Now What ?

The time has come that the pollen is flying.  It's been in the 80's here nearly all week and the pollen is in full swing.  Especially the icky, nasty, covers everything for weeks yellow pine pollen.  Our gray truck turns a nasty looking yellow/green color from the dusting it takes every night.  I think it's a little early this year due to the warm winter and early spring.  Or so it seems anyway.  So with all that it means no torching til this ick clears up and goes away.  I can't open my window for the replacement air until it's gone.  Even though I can't torch, there will be other things to show coming up soon.  :) 


Just before the pollen struck I was able to finish up a cool "set" done in enamels.  This set really wasn't suppose to be a set as it were but rather testing the waters of a technique which I just happen to really, really like alot !  I saw this technique used not long ago on the glass forum I visit daily and loved it.  From that point on I always wondered how it was done.  I finally found out in a thread and did some further investigation.  The original creator of those beads and another bead artist wrote a series of articles in using enamels in 4 issues of The Flow magazine.  She posted the exact issues they were in so I was able to get all 4 of them.  A wealth of information and the tutorial on the technique for these beads is in one of them.  The original artist was also so kind to post how she made the shape of those beads.  The original artist is Margaret Zinser.  Look her up on the web to see more about her and her art.  


Below is a photo of the set I made before the pollen struck.  It took me a few days to get all those beads done simply because I only torch for no more than 2 hours at a time.  The process for each bead is the same and takes just a little more time and effort than making a simple bead.  My beads look nothing like the original artists beads at all so no copying that's for sure.  lol !  I still love them though and I think they'll look fabulous in a necklace.  I love the look of them and hope to make more using many different base colors.  The black you see in these beads is the base color.  That is NOT an enamel but from a regular rod of black glass.  :)  Such a cool effect.  :)  Also, all of the blue beads are not blue.  Two of them are actually purple but look blue in the photo.  Those are the two closest to the lavender color ones. 

So that's it for now.  Thanks very much for coming by !  Please come back again to see what's goin' on.