Some Brooches and Fire Chakra Colours

Fire Colours Chakra Bracelet with silver trim

So here is the bracelet that Blogger and my images file was playing games with yesterday!

We all need a little fire on these cold winter days, something to warm us up and create a spark.

These beads are all made on a transparent base which brings light to the colours.  Red, orange and yellow represent the first three chakras - the base chakra is red - low and slow, reflecting our base security - home comforts.  The sacral chakra is orange - big and pulsing - that represents our passion and creativity and the the solar plexus (surprise!) is yellow - shining like a shield at our mid section.  This represents our strength of will, our self protection - our adrenal system.

To if you've been feeling a bit lack-lustre and need a shot of energy this may give you a lift!

Oh, and $180 becomes $136 in the website sale!

Large Transparent & Dove Grey & Red Lace Brooch

For something completely different, this transparent gray based bead is overlaid with soft dove gray, then highlighted with bright red in a lace pattern.   

Perfect for your winter coat or jacket. $75 becomes just $60 using the 20% discount via the Website Sale!

 

Medium Black and White Lace Bead Brooch

Black and white is always good in winter - pop this on your favourite cardi and you're dressed!  

$65 becomes $52 this month.

 

Large Dark Ivory & Turquoise Round Dotty Brooch

Add a "pop" of ivory and turquoise to your teal with this organic looking brooch. 

$75 becomes $60!

 

Small Round Light & Dark Pink Flow Brooch

I love a bit of pink - it's so girly and feminine and soft. 

This little brooch reduces from $55 to $44 in the sale!

Small Round True Red Raku Brooch

And finally a shot of Red Raku - just a little one, though!

This style goes on almost anything with its lovely organic colour - there's a little bit of blue, beige, brown, black...and $55 becomes only $44 in the sale.

And let me know if you need any help choosing - perhaps you would like to see another photo or talk it over - I'm happy to help - email me or give me a call.

I've Been Making Brooches

This week I've been making brooches.













They're terrible things to photograph as they want to lie sideways when they're just hung from a ribbon, but they actually sit really nicely when worn.
I'm really quite pleased with this lot - the Red Raku Hearts are so easy to wear - I pinned one on a favourite jacket some time ago, and there it has remained - I can wear it with any scarf or outfit - it just seems to fit in with all the clothes I wear. These ones are
Medium True Red Raku Heart Brooch and Small True Red Raku Heart Brooch



The Flow Beads are a nice mix of transparent and opaque glass - the little pink one has a lovely big swirl of transparent amethyst across it and the blue one is a nice mix of Sapphire and Periwinkle Blues.



And these ones are Small Pink Amethyst Round Flow Brooch and Large Sapphire Blue Flow Heart Brooch

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!

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!