gallery archive 14

GaysieMay · December 10, 2014, 10:19:09 AM

Love that Rita. X

Here are my latest Midwinter beads

#gaysiemay #lampworkglass by GaysieMay, on Flickr

Also a bit of fun

Lampwork bird by GaysieMay, on Flickr

Lampwork bead gaysiemay by GaysieMay, on Flickr

spexy · December 10, 2014, 09:54:00 PM

Gorgeous Necklace Rita and loving the mid winter beads Gaye, I agree with Pat about the black.

I've made this black and white necklace.

Ophelia Black and White Lampwork Glass Necklace by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

spexy · December 11, 2014, 11:16:24 PM

Thankyou. I made a bracelet to go with the necklace

Ophelia black and white bracelet by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

Andy Davies · December 12, 2014, 03:35:35 PM

Lovely work above ladies, as always.

Here's my last minute Christmas panic, not quite up to the high standard as displayed above but I was happy with it.

Sophie was on Face Time showing her very best friend some of the beads I'd been making and her friend fell in love with my blue and white 'practice beads.'

I'm building up a bit of a collection of beads that act as a catalogue for me as I forget what I've done if I don't keep a record.

Anyway it was decided that Carol should be sent a bracelet in her favourite colour way, but obviously I'd have to make a new set of beads, I wouldn't use the practice beads.

This was announced last night. Now Carol lives in the Connecticut USA and today is of course the last day of posting to the States!

DSCF8856 by andy.c.davies@btinternet.com, on Flickr

I've never made so many beads in a panic before but they're made, annealed, cleaned, strung, photographed, posted with the custom declaration and hopefully on the motorway heading for the airport as I write this.

Carol is a girl who collects hearts, heart shaped stones etc.

The spotty bead in the 10 o'clock position is encased silver which, in life, looks really good against the blue.

The spots on the white on the bead in the six o'clock position are encased grains of sand from Tresaith beach West Wales, that's the favourite beach where Sophie and Carol spent most of their family holidays together as children, so hopefully it should add a special appeal.

The glass is Medium Lapis with White decoration, the time scale... manic!

Season's Greetings . . . Andy

Ciel · December 14, 2014, 04:23:04 PM

A few sets from me this week...

Andy Davies · December 14, 2014, 05:01:27 PM

I don't know if it's right to post these here but here are some of my practice beads from yesterday. I've been playing at creating 'air-twist' stringers and I've attempted to apply some to beads with very mixed results.

The first thing I've found out is that you have to very gently heat the stringer otherwise they shatter very very easily. The other thing is of course, if you overheat the air-twist the air develops into one or more large bubbles and the air-twist disappears.

DSCF8882 by andy.c.davies@btinternet.com, on Flickr

The first bead, on the left, is just a plain stringer, the next was an air-twist stringer that also had a couple of colours added inside the stringer and you can see I've over heated it and lost most of the air-twist effect but the colour remains. In the third bead you can see that part of the air-twist has melted out with a trace of air twist visible at the bottom. I completely destroyed the air-twist effect on the fourth bead but as it also had some colours in it I melted it in and removed the air bubbles. The right-hand bead again lost all of the air from the twist as I overheated that one as well.

DSCF8897 by andy.c.davies@btinternet.com, on Flickr

I managed to apply the air-twist stringer to the bead above without losing the air although the two twists of air are merging into what looks like a single silver ribbon. I found that rather than melting the stringer to cut it off when finishing I found it better to cut it with a pair of wire cutters and then fuse in in, that way I could retain more of the air-twist effect.

I don't think that the idea of applying air-twist stringers to beads has any real merit but I wanted to try something that I haven't seen done elsewhere.

DSCF8883 by andy.c.davies@btinternet.com, on Flickr

It wasn't until after I'd annealed these 'spotty' beads that I saw that I've spoiled the surface of the one on the right, I think I overheated it.

DSCF8885 by andy.c.davies@btinternet.com, on Flickr

And finally, I'm trying to improve on my positioning control, hot glass isn't very forgiving is it, (third from the left in particular.) I think I must make myself some sort of arm rest. I think I'm getting better but I'm sure it would have been better to have attended some classes rather than getting it from a book and YouTube.

This is a link to how I made the air-twist stringers http://youtu.be/KTyggFHBTR0?list=UUzEeZM7nzH02_BIM5zkU2tg

Thanks for looking.

Regards . . . Andy

spexy · December 16, 2014, 09:42:30 AM

Morning all, looks like I get to start the gallery this week.

More headpins.

aurea leaf headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

jade leaf headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

ivory and elektra headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

teal and elektra headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

triton set by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

spexy · December 17, 2014, 07:39:44 AM

Thankyou ladies. I'm not making anything with these Nick, I have been selling them on the Facebook Groups, the ladies in America are going nuts for them so I making the most of it and in mass production! I seem to be hogging the gallery hasn't anyone else been making anything?

lilac rose and lead headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

purple and blue headpin set by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

red organic headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

blue drop heapins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

spexy · December 17, 2014, 10:22:01 AM

Thanks. I'm really chuffed with these, made them yesterday.

BLING by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

DementedMagpie · December 17, 2014, 10:45:31 AM

Seconded. I can understand why those American ladies are going nuts for them.

I finally sorted through my recent pictures and uploaded some of them yesterday, so ~~I might show something shortly~~ here's some of it.
I've had a bit of a "make all the earrings!" phase, so a couple of favourites:

And I went through my stash of odds and leftovers, saw some of the colour tests for last year's 40 bead challenge and decided to complete the set. Somehow managed to reduce the turquise so badly I couldn't shift it with anything short of etching. On the plus side, turns out I really like the look of lightly etched white & turquoise.

Trudi · December 19, 2014, 12:01:23 PM

Ohh I love the trees .. very cute!

My share links appeared again on flickr ...

Bolero Two Tone Purple Nugget Necklace (1) by Glittering Prize - Trudi, on Flickr

Blossom Purple Heart Earrings (3) by Glittering Prize - Trudi, on Flickr

Neon Bubble BHB (

by Glittering Prize - Trudi, on Flickr

Two Tone US Necklace (2) by Glittering Prize - Trudi, on Flickr

spexy · December 20, 2014, 08:50:26 PM

I hope you don't mind me hogging with some more headpins. I'm really enjoying myself at the moment after a period of not being able to sit for long due to a bad back it's so nice to be torching again.

gold and bronze mixed headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

red fireflowers by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

Sherbet Dips headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

blue and white rose headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

black drop headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr

green mixed headpins by Earthshine Lampwork Bead and Jewellery Design, on Flickr