Encased Aurae

I've been having a blast encasing Aurae lately. So much so that I have five matching auctions of encased Aurae up on eBay right now. I named them all "Ethereal" because of the dreamy, mystic look this glass has when it's encased. There's a lot of luster and iridescence that just doesn't show in the photographs though. I must have photographed each bead set three different times. I haven't seen anyone else get the gold webbing from Aurae either.....and I'm not telling how I did it!

Arizona

Here's another fabulous piece of art from Diana of AZ. She used our Large Desert Road 555m and the Back of Stagecoach 1073I. Both of those can be found on our Desert & Southwest page. If I remember correctly, she said the building were from Stamp Out.

Simple Trick

Here's a simple trick I use to get similar sizing when I'm making a bead set. This is my Zoozii Chunky Crystal Duo press. I made a bead that would just fit into the smaller cavity, then did my scroll work. That way my set will be beads that are matching nicely in size. Simple! I do the same with barrels but for those I use my Zoozii Kalera press. For chunky discs I use my Zoozii Nugget. You get the idea!

Gala

I did another set of Aurae beads listed on eBay right now. I had done a test bead with a base of Dark Ivory and the Aurae fumed it to an odd dark yellowish brown. I really wanted something more elegant looking so I used Silver Pink, thinking that it wouldn't be effected by the Aurae at all. Wrong! It did turn a pretty yellow though that looks more like antique lace so I was still very happy.

Virtual Convention at Rubber Stamp Chat!

We're having a Virtual Convention over at Rubber Stamp Chat! We have 30 vendors with great sales and specials just for this show. Never been to a virtual convention? It's the best because you can shop right from home and even stay in your jammies if you want to and no one will no the difference! The show runs from today through Monday the 18th. Come on over and check out all the cool sales. And thanks to Alma of The Cat's Pajamas for making this banner...I stole it from her (don't tell, LOL!).

Baby Snake

Because it's snake time around here and since that includes rattlesnakes, I asked Wally to mow down the tall weeds (ok, I demanded) around my studio. He came across this little baby Sharp-tailed snake. Aren't his colors just gorgeous? As they get bigger that deep magenta turns more of a salmon pink.

Paint Splatter

Here's another set on eBay done with Terranova2. I'm simply amazed at all the different colors, striations and patterns that you can get with this glass. I heated the glass up to the point that I had a hard time keeping it on the mandrel. As I was heating it I could see the striations form on the surface. I kept heating until it separated so much that I also got little "blobs" along with the striations. I then pulled it out of the flame and kept rotating the bead as it cooled. In the mean time, I heated up my rod of clear. As soon as the TNT turned a light brown I put it in the back of the flame until it turned a dark red brown and then encased. I had no problems with it restriking or lightening while I was melting in the clear and shaping. If you haven't tried this glass yet....you are missing out!

You can see my auction here: Paint Splatter

Baby Birdie Questions Answered...

Well Wally thinks that our babies were House Finches. We can't take pictures of them anymore because they are ready to fly and are in the process of leaving the nest. I thought I would just substitute our Bird Nest stamp instead and maybe you wouldn't notice, LOL! People were asking about how the pictures were taken. Wally would wait until mom left and then because the nest was over his head, he would blindly hold the camera over the nest and shoot the picture. This was done in a matter of seconds so as not to disturb the babies too much.

Gilded Angel

I've decided to give eBay another try after over a year of not listing anything there. Unfortunately that means I no longer have a following there but I thought this set was extra special. You can see the auction here. There's also a matching focal here. The set was made entirely of Aurae with just some accent dots in dark ivory. Wish me luck