Of Fish and Goddesses and Midsummer Night's Dreams....

As promised much earlier on, I am posting the pics of some of the beads I've produced. My raised dots are my usual favorite but now that I can work with more metals I am experimenting with how to use them. Metal effects are obtained by reducing the oxygen and using a richer fuel to bring them out with a wonderful raku look to the glass (somewhat tricky). I love the "not so little" bum on my turquoise "goddess". There is also an unintended gilded birthmark on her frontside! The fish started out as a hollow bead until I kept going with it and it grew fins.... Having used a 5/32" mandrel I can wear it on an interchangeable bail that I made especially for the Pandora/Troll beads that are so popular now. The next ones out of the kiln are all florals which I can hardly wait to assemble into a sort of "Midsummer Night's Dream" theme.

These are the days....

These are the days I'm going to miss in the dead of winter. I love being able to move outside and work on my projects.
Here I'm doing some hammering, best done outside in any case, and my barrel is just the right height for me. The projects I'm working on are for some jewellery pieces that require some embossing. The funny juxtaposition of my fish "out of water"
next to my newly discovered bird's nest didn't escape me and I found myself creating "fish beads" on my torch and sterling silver wire nests with tiny blue pearls as eggs....a creative segue from my task of embossing.....
I'll post the glass fish when they come out of the kiln.....
By the way, note that in Kate's blog, (Art Vein Vessel) she also has posted her collection of nests....!