should direct you to my Ending Wooly Wire tutorial first just incase you want some more details. You can check out the photo tutorial or video tutorial.

So first let's check out those headpins....

Here are the original headpins. Unfortunately I only had a bit of this glass so the few pairs I had sold very quickly. I had a great substitute(and I bet you didn't even notice!) below. The color is a bit more red pink thank these.

Here's  just a quick photo in the sun.

Here is the listing photo. So as you can see they are just a bit different. You can purchase your pair of headpins here Space-Age Pod Glass Headpins.

Here is my photo of the earrings for the tutorial. Super sweet huh?! These earrings are SO much fun to make and wear. They have amazing color, texture, negative space(my personal favorite!), and they are super light weight. The awesome thing about this tutorial is that it's easy, pretty, and you can do them with any shape glass headpins!

You will, of course need the Space-Age Wooly Wire to create this design. The color looks different in the magazine and in the photo, but it's the same one ;) Nellie makes some amazing wooly wire color ways so you will be totally addicted!  You may as well save yourself the trouble and order more than a few colors of wooly wire to create your designs! 

Karen was kind enough to write up an awesome little blog about the earrings on Wooly Wire Etc. You can check it out here. Thanks so much Karen, you ROCK! 

I didn't receive my magazine yet so my friend Rebecca was sweet enough to snap this quick tutorial photo for me! Sweet huh? I can't wait to see the magazine in person!

I would LOVE to see your earrings made with my tutorial! Please feel free to message me on facebook! I could even start a gallery on the Genea Beads Facebook page of your earrings! 

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I love the way Pam and Joanna set up my tutorials. They start you out with a simple pair of earrings and each article you learn more of my  intricate wooly wire designs! 

Happy Creating!

xo Genea

Surfacing

Hello friends!

It's been awhile huh? I needed to drop off for the holidays. Holidays seem to ZOOM by at an alarming rate anymore. I wasn't feeling super jolly this year. I was really burned out and exhausted. I decided to finish up my sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and my Why Not Wing Ding sale and then drop off for awhile. I feel like I didn't get a break since before doing Bead Fest so I decided to finish up the sales and then spend some time SLOWING DOWN to enjoy the holidays before they slipped by. After all, I had MANY handmade gifts to create for friends and family. I unplugged, sat down to create, and would you believe NOTHING at all came out? It's like the creative energy was so depleted I just about gave up. Isn't that terrible? It was especially terrible for me since I am a gifter and feel great joy creating special things for people. I guess I felt a lot of pressure to create that super amazing gift for each individual. Why? I dunno. I just did and thinking of all of the handmade gifts I needed to make stressed me out to making NOTHING. Wow, what a bummer! But.... Thank God... things slowly started coming to me. Gift ideas popped into my head. I began creating gifts for people that weren't expecting anything. It was the perfect way to ease into making. Create with no expectations.  I was slowly getting inspired. I would see something that would spark an idea and off I ran with it.

Here are a few things I created....

Here were the gift tags I created for Besty, and Emily of Indigo Wild( our VERY favorite local soap company).  We attend their amazing friends and family party every year around the holidays. I normally gift them with some kind of piece related to their business(like their soap bars made out of glass), but this year I decided on something that was all Genea Beads ;)

Here were the gifts inside the boxes.

I even made a glass Zum bar for Tara(one of our favorite Zummy girls). 

I enjoyed creating the gift tags so well that I even recycled brown kraft bags we had and turned them into mixed-media gift wrap. I personalized a gift tag so that there was a very personal part the the gift wrap, but left the bag purely design so it could be re-used :)

Here was the gift I created for my friend Melissa. She loves butterflies and every year she has a word of the year. This year she chose "Inspire" so I added the text to the bottom. I was inspired to create this piece in my style from this simple Pinspiration.

I really LOVE this piece. I did it in my Moroccan style with some  mixed-media techniques.

I have way more pieces to show, but you can check them out on my page if you want to see all of them ;) 

I made my way back to the studio as well. These were the last beads for 2013!

Most all of these are sold already. They went FAST! I did lots of XL and large focals.

Here are the last 2 that are currently in the shop. I loved doing the "Desert Serpent" in an XL focal! It's such a huge canvas with which to work! The bead on the right was a serendipitous bead. I had this idea planned out for a different style focal and my propane was running out rapidly. I worked the bead as far as I could with the gas I had left with only about a lighter's worth of flame left before the torch went out completely! I am really pleased with the design. This is, of course another odd lot so the bead is very limited. Spiral Batik Urn "Wasabi".

It's been BONE Chilling cold here. In fact, right now it's 0 degrees. Brrrr! I will be headed over to the studio on the night of the 7th to make more beads. I have MANY things to make especially with all of my tutorial articles hitting the shelves for Bead Design Studio!   Lots to create in 2014! See you soon!

xo Genea