That Hollow Feeling!

I've just completed a custom order for a new customer who found me on Etsy, the web site where I keep my store, and I wanted to share with you the results.

The order was for a set of 30 hollow beads in light teal, light amber and fuchsia pink. While the teal and amber ones were done first, the fuchsia ones were a bit of a challenge.

Soft glass does not have a fuchsia that is reliable; that is to say, it tends to not want to be worked in the flame for long nor does it like starts and stops in its glass flow when making the beads. I tried several different manufacturers of the glass, but could not get the fuchsia to come out.

Hollow beads do not exactly come off the rod in a one piece, and it does take a while for the glass to melt, flow and inflate in order for the bead to take shape...this takes time which the pink glass abhors!

Fortunately, I had some wonderful fuchsia frit and used that to color transparent hollows to the nice fuchsia shade.

I'd made the last set of the beads on Sunday and cleaned them up last night. Tonight I strung the beads onto the leather cords by set and took the pictures.

I've forwarded the pictures to my customer, but thought you might like a look too.

I hope she likes her new beads!

Have a great night!