5... Getting My "Swirl" On

Oh I can't tell you how much this bead excited my when it came out of the kiln. It has got to be my most favoritest hollow I have ever made!! For a couple of years now, I have been embracing the art that is a perfectly straight line. And in doing so... I totally lost my ability to swirl!! I kid you not... I have tried dozens of times to make a classic lampwork bead with scroll work and I sucked at it. I have been telling myself that when things come down, I am going to spend as much time as it takes to get my swirl back. I know I used to be able to do it.

By chance this weekend, during one torch session or another, I grabbed a stringer that was bright aqua over white. It was kinda on the thick side so I thought, what they hey... let's do some squiggles. The squiggles went well. I was happy. But my stringer was gone... and now I had to make another one. So I took some (my very last little bit, mind you) of my favorite transparent ink violet colors and pulled an encased stringer of that. I started with another little squiggle... and said heck with it... I am gonna go for a swirl! And hot dang it worked!!! I gotta try again when I have more time to spend focusing on just a couple beads at a time... cause my stars do I love this bead.

I was planning on making a group of hollows to make a new "Having A Ball" style necklace but though nah... I'll make hollow lariats instead. So, instead of one necklace with 8 hollows... now I have 4 necklaces. Cool huh? I'll show you those tomorrow.