Beads and more beads

After almost a month away due to illness and major family issues, I finally made it back into the studio.
Before getting sick, I had started a couple of veneers using the Controlled Marbling tutorial by Lynda Mosely.  Sunday, I had the chance to make them into beads, rather than the gorgeous pendants she is known for.
   This time I used a combination of light blue, yellow and ecru, interspersed with white.  I really like the light green color that appeared where the yellow and blue mixed.  I did not add any details to the veneer.

 Had a small strip at the end of this veneer where the colors blended together too much for actual stripes to appear. I added a few inlays from an old swirl cane for a bit of color.

Only had a tiny bit of this color combo.  I really like it.  Two matching beads for an earring set  And one lone bead for who knows what.  I have a box of "who knows what" beads that is set aside for "something" in the future.  Maybe I will use them in Lori Anderson's Bead Hoarders Challenge in July.  We'll see.

 I have found that in this technique, there are sometimes places at the ends of the veneer sheets, where the colors are no longer distinct.  I discovered that sometimes, these over blended areas have the prettiest colors. Add slices of an old bulleyes cane from my tiny cane stash (I really gotta try caning again - maybe I will be more successful now that I understand clay better than I did in 2006).
 

After these beads were made and baking in the oven, I still had urges and fiddly fingers.  An open package of translucent clay was sitting on my table, so I got out the inks and went to town.  Laid down some gold foil on a small sheet of translucent clay, rolled it through successively smaller settings on the PM, turning it 90 degrees each time to crackle the foil.  When it was thin enough, I got out my inks and colored it (used Butterscotch and Plum this time).  After the inks dried (boy, I so had to be patient here - used the drying time to finish my previously made beads with LPC, zap with heat gun and rebaked to a shiny luster), I I used the sheet to veneer white bead cores. The gold foil adds a real sparkle to the beads, and I am very happy with the depth of color.  The pictures just can't show that.

I call these my Fire Lizard eggs (homage to Pern)

This weekend promises to be a nice one here in the Pacific Northwest. Good weekend for visiting the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood.  I will be able to visit the booths of several artists that I have "meet" on line and see their work in person.  I love how this medium has connected so many people with common interests.  Some live in my area and I may be lucky enough to connect in person with them over the course of time. Some live in other countries, and I will probably never meet face to face, but can get to know a bit through the Internet.  I guess I am feeling my age, as I still marvel at this. The beads I just made would not be possible with the Internet.  Lynda lives in South Carolina ... me, outside Seattle.  We would never have "meet" without the computer.  Maybe younger people, who grew up always having computers, can't relate to how marvelous this really is. ( OMG! ... I have become my parents .... when I was your age  .... walked to school, in the snow, uphill - both ways!!!  he,he)