Bugs In My Brain

A wee matching pair of flies - perfect for earrings.

I mean if you like that sort of thing, and I do. Someone who was visiting my studio saw them and asked me, exasperatedly, "why do you have to do that? They're so beautiful and gross at the same time."

Below, a single fly looking for love.

The bodies are made with a metallic black glass from Cim's called 'Gunmetal' that looks like graphite.
The wings are made with Double Helix 'Aion' a faintly iridescent glass that shimmers like soap bubbles.

All three are available in my Belvedere Etsy shoppe of horrors.

More Vintage Venetians

I have been so lucky lately finding vintage Italian glass beads.
It seems that if you go to enough household sales you can find just about anything...

These are really different. There was a huge "organic look" movement in Italian art pottery in the 1950s and 1960s lead by artists like Gambone and Fantoni. These beads are most certainly part of that modern mindset.

There were glass artists who worked parallel to these ceramists. Scarpa, Barovier and Tosso come to mind first. They did not make beads but rather vases, sculptures, lamps and larger hot shop blows - no lampwork. Google Image search those names, with the word glass, and be prepared to have your glassy mind blown.

I love these beads. They have a black base that's wrapped in silver foil (not leaf) and then blobbily (inventing a new word) encased with clear. I am so going to try and re-create these beads.

Napoleon P. Oodle

His grand old dogness.

Summer Leaves

New Etsy goodness. A whole mess of nice summery pendants. All they need is a nice cord in a great color or a big jump ring and a cool chain. Lots of fun and easy to wear.

They were all made off mandrel with 1" to 2" bits of left over rods. I love using my "shorts."

Vintage Venetian Necklace

More vintage Venetian glass beads.

So simple but very pretty - like cherry blossoms in the wind.
Beads of pale transparent pink glass with bits of white frit and aventurine (copper sparkle) frit wound inside them. These would be a snap to make even for newbie flameworkers..

The necklace is for sale in my Etsy "Curious Old Things" shop.

Millefiori Amore

Hey lampworkers - aren't these amazing?

They're a fragment of a strand of vintage Venetian beads that I found at a yard sale. The vivid orange and white millefiori (thousand flowers) on the navy blue base beads are a terrific colorway. So much patience to make these, I cannot even imagine attempting to re-create them.

They're available in my Etsy 'Curious Old Things' shop. (sold)

Leaves & Vines

A big set of Art Nouveau inspired glass beads that will soon be a necklace.

The base glass is called 'Agate White.' It was a miserable, snappy glass to work with and there were a lot of little fractures in it when the beads came out of the kiln. I like it's vaguely translucent coloration but am not rushing to use it again soon. The leaves are a mystery color, an unlabeled gift from a friend who gave up lampworking.  the green vines and berry dots are a cane I made with a core of Cim's peacock encased in dark teal. There's also some sage layered in on the tops of the beads.

I think I am going to use bronze wire for the links with a nice sterling clasp.