Ink Blue Flow Beads

I had another play with ink blue yesterday, and have just taken these wee ones out of the kiln.
There are four beads, and I've photographed both sides, because the effect is quite different on each.
I'm really pleased with these because they show the effect that colours have on each other - the pink ones seem much more "violet" to me, while the blue has a "lavender" effect. Isn't colour so subjective and wonderful?
On one of the beads I've created a tiny air bubble at the end of a flow of pink glass - your eyes are not deceiving you!
I am mulling over an article I heard on the radio yesterday about how we see colour differently when we are depressed. Doesn't that make sense to you? I certainly did to me! It adds another layer to the "onion" of my love of colour and chakras. If we feel unhappy and surround ourselves with bright colour, will that lighten our mood?
Instinctively I took a bright orange gerbera wrapped in purple and orange florists wrap to someone I know who is depressed this week. He lives in a world of pastels and restful colours - but I just knew that he needed a shot of vibrancy. I will be interested to visit him again today to see how he is feeling.
I sometimes listen to National Radio in my studio - the only non-commercial station we have available here. It's a habit I picked up from the Toy Boy, and I often find that it's like having an intelligent, if one-sided, conversation!

So here is one of the things that has been keeping me busy over the past weeks - I have sent out an email newsletter to reward my loyal customers.

To qualify for the discount, you must first join my email newsletter group. You can do this easily from the website on the "News" page. Happy browsing!



My First Ever Sale and Newsletter

I have been as busy as a wee bee in my little studio this winter, and have been uploading lots of lovely new work onto my website.

As promised, I have included a promotion code in this newsletter for you to use to receive 20% off all items on the website (excluding postage).

If you enter BUYBEADS into the coupon code box then follow the prompts, you will receive 20% discount on any item on the site, excluding postage.

Yes, that’s right – until the end of July, if you go onto the website and order any item, then enter the promotion code as you checkout, you will receive a 20% discount.

This offer is only open to people who have given me their email address and have signed up for my newsletter, so if you tell your friends about this, they must first register their email address, which they can easily do via my website www.glitz.co.nz

Bloggers

I will run the occasional “Blog Only” promotions, so keep yours eyes peeled!

Shows

I took the beads up to the Dunkleys Great New Zealand Craft Show in New Plymouth over Queens Birthday Weekend in June and had a wonderful time there. Just loved New Plymouth – it’s one of New Zealand’s beauty spots, being right on the wonderful wild West Coast with its sea and surf and under Mount Taranaki. The mountain showed herself in all her glory on the very first morning of the show, so we all felt very privileged to be blessed by her.

I will do the South Island trip with Dunkley’s Craft Shows again in September. Look out for me at the

Christchurch Show at Addington Raceway September 10 – 12,
Dunedin Show at the Edgar Centre September 17 – 19, and the
Invercargill Show at Stadium Southland September 24 – 26

If you would like a discount coupon for your entry fee, please let me know and I’ll get one to you.

You can contact me via my contact details on the website www.glitz.co.nz

I am also booked in for the Thorndon Fair in Wellington on Sunday 5th December in my usual spot, though that feels quite a long way off right now.

Apart from that, I can be found on the Nelson Market every Saturday morning, which the lovely Sophie will run for me whenever I’m away.

Happy Shopping!

Here They Are

OK - so here they are...not quite what I expected in some cases, but that's the way it is with glass - expect the unexpected!

From left to right
1. Olive Green Riverstones Bead
2. Ink Blue Lazy Daisies Bead - I had forgotten how hard it is to capture this colour on camera. This is the one with the Periwinkle Blue core - but it's almost invisible! It is a gorgeous colour - quite transparent - almost a royal purple. The centres of the daisies are raised and made with twisted cane. A pretty bead, but not the effect I was looking for.
3. This is a landscape bead - it's a local beach - Wharariki - where you walk a track through bush and farmland to a really expansive beach of huge pale gray sand dunes. There are enormous rock formations at the water's edge. I'm going to mount this one with silver wire scrollwork.
4. Small True Red Raku Heart - I love the way the glass frit (crushed glass) has spread on this one.
5. Small Aqua Flow Bead - I'm pleased with this one - the glass has really moved around and taken its own course. There's a good play of light through the transparent glass in this one - can you see it?
6. This is the other one I was quite excited about - I've used a very pale handmade opaque green, and love the way it has moved with the lime and bottle greens. There are little pools of transparency throughout the bead. I will play with this glass again.
7. Ink Blue Riverstones Bead - once again, it's hard to capture this colour with the camera - purples always go either darker or bluer for me - darker today. Any camera tips gratefully accepted :). Lots of lovely tranpsarency in this one too, which really highlights this gorgeous colour - a transparent royal purple.

So...there you go...that's most of an afternoon's play to get to this stage!

Bead Love

I've just had a wonderful afternoon in the studio, making lovely large pendant beads.

I've been very involved in a few larger projects lately (more on this later), and I'm really enjoying making larger detailed beads again.

I've made a couple of "Flow" beads and a couple of "Riverstones" beads and a
Couple of red Raku Inclusion Hearts... I'm really quite excited to see what
comes out of the kiln tomorrow morning - I have made a green flow heart which I am really quite excited about, and the Riverstones beads are in Ink Blue which I haven't done before. One has a core of Periwinkle Blue which should be interesting. I'm fascinated to see what difference this makes to the Ink Blue colour...



Here is a round "Flow" bead and "Riverstones" bead which I prepared earlier :). They're on the website...







I will try to remember to take photos of the new beads for you when they come out.

It's experimenting like this that leads me to make discoveries which totally enthrall me!

Give me a few days and I will be ready to make sets of smaller beads again, but for now I'm as happy as a sandboy!

Now, I'm off to the kitchen to cook some gurnard (fish) for dinner - still cooking, just at a rather lower temperature and with different ingredients!