More from the Playground

I made beads yesterday... YOOO HOOOO!! It was just like riding a bike, lol. Even though it had been a while (10 days to be exact), it was like I never left. I was so worried it would be a "bad bead" night. That I would be out of practice, get frustrated with everything, then wanna just go to bed. But it was actually quiet the opposite. I was having a sort of "Zen" beading hour last night. All I had was a quick hour before dinner. So I pulled a few stringers while the kiln warmed up, clean some mandrels and pulled out lots of brightly colored rods. I'll be spending the next several torching sessions making all the beads I need to work out what I am thinking. I was only able to make a 15 disks in that hour I had and I know I am going to need more.

Don't I say all the time "when in doubt, pull all the colors out", lol. I have this idea playing around in my head right now. And I wasn't really sure what colors I wanted to focus on for the design. I finally settled on all of them. You all have seen disks from me before, see "At The Playground". Those little guys were about the size of dimes, just time pops of color all around the silver. These fella's are the size of quarters! They are big, bold, and full of character. I had ideas to make some of the disks doubles, some triangles, some squares, and some regular round ones. No two will be the same! This guy here is my favorite so far. He didn't photograph well, he's shy, but sooo cool. He is a double disk, with red and turquoise stripes on one side with green turquoise spots on the other. I love his clear center too.

There are some colors I tend to keep put away, especially "striking" colors. I could never figure out how to strike them. They would either revert back to clear or go all dark and muddy. Someone on wetcanvas.com mentioned that you need to apply it, cool it, then bring it up to a red glow. LOOK HOW GREAT THAT WORKED ON THESE TWO!! I used striking red and striking orange and they are perfect. They are both doubles. The front one has a black and white twisty triangle on one side and the red yellow and turquoise on the other side. I am hoping to get at least another dozen of these made tonight. I'll let you know how it goes :)