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. [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I’ve been experimenting by making my own murrine so that I can apply these to my beads. Making murrine is really interesting as the colour combinations can make such a different when applied to the bead. These are a couple of sets that I’ve made recently that show how they’ve been used. I really like [...]
I had a great day in the workshop yesterday, not only was it relatively warm (note that 2C feels warm at the moment) but I made 4 sets of lampwork beads. Sometimes I’m full of ideas and think up new combinations of glass to try and I’m particularly pleased with the following sets. This was [...]
I’ve been busy making lampwork beads and incorporating them into my beaded jewellery. The following is a selection of pretty necklaces and a memory wire bracelet that I’ve added onto the website. In particular, I’ve added this beautiful “Molten” metallic blue heart necklace, with sterling silver, swarovski crystals, labradorite gemstones and glass. It would look [...]