I was rather excited to receive my delivery of the new glass from Double Helix called Notos. When I opened the package, I must admit that at first I was slightly disappointed at the pale blue-grey shade of the glass. It didn’t excite me one bit. Anyhow, I though it best to give the glass the benefit of the doubt and made some spacer beads. To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure how to describe the finished beads as they have a blue-grey base with a golden metallic finish. You would think that with the colour combination that the beads would look green, but they don’t.
I’ve spent time playing with this glass and found that it behaves fairly similarly to triton when reduced and encased in clear – although a bit paler in the blue shades. However, I prefer it as a surface decoration as it’s quite interesting with the two tone colour effect that it seems to have.
Double Helix seem to select unusual names for their glass, so I decided to look it up. Notos appears to mean Greek wind gods according to Wikipedia. I can’t make a link, but perhaps you can?
This is the latest batch of spacer beads that I’ve made – you can see the two tone colour combination as well as the odd bit of pink that appeared after reducing the surface to it’s shimmery colours. I love Double Helix’s Notos glass now!
I love making beaded beads, especially if they’re easy and quick to make. With that in mind, I’ve written this detailed beaded bead tutorial to make these stunning, but quick, charm beads which take under 30 minutes each. All you need are some fire-polished beads in your choice of colour and a selection of Toho seed beads. The beads will fit nicely on a bracelet or necklace and they look really effective on leather too!
Beaded Bead Tutorial - Charm Beads
Here are a couple of examples as to how I’ve used these beads in pieces of jewellery.
Green Beaded Bead Necklace
Beaded Bead Necklace "Embers"
I hope you have as much fun making these beaded charm beads as I have. I’m planning to expand my range of tutorials in the next year, so watch this space!
I’ve just uploaded a little video from my workshop, shot in timelapse as the morning sun shines through the window across the glass on my work bench, and while I make some beads. The photography’s by www.newfocusphoto.com.
I recently bought some Creation is Messy (CiM) maraschino glass and it’s a lovely bright red. It encases white beautifully and gives it a transparent red-orange colour, as in the swirly lampwork beads below. Some colours of glass can boil easily, but I’ve found this particular colour to be fairly stable and easy to use.
Purple Sunset Lampwork Beads
What to make? I decided to make some lampwork strawberries as it’d been a long time since I’d made some and thought that the colour would make lovely bright coloured strawberries. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the finished colour of these beads. They have an opaque core with what looks like a thin layer of clear encasing on the outside. To me, this just enhances the beads, but it’s something to consider when using this glass.
This glass is one of my favourite ones as it’s such a cheerful colour.
These strawberries have small spacer beads made with dark red Effetre glass – you can see the contrast in colour, which I love.
It’s that frantic time of year for me where I seem to be permanently loading and unloading the car getting ready for each craft fair. I’m usually well prepared and take something to make in between the busy periods – this time Christmas decorations!
These decorations are quite therapeutic to make and look lovely on a tree. I’ve got angels, baubles, holly sprigs and trees – this year the baubles are a new addition to the collection. I’ve decided to try and come up with a new design each year, so if you have any bright ideas and would like to suggest something that involves wire and beads, please do!
I’ve had lots of fun making lampwork spacer beads and had plenty of feedback, so I’ve decided to add three new types of beads to the website. I’ve used Double Helix Gaia and Kalypso, which give some lovely effects and colours and Effetre Silver Black, which has a gorgeous matte ‘pearlescent’ type finish in shades of gold, silver and a hint of pink.
Spacer Beads - Kalypso
Spacer Beads - Silver Black
Spacer Beads - Gaia
I love the red-amber shade of glass in the Kalypso beads – I think these are my favourite ones!
These beads are approximately 4x7mm and make a lovely addition to any jewellery designs you have in mind. You can see my new spacer bead section here.
Recently I’ve been asked whether I can make spacer beads, so I though it would be a good idea to include a section on the website specifically for lampwork glass spacers. I’ve concentrated on silvered Double Helix beads as these are beautiful and very shiny when incorporated into jewellery designs. They also look particularly good when teamed with sterling silver.
Triton Spacer Beads
Helios Spacer Beads
Psyche Spacer Beads
I’ve three types of spacer beads available at the moment, but I plan to expand this over a period of time to include more types of glass. However, get in touch if you’d like a particular colour making as I can make bespoke spacers to order too!
I’ve recently returned from a lovely holiday at Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. It’s been such a relaxing time – sun, sea, reading and rest with the family. Just what I needed. During our stay, which was much shorter than I’d have liked, we visited the Ventnor Botanical Gardens and had a couple of lovely afternoons there, wandering around and enjoying the sight of beautiful plants, including flowers and insects.
Ventnor Botanical Gardens
I was amazed at the number of agapathus there – stunning swathes of them. These certainly caught my eye, along with the repeating patterns of various cacti when viewed from above. It struck me that agapanthus have a subtle range of colours. I hadn’t realised that there were so many variations, not just blue or white! I think that I may have to experiment a bit more with my blue and periwinkle coloured glass to see what colour combinations I can make in my lampwork beads.
Agapanthus up close
Not only did I absorb the beautiful colours, but there were lizards living there too, lots of them basking on the gravel and rocks. I was fascinated and spent a good half hour watching them. Apparently they like to sneak into the hot house for a warm up on cold days and I can’t blame them! One sat still enough for me to take a picture before scuttling into the shady rocks.
Common Lizard
If you’re anywhere near Ventnor and want some colour inspiration, do go there as it’s free to visit and there are plenty of areas to explore with different themed garden areas and a play area with swings, a slide and climbing frame for the kids. And of course there’s also the Isle of Wight Studio Glass just up the road from here, which is well worth a visit too.
I bought this interesting Effetre glass called Calico and, to be honest, was quite uninspired when it arrived. However, I thought I’d have a go at making some beads to see what effects I could tease out of it.
I made a dark ivory base and wrapped calico glass around to the correct size for making a round bead. I did find that this glass wanted to de-vitrify, but by turning the propane up a bit and using a cooler temperature, I kept it at bay. I then wrapped some silvered ivory around the centre. It could have been the pink tinted glasses I was wearing, but they definitely looked quite pink and amber when they went into the kiln, but on inspection of them in the morning, I found them to be more honey coloured with a hint of pink instead.
I wasn’t sure whether I liked this glass as first in it’s shiny state, so I decided to stone tumble them to see what happened. I was pleasantly surprised after I’d cleaned the lampwork beads as the subtle pinks and honey tones were softened and the silvered ivory gave some contrast with their dark colours. I think I quite like this calico glass now!
What do you think?
Organic Ochre Lampwork Beads Made with Calico Effetre Glass
I had to collect a parcel from the main Post Office today and, to my surprise, it was my bead presses I’d ordered! How could I forget that I’d ordered them? Anyhow, I’ve had a great play with them and love both shapes, which seem to be quite easy to use.
This is the first heart bead I’ve made with the press and the shape is really lovely. I’ve used Clio Double Helix glass and clear Effetre to encase it. I then applied a purple murrini to one side, just to give it a bit more interest.
Lampwork Heart with Clio
I’ve also got a pillow press, which I think gives the lampwork beads an unusual, but interesting shape that could be incorporated into a necklace or bracelet design. I can’t wait to make something myself with this shaped bead!
