Im On Vacation

I Have Been Hard At Work

 

I kicked it into high gear this last weekend but I am heading out the door and only have time to show off one bead. My first "real" Snorkeling bead. I took pictures from all angles to show that it really looks like you're swimming though it. Love It. In the future there will be more critters in these beads, they just take so long to make I kind of rush towards the end. I have more beads to show off later, but I really am walking out the door now.

I am never, NEVER to hear of you going to the surface again. Is that clear?

I am still playing with the silver Double Helix Triton glass, and let me tell you it is interesting. I was wondering what would happen if you used it with "normal" glass that had a little silver in it. I pulled out a purple 1st that is somewhat of a mystery because it didn't have a label on it, but the tip had some silver burnt onto it from a previous use.

 This was the result. Yep this bead started out purple, as you can see the purple turned a metallic caramel color. After making the base bead and dotting it with Triton I turned up the propane and ran the bead through the top of the flame a few times. I actually kind of like the color. Now the question is what will happen if I cover it in clear next time.

The next bead I used Light Turquoise, it too has some silver in it. This was the glass I expected some kind of reaction with. To my surprise.....nothing. The Light Turquoise looks the same as does the Triton. Boorring.

The third bead was with different mystery purple. With this bead I can't be totally confident about the results. As I was making this bead I was running out of oxygen so I didn't adjust the propane at all. How exactly can I recreate these results?

The purple remained more purple than the previous bead and didn't have the reaction lines around the Triton dots. Interesting.
Just as the testing is getting interesting I finally picked up some GOOD clear glass yesterday. You know what that means.....Jellyfish. Unfortunately I will be going to Mexico soon so I will have very limited bead time and right after that is Las Vegas. If I can pick up some oxygen today I will be cramming a lot of bead time in this weekend.

Silver

I get a silver star for attitude, I'm getting silver hair from stress, all because I have been playing with silver glass.

I stepped away from my jellyfish because I was getting so irritated with my clear glass. I went to my supplier and bought the new clearer glass only to find they had it in extra large rods, along with the regular clear. After a few beads using the King Kong size clear I decided to go in another direction and skip the clear for now.

I picked up a silver glass rod that's been laying around and began to play. Silver glass is exactly that, glass with silver metal in it. The wonderful thing about it is the array of colors that comes out of one rod. Turning the propane up or the oxygen down, along with them time you keep it in the flame you get different colors in the glass. It takes a lot of experimenting and note taking to get the results you want. As for me, I like experimenting but I expect perfect results. When I saw the beads this morning I didn't freak out which is an accomplishment for me, but I wasn't thrilled. The bead below was made with white and Gaia. Gaia is described as: colors ranging from blues and purples to greens and creams. As you can see something went wrong.

I'm taking a deep breath and trying again tomorrow. You haven't seen the last of me Gaia.

A Bloom Of Beads

I have been busy at the torch the past few days making more jellyfish. I now have a bloom of them.(A large group of jellyfish in a small area is a bloom.) I typically get bored making a bead more than once, but these are different. I can sit at the torch for hours listening to music and making jellyfish after jellyfish. I'm still trying to perfect my technique so like in nature every jellyfish is different.

I even had the courage to make a Snorkel Bead. I didn't go all out like I would like to because I was still experimenting, but I really like the look of it. (Minus the scummy glass. Boo!) Next time I am going to add more sea sponges and urchins, and maybe even a shell or two.

Besides the jellyfish I have been working with a new color of glass. I have used it before and had beautiful results and now I don't remember how I did it. I still like the colors I am getting they just aren't what I was trying for. The bead below was made with one single color rod. The amount of propane and oxygen from the torch brings out the different colors.

I am off to the torch to make more jellyfish friends.

Mother's Day Part 2

10:00 am and two bakeries later we stopped at.......

I have always wanted to stop here, and being that it was Mother's Day I finally had my chance. Inside is the culinary school of coarse, but unfortunately there is not much to see of that. They do have a store that I loved, the Spice Island Marketplace. There were so many cookbooks that I "needed" along with all types of supplies and tools. I did get a cookbook, that I know I will be using a lot, and a set of heart shaped measuring spoons.

After the CIA we went to Woodhouse Chocolates and stocked up on my favorite chocolates ever. They always have such cute chocolates for the different holidays and seasons. For Mother's Day they had chocolate high heel shoes and a small box of chocolates that said I Love Mom. The high heel was a little sloppy looking and very thin and crumbly. (It could be that I just hold Woodhouse to such high standards.) The small box of chocolates so far have been wonderful. I also got a box of 24 custom assorted chocolates which never disappoint.

After so much sugar we ate some lunch and headed home. It was a really great day and I loved spending time with my two of my favorite things Family & Sugar. Love you guys.

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I had a lot to write about how great the CIA was to visit but this is suppose to be a blog about my beads, and the majority of my posts are about food. So I had and idea of having a separate food blog.(But then where do I post my random stuff about everything else?) Here it goes, http://thesugartarian.blogspot.com/, I'm going to try to push my limits with another blog.

Now that problem is solved, I will be posting photos of my new beads here tomorrow.

Mother's Day Part 1

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day. It's not my favorite holiday, but my family does a great job making me feel special. So here is my Mother's Day loot. Even better than all the goodies, was the fun day we had.

Of coarse we went to Napa. Our first stop was Bouchon Bakery for breakfast. I had the yummy Chocolate Donut and brought home Lemon Macaroons, Bouchons, and a Peanut Butter Cup.

After breakfast we had 2 hours to kill so we made our way to another bakery 2o miles away. My friend introduced me to Michelle Marie Patisserie last month and I wanted to share the sweet goodness with my family. At last when we got there they were out my favorite mini cake called Park Avenue, so we took home a mini Chocolate Overload Cake. It was yummy, but not as good as the Park Avenue with its gooey caramel.

Next it's back to Napa for a surprise stop.

Happy Mothers Day

Jellies

I decided not to just jump into the Snorkeling Beads just yet. Instead I tried to continue to make just plain jellyfish, and boy am I glad I did. Since the jellyfish I made the other day was a last minute design I wasn't really positive on how I even did it. Here is the evolution of my Jellies.

I love these jellyfish, they remind me of the glass paperweight/sculptures I have seen in galleries while on vacation. (Using the word "remind" might not be correct since it's like apples and oranges.) Hopefully I will have time this weekend to experiment more with these.

If I'm not working on beads I will be working on our backyard, and I will have photos to share on the progress of that project. We have a new deck that my husbands building, our garden needs to be planted, I'm sewing a trampoline mat to cover the faded red one, a palapa (thatched roof) needs to be built over our patio, and then I will add the final decorative touches. We have a lot to do so wish us luck.