Revisiting bubbles

These blue bubble beads are to go with the very cold weather we're having at the moment. We haven't got any snow here at the moment (how about where you are?) But it's so cold that the frost doesn't seem to have melted in bits of the garden where the sun hasn't reached like the North side of hedges etc.

The beads are made with a base of CIM Sapphire (a colour which I adore) and they've been encased in Halong bay. The bubbles have taken on the light blue frostiness which makes them feel very sharp and even colder than clear glass would.

Brrr ... I needed warming up so I have made a Topaz version (a cognac amber colour) with straw yellow bubbles this morning so hopefully I'll warm up a bit when they're ready to come out of the kiln. I'll be making jewellery with them all tomorrow!

Etched Bombay Sapphire recycled glass

I've just added three new recycled items to the Lampwork > Recycled Blue page of my website. I tried etching some of the beads made from recycled Bombay Sapphire bottles and I was really pleased with how pretty they turned out. The matt finish is really soft and lets the core of the bead shows through like a little bulb is lighting it up from inside.

There is also a pair of earrings made with pearls on the page I link to above and a bracelet to match.

Reasons to be cheerful

Today we have heard from a good friend of ours. He had a lump removed from under his arm several days ago, just before a holiday in Cornwall. The holiday didn't work out too well, apparently it was wet (that horrible fine mizzle) every day; they ended up coming back a couple of days early. So it was fantastic for him and his family to get news today that the tissue was benign - sounds like it has cheered them up no end. That kind of thing really puts problems back into perspective!

Speaking personally, I am pleased with a new shape of recycled glass beads which I made last week. I took the photographs last week but have only just got round to adding them to the website - here are a couple of thumbnails. They're kind of a flattened rectangle/cylinder. The earrings are really l-o-o-o-ng!

I'm going to make some beads of this shape in the lovely blue Bombay sapphire glass this week.