When life gets in the way

This time i finally got quite a lot of work to do. You know, of the kind that I actually can make som money on. I've also been networking and learned my system for bookkeeping. All this is very good!

The bad thing is, I haven't had much time to torch and even less to take pictures. So no listings for a few days now. I'll try to find some time during the weekend.

In the mean time - if you want to look at some goodies - why don't you go over to the Fire Diva's blog?! Yes, I'm a Fire Diva now (yay!!!) and you can follow this groups work on the blog, on the Facebook fanpage, on Flickr or in the Fire Diva's threads in the ArtFire and Etsy forums.

Do you do Valentine's Day?

My guess is that if you're american you say "Yes, of course!" and if you're from Sweden you say "maybe I buy my loved one a flower...". We swedes are not very big on this day though the commercial forces are trying to convince us we HAVE to buy flowers and chocolates. :)

In Sweden, this day is called Day of All Hearts (though in swedish of course - Alla Hjärtans Dag). It does not have a long tradition (probably as we are mainly protestants and don't celebrate saints). It wasn't until the 1960's it was brought to our attention buy commercial forces and under influence of the amreican culture.

I don't think love should go hand in hand with money and I really don't like this day to be a competition for who are most popular. But if you have a loved one, it might be nice to take the opportunity to appreciate her or him a little extra.

In my ArtFire shop I have tagged some items with "valentine" if you feel like making that extra effort. I'm guessing you will not be too surprised by finding my hearts under that tag. But there will be other stuff too, like male necklaces.

So go ahead - take a look!

Tie bead necklace

Just listed

This week has been quite turbulent, so I haven't had time to blogg a lot. I have been able to list som new stuff on ArtFire, though. Let's start with two goddesses from my series Mother of two goddess:
This one has a core of dark amethyst and an encasement of medium amethyst. I love to etche the surace of my transparent goddesses. It makes the suface look and feel almost like skin and it also makes alters the light when it shines thorugh the bead. The goddess kind of glows from within.
The next lady is made from a CiM glass called stoneground. It's a yellow ochre colour with great striations in it. My only problem is that this glass doesn't seem to work with my bead release. It won't let go of the mandrel! This one my husband finally manage go get off, but the mandrel i ruined.

This is the last fish of this week. Quite a different colour scheme comapred to the others I've listed. A cool guy in white, sky blue and emerald green taht I call Robin.

And last but not least - a bead for spring:

Heart for spring

This pea green heart has raised flowers on both sides. The hole runs vertically through so you can choose to just put it directly on a thin chain for a simple neckalce. It would make a lovely Valentine gift!

BTW - all images are clickable and will bring you directly to my ArtFire shop!

Just added: Fish Hanna

Yes, another fish. Told you I was in fish mood, huh! :)

This one is made in light amber glass from effetre and decorated with a Moussaka frit from Beady Sam (where will I get new frit now that she's closed the shop???). The colours in the fins are choosen to enchance the Moussaka theme. It's medium amethyst (wich ressembles of aubergine) and light amber.
This is quite a big lay - 45 mm long. The hole runs vertically right in front of her fins.

For further details, please visit my ArtFire shop!

And by the way - I've listed the beads from my post on Slytherin glass on ArtFire too, if you're interested.

Tried and loved: Slytherin

Yes, I admit it. I'm having a huge cruch on CiM! To bad thery're in US as it makes the glass fairly expensive for a poor girl from Sweden. But they have such a beautiful glass assortment!

The day before Christmas, a package with a CiM mix cam from Tuffnell. The first glass I jumped on (as soon as all the chrismassy things were done) was Slytherin. (Yes, I'm also a fan of Harry Potter!). And it's gorgeouse. I haven't had time to make a lot yet, but I couldn't wait to share the beads I did do.

First out is a earring pair where the Slytherin green glass is on the surface:

Here it covers Dirty Martini (also from CiM) and I think they work wonderful together.

Second is an encased floral bead with a base of transaprent dark steel grey from Effetre and flowers in white and Slytherin:

As you can see, the green colour remains rich even when encased.

Just added: Sweet Valentine

Here's another lampwork fish that I added today:
She's made of an amethyst coloured glass, decorated with a frit in pinks and purples and has fins of Rubino Oro. Note how the tail is shaped as a heart! For once, I also choose to give the upper lip a Cupid's bow. These lips were made for kisses!

For further details, please visit my ArtFire shop!

Just added: Millie Vanilla

I'm in a fish mood this week! :) Love making them. This particular one is made of dark grey glass from Effetre and is decorated with a frit in the colour French Vanilla from Beady Sams (who unfortunatly has put her webshop to rest).

The gunmetal coloured, shiny edges of her fins are made of the glass Gun Metal from CiM wich I rewieved in an earlier post. Love it! I think it adds a little extra flair to Millie.

For more information, please visit my ArtFire shop!

Just added: Etheral flowers bead

I just added this bead on ArtFire:

It's made of a glass from Lauscha wich is layerd in cobolt blue and white. That colour is almost impossible to catch on a picture! At least I can't though I took all the help I could get from GIMP 2.

But still I took the chance to list it today.

The variegated core gets an extra intrest as I sprinkled som blue aventurine on it. When you look into the bead you see the little sparks.

The flowers in the bead are made from a reactive silver glass from Double Helix. As the colours change and sometimes are almost totally transaprent, the flowers looks almost surreal!

For more information, please visit my ArtFire shop!

Just added: Glacier flowers

This bead has got its name from the glass I used as a base - Glacier from CiM. A lovely blue glass with a touch of grey in it.

I decorated it with raised flowers in white and a pink glass called Gellys stie, also from CiM.
The bead is 21 mm high. For further details, please visit my ArtFire store!

Christmas is over!

Christmas is over (though we will not stuff aways all our tomtar (santas) or throw out the christmas tree until Tjugondag Knut (twenty days after Christmas) according to swedish tradition.

But I did throw out the tomte from my studio banner today and also changes my colour theme. What do you think?

Sharing a pic of our Christmas tree. Don't think we ever have managed to get such a large tree inside the house before! But it's lovely.

Just listed: Blue/green ribbon bead

I listed this bead today in my ArtFire shop:

This is a quite timeconsuming kind of bead as you have to make a multiple layerd twisitie first. But it's worth while, I think!

I shall try to take pictures of me making that twistie some day so I can show you. Just need my camera man (my husband) to be persuaded to that project. :) I can't make twisties and take pics at the same time as that would require four hands.

Just added: Pool side flowers bead

This bead is 20 mm high with a dark aqua core, silver foil and lihght green and yellow flowers.

For some reason I don't get tired of making floral beads. The variation possibilities are endless, flowers cheers me up and I can always find ways to improve my technique.

And they always remind me of spring! Today we have -21 degrees Celsius (- 6 F) here in Uppsala and during the night it has been as low as - 27 C (-16.6 F), so the real spring seems far away.

So while waiting for the snowdrops to show, I'll let the warmth of my torch and the flowers of my beads warm me up!

Please visit my ArtFire shop for further details!

Just added: Flowers sterling silver bracelet

I've made this kind of bracelet before but only as a custom order. Now I thought I'd have one to show - and sell - too. So here it is:
The bracelet is made of a beautiful - and heavy - sterling silver chain that closes with a lobster clasp.
Nine of my raised flower lampwork beads dangles from it. When you move it creates a lovely ratteling sound!

There are not two beads that have the same colour scheme, but i kept them on a colour theme with a few splashes of contrast.

For more info, please visit my ArtFire store!

Just added: Milky way bead

I love how this bead turned out. On a core of white I put a layer of Effetres transparent Dark Violet, which is a superb colour. I decorated with dichroich glass an added flowers in white and clear and white and amber.

It's a bead for those shimmering winter parties.

Go to my ArtFire store for further information!

Just added: Helleborus necklace

I just added this necklace to my AF shop.

I made the the bead from CiM Cirrus with strokes of opaque white and raised, white flowers on the top.

I know the flowers don't really look like helleborus, but the winter colours of the bead made me think of flowers in the snow.

The chain is antracite coloured and very beautiful. I think a silver coloured chain would have made the necklace too pale, but this dark grey colour really adds interest to the creation. And so does the firepolished crystals with their AB luster!

For more details, please visit Babs Beads & Design on ArtFire