Snow Farm Bush

This is a handmade lampwork bead that Jim made while he was taking a class at Snow Farm. Outside the studio there was this treelike bush that is the inspiration for this bead.

Some More Glass

Here are two more dichroic glass pieces. To really appreciate them, you need to see them sparkle in the sun. The one on the top is copper chain and the glass is earth tones. The bottom piece is black background with blues and greens.

Root Beer Barrels

The larger brown beads are glass lampwork. Jim calls them his root beer barrels. They are a hollow bead and if you look carefully, you will see some off white dots for a little decoration. The larger white bead in the  necklace is white turquoise.  

Is This Turquoise?

No it isn't turquoise but that is the exact impression you are suppose to get with this piece. It is actually lampwork glass. Jim never liked glass beads with dots on it until he saw this bead in a catalog. The whole necklace was this bead. This one is meant to be a little more casual and is adjustable in length.

Glittering Glass

These pieces are examples of dichroic glass. One the glass is cut, it is fired in a kiln to smooth the edges. Once they are done, there is a special grinder blade to cut around the edge of the glass so that it can be wrapped with silver. When the sun hits these, they really shine and glitter.

Tiger Beads

The glass beads on this necklace are all handmade lampwork. If you look at the larger ones carefully, you will see they are striped. We call them tiger beads. This necklace looks good with browns, yellows, and those popular animal prints.

Lettuce and Tomato

Jim calls these hand made lamp work beads his lettuce and tomato beads. I think they look like turquoise and coral. The red beads are hollow. He starts with two discs like the green ones and pinches them together. The hot air gets trapped between the discs and puffs out forming the sphere.

Bubbles

This is one of my flamework glass necklaces. The large beads with the bubbles in them are made with baking soda. I start by making a small colored bead like the spacers in the necklace. While it is still hot I roll it in baking soda and then give it a coating of clear glass. The hot clear glass causes the baking soda to do what it does in a cake, to rise, which causes the bubbles to form. These are a fun bead to make and it makes a pretty necklace. It is strung on a cord and adjusts to any length from a choker to a long necklace. I have a choker of 5 dark blue bubble beads that I wear quite often. If you click on the picture it will be larger and you really can see the bubles well.