New Love - Reichenbach Multicolor Dark

I have been playing with a new color (at least to me) Reichenbach Multicolor Dark. I finally have enough photos to share. I have been using 96 COE, I think it also comes as 104 COE. I'm having so much fun with it.

It is easy to comapre to Gaffer Chalcedony and Blue Chalcedony as it is also a striking glass that turns rainbow colors. Striking means that the colors change depending on the length of time in the flame. It is different than Chalcedony, but just as cool to use. See a picture with both colors below.

What I really like about this color is that it is very easy to strike and it gets a lot of blues and purples (purple being my favorite color). Seen here on Olive. Listed on Etsy here.

As you can see in this photo of a bead with Chalcedony in the center and Multicolor Dark on the ends, the Mulicolor does not get the crackling (where it looks broken up). I like this crackling and it is one of my favorite things about Chalcedony, but sometimes you don't want that.

This color turns green and then turquoise the more you work with it. These beads were worked a long time and the second one worked very hot for a long time and it is quite turquoise. I was surprised and pleased with the color. Both of these have Iris Orange (aka Raku) stringer designs.

Jury Duty

So I get to make beads once a week and I have jury duty tomorrow, on my day off work. Here's hoping I get to go home early, but if not, I'm happy to do me civic duty. I was on a jury several years ago and it was for a drunk driving. Interesting experience, not what I would call fun, but not horrible like some people say it is.

Did you know there was a jury duty stamp put out a few years ago? I don't rember this, maybe it wasn't too popular. I like the colors, perhaps I will get some bead color ideas.

MORE DISCS

I blogged before about making disc beads. I have not stopped and just love them and just can't seem to stop. No mater that they aren't selling. I'm still having fun. I have finally (after a decade) figured out how to get them round (well mostly). I just have to tell myself to slow down and work cool (I tend to work really hot).

Tips for making the discs:

- Work slower and cooler, but if it does get wonky, melt into a round and you have some matching rounds to go with your disks (I have a lot of these)

- Heat up more of the rod than just the tip so that as you continue building the disc, you don't have to stop and heat the rod.

- I find that rocking the rod up and down helps me keep a smaller thread of glass and not create a big blob (your results my vary).

- If you get it off center, make a heart by creasing the top and pulling out the bottom to a point.

I have discs on my Website, Etsy and ArtFire. Click on the photos above to see them for sale. Click on my links to the right to find more disc sets for sale.

TREASURIES

Well, it must be my week I'm in five Etsy treasuries at the time of writing this. WOW, thanks to my fellow Fire Divas for including me in their treasuries. A treasury at Etsy is a curated shopping gallery. People link to items they like and that fit in a theme. Not suprisingly, my treasuries are usually lampwork beads. Currently I have a jellyfish treasury, pictured to the left. It was lots of fun picking out the items and putting them together. Check out my jellies treasury at: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=74706

A couple of the treasuries I have been included in are below. While at etsy find more lampwork beads by using the search term "fire divas."

BUNNIES

I rarely can pinpoint where I get my ideas for beads, but my bunny bead is an exception. I started making these beads last year around this time to get ready for Easter. I think they are super cute.

My mom has a Terra Cotta pot with a large Lop Rabbit on the front. Neither of us can remember the artist, but she got the pot at an art's fair in the Seattle area. This bunny is so sweet, look at that face. One day I was thinking about what to make next and I was looking at the pot and decided to try. Here you can see the pot with the circles drawn on where I was looking for the basics of the design.

First a drew a pattern on paper to get the shapes down, then did some dots on the bead and pushed and pulled the dots into ears, a face, and legs.

Tada..... bunny bead. Both of these bunnies are available on Etsy. I also have a bunny bead on Artfire. Check under the user name: Lutrick

GAFFER GOODNESS

Today I went to Gaffer Glass in Kent for Fire and Rain event (my local ISGB chapter). This glass is 96 COE and has great colors. It is made in New Zealand and is mostly used for glass blowing (vessels, ornaments, etc). I can not say enough wonderful things about the staff in Kent. They are very nice and so helpful each time I'm there.

I really like their glass, it is helpful that it is the closest glass store to my home.

(These earrings are made of Gaffer and are available at my 1000Markets site)

I like the transparent colors a lot, but mostly the lighter colors. Because their colors are used to do glassblowing and are very dense (so that when you blow them thin, the colors stays). Some of the colors you have to pull into a stringer to use as they are so dense. They are making more and more colors for the lampworker and coming out with new colors all the time. I got a new color today that they just got in. It is Chalcedony, it is supposed to be like Raku. Hope I can get it to work, I'm not so good with Raku.

As beautiful as the transparents are, I mostly like to use their opaques. I especially like Taxi Cab Yellow (not the right name, it is orange), Chartreuse, and Robin's Egg Blue (see the photo above).

Their veiled colors are great as well.

SPRING TIME, WHEN WILL IT COME?

Ok, so I know spring will come on March 20th, but it seems to take forever to get here. I always look forward to the flowering trees in this area. I love the smell of a cherry tree in blossom, it is not a sweet smell, but a crisp new smell that I love.

Many thanks to Marcy Lamberson and the ladies at the blog Watch Me Create for including my spring etsy treasury on their blog. It is always exciting to see myself mentioned in someone else's blog.

Here is a link to their spring write up.

http://watchmecreate.com/?p=2337

NEW CAMERA

Wow, what a difference a wonderful camera can make. I used some of my Christmas gift money to get a new Nikon D80 camera. It a so nice. I wanted an SLR camera for a while and finally took the plunge. I'm very happy with my new pictures. Just think after I take a class how cool the photos will be.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

It is that time of year again, time to come up with a plan for the next year. Last year's resolution and this year's for my beadmaking are the same; to use bright colors. I really like making organic beads, but I'm drawn to the bright beads. At my studio I tend to gravitate to the greens and browns, but if I'm shopping I want the bright reds, blues, greens and purples. I'm not sure what this means, but I'm going to try to make brighter beads this year.

Seen here are a few attempts at bright beads from this year.

Hey, Goggled Myself, Thank You Kim

I found myself mentioned in another blog today. This is an interview from about 2 months ago from my customer and friend Kim Lewis of kimforbeads on Etsy. A big thank you to Kim for mentioning me in her interview. Seen here are some of my beads being used in Kim's jewelry. Kim also makes beaded bugs, beaded purses, beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings, embellished gloves (of which I wear a pair on the drive to work each morning) and more!

Article here: http://www.stylelist.com/blog/2008/10/05/indie-designer-interviews-designs-by-kim/

Kim's Etsy Site: www.kimforbeads.etsy.com

WOOD AND GLASS

I thought I would share some non-jewelry applications for beads. Many lampworkers started to make beads to use in our jewelry and I use beads for jewelry most of the time. Recently I have started to collaborate with my father, David Lutrick, who is a woodturner. My dad is using my beads to accent his turned vessels.

Last summer my dad and I entered two items for ConneXtions: A Collaborative Effort Between Wood and Glass. This show was in conjunction with the International Society of Glass Beads (ISGB) 2007 yearly convention in Minneapolis and the local gallery of the American Association of Woodturners in St. Paul MN. I am a member of the former and my dad the latter.


In the first picture you see a stem of this Goblet made with my beads and the cup and the foot made by my dad. Beads are Gaia, Ivory, Brown & Clear glass and the wood is Cherry. This was my design.






The second picture was my father's design. Beads are Ivory decorated with shards of Gaia, Kronos and dots of Opal yellow. The wood is Cherry.


In the third picture is a group shot of some of our more recent items. The bowl on the far left is Cherry with a Walnet finial. The center item is Madrone with a finial of Walnet and the bowl on the right is Madrone with a Iron Wood finial.

All Photos by David Lutrick

My name is Lara Lutrick and I have been making lampwork beads since 1997. While at a local arts and crafts fair, I saw and bought my first true artisan lampwork bead. The artist told me that there were classes at my local bead store. I took the class and was immediately hooked. Lampworking is my passion; it feeds my soul and my need to create.

This photo is my current favorite. This is an organic bead that uses glass with silver infused within it (Gaia) that reacts with the base of ivory to form a fun pattern around the green. This is my best example of my "Dragon Tears" series.