More Hearts and the bead that got away!

Finished some more hearts today including some that aren't posted because they are a custom order and a surprise for Mother's Day - so I better not post. : )

Are you wondering about the bead that got away? Let me tell you, I really do feel like a fisherwoman that lost her prize catch. This is the picture of the rod I started out with - kind of baby poop color.



I didn't have an order or project in mind for this glass, it's that I tend to have attention deficit when it comes to making the same bead over and over again. So, it doesn't take much to get me started in another direction if a thought crosses my mind. And it's not that this rod is an eye catcher; as you can see. It's the possibility of what it can be that is the allure; and today I wondered what colors I could get to pop out of glass.

This is what we call chalcedony, (pronounced kal-sed-onie) a multi-colored glass originating in Italy in the early 1600's and introduced in London, England in 1862. It was really popular and used by hot-glass workers for beautiful vases such as this one.



It's also really popular for lampwork artists today and the trick is understanding how hot to heat it and how often to cool it to get the colors to bloom. Lot's of science involved in making this little bead. Lots of failures before success. Failure is getting a baby poop colored bead - but success, well, that is watching magic happen when the colors bloom from brown to blue, violet, green and yellow.

You understand what I mean by possibility now, yes? So these beads are what I worked on between my projects. My favorite one got a little too cool and broke in half. It may be difficult to tell in the picture, but it has an opalescent quality with shimmers of blue, yellow and green... sigh.. if it were a fish it would have been <<<<......................thisssssssss biggggggggggggg....................>>>>>>>>>>>