Glass Leaves

I'm having a blast making glass leaves again - this time though I am going for "non-natural" colours, and I'm putting little ruffles along the side.
The top set is made in a lovely soft pink and a translucent white, accented with a sprinkle of silver glass dots.  The second set is made with an off white and an "almost" translucent mauve, topped off with a little silver pixi dust.
Both sets should be in my Etsy shop later on today.

Cherry Blossom Bonsai bead

I have been making "bonsai beads" lately - this one is a cherry or plum blossom, and I really like how they are turning out.  I have plans for more!!

Bonsai Cherry Blossom Bead

I have been scouring the internet looking for inspiration and pictures of bonsai trees.  I found several pictures of bonsai trees, but the best inspiration came from a bunch of tattoos!  There were pictures of people who had their whole back (or other body parts) tattooed with a Japanese plum or cherry tree - ouch!! 

This is still a work in progress, but I am happy with the results so far.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bead Packaging

Front side of hand made envelopes.



Back side of hand made envelopes.


About 7 or 8 years ago, I purchased a HUGE pad of scrapbooking paper.  At the time, I was making collectible mohair teddy bears, and I wanted to make my own hang tags to go with the cute little dresses that I made for the bears.  

Moving on to the present day, (well, about a year ago) I re-discovered this large pad of paper.  I had been wanting to upgrade my packaging for online bead sales, and boxes don't fit between the 2 cm slot allowed by Canada Post for the Light Small Packet.  So I decided to start making my own packaging envelopes from all these wonderful, and many varied sheets of paper.  I have figured out a couple of templates and I draw them onto the back side of the sheet of paper, cut it out, score the fold lines, and glue it together.

After I make a sale, I wrap the bead or beads in re-cycled bubble wrap.  I have yet to purchase bubble wrap, as I save every piece and re-use it.  I then tape the bubble wrapped package to one of my business cards, and pop it into the hand made envelope - that way if there is more than one bubble wrapped package inside, they won't shift around and end up on top of each other.   When I have a package of several sets of beads, I use several old business cards and tape them all together.   Sometimes I punch out holes in the top of the hand made envelope and tie it closed with a piece of curling ribbon, and other times I use a sticker to close it up.  Then I put on a small address lable and a fancy sticker.  This package then goes into a craft envelope, which gets it's own larger address lable and another fancy sticker - viola!  it's ready to go. 

I always like to receive nicely wrapped packages, and I figured if Canada Post wouldn't let me send boxes, (without charging an arm and a leg), then I would have to find a way around them.  I hope my customers like the little packages they receive.  Although I am sure some of them curse me because of all the tape I use to secure the parcel - lol.

How do you package up your beads for mailing?  Or if you are a bead buyer - what is your favourite type of packaging?

New beads on Etsy

URBAN RIVALS  now on Etsy



DISC POSIES in Spring colours on Etsy

I hope you are all having a great weekend - sigh, it is nearly over.

Sunrise for my sister

Well over a year ago, I told my sister I would make her a sunrise bead with a black cactus on it.  I had seen someone wearing one and really liked it, but didn't want to copy.  However I figured it was OK if I was going to give it to my sister.  Well, I finally got around to making it, only instead of a cactus I put a black tree on it.

I'm going to see if she sees the blog post here before I give it to her - how long should I wait?

New Beads, and camera crazies!

I love making these new disc posies, but photographing them is driving me crazy!!!  The black, pistachio, amber and ivory colours are all true.  However the brick red, pumpkin and rust are NOT!  The pumpkin has turned bright orange, the rust has gone brick red, and the brick red has gone brown.  I fiddled all morning with my photo editing program and couldn't make a bit of difference.  Maybe I better just stick to black and white - humph!

This colours in this Oceanside pendant focal have turned out just fine - love that aqua.

These beads will be in my Etsy shop later on today.

Thanks for looking.

New Beads & Free Shipping in Etsy!

 I have lots of beads to show you today, but first a bit of a change in my Etsy shop.  I have decided to have FREE SHIPPING (for Canada and the USA) in my Etsy shop - that's right, I will pay the shipping.  I am not sure how long I will do this for - at least a couple of months.  I guess it will depend on how much money I lose - LOL!

Now, on to the beads.  I am having a ball making these small disc posies (flowers).  Here are the latest three sets I have made.

I have also been making lots of trees - all variations from my tutorial.

All these beads can be found in my Etsy shop - some will be later this evening.

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

New beads!

I love this new design!  You never know what you will get until you take it out of the kiln the next day.  It starts out with a base glass (in this case opal yellow for the top one, and silver rattan for the bottom one), add some silver, some ivory, some black and lots of HEAT!!  The heat is the secret - you really have to cook those babies! The first time this particular configuration came out of the kiln I thought it looked like a snowcapped mountain landscape.  So the name "Over the Mountain" came to be.

These two will be going up on Etsy tomorrow - if I get time.  The first one at the top is lightly etched, and it has a lovely soft matte finish.

Oh, and check out my new little Disc Posies in Etsy - so much fun to make.

TRIO OF TREES Tutorial

My new tutorial is now ready for purchase.  It is available in my Etsy shop for $22.00.
This is the Etsy listing:

"This is a step by step EBook tutorial, giving instructions on how to make a glass/lampwork tree bead. The tutorial gives instructions, recipes and lots of photographs for the construction of the three tree beads shown.

There is also a small gallery with other tree beads for your inspiration.

The glass used is all COE 104, and is easy to obtain. The tools needed are all basic lampwork tools along with a press of some kind to give you a fairly flat surface to create the tree on.

The tutorial has 41 pages and 68 photographs, plus the gallery photographs. It is approx. 1.24 MB in size, and will require an Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.

This tutorial is intended for intermediate to advanced lampworker skills, however a beginner with a bit of experience should find the information useful."

Thanks for looking!