Indeed it does ! Equal making beads that is. This is the time of year when I can and do make beads ALOT. At the torch most every single morning. I love the fall weather leading into winter. Winter is THE BEST time of year for me. If only I could live in a snowy area, I'd be in heaven ! lol ! The colors of fall are what inspire me. When I went to bed last night, all I could think about was making fall color beads. And that color palette is more wide open than people might think.
Fall and winter color palette's are truly wonderful with so many deep, rich and vibrant colors to choose from. Think of the changing of leaves on trees in the fall. Rich oranges, bright yellows and reds, soft and mutted browns and tans and green in just about any shade you can imagine. Even purples are considered fall and winter colors. There is a website that's pretty much indispensable for color combinations. Here's the link http://design-seeds.com/ and as you can tell it's called Design Seeds. You can get inspiration in your email daily if you choose. I was doing that for a long time until I took a break from making beads. I'm starting it up again as there are times I do need that inspiration. I am one of those people that I can try to make the same color combinations and sometimes I do however I have found that when I do, I get very bored and most of the time the beads just aren't the same. I am no good at "production" work. Anyway, fall and winter colors are the prettiest in my book. I feel "at home" when making them. Don't get me wrong, I love bright colors too. Oh and of course blues and reds..........oh brother, I admit, I pretty much love all colors BUT fall and winter colors truly are my favorites.
So onto some eye candy. I have been busy at the torch lately but did manage to remove myself from that torch for a few mornings last week. Life gets in the way of torching mojo sometimes. lol ! The days I did torch were mostly test beads. Trying different color combos and playing with my new toys too. :) I did get a few sets done along the line.
This first set I love ! Made on one of my new toys called the Baroque bead shaper. LOVE ! This set has 3 graduated sizes of the baroque shape with donut spacers. The color is actually 2 fairly new glass colors and each rod is a mix of two colors. A good size set to be sure. This is available on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AllMyBeads
This set is quite organic. With chocolate brown, silver, ivory and turquoise all swished, swirled and twisted about so it has no set pattern . I like that. :) Sorry but this one is not available but I can make more ! This one I wouldn't mind redoing at all. This sort of technique is always fun to do. You can contact me on my Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/AllMyBeads if interested.
Yes, I'm pushing my Facebook page. It seems to be the way these days. So come on over and check it out.
I am having a sale in my Etsy shop. EVERYTHING expect the hand dyed silk cords is on sale for 15% off ! Come on over and do some shopping ! The link to my shop is on the right.
Time to start my day. Thanks so much for coming by. I hope you come back again soon !
That my friends is the perfect title for this post and what I'm doing. :) I feel like such a newbie again with my bead making it's not funny. Well, it is kinda funny actually. lol ! I remember when I had it all together - all the confidence in the world when I pretty much quit making beads. I knew what I was doing even though I certainly didn't know everything. It takes MANY MANY years to learn it all and then I'm quite sure there is still more to learn. That said, after a week of no torching, I sat at my lit torch all ready to melt that rod of glass onto that mandrel and just started shaking. I have no idea why or where it came from but there it was. So I just continued on, shaking and melted that glass. lol ! As I finished up putting 3 so called discs the size of Texas on that first mandrel of the day, I decided it was because of the glass I was using. It is a much more expensive glass than what I had been using. Not only more expensive but also stiffer and doesn't melt as fast as some of the other brands but it is a GORGEOUS glass. The color is a luscious Olive Green that I needed and wanted. The color is PERFECT with all these earth tone colors I've been using and did not have. Once I figured all that out and adjusted the propane and oxygen, that shaking finally went away. I felt more at ease - even if the beads aren't all that great ! lol ! I'm still starting over so that's just how it goes. BOC will be getting a pretty big box of beads again in the future ! lol !
I got them etched and I love the colors ! All new colors to me except for the Olive Green. I'm sure you can pick that one out. :) The rest, I've never used before and I really like a few of them. I needed some orange colors so when I ordered more glass a week ago, I got several different shades of orange and wow, what a difference ! It's so much fun to experiment ! lol !
So the next photo is one of the two focals I ended up making.
The photo isn't all that great but at least you can see the beads and the color in them pretty well. I really like how they turned out. The one on the right is a little darker than I thought it would be but that's ok. I know I said I was going to stay away from focals and I intend to do that but sometimes intentional beads turn out to be something altogether unintentional. lol ! Does that make sense ??? :)
So now I can show a photo of all the beads I did end up making last weekend. I piled all the beads I made over the weekend into one photo and that's what you see here. I did etch them and love how they turned out. All earthy &/or fallish colors. More beads that will go to BOC ! :)
Yes, LOTS more practice is coming to be sure but again, I enjoy these very much. They are all a decent size as I am not one to make very small beads. Never have been. I so admire those that make tiny decorated or sculpted beads. It takes a special hand (and eyes !) to make those tiny pieces of art. I pretty much don't have the eyes ! lol ! Anyway, I love my beads reguardless.
I'm not quite finished with the disc shape yet. I hope to make more possibly later this afternoon and add to the group. I have "challenged" myself to use up any glass on my work table before starting something new. Since I added the new colors to the table yesterday (that was about 5 rods of glass) I have a little bit of a way to go. lol ! I was not suppose to add any colors either but I HAD to try out those new colors ! :) No more adding glass til what is there is gone.
So now I need to go set my clocks back one hour ! lol ! I didn't do it last night before going to bed so of course when I did get up at 5:00 am, it was actually 4:00 AM ! Great.
Hope you all have a great week ahead ! Thanks so much for coming by ! Please come back again to see what's happening. :)
