How Would You Like To Open Letters In Style?

Well, I have finally completed my first letter opener after several weeks of having these beads sitting on my work table, and you will get to see the new opener here first.

The beads were easy enough to make and I figured four would do the trick. However, when I put the beads onto the opener, there was a gap in the beads. They slid up and down and I could see the rod going through their holes. It was a catastrophe!

At least it was to me. None of my spacers in bali silver or zinc would fit onto the rod since the holes were not big enough. I was deadlocked and there wasn't anything I could do, until I found myself in a bead shop this weekend.

I was there purchasing something else entirely, and I found these little pewter stars with holes that looked pretty large. I tried them on and BINGO! They fit onto the letter opener and I completed the opener I started over a month ago. (Sometimes, art takes time!)

I'm calling this one Seaside since since the blues and greens in the beads remind me of the ocean. Now that I've got that completed, I've got many more to make!

I'm not listing anything new into Etsy tomorrow, but I've got a whole bunch of new earrings and their pictures, so they'll be loaded into the web site very soon!

Have a great week and we'll chat soon. Thanks for stopping by!

New Hollow Set - Fuchsia Splash - Coming Soon To Etsy

It's raining here today and is a bit dreary, but that does not mean there aren't great things happening here.  Tonight we're heading out to a Christmas Party with friends in Rockford that we don't get to see too often.

In addition, I've got four new sets that will be heading to my Etsy shop over the coming week.  Here's a preview of the first one that being listed--Fuchsia Splash!

This is a set of hollow transparent beads that have been wrapped in bright stripes of pink and voilet.  I used a copper green background on the frit to create a new and cool effect.  I love the interaction between this bright frit and the cool green background, and I hope you do too!

These beads will be stunning in a necklace, and the colors are really great for the upcoming spring season, but will also look fabulous throughout the winter too!  This set will be added to Etsy on Monday morning.

Also, I've just about completed my new Holiday Greeting message that will be going out to all of my customers.  It has a great stationery applied to it with pictures of beads and jewelry all ready to go.  Would you like to see it?  Just forward your e-mail address to Scentsation@dls.net, and I'll be happy to send it out to you.

The new Mac is living up to its promise of saving me lots of time.  I was able to import the pictures and have them all color-corrected and named in just a few short minutes.  It used to take hours to process all of the pictures on my PC and get them exported and ready for use.  I cannot wait to see how it will revolutionize my web site.

Don't forget to let me know what you think of my new blog by contacting me either here or through one of the following links:

www.LampOfLuxury.com

www.BurningScentsations.Etsy.com

Have a great evening folks!

New Hollow Set - Meadow Flora - In Etsy Shop

The holiday rush is in full swing here and life keeps interrupting my beading and blogging, but I'm pushing ahead as best I can at this time of year.

I had meant to get this notice out sooner to you, but later is better than never at all, I suppose. Just posted to my Etsy shop this week is Meadow Flora, a set of five hollow beads that consists of a larger focal bead and four smaller beads all in same great colors.

The frit on this set is my own blend of Iris Yellow and African Violets which react wonderfully together for a rich patina of amber and yellow shades with accents of deep violet. It's close to a tortoise shell appearance, and is very elegant.

I took this set into work and the ladies there just loved the colors, and hopefully you will too.

To see more information on this set, you can take a look at the shop listing by clicking here.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at:

http://LampOfLuxury.com/
http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Hope your evening is a merry one!

Flaming Success!

Saturday's torching session went very well and I am very pleased that I was able to complete a couple custom orders as well as create several new hollow sets in transparent spring colors for my Etsy shop.

The pictures are from the first set going into the shop in the morning, and as you can see, they are quite a colorful set.

This set is called Easter Festival I, and consists of 5 large hollow beads in the bright transparent colors of (L -> R) Tangerine, Blue Lagoon, African Violet, Apricot Sorbet and Tuscany Olive. The beads were created using clear glass, and then rolled in frits of various transparent colors, which gives them a great mottled texture.

Hollow beads are much lighter than beads of this size would normally, but do not let their delicate nature fool you. These beads are quite strong and can be used in a number of great jewelry designs.

As the set name implies, this is actually just Part I of the Easter Festival set, so stay tuned for part II later in the week!

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at:

http://LampOfLuxury.com/
http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Have a great evening!

Glass COE - Why Can't We All Just Get Along

Not all glass is created equal, which means that it is not all compatible either. While this wouldn't be a big deal if I only ever made beads using one color per bead, but that would be very boring for me and for you!

One of the first things new glass artists learn is that the COE, Coefficent Of Expansion, of the glass colors being used must all be the same. What's that, you say?

I know that sounded like a bunch of boring science-speak, so let me boil it down for you. When glass gets hot is expands. As it cools, it contracts. In order for a glass bead or any other object to survive the annealing and cooling process, the amount that each glass expands and contracts must be the same as all of the other glass in the piece.

If one color expands twice as much as the others, it will expand and contract too much, and the beautiful piece of art will crack and sometimes break apart due to the stress this incompatibility causes.

One minor exception is frit if used sparingly. Many of the frits on the market do not match the COE of the soft glass, but they have a secret that will enable them to be compatible when used on the surface of a bead as decoration. What's their secret? The lead content in the glass enables it to be compatible with glass that has a COE that is close to the frit. It is not so compatible that it can be covered with clear glass, a process known as encasing.

However, a thin layer on the surface of the bead can be used quite successfully as long the frit does not comprise more than five percent of the bead's glass. This is called the 5% Rule in glass circles.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at

http://LampOfLuxury.com/
http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Have great afternoon!

What the FRIT are you talking about?

There are many decorating techniques available to beadmakers when creating a new bead, and one of the staples of our art form is call Frit. Frit is powdered glass that hot (nearly molten) beads are rolled in to apply a speckled color pattern to the bead.

It can be melted into the bead so that the bead is smooth, or left bumpy on top of the bead. Leaving it bumpy is called Sugaring the bead. This technique works great for transparent frit since it will tend to look like ice crystals on the surface of the bead, but other colors work well too.

Frit comes in a wide range of brilliant colors and sizes from a fine powder up to very large chunks (which are not used for rolling onto a bead or other item). The size of the powder affects how the final design will look.

Rolling a cooler bead in frit will cause less of it to be picked up by the bead which makes give the beadmaker control over how much color they want on their bead.

Frit comes from various suppliers in both single colors or color blends. I use both in my work, but the color blends really add a lot of pizazz. I have also created my own color blends on occasion from jars of the solid colors. Experimentation is the key with this technique and there are no limits to what can be done!

Frit is very useful, versatile and, of course, can be used in many more ways than I have time to mention here. I'll save the additional techniques for a later posting. :)

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at

http://LampOfLuxury.com/

http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Take Care