Babs Beads

I say ladybug, you say ladybird!

2011-10-05T16:55:00.003+02:00

Today I thought I learned somthing new. I've always called those sweet little bugs, with red shell and black spots, for ladybugs in english. And that's also what I called the BHB i listed yesterday:

But today I looked it up, just to be sure. And was i surprised to find out that they are really called ladybirds!

So I named my new bead Ladybird Meadow:

And now, after som more research, I find out that ladybird is brittish english and ladybug is american english. So now I'm just confused.

In swedish they are called nyckelpiga. But no one outside Sweden would understand that!

(You can find the beads in my Etsy shop.)

Been a while!

2011-09-29T10:58:00.002+02:00

Wooh! I see that I did my last posting in late March. Is it really possible that it's been so long? Where did time go?

I guess I've just been working to much and torching to little.

But I've got some news for you! I recently opened a shop over at Etsy. Go visit and share your thoughts with me.

I'll work ArtFire and Etsy both for a while and see how it works out.

I've also listed some stuff recently... :)

A cabochon addicts' confessions

2011-03-29T17:35:00.005+02:00

My name is Susanne and I'm a Cab Addict (CA).
(And it has nothing to do with cars.)

Cabochons - strongly addictive!

It all started very slowly when I bought a cabochon mandrel from Tuffnells' some two years ago. (My intention was to make a pair of cufflinks for my husband. Heh!) I tried it out a few times, but didn't get the hang of it and was certainly not bitten by the cab bug.

So the cab mandrel has stood in my mandrel yar for a looong time, looking accusingly at me for spending so much money on something I never use.

The truth is, I've been scared of picking it up. I don't have that much time for torching and not to much money, so the idea of waisting both time and glass on something I obviously (?) wasn't ment for, seemed to be a worse waste than the initial purchase of the mandrel.

But a few weeks ago, something happened. For some reason I got this idea in my head of how the cabochons could be made! Of to the torch to prove my hypothesis. And it proved right!

And now, I just can't stop. It took me two weeks to realize that ONE mandrel is simply not enough. And now I'm just waiting for a decent salary to be able to doule my pair. I'm addicted! I could sit and make only cabs for a hole day, if it wasn't for the shortage of mandrels.

Top view

New listings

2011-03-03T10:16:00.004+01:00

I admit - I'm not a very organized ArtFire lister. Once in a while I take a batch of beads and jewellery and photograph them. Then I have a bunch of items to list and I try to list one every day. But when I'm out of new photos, it normally takes a week or two for me to get the camera out again. So that's why I'm an periodic lister. If you ever wondered. :)

This week I've been listing some new jewellery I'd like to show you.

Cosmic Ponds lampwork bead on Sterling Silver Necklace

I rarely makes those large beads with reactive silver glass, but once in a while I just get a crave. I'm really pleased with how this bead turned out. Lovely reactions and a beautiful metallic luster.

Mediterranian, Lampwork and Sterling Silver pendant

The combination of aqua and silvered ivory glass is so good! For this bead I covered the entire bead in silverfoil and added the aqua blue glass before burning the silver off. That's why the blue looks so much like water. The pendant is made with sterlings silver parts and swarowski crystals in matching colours. It has a lobster clasp, so you can easily attache it to almost any necklace you allready have!

Tiny Penguins, Lampwork and Sterling Silver Earrings

I got this idea from a friend of mine who wanted penguin earrings for his wife. I've previously made larger penguins for necklaces, but now I was challenge with using a very small amount of glass and still get the details. And I do feel they turned out really cute. So this is my third pair!

All these items (and many more) are in my ArtFire shop at the usual adress!

Split vision

2011-02-21T10:12:00.004+01:00

I really find I suffer from some mental kind of split vision. To many things I want (and sometimes need) to do and far to little time to do them. The good thing with split vision is that you can take in a lot of stuff. The world get big, bright and funny! The bad thing is you find it very hard to choose your focus. And when I can't focus, I tend to do.... nothing.

But yesterday I was determined. I just had to torch! And it was a great afternoon. I wish it could have last forever. But all good things must come to an end, and at least Iäve got a bunch of mandrels to show:

Fresh from the kiln

Now it's just the less fun part of cleaning them all left. :)

The Fire Divas Quarterly Jewelry Challenge is up!

2011-01-12T20:23:00.001+01:00

Once again, the Fire Divas invite you to a jewlery challenge! The theme is That Special Bead. It is entirely open to your own interpretation and we hope you have fun with it! For some inspiration, head over to our Flickr page. You can win some fantastic prizes!

See the prizes and the rules for entering at our blog .

Last spring a swedish friend of mine won the challenge. I would love for that to happen again!

The continuing adventures of Flappy

2010-12-12T19:47:00.002+01:00

I wrote another blogpost on the Handmade in Europe blog yesterday about Flappy. I let him experience the oh, so swedish tradition of a Lucia procession.

Read all about it here!

Christmas fair

2010-12-07T18:05:00.005+01:00

This Sunday (December 5) I had a boot at the local Christmas fair, wich was really fun. Sales were not amazing, but I met lots of new people and handed out lots of bussiness cards and had a great day all together.

Here's a picture of my boot:

Flappy - the HIE mascot - is here!

2010-11-28T20:54:00.002+01:00

In the ArtFire guild Handmade in Europe we have a mascot called Flappy Flambé, or just Flappy. He's a phoenix bird to remind us how we were reborn from the ashes of the old european guild.

One of our guild members, Eddys Pressies, knitted us a lovely Flappy and now he's travelling all around Europe, visiting our studios and home towns. And now he's here, In Uppsala, Sweden, visiting me!

I blog about his visit on the guild blog. The first post can be found here: Flappy is in the house!
and the second one here: Flappy in my studio

Hope you like it!

Go find Flappy!! Or make a pice of jewellery!!

2010-10-01T13:27:00.003+02:00

I'm a member of two lovely guilds on ArtFire. On is Fire Divas - a group of talented lampworkers (and me), and one is Handmade in Europe - where all the members are european but active within different crafts.

And each guild has a fantastic challenge going on RIGHT NOW!!

In Fire Divas, it's the Quarterly Jewelry Challenge, wich I told you about before.

Handmade in Europe is throwing another Flappy Hunt! Flappy is the phoenix bird we've choosen for our symbol. And now he's looking for his realitves! Please help him!

And the best part is that there are wonderful prizec to be won in both the contests!

A new Curated Collection

2010-09-29T09:39:00.003+02:00

I love that ArtFire made it possible to create collections of your favourite items and show them of to others.

Today I made a collection of Fire Diva beads that are To Die For! Just look:

Glass! Lampwork f...

Curated By: BabsBeadsandD...

ArtFire.com

Craft Tutorials

I wish

2010-08-31T16:42:00.002+02:00

If could get what I want I'd do no other work than making beads. I could concider making jewellery, giving lessons etc, but everything would be beadrelated.

*Sigh!*

But there's no way I can make my dream come true. So I just keep doing my daytime job. That means, though, that my listing of new items, writing blogposts and everything else related to the lampwork bussiness will happen very randomly. As you might have noticed! :)

So I hope you have patience with me and keep visiting my blog, my ArtFire store and my Facebook Fanpage!

Fire Divas Quarterly Jewelry Challenge!

2010-08-23T18:48:00.001+02:00

It's that time again! The Fire Divas are hosting another Jewelry Challenge! For this challenge, the theme is "The Holiday Season." There are several holidays coming up, and we want to celebrate them! You can see holiday-inspired Fire Diva creations in our Flickr. By entering this challenge, you have the chance to win:

http://www.twoglassyladies.ca/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JanelDudleyBeads

http://www.arensea.etsy.com/

http://www.teasebeads.artfire.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/BabsBeadsandDesign

http://www.lajewelrydesigns.etsy.com/
or http://www.lajewelrydesigns.artfire.com/

http://www.hollysfolly.com/

http://www.lutrick.artfire.com/

Owl bead from http://www.maybeads.etsy.com/

http://www.emakaye.etsy.com/

http://www.beadygirlbeads.etsy.com/

Now for the details:

All submissions must feature Fire Divas' lampwork. We require the name of the Fire Diva who made the beads used in the submitted piece, so if you submit something, please be ready to provide that information.

We will allow one submission per person per contest, and a maximum of two photos per submission. Entries may be submitted here (http://www.flickr.com/groups/firedivachallenge/) for approval, no later than October 15, 2010. No Flickr account? No problem. You can also email your submissions to firedivas @ gmail . com (no spaces). Please include, in the comments section or in your email, the following:
Information about the beads:
Description of the piece:
Inspiration for the piece:
Submissions will not be approved without all of this information.

Fire Divas reserve the right to approve or reject any submissions.

Fire Divas reserve the right to modify or cancel the challenge at any time.

The winners will be determined by an open poll which does not allow multiple votes.

I guess summer is over

2010-08-22T11:01:00.003+02:00

I've tried to keep on to the summer for as long as possible. But now the kids re back in school, and my daytime job is really taking off, so I guess I'll have to stop pretending. Though it hurts a bit!

Among other stuff that has to be taken care of is my ArtFire shop - and this blog! There's lot of stuff happening in the lampwork/shop world. On is that I finally got to make, photograph and list some beads on ArtFire this week. Yay!!

Go visit my shop to see Galaxies and Autumn bloom, for example. And there is more to come this week.

I also listed Summer sea view, but it is already gone. I really liked i though, so I'll show you a pic of it here. Hope you enjoy!

Summer sea view

New category: Big Hole Beads (BHB)

2010-06-02T09:40:00.003+02:00

Yes, I finally caved in and bought some really thick mandrels (5 mm in diameter) to make big hole beads for Pandora, Troll, Biagi and similar jewelry. They are actually quite fun to make and kind of challenging to as I have to think in new dimensions while placing the pattern.

The mandrel in the picture is one of my normal sized ones.

And as these beads differ a bit from my normal production I also decided to open up a new category in my ArtFire studio for them.

Great news on Fire Divas blog!

2010-06-02T09:21:00.005+02:00

May has been somewhat insane for me. Lot of work and not so much time for beads or blog.

But I wanted to pop in and tell you about a new feature at the Fire Divas blog. As you probably know we have a daily post called Bead of the Day (or BOTD if your in a hurry). Now many of us divas have signed up for Bead of the Day project and discounts. In short it means taht if you are quick and order the featured bead within 24 hrs, you get some sort of discount.

Check it out to find out what, who and how much!

I don't believe it - SNOW!!!

2010-04-22T09:01:00.002+02:00

Last night snow started to fall over Uppsala. It's not totally for April in Sweden wich is reknowned for it moody weather but the snow was still on the ground when we wole up this morning and it keeps falling. Brrr!

So I thought I'd just cheer me - and you - up with som more floral beads.

Flower and pearls

Have you been invited to a party this spring? You'll feel like a princess in this necklace. It's made of white freshwater pearls and pea green seed beads. As a focal I've use one of my lampwork flowers in pea green and the lightest transaprent pink there is.

Blooming ink

The ink blue glass from CiM - Leaky pen - is very hard to use as it fries easily. Also it has to be laid over a light colour or else it will just look black. But when you overcome those issues it's a beautiful glass! Here I put it over white and added som white flowers randomly placed on the surface. The raised stamens are also made of Leaky pen .

Tangerine lampwork flower necklace

Here I made a pendant from the lampwork flower and let it hang from a wire necklet. An everyday necklace for the happy days of spring.

Meadow

A transparent green bead with surface decoration of frit in greens and yellows and raised flowers in pink and white.

Light turquoise flower earrings

Sterling silver and turquoise says summer to me. These lentil beads have an ivory coloured flower on each side. There's a necklace to go with them too...

Voting has begun - please use your vote!

2010-04-17T12:54:00.003+02:00

It's so exciting! 14 lovely entries are competing for fantastic prizes in Fire Divas Jewelry Challenge and voting begins today.
You simply MUST visit the Fire Divas blog and drowl over the lovely pieces and lay your vote on your personal favourite. (Not that I would DREAM of trying to influence your opinion, but one of the entries is featuring a bead of mine...)

Fire Divas is a group of 24 talented lampworkers who strives to promote, help and encourage eachother. You can find us in our blog, on Facebook and in the weekly threads on ArtFire and Etsy.

Lot of flowers going on

2010-04-15T11:06:00.002+02:00

I'm making a lot of floral beads right now. Might it be the spring influencing me? ;)

Romantic, lampwork bead

When I look around in the lampwork world I don't see so many florals right now. Maybe they're outmoded. But how can you grow tired of flowers??

They are great fun to make, too. So many possibiliteis in colours and shape. Should the flowers float ove a plain background or should there be a background decoration of frit?

Vulcano flowers

Maybe a winding wine for the flowers to grow from or a scrollwork to add interest.

Blossoms, lampwork necklace

And the flowers. Raised or flush? Encased or surface decoration? And how many petals should there be? How many layers of lovely glass, how small, how big?

Blooming rock

Should the bead just be a flower?

Bud

Or should the flower just be an accent on something else?

Goddess with rose on her hip

I could go on forever. But I wont. I'll just keep making them, hoping you'll love them!

Slytherin floral, lampwork bead

Don't forget to find Flappy!

2010-04-12T18:59:00.003+02:00

Remember the Phoenix hunt ends April 20. Hurry and find Flappy!

The hunt is hosted by the ArtFire guild Handmade in Europe, and there are fabulouse handmade prizes to win. Read all about us and the prizes in our blog.

Wohoo! I'm Diva of the month! :)

2010-04-05T10:49:00.003+02:00

This is so great. I'm the choosen one on Fire Divas blog during April. That means you can learn all about me (?) during these four weeks. The first part of the interview was published on the 1:st and the next part will be published on the 8:th. And so on!

You find the first part of the interview here!

And if you've got any questions not covered by the blogposts, feel free to ask me!

Fire Divas Jewelry Challenge - inspiration

2010-03-26T19:33:00.003+01:00

You haven't forgotten about the Fire Divas jewelry Challenge, have you!?

Holly posted two inspirational posts here and here. You can also visit the Flickr Challenge gallery for inspiration.

Now, go create!

Fabulouse give away!

2010-03-22T09:18:00.004+01:00

A lot going on in the ArtFire guilds right now. I've already told you about Fire Divas Jewelry Challenge.

My other guild - Handmade in Europe - is having a kind of Egg hunt-give away. Though with Flappy Flambé - the phoenix bird. It's not hard, just fun! And the winner will get beautiful, handmade stuff from european artists. The items will be presented more thoroughly in the blog during March and April.

Now go hunt!

The perfect tool

2010-03-20T14:05:00.003+01:00

People who are just about to get their first lampwork setup often asks what tools they should invest in (beside the obviouse torch and mandrels). Moste beginners kits includes a graphite marver and som kind of poking device, wich anyone who is into this hobby probably would recommend too. But what is the next step?

I've been addicted for almost three years and have gathered some tools, more or less useful. But there is one that I don't think I would do without (at least not as well!) and that happens to be the cheapest tool in the box! Here it is:

Yep, that's right. It's a common, stainless steel table knife. It was part of my husbands cuttlery when he moved away from home and I'm guessing he bought it real cheap at IKEA or so.

And now it's a lampwork tool! That must be a somewhat surprising experience for a knife. But totally awesome!

And I love and use it all the time. It's perfect for gently pushing glas around while encasing a bead. It works as a tiny marver when you just want to shape part of a bead, like the legs of a goddess or the fishes head. As it is so narrow, it doesn't hide the while bead like a marver would so it's easy to follow the lines you're creating.

It makes nice creases (I always use it for making striped wine stringer) and the cutting edge is great for raking or feathering pattern on the surface of the bead.

Tools can be really expensive. But they don't have to be to work! As long as they are made in a stainless material and doesn't melt or burn, they can work.

And the best part; When this knife is worn out, there are 11 more in the box!

Jewellery challenge with great prices!

2010-03-12T18:53:00.001+01:00

It's time for the Fire Divas Quarterly Jewelry Challenge! The theme for this challenge is Spring! Show us your beautiful Spring themed jewelry creations featuring Fire Divas' lampwork. Head over to the Flickr site to see many beautiful jewelry pieces made with Fire Divas' lampwork to inspire you! You have the chance to win these incredible prizes from the Fire Divas:

$50 Gift Certificate to http://www.hollysfolly.com

$25 Gift Certificate to http://www.lajewelrydesigns.artfire.com or
http://www.LAJewelryDesigns.etsy.com

$20 Gift Certificate to http://www.teasebeads.artfire.com or
http://www.teasebeads.etsy.com

Bentley the Blue dog from Lauren of Maybeads

$25 Gift Certificate to http://www.arensea.artfire.com

$25 Gift Certificate to http://www.beadygirlbeads.etsy.com

$20 Gift Certificate to http://www.lutrick.artfire.com

$20 Gift Certificate to http://www.BabsBeadsandDesign.artfire.com

$20 Gift Certificate to http://www.JanelDudleyBeads.etsy.com

Now for the details:

All submissions must feature Fire Divas' lampwork. We require the name of the Fire Diva who made the beads used in the submitted piece, so if you submit something, please be ready to provide that information.

We will allow one submission per person per contest, and a maximum of two photos per submission. Entries may be submitted here (http://www.flickr.com/groups/firedivachallenge/) for approval, no later than April 15, 2010. Please include, in the comments section, the following:
Information about the beads:
Description of the piece:
Inspiration for the piece:
Name of the lampwork artist:
Submissions will not be approved without all of this information.

Fire Divas reserve the right to approve or reject any submissions.

Fire Divas reserve the right to modify or cancel the challenge at any time.

The winners will be determined by an open poll which does not allow multiple votes.

Ok, go have fun creating, and good luck to all who enter!