Beadbijoux

Color is everywhere. It is in everything. Even black & white has color. Have you ever tried to match a black shirt and a black pair of pants? Or picked out paint swatches for "white" ceilings? The underlying colors just come out. They can't help themselves. I love color. Lots of color. It makes me happy. My 5 year old shares my love for all things colorful. The other morning she came out of her room dressed in purple socks, orange leggings, a hot pink skirt and a turquoise shirt. She's quite the little fashionista. Admittedly a lot of my color inspiration comes from my daughter's closet. I so wish they would make some of those outfits in grown-up sizes - not that I could get away with actually wearing any of it . But the color palettes are always so much fun! In the summer my inspiration comes from my backyard. Stare at a beautiful garden for a few minutes to be flooded with color ideas. Scrapbook paper is also an addictive resource for great color combin

I am not a paid color tester for any glass companies, not that I would ever turn down the opportunity if such a thing existed . Nor am I a professed expert on anything glass related - color, viscosity, compatibility or otherwise. I am just a beadmaker trying to get a handle on the ridiculous bundles of unorganized and uncategorized glass in my studio. If I am ever to get my act together and determine which colors I absolutely must have in my collection, I need to start taking notes. Since I am taking notes for myself, I thought I might as well share them with everyone else just in case you might find my ramblings interesting or useful. So here is my first color review: Reichenbach Aqua [ RL-4015 ]. In rod form this glass is a very pretty pale aqua with a slightly more greenish tint than Effetre pale aqua. There are really no surprises when melting it and it stays true to color in bead form. I didn't bother to do any reactive testing with silver, sulfured glasses and the like bec

Update 2023: When I first started this blog I posted about the most random things with no rhyme or reason. It has evolved from a personal diary of sorts into a glass art blog, and I've gone through and cleaned up most of the random nonsense. However, I kept my recipe posts because, quite frankly, I don't have them written down anywhere else and they are pinned to my Pinterest board so I can find them quickly. And over the years other people have pinned them too, so I want to keep them up and alive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Admittedly, I am a cook by sight/taste/feel kinda gal and rarely take exact measurements ... but I wrote down some "ballpark" estimates for you. By all means tweak and modify to your hearts content to get it  just right  for you. Ingredients: 1 medium onion 2 stalks celery 2 cups peeled and chopped carrots 1 zucchini 1 summer squash 1 green pepper 1 Tbsp minced garlic 1 cup frozen cor

Not every bead I make comes out looking beautiful. Shocking. Sad. But true. In fact I actually have 3 different levels of unsatisfactory bead buckets. We have the pee cup - which houses all the cracked, broken and completely unusable beads. I have no idea why I save them. I guess I just don't have the heart to throw them in the trash. Somewhere, somehow they will come in useful for something. I just know it.  No I do not have a hoarding problem. Really. I don't. Then there is the banker box - which contains a multitude of fuglies. These are mostly from my newbie days but the box does seem to be getting fuller, and I am pretty sure that beads cannot reproduce themselves through osmosis so I must be continuing to make them. Lastly we have the orphan dish. This is home to the beads that are not outright horrid looking, but lack enough enthusiasm for me to attempt to replicate them or even make them a matching brother or sister. These unexciting and unwanted beads go into the di