Rainbows and colors outside the box

Hello friends!

I think you will enjoy my offerings for today! Not only are they rainbowy raku, but I even chose different color bases out of my normal color schemes!

Wanna see?

Wait... just before we move on I thought you might want to see who was staring back at me through my camera lens.My PIGGEH. He he. Isn't he soooo cute?! I just LOVE this bank! Thanks to Amanda for gifting him to me:). I thought it was funny that he just happened to be chilling on my photographing table when I was done taking pictures, so I thought I would add him as well just for funzies :D

Ok... moving on....

NEW IN THE SHOP....
I don't even know which ones to list first... They all turned out pretty awesome! Ok.. how about the super unusual ones, as in the set of RED. Eep! Can you believe I made red beads?! Lol."Scarlet's Rainbow Roses"- A set of 5 deep scarlet red lentils have rainbowy raku twist roses on the top with speckles of raku on the back. The rose centers are a bubble button mirror dot that makes a sweet reflection!More views so you can see ALL of the color :D Mmmmm. Can you believe the color of this glass is called "Orange Punch". Pretty sure they turned out RED. One of arts little happy accidents, I guess. ;)
"Scarlet's Rainbow Raindrops"- A set of 6 round bead spacers on deep scarlet red. It seems like you can never have too many beads for designing. Spacers make a fantastic addition to designs!
"Mermaid's Rainbow"- A set of 5 lentil beads on Messy's newest tealy blue, Mermaid. Designs are twisted and raked in rainbowy raku stringers. The neat thing about Raku is that it seems to escape Mermaids organic nature and all of the lines and dots remain crisp. Usually Mermaid has more of an organic nature to it and likes to swallow dots and lines.If you want to see more of the color and detail you can click on the image and it will open to it's 800x800 normal size in a different window :)"Mermaid's Rainbow Mini"- a set of 3 lentils with rainbowy raku dots and lines. See all of those neat streaks in the base? Mmmm pretty!"Rainbow Clay Tiles"- a set of 7 tile shaped on a base of muted khaki with lines, dots and swirls of rainbow raku. I love tiles! They are just as awesome as lentils with their smooth shape. I always had great luck with getting amazing colors on this color base :)The very last picture in the 4 block is the "back" side of the beads. The designs are the same on both sides, but due to Raku's color changing nature the colors are different on either side ;)
"Rainbow Canyon"- a mini set of 3 lentils on a warmer tan base with swirls and dots of color changing raku rainbows. I was curious to see how Canyon de Chelly would do as a brownish base with raku. I really like the results. It's a little more brown than my favorite Stone Ground :)
I think this little set would be nice combined with the "Rainbow Clay Tiles" into a braclet with the pattern going- tile, lentil, tile, lentil. I love to mix the shapes together for visual appeal :)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?...
I will be receiving my NEW concentrator for my UPGRADE! Woo hoo! I can't wait! I suppose I have not told you yet, huh? Well I will be upgrading to a Mini CC with a 15lpm concentrator! I can't wait to get this baby set up! I will need to wait on all of my parts and then build a hood before I can use it. I didn't want to get you all excited before it was up and running, but now you know it's in the works. I am even getting a splitter so I can run *crosses fingers* both of my torches. The electrical is old in the house so I don't know if I have enough power(this is where you insert the Star Trek quote! lol) to run all of that machinery without blowing fuses.

Ok so you probably want to know how this information will effect you right? Well, with this torch and ventilation system I will be able to make HUGE beads, fume with silver, use enamels and all of that fun stuff! Having two torches hooked up will allow me to take on STUDENTS. ;) Pretty sweet eh? Now this is a work in progress so I am not sure of the exact date that ALL of this is happening, but like I said, it's in the works :D

A huge THANK YOU to the person that is making all of this possible! :D I couldn't be where I am without you!

In other news I have just been knitting more calorimetries. Can you believe it? lol. They are just fun to make and I can justify making a shit ton of them cause they can be gifts right? What can I say, it's nice to have something relaxing that keeps my hands busy and allows me to sit on my couch and be productive. lol.

Well I should be off. I need to shower and get ready for later. Holly and Brandon will be making their weekly trip out to see us and Amanda will be by too. I just LOVE it when friends come to hang out :D

Have a fantastic day!

Much love,

Genea

"THE" necklace and inspiration from fiber into beads

Hello friends!

Ok, ok, I know I am late with my update for the week, but I just wanted to keep making beads. I mean there is nothing wrong with that, right?! So since I am late posting I also have some other awesome things to show you like my FABULOUS necklace that was inspired by the Vortex Flower pendants and some knit items!

NEW IN THE SHOP....
Inspiration comes from all over! I was inspired by a skein of yarn for these two sets!
Too bad the yarn didn't work up as pretty into fabric as the glass worked up into beads!
"Lavender Fire"- a set of 3 round beads in:Red coral, orange, and lavender. Pretty amazing huh? There is just something about the intensity of the red and orange against the pastel lavender. Designs include a triangle bead, twist rose bead, and a dot and line stringer bead.

"Rose and Phoenix"- a set of 5 beads in: Lavender, pastel pink, red coral, and orange. Again the intensity between the pastel colors and vibrant reds and oranges is SO yummy! Bead styles are:masked dot beads, stripe bead, poked-eye bead, and a raised creased daisy.

These two sets remind me of the beads that Jan nabbed up called "Arizona Sunset". Here is a picture of the beads if you can't remember what they look like.Aren't they GORGEOUS? There is just something about orange and purple! :D

Next I have a few black and white beads for you....
"Movement" a set of 5 black and white beads. They are called movement because of all of the twists and movement in the beads. Bead designs include: stripe bead, twist dot beads, poked-eye bead and a triangle bead."BW spacers" original name, I know, but what else do you call plain black and white spacers? This little set of 6 spacers is fun strung by itself or added with other beads for designs. You could always add these little guys to the set above for more design possibilities.
"Daisy Cakes- Cupcakes"- This fun set of 8 cupcakes are baked to golden brown perfection and topped with pastel rainbow colored icing along with vanilla and chocolate! The cupcakes have ruffly edges and rainbow sprinkles. The cupcakes were inspired by my "Lovey Cakes" that I made for Valentine's day. If you take a birds eye view of the cupcakes they look like little daisies. Be sure to send a big "thank you" to Ricky while you check out with these babies! I wanted to include ALL of the cupcakes in one listing so Ricky suggested selling them for $77 instead of the usual $12 per bead! That is a savings of 20%! Woo hoo!

THE NECKLACE YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR......
Ok are you ready? Remember the "Vortex Flower" pendants and how I said that they were a proto-type for a necklace design in which I was working?Here is the "Vortex Flower" pendant if you missed seeing the design earlier.Here is "THE necklace". Lame name I know, but I am still working on the perfect name! Isn't it AMAZING?! It quite literally took me DAYS and HOURS to make! When I started the design I had NO idea how I was going to put everything together. I just got out all of the beads and designed as I went. This usually isn't the norm for me. I must say I am SO pleased with the results for lack of better words. I got done with this piece and couldn't believe that I had actually made it! This is probably the most beautiful and amazing piece I have EVER made!Here are some more shots of the necklace. I submitted this necklace to Bead & Button magazine in the hopes of getting it printed on their cover. I did hear that most of the cover pieces they choose are pieces that have instructions inside. As you can see by the tremendous detail in this necklace it would take me FOREVER to write up instructions. Due to the sheer amount of beads and baubles in this knotting and macrame necklace there really weren't easy ways to anchor this baby down to get everything on the necklace. How the hell do you put that into instruction? Would it be like you have to have monkey fingers and be able to hold 8bagillion cords while knotting and adding on beads all at the same time? Lol

This piece is incredible for other reasons than just the beads and how it was assembled. Did you know that it is a piece for all of the senses? Visually it's just incredible, it's very tactile with so much texture, there are numerous bells on it so you can hear the tinkling from the bells and from the pressed glass beads, and crystals clanking against the lampwork beads! Pretty AMAZING huh? The necklace, even for it's weight feels just incredible on. I mean a piece with this many beads on it is definitely heavy, but WOW!

Now you know a necklace isn't a necklace without a fabulous pair of earrings....
So the earrings are pretty much smaller scale "Vortex Flower" pendants. You would think that the earrings would weigh a ton as well, but for their size and weight they are very comfortable to wear and just accent the necklace perfectly!

So why did I decide to make the necklace and earrings? Well I really wanted a SUPER fabulous piece that I had designed and made myself with no input or ideas from anyone else. I wanted to make a fantastic gallery style piece that I could submit to the magazines for a cover piece.

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?...
Well after spending so much creative energy on my necklace I needed to do some knitting to unwind.I absolutely LOVE my knit wool calorimetry that my friend Holly made for me, but as you may know. Wool is BALLS HOT in summer. I made these guys out of cotton. They definitely don't feel as amazing as the natural fibers, but they are light weight enough to wear in spring and summer and still keep your head secure and snuggly!

Well as you may know it's FRIDAY and that usually means making plans for the weekend! I am going to start getting ready to go out!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

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

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

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