Beadbijoux

What a summer! Can't believe how long I was away from the torch. We got some wicked storms back in June that took out power for a few days and managed to fry my equipment. Throw a little European family vacation in the mix (will have to blog about that soon) and the next thing you know it is 7 weeks away from the torch. Here's a fun color inspiration trick for you to try:  Come up with a word, type it into the magic Google search machine, and hit images. Then sit back and be amazed with all the eye candy. I did a Google image search on 'Havana' and a colorful classic car picture came up.  It was the inspiration for my latest set:

I just love Reichenbach glass. The colors are so dense and so rich. I am slowly converting my lampworking glass from 104coe to 96coe so I am making color reference charts as I go. Here's my latest batch of colors. R74 Granny Apple Green is a fun key lime green. It is darker than Effetre Pea Green, but more limey than Effetre Nile Green R84 Dutch Blue matches its namesake and is a nice delft blue. It is a dead ringer for Effetre Dark Periwinkle. R119 Mandarin is my most favorite orange ever. It is a soft yellowish orange - reminds me of butternut squash. It would be closest in comparison to Effetre Yellow Apricot without the dark streaks. All three colors made spacer beads that came out the exact same color as the rod itself. No striking or extra work required. R74 Granny Apple Green R84 Dutch Blue R119 Mandarin

My six year old recently started wanting to have her nails painted. No idea where it came from because my nails hadn't seen polish since I was pregnant with her. I decided to capitalize on this as a perfect mother-daugher bonding experience, and we went shopping for some new nail polishes. Retail therapy is always a great way to bond with your daughter. We wandered into our local Ulta cosmetics and went straight for the new Essie display. Such fun, bright and cheery colors! The best part is they came packaged in the most adorable cube of 4 sample colors - which is great for me because I never go through a full bottle of polish before I tire of it anyways. Nadia and I have been having a fun time painting our nails in all these fun new colors. I loved the color combination of the sample pack so much I decided to match it in a new bead set. I do believe I will be stalking Essie whenever they release a new collection - both for the bead-making color inspiration and the cute and

A plethora of color charts and color sample pages can be found all over the web for most any glass color in the 104 palette. Unfortunately I have been unable to find a similar resource for the 96 palette. I've been transitioning a lot of my glass studio over to 96 coe and am slowly building my color stash. Most of the time I go in "blind" when making a glass purchase because there may or may not be a picture of beads made with that color. And the photos may or may not be accurate and representative. So this is my new little side project: make spacer beads and catalog colors of every glass I order in 96 coe for reference . Perhaps other lampworkers will find these little color references helpful as well. Happy torching! R731 Dark Pink Coral  R087 Water Blue R097 Lilac Red

Having been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years there are few meals for which I have been unable to find a decent vegetarian substitute - at least for things I actually want to eat. The 'fish taco' phenomenon, however, has intrigued and eluded me ... until now. Enter the most versatile veggie:  zucchini ! Vegetarian 'Fish' (Zucchini) Tacos: 2-3 small zucchini 1-2 eggs 1 1/2 cups Panko bread crumbs 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp oregano dash garlic powder dash dried lemon peel dash chipotle pepper salt & pepper Fish Taco Sauce: 1/2 c sour cream 1/2 c mayo 1 lime (juice) 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp coriander (ground) 1/2 tsp dill weed 1/2 tsp oregano 1/4 tsp chipotle pepper 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 Tbsp fresh chop cilantro ------------------------------------------------- Mix all ingredients for fish taco sauce and refrigerate for at least an hour. Prepare zucchini by cutting lengthwise in 2-3 inch strips. Rinse and pat dry. Beat eggs in a small bowl (for dipping). Combi