Blossoming Beauty: Exploring Floral Lampwork Beads

In the world of lampworking, there exists a realm where creativity blossoms into tangible beauty, and where delicate petals and vibrant blooms are meticulously crafted within the confines of a glass bead. Welcome to the enchanting world of floral lampwork beads, where the skillful hands of artisans can transform molten glass into exquisite botanical wonders. Each bead is a testament to both artistry and craftsmanship, capturing the essence of nature's most delicate and captivating creations.

This week, I made a bunch of floral lampwork beads and tested many different flower color combinations. My goal was to figure out some other floral combinations outside my goto pink and purple combinations. These beads do look really nice side-by-side.

In this floral bead, I used lavender opaque with Double Helix Theia transparent over the top. I used some silver mica and gold aventurine bands over a black base. This is really the prettiest color of purple. These flowers melted nice and smoothly.

In this bead, I used bubblegum pink with clockwork orange on the bottom petals. Then I used Double Helix Rhea over bubblegum pink on the top petals with some orange accents from a Reichenbach orange stringer I pulled a while back. This is actually a really pretty color combination. The clockwork orange does not show a lot of color variation and I am glad I didn't use that on the top petals too. The base has silver mica and bands of gold aventurine over black.

In this bead, I used periwinkle opaque glass with Double Helix Rhea on the bottom petals and Theia on the top petals. This created a really nice color combination with the hints of blue, pink, and purple. This one only has silver mica over a black base.

In this bead, I used clockwork orange over white on the bottom petals and Rhea over white for the top petals. These colors remind me a bit of hibiscus flowers with their tropical tones. This bead also has silver mica over black.

In this bead, I used a Double Helix Flora second rod over white. This produced a bit brighter pink compared to the fuchsia Rhea. The base has some green frit with bands of shimmering gold aventurine over black. 

This bead was created with a white base andViolet Blue Reichenbach that was mixed with Zephyr clear to dilute the color a bit. The Reichenbach colors can be so dense they almost look black. Using Reichenbach creates a bit of a watercolor look with the flowers. I also used a hand-pulled stringer that was mixed with white and you can see that in the right flower on this bead. The flowers could have been cleaner in this bead and I may have to test this color combination and melt the layers in slower to see if that makes the flowers more crisp. This color of purple is very vivid.

In this bead, I used a Reichenbach bright red over white for the bottom petals and then transparent rose over white for the top petals. I have made a similar combination once before only I used clear over the top petals instead of pink. I want to try this one again and melt it slower. I also did not dilute the Reichenbach red for this flower.

In this bead, I used the same color as the bead above, but I used clear over the top petals instead of pink. The center stamen is quite a bit larger in this flower and again I think the ones with Reichenbach need to be melted slower to keep the crisp look. I do really like the blue base and the green frit does look like leaves. I wish I could remember which green I used here. 

In this bead, I used an opaque white with a hint of transparent gray on the first set of petals. This created a nice shadow that really helped the next set of petals stand out. I also used a hand-pulled Reichenbach stringer that is a shade of pink over white. I really like the look of the hint of pink/lavender. I used a green and purple frit blend over black. I will definitely do this combination again. 

In this bead, I used Double Helix Floral seconds on the bottom petals which produces a very pretty pink. On the top petals I only added clear and a small dot of Reichenbach pink stringer over white. The Reichenbach has a tendency to spread and almost looks like water color (similar to the bead above). It does create some nice variation of colors in the petals. 

There are so many different combinations of colors that can be used in floral beads. Different transparent glass colors can change how the petals look. Some transparent glass color can make the flower petals look soft and crisp where others can make the petals look more like watercolor paintings.