Webbing Techniques Tutorial

Gosh, it's been forever since I've posted here and I didn't even realize it had been so long. I've been testing all of the Double Helix glass colors since mid August for my new webbing tutorial. I'm almost done testing and I should have the tutorial available by the end of February. It will include instructions on each of my six webbing techniques and a glass color guide showing all of the techniques that work on each Double Helix glass color. I'm expecting it to be around 25 pages long. Here are some examples...

Tarantula

We've lived here for 7 years now and this is the first tarantula we've seen on our property. He's HUGE! About the size of my hand. Our outside kitty Jaimie found him for us and we relocated him so Jaimie wouldn't find him again but not before I took a few pictures.

Clio Revisted

Everyone has been talking about the tricks to get Clio a hot pink. It usually involves multiple layers of glass. Using orange as a layer requires a coat of clear before and after the orange to prevent cracking and to stop the orange from turning brown from the silver in Clio. Far too many layers and too much fussing around for me. Those of you that have done that, why not give Kalypso a try as a base layer? I'd love to know how it compares. This bead was made with a thin layer of Kalypso, struck and then encased with Clio. I then used silver foil, gave it a fairly good reduction and encased with Zephyr. Less reduction would have reduced the lavender luster and made it more pink.

Beeswax 16 Year Anniversary Sale!

We're having a big sale for our 16 year anniversary. Orders of $50 or more get 20% off and orders over $125 get 25% off. The shopping cart is all set up to automatically discount your order and the sale runs through Friday August 26th. Please pass the word around to all of your stamping friends! I'd appreciate it. :)

We also have a Facebook page for Beeswax and you can find us here:

Beeswax on FB

Perfect Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I've been tweaking different recipes and I think I've put together the perfect vanilla bean ice cream recipe. It's rich and creamy and comes out perfect every time. You can use the batter as a base for other flavors as well by just omitting the vanilla bean. I'm still tweaking chocolate and strawberry but for now I do have a coffee variation. Warning: After trying this you won't be able to eat ice cream like Breyers or Dreyer's ever again.

I use the Cuisinart 2 quart ice cream maker (Williams-Sonoma is having a great sale right now). You need an actual vanilla bean to make this...don't omit it! The vanilla bean adds a ton of exotic vanilla flavor. Your best bet is to buy them from a site like Penzey's (thanks squid!). If you buy them at the grocery store you'll pay two or three times what you will buying online in bulk.


Perfect Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 2/3 cups milk
one vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
3 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine sugars and milk in a medium saucepan. Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Use a blunt knife to scrape out the seeds and stir them and the vanilla bean into the milk/sugar mixture. Bring the mixture to a slow boil over medium heat, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the vanilla bean.

Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Gradually stir in about one cup of the hot liquid to temper the egg yolk and then slowly add the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat stirring constantly until thickened and the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Do not let it come to a boil or else you'll have scrambled eggs. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool a bit. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Mix in the heavy whipping cream and the vanilla extract. Pour the batter into your ice cream machine and leave it mixing for about 30 minutes. Transfer the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.

Coffee Ice Cream Variation

Omit the vanilla bean. Mix the sugars and milk over medium heat with 6 tablespoons of instant espresso coffee, I use Medaglia D'oro that I found at the grocery store. 6 tablespoons will make a very strong coffee flavor so if you're not sure you'll like that you may want to try 4 tablespoons instead.

AKDesigns Facebook Fan Page

It's been too incredibly hot here to do much of anything. So I thought it would be a good time to sit in our air conditioned office and get some work done. I've set up a FB fan page for AKDesigns which you can "like" here:

AKDesigns on Facebook

It will be a good way to keep up on my Etsy store listings. I'll probably put up some other glassy type things but nothing I don't already post here. Right now I have a couple of bead albums with work from 2011 and I have a couple more to put up.

For my rubber folks I'll be working on a fan page for Beeswax in the near future too.

Western Scenic Tutorial

I was recently featured on the Gingersnap Creations blog as their May Muse. For the feature they asked me to do a western themed scenic tutorial. I'll get it up on the website at some point but for now you can see it here:

Western Scene Tutorial