More lampwork

I am cheating a bit by posting some of these beads; I made the teal/ivory/black set and some of the pink beads a couple of weeks ago, but just cleaned them and got them ready to make into jewelry.

The heart is red glass, shaped and embellished with fine silver wire. As the wire is heated, it beads up on the surface, creating a broken line. The small black beads with the little heart on them are my first successful attempts to embed my murrini onto beads. I am still not quite sure what I will do with them, but maybe as part of a larger set?

The last set is just a couple of beads with layers of glass trapping a bubble on each side.

New lampwork

I am trying out some new lampwork techniques. Triangle beads, encasing with clear, and just layering of color in general. I used some new (finally--a real pink!) glass--rubino oro, containing real gold--and am posting pictures of those beads.

I also learned how to make my own murrini from an online tutorial, and this is my first attempt. I used a paper punch mold in the shape of a heart to form the glass, then added another color around the outside of it and pulled a length of glass from it. Once it was cooled, I used glass nippers to cut the pulled rod into smaller pieces. Now I just need to use it! Murrini can be embedded in beads as they are made, creating a little picture on the surface for decoration.