A Lovely Treasury, or Two

That's my murrini, right in the middle.

Thanks to Mod Mom at Mod Mom Me!

Update: this just in - my little heart murrini in another treasury.
Two in one day - woot.

Thank you Dana at B-Doll studio.

Heavenly Orbs

Sometimes I don't know how I do it - but I am very lucky at finding art supplies at estate sales and the like. Recently, I found two old booklets of 24K gold leaf for next to nothing. Who knows?

Here is a scrap of my new found treasure rolled onto a bead.

You heat the gold leaf just enough to adhere it to the surface but not so much that it evaporates. It's a little tricky, just work way out in the flame.

The bead underneath the gold leaf is transparent teal and transparent medium blue that was covered with swirls of Kronos II and lightly reduced to a metallic lustre.

I love how the gold fractures and looks like continents on a planet, with little inland waterways and rivers.

This pair is up in my Belvedere etsy shop.

The Ancients

I am fascinated with ancient Roman glass.

With a little fussing, and few unsuccessful tries, I worked up with a small set of beads that remind me of ancient glass.

They were etched, which gave them a velvety, time-worn look.

Here's how they looked before I etched them. I purposefully did not clean my glass rods before starting so that the beads would have lots of little scummy bubbles.

They have an inner barrel shaped core of Cim's Kryptonite. On top of that I added a rough cut shard of gold dichroic glass. Finally I encased them in freeform blobs and wraps of pale transparent colors - Aqua, Pink and Apple along with a lot of some particularly nasty scummy Vetrofond clear that I got stuck with.

The idea for these beads started with a desire to somehow use up this extra crappy clear. Waste not, want not. I knew the only way to use it would be etch any beads made out of it - to hide all its inclusions, scummy little bubbles and imperfections.

The encased bits of dichroic glass makes them seem to glow, and shimmer, from within.

The holes are oversized. I wound the beads on 1/8" mandrels so they could be strung on a leather.

They are available in my Belvedere etsy shop.

Valentines Large & Small

I just finished a large set of red beads.

The set has lots of decorated hollows, one of them is simply huge, and lots of wee bumpy spacers.

The colors of red glass are Cim's Sangre, transparent striking red, transparent striking orange and Cim's Clockwork.

How big is the big one? Really, really big.

Sigh, what a long week. I taught beginning lampwork beads this week - they're a very talented group of new flameworkers. Younger than usual, quieter than usual - I felt like an old dame working with these 20 somethings. It's funny how different each class can be.

I Worship Leon Russell

'Carney' is my all time, hands down, favorite record.

Did you see Mr. Russell last night on the Grammys?
They made him play with some nasty corporate hippie style, Dave Mathews band retard retread, jam band who looked like they’d rather be golfing. Screw the televised Grammys - except for the Kings of Leon winning something.

Zebra Wheelies

More handpulled murrini and a big heart focal with them on it.

This big focal is about 2 1/2" inches long. The base is dark ivory that I wrapped in a black and raku twistie. The murrini are black, white and clear - and are available in my etsy shoppe.

To recreate this look place each murrini on top of a large melted in dot of Richenbach raku (iris orange) glass, plunge the center of each murrini before flattening to pull the edge striping into the center to make the pinwheel.

Hints for working with Murrini:

1. Always preheat your murrini very, very gently way out in your flame before trying to attach it to your bead. These little boogers like to explode if you don't romance them.

2. Remember to spot heat where you want to place the murrini just before tweezing it into place.

3. Gently pat them flat in small increments, re-heating and flattening until they are flush with your bead surface. I use a flat side of a cheese knife.

The Murrini & Me

I love to make murrini.

My murrini production way outstrips my personal use, it's kinda dumb.
I don't really use these little chips of glass in my beads very often but I pull the canes all the time. I just adore making them.

This means there is always lots of left over murrini casserole in my refrigerator.

So, this morning I photographed and bagged a bunch of them up. They are for sale, in small lots, in my Belvedere shop on Etsy. Come on, some sellers have lots of 50 of the same chips up? What would anyone do with 50 of the same murrini? Yawn.

Sock It To Me

My friend Margaret (not to be confused with my daughter Margaret, or my mother Margaret) came over and we made sock monkeys.

She's going to be teaching a class on making them and used me like a canary in a coal mine.
I am not a skilled seamstress and if there is a sewing mistake that can be made - I will make it.

Her teaching was, as always, flawless.
I adore my new sock monkey and as you can see have already knit him a nice cozy wool scarf to match his eyes.

American Robin #9

Yes, the big oil still gets worked on almost everyday.
At this point, as layers and layers of detail are being added, the going gets a bit slow.
I am adding lots of paint but it just doesn't look that different at the end of each day.

The past few days I have merrily been adding veins to the leaves.
Not mush to get excited about - but I thought you might like an update.

Tonight - more veins and maybe a little farting around with the nests.

Wondrous Strange

I found a Wondrous Strange place while wandering around in Vlad the Bat's Attic.


Wondrous strange also has an etsy shop of the same name.
And when I walked through that door I found these ceramic raku fired wings.

in red -

lustrous teal -

and white.
I snapped them up. When they came in the mail I was beside myself - aren't they lovely? Tomorrow I am going to make some beads to go with them and then wire up some earrings.

Berry, Berry Cute

Look! Someone sent me a photo of a munchkin sporting one of my berry hats.

I don't have any more berries right now but their is a rosebud in my Belvedere Etsy shop.

Winter Marches On

It's cold but the sun was shining. We bundled up and headed to the public market. Something we like to do every Saturday, no matter what the season.

This time of year there is not much local produce to buy, some apples, gnarly carrots and mountains of cabbages. Cabbage is my personal vegetable. Huh? If you were a vegetable what would you be? I would be a cabbage.


The gloves that have been on my needles are finished and they made their first trip to the market today. Soft, snug and woolly toasty. When we got home I took an outdoor snapshot of them. Everything photographs so much nicer in natural light.

And while I was fussing with the glamor shots of my mittens - Miss Kiki struck a pose. Look how long the mid-day shadows are here in the Upstate New York tundra. Winter, sigh, I just loathe it.

American Robin #8

I have not abandoned my big painting - some days I just sit and stare at it. Wondering what to do next.

Yesterday I painted for several hours. Adding a few more layers of translucent paint and straightening out a few of the asymmetrical problems.

The birds are coming along nicely.

A picture of it on the easel, which should give you some idea of scale.