I admit it – I’m a control freak when it comes to glass. I like it to do what I tell it to do and if it doesn’t I get in a mood with it and call it names. I’ve fallen out with several glass colours before because we just don’t see eye to eye. I send them to the naughty corner of my glass stash for a while and then I bring them out again when they’ve had time to think about what they’ve done! We don’t stay on speaking terms for long, though.
What glass am I talking about? Those murky-looking pastel colours like copper green, turquoise, avocado, sage and violet. I like my beads to have crisp defined patterns and smooth continuous colour (like the ones pictured above) and that’s where those colours and I don’t get on. They have a mind of their own. They do things. Copper green gets that metallic sheen to it when I don’t want it to and sometimes it does that pitting thing on the surface of beads. Turquoise does it too. I tend to use avocado and sage only as stringer and I find that violet occasionally gets a brown tinge to it.
But I’ve decided that I’ve got to let it go. I’ve got to learn to love those glasses. I need to compromise. So these past few days I’ve been hanging out with violet and turquoise and we’re getting on alright. I recently purchased a copy of Sarah Hornik’s excellent Think Pink! E-Book and decided to give the Rubino Oro over pastel violet thing a try.
As soon as I made my first violet base bead I started getting narky with it – its streaky behaviour wound me right up! But I stuck with it, adding dots of Rubino and touches of turquoise and I ended up with a pretty-looking bead. I made more beads using a combination of my pernickerty dot placement and the ‘spreading’ properties of the glass and was pleased with the outcome. The glass let me do my own thing and it return I let it do its own thing. I added raised dots to the beads in this set because not only do they look nice and add a bit of texture, they also ‘neaten up’ the patterns. But by doing the raised bobbly dot thing I realised that I was still being really controlling and I vowed to make another couple of sets with no bobbly bits. There’s some slight pitting on a couple of the turquoise ones and a couple of brown tinges on the violet ones but the new-and-improved-bit-more-bead-lenient me is going to let that slide!
It was actually quite difficult for me to sit and make those beads knowing that I wasn’t 100% in control of the dots and lines. I was literally working with the glass – I was adding dots and stringer in my usual way but the glass itself had the final say on where they ended up. I know that I probably sound like a weirdo saying that but I’m just not a go-with-the-glass-flow kind of beadmaker. I’ve never made a proper organic bead in my life and in fact just typing the words ‘organic bead’ makes me shudder ever-so-slightly but who knows, if I carry on compromising with the glass colours I’m not best friends with then maybe one day I’ll be writing a post about my first set of organic beads!
Laura Sparling is a full-time beadmaker in Southampton, UK. She sells her beads through her website www.beadsbylaura.co.uk.
lorigreenberg says:
I love the beads! Before you know it, you’ll be making organic beads.
I love looking at the perfection and control of your beads but I think it’s cool that you’re pushing yourself too.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
ellen says:
Oh boy, Laura, I’m loving this color combo. I wish we could trade “bead brains” for a while; I have the opposite problem. I was just looking at my transparents, thinking I must start using them. You’re much more successful than me, though so, you go, girl!!!
August 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am
beadsbylaura says:
You never know, Lori, you never know!
Thank you for the lovely compliments Ellen. Good luck with those transparents!
August 17th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Mallory says:
I absolutely love those beads! Great job!
August 17th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
beadsbylaura says:
Cheers Mallory!
August 18th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Christine says:
Beautiful! I love those beads, and I think they are fantastic! Wish I could muster up the control of dots and lines that you have. Nice work!
August 18th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Lori Anderson says:
Your precision awes me!
August 18th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Deedee says:
I think these beads are lovely! I couldn’t stop looking at them…just beautiful!
August 18th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Jenn says:
Ahhh! I love reading your thought process behind these beads. When I first saw this set, I knew you had bought Sarah’s tutorial (me, too, I can’t wait to try it out), but I saw you had put your signature stamp of precision on it. What a beautiful collaboration of glass understanding!!!
I’m looking forward to where you go with those reactive colors. You’re precise – the reactive glass is not. Yet you managed to make those beads look pretty darn precise with a signature Laura look. You’ll probably lassoo those sneaky reactives in some fantabulous way we haven’t even thought of yet. (As long as they don’t get banished to the naughty corner too often.)
August 18th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
beadsbylaura says:
Thank you all for your wonderful comments and compliments about my beads! They’re much appreciated.
Jenn – many thanks for your wonderful words. It’s nice to know that I have a ’signature’ look and style.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Dana says:
Ohhhhh, I lovie, lovie, lovie your beads. They are gorgeous. Can’t wait to check out your shop.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Taking a moment to rave… « Glass by Jennifer’s Weblog says:
[...] colors, as exemplified in the necklace below, is a signature design for me. Laura mentioned her design challenge is to be organic. Mine is to be monochromatic. I mean, I’m the type of person where white [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
beadsbylaura says:
Cheers Dana!
And Jenn – thank you for making my beads look so awesome. The necklace you’ve made is magnificent!
August 29th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Best of the, um, however long ending 9/1/2008 | Art of the Firebird says:
[...] Sparling lets go of her control freak tendencies over at Watch Me [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Watch Me Create » Still playing with those ‘murky’ colours says:
[...] it sent to you by email!. Don’t miss a thing!You may remember that in my last post I wrote about playing around with ‘reactive’ glasses. Well, I haven’t stopped! I’m really enjoying the wonderful colour combinations that they [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 8:35 am