New Year's Eve!

Is it really the end of the Year again, once again it has come around so fast!
I want to wish all of you who come here a very Happy New Year!
Most of you that visit here will be beadmakers too, so I want to wish you loads of inspiration and success for the New Year ! Thank you for leaving me nice comments of support, I want to single out one lady who has supported me for many years, both on the Glass forums and my blogsite, yes you know who you are, but I want to mention your name here too....ELLEN... :))) thanks so much for your wonderful comments and undying support, much love xxxx

I am singing out the year with this necklace, a set of hollow blown beads...of which there will be more to come next year as I prepare for a very big event..Artists in Action in England 

Cheers guys!

A little about my hollow beads....

Each bead is blown off mandrel on a blow pipe, each pattern, color and detail you see is layered onto the base bead. It is quite a challenge to blow glass with different colors and designs as each of these expand and contract at different rates, even though the COE is all 104 each colour has has a different viscosity (resistance of flow) This is what in part makes these beads special and unique.
Much time is spent on preparing elements for the the design of the bead, and once annealed and cooled ( which takes a day ) the beads are cold worked , which means grinding, etching or sandblasting is done to them.  the beads I make are one of a kind handmade ART beads, something which in itself is becoming more rare as mass production is rampant!

I hope you will enjoy looking through my Blogsite and feel free to leave a comment anytime...

Hollow cold worked focal bead

Rainy days!

 On a rainy day here in South Africa... the bead has a wobble in it's surface but it is still nice enough to show ...I hope 

I definitely have the holiday feeling now, schools are out, business is winding down, and I have only made this one bead this week!! From past experience bead making will be a bit sporadic this time of year ;)