Ocean Gem bead rounds - and yes, more chickens!

Ocean Gems

Ocean Gifts



Folk Art Chickens

Recently, a customer of mine asked me to make her some of my Ocean Gems/Gift beads.  I hadn't made these for ages, but was very happy to get back to them.  It took several tries to get the colour to come up in the beads, but I was pleased with the results.  For you lampworkers out there who might like to make your own, here is my method.   I make them by putting a very small base of either light or dark ivory on a mandrel, wrapping a VERY small bit of thin intense black stringer, then do a wrap of one of the Terra2 type glasses from Double Helix, leaving some of the ivory and black exposed.  Then melt in and strike the glass, then reduce the silver glass and encase in clear.  The trick to getting the various colours is in how much you strike, how much you reduce, and which Terra you use - I will leave that part up to you to figure out by trial and error.  Have fun!

Of course I had to make more Folk Art Chicken beads too!

These beads can be found in my Etsy shop.

Have a great weekend everyone.

A Shoreline Seagull set on Etsy

A new set in my Etsy store.  The middle bead with the seagull (on both sides) is focal sized and would work well as a pendant.  The other 4 would make a great bracelet.

Folk Art style Shoreline Seagull set.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Back to the ocean!

As some of you know, a lot of my earlier beads were ocean themed, and I still love to make them.  However I wanted to bring them up to date with what I am doing now.  So I spent some time with a pen and paper (make that pencil, eraser and paper) and began drawing out seagulls.  I wanted to include the ocean, sand and some shell type bits as well.  So here is a picture of the first in a new series of "Shoreline Seagulls".

Shoreline Seagull - side 1

Shoreline Seagull - side 2

I want to explore the idea further before offering these up for sale in my Etsy - but look for some in the next few weeks.

Have a great weekend!

New Beads on Etsy



Folk Art chicken beads - side one

Folk Art chicken beads - reverse side.

Yet more of my folk art chicken beads on Etsy - this particular set is reserved, however there is a very similar one listed and needing a new chicken coop to call home.

Thanks for looking!

More Funny Folk Art Chicken Beads!

Folk Art Chicken Beads - side 1

Folk Art Chicken Beads - side 2

I think I might need an intervention!  I can't seem to stop making chicken beads.  I love watching all the different expressions that are emerging - some surprised, some "ticked" off,  some a bit dozey, some plain daft - well, you get the drift.

This set is reserved (sorry).