I have made a vow to myself to make a concentrated effort to master the hollow technique using the puffy mandrel. These are two attempts, it may not look like it but I see some progress. Each time I am going to try with clear so I can sort of see what it going on with the air inside the bead. They are definitely not round. I added the black glass to try to mask the wonkyness.
I absolutely love this combination. This is a 104 COE German glass called multicolor combined with a crystal clear frit in a 96 COE. The bead has hints of purple, green, and blue. The bead is very shiny which indicates that there is silver at the surface. I will definitely use this combination on a lot more beads.
This bead is from a cobalt wine bottle. I then added baking soda to the outside of the bead to give it a antique look. It seems to age the look of the bead. I may play with this idea more, maybe etch it and see if it adds another layer of depth.
This is a set that I made with a teacher in mind, but instead she liked the small lumpy hollow. She wants a whole bracelet out of those. Practice, Practice, Practice.
I also have been concentrating on adding items to my etsy store. It was empty for awhile, now slowly filling it up. This is the first time I have finished items for sale in my store. I do not have any Art Fairs planned for the spring, so I thought I would try selling some pieces online.
I have also still been tweaking my web site. So far it has had over 300 page views, pretty cool. Although I think some are for the wrong reasons, I am getting spam emails that seem to be aimed at hosting my web page.
Until next time, Cheryl.
