Fields of Flowers

Flowers from the Fire Divas!

They start as Sprouts, pushing up through the soil, like this organic bead by Janel of JanelDudleyBeads.

The next thing you know, they're blooming all over the place!

Grape Vine can be found in Lea's shop, LAJewelryDesigns ~ wouldn't it look sweet winding its way around your wrist?

Everything's coming up roses over at Lutrick, and this Rose Hollow bead by Lara is proof.

What a summery statement this ring makes! This Popping Daisy Ring by Eileen is blooming only at DorsetHillBeads.

The perfect floral accessory, this sweet Audrey Lampwork Button by Holly at HollysFollyGlass will make your knit items stand out.

Look what's blooming over at glassbead! Blue Flowers on Green would sure look sweet in your next jewelry design.

Murrini Monday

I am so in love with murrini, it's becoming ridiculous. Sometimes I just take it out and admire it. I marvel at how very small and detailed it can be. And I make plans for each and every piece I own. Sometimes I carry out those plans, and other times I file them away for later.

I recently received some murrini from Mallory at rosebud101. One of the bags contained "reactive" glass murrini. I wasn't sure what that was and I told Mallory I would do some research. She urged me not to do research, and to just play with it and see what happens. So what did I do? I waited. I thought this reactive glass would require a big plan, and I didn't want to mess it up. The murrini was white and what looked like gray on the outside. I couldn't figure it out.

I finally took a chance and made a black pup. Then I added some of that reactive murrini and voila! The part I thought was gray was silvered ivory! Little bits of silver shone on the bead and the silvered ivory crackled on the doggie's coat. I loved it!

Black dog with reactive murrini.

Then I had to try it again. This time I made a kitty cat with an ivory base:

More crackling on the bead. Judging by the kitty's reaction, this murrini is a hit. The murrini I used for this bead is on the left.

Bead Experiments

I've been experimenting with my beads lately. Much to their chagrin, I've been moving their bead holes around and changing their shapes. The turtles are rolling their eyes at me, because I've been concentrating on them lately.

This is Rawlins, my first reversible turtle. This side shows his raised heart murrini.

I made him a little flatter than my usual round-shelled turtles, so he would lie flat if he was hanging from a chain.

And here is Rawlins' other side, melted in murrini.

Melvin the murrini-topped turtle seems to be rolling his eyes at me. But if he could see how fabulous the murrini on top of his shell looks, he'd thank me.

I've made a few turtles like this before, with the bead hole running sideways through the shell. That way I could better feature a slice of loriandkim murrini on top. This bead and the next are bigger than the ones I've done in the past, so I can fit larger murrini slices on top.

Boone the blue turtle is showing off a really detailed murrini slice. His shell also has raku frit melted in.

Boone looks as if he's a little uncomfortable with all the shell decor. But he'll get used to it.

Wordless Wednesday

Fire Divas are Hot!

As you may know already, I'm part of a wonderful group of lampworkers called the Fire Divas.We all sell our handmade lampwork beads on Etsy, ArtFire or ebay, or a combination of all three. This group is always evolving and changing, and we've added some wonderful new members recently. For a complete list of our members, head on over to the Fire Divas Blog, where you'll find all sorts of good glassy stuff - from the bead of the day (always on special!), to the weekly gossip and our Diva of the Month. There's always glass eye candy to check out - through our personal blogs and our flickr pages as well.

So if you want to see more of this:

Flower beads by Susan Lambert

Purple Storm Teardrop by MagikalGlassworks

Groovy Blue Flowers by AshlynDesign

Burgundy Luau by Arensea

Blue, Yellow and Orange Swirls by ahouston

Head on over to our blog, or search Fire Divas Team on Etsy or ArtFire for more gorgeous glass.

Play on Words Lampwork Challenge

I was "chatting" with some of my lampwork friends a few weeks ago on Facebook. We were talking about names we give beads. So one of my friends thought it would be fun to give everyone the same name or title for a bead, and then we'd all make the bead how we interpret the word. We started a group on Facebook called Play on Words Lampwork Challenge, and we already have over 100 members! You don't have to be a lampworker to join, so some members are our customers/lampwork enthusiasts. We randomly choose a different word each week for our challenge and we have a thread in our discussions about new ideas for words.

Now I'll get you up to date on what we've been doing. The first word, chosen by Alison of glassali on Etsy, was WHOOSH. By the way, the whole thing was Alison's idea. :)

Whoosh! Was that Super Turtle whizzing by?

The next word was SINISTER (chosen by Katy from Canada). Who is more sinister than Simon Bar Sinister?

Next was TUTTI-FRUTTI (my idea). So I went right to the source of tutti-frutti ice cream - the tutti-frutti cow.

And our most recent word was BREAKFAST. Now here's a well-rounded meal of coffee and a donut.

Our next word is AMUSING, and we're hoping the participants send their amusing beads to Beads of Courage. Wouldn't that be sweet? If you'd like to join the group on Facebook, head over HERE. We'd love to have you! Plus, you can then look at all the wonderful creations the other participants have posted. What I love about this is it's getting us all to stretch our creativity in different directions. I'm having a lot of fun creating, as well as checking out what everyone else comes up with. Join us!

Wordless Wednesday