Symmetry

As I've stated before on this blog, I'm in LOVE with Boro.  I love the dimension it has, the depth I see in a bead and the infusion of color that this glass creates.  I literally DROOL over Boro every day.  I pour over other people's beads, look for fantastic color combinations and styles and dream of the day I can purchase more frit, rods and colors.

But it's not an easy task for me - to make a Boro bead.  For you glassies out there, I have one concentrator and a basic torch.  It's not a fancy set up and I don't get the heat that Boro truly needs to flow.  But I manage.  And I still love it. 

I can't, for the life of me, make more than two beads of the same size.  I don't know what it is.  I know how, I just can't get it done.  They look really cool, they sparkle and shine and look loverly.....

.....but they never "match."

So. For those of you that make jewelry and/or make beads, does it TRULY matter to have matchy-matchy beads?  Or does variety work well in a piece.  I tend to lean towards symmetry in my work, which I TRY to move away from, but it makes it really hard for me to "think outside the box" when it comes to mismatched beads - size, shape and color. 

Can I get some feedback?  Please?  I've seen some awesome sets on Etsy and Artfire and they haven't all matched in shape and size.  Do they sell?  Would you buy them if you are one that buys artisan lampwork beads?  Lemme know......please?

XOXO Sale Continues

Added a couple new pairs of earrings tonight to my XOXO sale....and there are more in the works.  I just can't seem to find the time to string all my goodies up.  Beads are made, designs are in my head.....tick tock!  Check 'em out!

So much to do......

Okay, I've got a month left.  One month until the first boutique of the rapidly approaching holiday season!  I suppose it could be my ONLY boutique, as it has been in the past, but I'd like to think positive.  The first of....few.  I don't wanna be TOO busy, ya'll!

So, I'm off.  To fit in things that I didn't fit in last year.  To do things in this nasty, sticky hotness of Phoenix. (Who said it was a DRY heat, huh?!?) To triumph over torches, melting glass and sterling silver!  HERE.......I.......GO!!!!!!!!

Definition of Addict

Websters has this definition: "to habituate or abandon (oneself) to something compulsively or obsessively: a writer addicted to the use of high-flown language; children addicted to video games." 

This is MY new addiction.  YUM!

 I thought that if I tried it once in this awful, horrible heat that I wouldn't care to touch it again for awhile.  That I could make due without.  

I. Was. Wrong.


My kiln is all heated up.  I'm in my swimsuit because that's the only way to survive it. Babe is asleep. Oh, Boro.....how do I love thee?


I'm goin' in.........

BORO BABY!

I tried it!  For the first time evah! I tried boro frit with pyrex clear......  I adjusted my kiln, tried to get my poor little torch to get as hot as it could and jumped in the pool and torched wet so I wouldn't completely melt myself!  I'll show you beads tomorrow.....they gotta chill (literally and figuratively) in the kiln.  I have NO idea how they'll look!

Back tomorrow with pics.