Lampwork Colors
Applying Dichroic Glass on Lampwork Beads
One thing I learned recently from Hillary Lawson was to apply the dichroic glass on upside down. In the past, I was applying it on with the glass on top and the dichroic facing my bead, but this method is harder because there ends up being more glass to smooth out. When I did it in reverse, it lays the dichroic glass down cleaner. You still have to encase it, but it just works so much better this way.
Floral Lampwork Organic Bead
This bead turned out to be a happy accident. Initially, I create a floral bicone bead that was half floral and half organic. However, when I pressed the bead, the flowers did not press as nicely as I expected. So, I improvised and added external flowers. Some of the flowers show at different angles and the white flowers on the exterior were a nice touch.
Purple Cloud Lampwork Bead Set
Is this set pretty or what? I just love these colors together. They also photographed beautifully.
This set is made with Songbird frit over periwinkle, dark purple, and lavender blue etched to a soft matte finish. I tried to recreate this set and it took me several sessions to figure out which color I used for the light purple. Although this set would look pretty with pink matte beads too I think.
Twisted Striped Lampwork Bead
A customer reached out to me and asked if I could make a focal bead to match this set and turn into a necklace. Since I knew which colors most of these beads were, I decided to give it a try.
Twisted Shimmer Lampwork Beads
These bead turned our really interesting and have a bit of an earthy fall look. These were created by mixing glass and frit and pulling it into a stringer. Then when they were applied to the bead, they create an interesting twist with gold aventurine shimmer. The gold aventurine really shows up nicely and you can even see it in the static pictures.
Fall Twist Shimmer Lampwork Beads
These beads turned out so interesting. Almost like a plaid pattern on top of fabric. These was created with some multicolor twists with intense black accents over shimmering gold aventurine. The gold aventurine ads a nice subtle sparkle to these beads. I put this over some fall colors. This would have looked nice over opal yellow and moccasin.
Shimmer Twist Lampwork Beads
These beads were a bit of a happy accident. In the twisted stringer, I completely forgot to add black. However, it really created an interesting look. These beads have gold aventurine in the twists which adds a nice shimmer to the beads.
Blue Chalcedony Frit
These beautiful beads were made with different base glass colors and the same reactive Gaffer blue chalcedony frit. It is pretty amazing how different all the reactions are just by using different base glass colors. This frit really surprised me on how pretty the beads turned out. They created a nice organic look & feel.
Sunken Treasure Lampwork Beads
This beads got their name because they remind me of sunken treasure. They have a mixture of transparent colors over silver foil and silver mesh. Adding transparent colors over the silver was a great effect and added more colors to the beads. In some beads, I added gold or silver mica flakes to add extra shimmer. These beads also contain shimmering bands of gold aventurine.
Gold Mica Organic Lampwork Beads
This is a new style of bead compared to what I normally make. It combines a few different techniques together and I am pleased with the results. The surface effect was created by adding reactive glass colors (turquoise, silver glass, ivory, intense black, silvered ivory stringers). The silver glass was reduced and the entire top was encased.
Looks Good Enough to Eat - Lampwork Beads
The fuchsia pink, ivory, and dark brown colors in this lampwork bead look really nice together. For some reason, it really reminds me of candy or ice cream. I do not even eat ice cream, which might be a crime. Lactose and I are not friends.
Organic Lampwork Focal Beads
This bead turned out beautifully. I just love all the reactions that happened in the ivory in this bead. This was one of those wonderful mornings like Christmas when you get pleasantly surprised when you see the bead for the first time.
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'.
Songbird Frit
This Songbird Frit by Val Cox is prettier on the beads than I expected. It looks great on most of the base glass tested. I ended up creating an entire set with this frit that that look nice together. This frit really played nicely with all of the bases colors I selected.
Playing with Frit
Yesterday, I made up several beads I thought might look nice together for the holidays. My goal was to find a pretty red color to use to make up some Christmas beads sets. This is my reason for logging this information because you think you will remember and then when you sit down to make the beads you cannot remember what you used last time.
Creating the Purple Opal Lampwork Focal Bead
This Purple Opal Lampwork focal bead was created with a clear core, striking orange, Rhea Double Helix, and Echo Double Helix. I am not 100% if if I used Rhea or clear. The color was so much prettier than I expected with the plum purple and lavender colors with blue and aqua accents.
Sunken Treasure Lampwork Beads
This Sunken Treasure lampwork bead turned out beautiful. Adding multiple transparent colors creates a beautiful multicolor bead. The fine silver and mesh almost make this bead look like sunken treasure. It might be interesting to add gold and silver mica to the inner core to see if it looks like sunken coins. This bead also has shimmering goldstone within the layers. It could almost be too much together at once, but the beads are so interesting this way.
Creating the Coral Pink Lampwork Beads
These beads were created with a white core with Rhea pink over the core. Then encased in Clio then reduced. Accents of gold mica and silver foil are perfect. The color is very beautiful in ranges of pink, peach, fuchsia with purple hues.
Handmade Cupcake Charms
These little Lampwork cupcakes are cute enough to eat. These little beads are approximately 10mm. Each bead was created one bead at a time in our studio with CIM and Effetre glass.
Black Floral Lampwork Bead
This floral Lampwork bead was created on a black base with large white & lavender flowers. This bead was made with amethyst purple and created lavender petals. This bead measures 30 mm in length.
Purple Floral Lampwork Bead
A beautiful floral bead created on an aqua background with periwinkle amethyst flowers. The bead has shimmering silver mica inside the bead. The smaller white accent beads have a bubble in the middle of the flowers.
Floral Focal Beads
In these bead, I worked with more layers and controlled the heat to avoid distortion. The purple bead flowers are the most defined of the three. The flowers do show the best on darker backgrounds.
Valentine Frit
This beautiful Glass Diversion Valentine Frit looked beautiful on most of the base glass. These opaque pink blends looked especially nice on Opal and New Violet.
Using clear did not work well because the color wasn’t dense enough. It looked good on white, opal yellow, and periwinkle.
Using clear did not work well because the color wasn’t dense enough. It looked good on white, opal yellow, and periwinkle.
Val Cox Frit Colors
New Val Cox frits arrived and here is what they looked like in the beads I created with the glass. My favorite beads in this group has to be the Boro Bora which had a surprising variety of colors.
Iron Oxide Frit, Oh My!
These little beauties were made with Val Cox Iron Oxide frit. The wide range of colors was surprising. These Lampwork bead pictures were taken outside in natural light which brings out the colors. It also shows all the color inside under daylight balance lights.