Arizona Beads!

I got all of Wednesday at my Aunt Gail's home and much of it was spent in her studio.  H-E-A-V-E-N!  I tried out several new techniques.  She's got two torches set up with great ventilation and good lighting.  We were surrounded by TONS of glass.  I had no orders to make (yay for a little vacation) and fiddled around trying out things that have been in the back of my mind for weeks.

I made this big cube bead with a gorgeous color of transparent blue that is no longer sold (not even found in batches on eBay or the lampworker forums). Sniff.  I loved it!  It is a dot-on-dot technique with multiple layers of clear encasing it.  I smashed it into a square and really like how it turned out.  Will be making more of these, but maybe not as large.

Here is the same technique, but with a cobalt blue and not smashed into a cube.  I had not intended to leave the bead ridged, but the bead release on the mandrel broke and the bead started spinning so I finished in a hurry and stuck it in the kiln.

This bead was playing around with a transparent orange base and then another light transparent dipped in a frit which created some cool reactions and awesome blues.  Unfortunately, I didn't do so hot of a job photographing all of it.  So that's something on the To Do list for when I return home.

How's the cement patio working for you as a background to my beads?  It's all I got out here in AZ. :)

Tomorrow I will be sleeping in my own bed, which will be nice.  But I'm really not ready to leave my in-laws, aunt & uncle, the mountains or the warm temps.