I guess this is enough pink for one post!  I envision this bead as a suggestion of a perfume bottle.  I wanted to try having the flower stand proud, on top and this bead turned out very pretty and just what I wanted it to be.

New Work

 My blog has been languishing in the aether for a while now.  When I get to working on my glass it sometimes moves along so rapidly that I neglect to post photos at all.  Each phase kind of cancels out the previous ones. 

But a lot of nice beads have been made in the last six months and I want to showcase a series from late winter that especially pleases me.  After many false starts on these techniques I finally created some beads worth noting!

I have to give copious credit to many glass artists who share their secrets in on-line tutorials.  The challenge is not so much to learn the "tricks" as to take what we learn to new and personal levels, and that can take some time.  In glass it seems there are always a few glitches, never the same ones, but finally a bead will come out glorious, no chill marks, no uneven surfaces, no smeared flower petals, or discoloration from the silver-laden glass included in the design...and best of all, the colors going into the kiln come back out again just as vibrant, or at least transformed to another acceptable or exciting range of colors.
  

I am Back!

It has been over two years...time I spent on other projects that are now complete, and my torch is lit again for making beads. I have so much to show you, but will start with just a few of my favorite beads. I struggled with a lot of styles other bead makers have made popular while I was MIA, but a good friend suggested doing what I love best, so here are some of those beads!

I learned to make roses with glass cane and apply them as murrini within or on the surface of beads. This style of work makes me so happy! Again, Lydia Muell was a great teacher of this type of work, and I thank her profusely.

Elegant maidens, elegant forms...

It is always an adventure to embark on a new style, well, new to me, and see where it goes. As you scroll down you can see the route my mermaids took, from esoteric and colorful in the beginning, to these simple and elegant forms...less is more, they say.

I love the idea of these maids ascending from the nautilus shape, with textured copper electroforming suggesting the sea foam delineating the two elements. The torsos are etched on most of these mermaids, and the swirling, coiling tails are mostly made with silver-based glass which will always yield a surprise set of colors in the end!

I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them. And in your seafaring travels you just may see a sea maiden who reminds you of these.

Beware of ladies on seaweed-strewn rocks...!

Yes, these are the stuff of sailor men's dreams.

Under the sea for 80 days...!

The Sirens are calling...the odd, the beautiful, the colorful and the classic. I think Odysseus would have been really late getting home if he had seen some of these girls on his voyage!

The mermaids began as fairly classic forms, in colors, with frit, metallic glass, and of course with tails, even hair in some cases. I began seriously incorporating electroformed details, mainly the belts. Some are left bright, and some were patinated. At some point the mermaids changed their forms, and began emerging from nautilus-like shells. This evolution is a source of joy for someone like me because it shows I really can get out of the box and come up with something new and good. Thank the sea gods for that!

The Earth is balanced on a cusp of weather change these weeks. One day it will be warm, oh say 41 degreesF, and we are all used to that temperature and don't feel cold. With a flick of clouds it will turn damp, foggy, windy, rainy, and downright uncomfortable. But early in the morning and at dusk you can hear a lot of birds, and the feeders are empty every night because of their appetites and the lack of fresh things to eat. They are gearing up for spring and nesting.

Yesterday I saw three glorious male turkeys just about one block from Route One (you know, a highway) in Rockland, so charged and puffed up for mating that they were just about incapable of doing anything but waddle around trying to interest the ten females who were pecking at bird seed on the grass....all dressed up and nowhere to go! I can see why Ben Franklin wanted them to be the national bird. I prefer the working-man look myself. And I definitely admire the nobility of the American eagle.

That's it for outdoors excitement in my part of the Maine landscape. In my studio roses are abundant, still. Here are more of the painted roses I have loved doing, with different background colors, and finally, in Gaffer Glass, from New Zealand...that will be the bead with deep ruby roses that pull you deeply inside their centers, the bead at the top.

Thank you for stopping by. Next time I will take you somewhere totally different!