Sedimentary Rock Lampwork Beads

These beads turned out so beautiful. They are created with Val Cox's Frit Blend Iron Oxide. These were created custom stringers created with clear glass, val cox frit, goldstone, and intense black accents. These remind me of the layers of sediments found in rocks that create waves. This is the reason I called these lampwork beads 'sedimentary rocks'. 

In order to create these beads, first I had to create custom stringers with this frit blend. Some of the stringers were created using only Iron Oxide, intense black, and clear. This combination created a denser more opaque looking bead (center bead above). The beads on the outside are created using goldstone and additional clear. This combination created a semi-transparent bead with some extra shimmer from the goldstone.

These are the stringers and you can really see the difference adding the goldstone and clear (two outer rods) compared to the one in the center that is more opaque. 

In these two beads, I attempted to make this style of beads in other colors, but they did not turn out as interesting as the iron oxide frit. The pink actually turned gold instead of remaining pink. This might be a cool effect in my focal beads. In the gold bead, I also used silver glass which created some interesting reduction effects. The dark blue bead has blue goldstone and is more sparkly in person.

Anyway, I think these beads turned out really pretty and paired these with smaller black spacer beads. The beads are rather large at 10x14mm with 12x11mm spacer beads. It will be challenging to make them smaller due to the amount of layering. These might also make an interesting core for my organic focal beads.