Lampworking Soft Glass Color Reference I've been doing a half-baked job of taking notes when I make beads ... but I am on a mission to catalog all my bead sets and the glass colors I use to create them. There are three driving reasons for this: First , I have a hard time remembering what some colors look like after they've been worked in the flame and I want color charts that I can quickly reference. So I do it for me . Second , I am working on my first e-book of color recipes. Since I cannot lampwork fulltime, e-book sales will help continue funding my glass habits. My hope is to build a library of resources so even when I am unable to make art, I can keep my business going. Finally , I want to share my knowledge and experience. Early in my beadmaking I asked other lampworkers 'do you mind sharing what color that is?' Some were gracious with their knowledge, others were not. And while yes, I do plan to compile much of this information into for profit e-books, I st
Lampworking Soft Glass Color Reference Red is not a color I tend to gravitate towards. Whenever I pull it from my glass stash I usually just stare at it aimlessly trying to figure out what to pair with it. Then it goes back in its little cubby ... until I feel guilty that it never gets attention like the other colors do ... and I pull it out again, only to repeat the cycle . But Fall is another story. When mother nature paints a gorgeous picture outside your window full of reds and yellows and greens and blues, then you know it is time. The red glass will have its day. Red, orange and yellow are a natural pairing as they are on the same side of the color wheel. Red and turquoise have been a popular combination for southwest designs. Red and green are together frequently at Christmas. But put them all together and it's like the most perfect woolly sweater ever made. It's as if Fall just opened up the gates and poured itself all over the studio. And really, who doesn't swoo
Lampworking Tips & Techniques Update 2023: This post is worthy of being re-published because I forgot everything that I used to know. Okay not really, but I hadn't used any of my Reichenbach Mystic glass for a very long time. When looking for a nice ivory glass to pair with my denim blues ... I instantly grabbed my Reichenbach Mystic Beige. And then proceeded to devitrify the snot out of it when marvering it around in my beadrollers. And then I remembered everything that I used to know . Reichenbach Mystic Beige does not like being marvered. Or pressed. Or generally touched with any tool other than the flame itself. I went back and re-read my own post and decided to set down the marver and round those babies up with gravity the old-fashioned way. Being married into a German family I've been hearing for years just how superior the Germans are at just about everything [eyeroll]. I figured they must make some pretty spectacular glass too so I went ahead and bought myself a s