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

WHY NOT WING DING SALE GOING ON NOW!

Hello friends!

Just a random Wing Ding Sale going on over at my facebook business page! Wing Dings are 10% off and it's first come, first serve. When they are gone, they are GONE! Claim your set here 

Good luck! 

xo Genea

Busy Before the Holidays

Hello friends!

Wow, it's been a little while huh? I've been here as always, just BUSY. I have been selling out of beads before they get to my Etsy shop and here(YAY!)! My facebook bead previews have been really awesome. If you don't already know you can check out my posts on my profile or business page.

Want to see what found new homes(Yes, these are all SOLD OUT already)? I thought you might ;)

Ok so I am mildly obsessed by sea glass green AND it's even prettier stone textured! I finished off the "collection" of sea glass beads with the smaller lentils and headpins. 

Mmmm I also love this terracotta color as well. It is SO dreamy with silvered ivory and raku! Here you can see if shiny and stone textured. Amazing how different they look huh? 

I also did  a collection in this color scheme. I call it "Antique Mint". Yes, it does look blue, but the original glass is a minty green before they come full circle to look like this. Pretty huh?

Here are the rest of the beads. I made the spacers just before this collection. I didn't get to smaller lentils yet. I really love the way these turned out.

OUTSIDE THE WORLD OF BEADS....

So aside from making beads Ricky and  I have been creating art.  It's really nice to be creative together. Here are some of the things Ricky has been creating.

This piece is called "Entomology Specimen" since it looks like a scientific study of animal life. I love that it is on 3 canvas' that go together, but are separate. 

This piece is just SO gorgeous. I had to show a few shots. There are SO many details!

I just love all of the texture and layers. 

This was a second piece in his "Urban Vandalism" series called "Dapper Disguise" :D

This one is still unnamed. It's amazing to see where the piece starts and where it ends up. It was really awesome at this step, but just wait til you see the finished piece.

Wow, huh?! It reminds me of thoughts, and aspirations, a journey in life. I love the gears too. It has that "street washed" feel to it like his kind of urban city graffiti style too.

 Here is the base of his newest one. It's even completely past this part already. This is just the bottom layer with many more to follow. I love seeing the pieces come together.

I have been at it as well. Creating as he is making things for his shop. Mine have been for gifts.

I love the ombre wine cork hearts you will see bouncing around Pinterest. I started out with my simple text background and decided to do some more mixed-media stuff to it AFTER I attached the heart. Now ideally I would have done the layers first, but you know how that goes ;) I still am very happy with how it turned out. This went to my bro's gf for xmas :)

It's FINISHED! It's so different from where it started, but it's SO beautiful! I am really happy with how it turned out! I began working on another for a "Pinterest Party" to which I was invited.

This time I wanted raised "gilded windows" for my piece. This step took me forever so I decided to set this aside and start working on a more free flowing piece in the same style. 

Ok... I took A LOT of pictures of this one. I had such a wonderful time creating it. It took me a full day to make it. I loved enjoying it on my wall and I was sad to have to give it away. I'm glad it went to a home where it will be loved ;)

Detail top left.

Detail middle.

Detail bottom right.

The finished piece. This is functional wall art! So cool!  So I did wine corks on the left side to be used a bulletin board for photos. On the bottom are hooks for keys, jewelry etc. 

 Yes, I'm a nerd. I had to take photos of the new piece with it's sibling ;) 

Here they are together on the 1st pieces side. 

Here they are together on the second pieces side. As you can see these were not hung to be close. We just hang our work on the already existing nails from what we had up on the wall before hand ;) 

We were pretty excited to get a Keurig! This was our gift to each other for Christmas. It's been super sweet having fancy coffee every morning. Now I just want to run out and get a ton more pods! Lol. 

 I will be taking a break from making new beads through the rest of the holiday. For now I will focus on making gifts and try to re-charge from the busy year. I will begin new work after the 1st. It's been an awesome year. Each year we have been getting increasingly busier thanks to my lovely supporters! You all have made this dream possible! 

Happiest Holidays to you and yours and a prosperous new year!

xo Genea