New listings

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!

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

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

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 guess summer is over

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)

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.

I don't believe it - SNOW!!!

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...

Don't forget to find Flappy!

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.

Fabulouse give away!

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!

Just listed: a fish and a set!

This week has been insane in many ways and I haven't found any time for listing or blogging until this weekend. So now I want to show you two items.

The first one might not be a great surprise - it's a fish!

Goldie, lampwork fish

Goldie is a girl with a taste for glamuor. Her body send out sparks from the gold aventurin I used for the pattern. Her fins are in light and medium amber that bring out the golden look and her lipstick is dark red.

The next item is really five items. It's the first set I've ever listed!

They are made of dark grey glass with a white dot pattern. I'm really fond of the tranquility in them.

But most of all I'm quite proud of having made a set! I'm normally more of a focal kind of lampworker. When I make a bead I allready have the next one planned in my head and I jump between styles and techniques. A lot of the joy in torching lies in the infinite possibilities and constant ability to change.

On the other hand I'd love to make jewellery with a set of lampwork beads! And I guess I'm not the only one thinking so.

For further info and more beads and jewellery, please visit my ArtFire studio!

Just listed

Well, "just" is a relative word, isn't it! :)

On Sunday I found time to take picture of a few objects that is going up on ArtFire this week. So yesterday I posted another fish - Marina:

Her clear body has a pattern of blue aventurin that sends of beautiful sparks. As hard to catch on photo as the sun on the sea. Hence her name!
Her fins are white and ink blue and she is 42 mm long. Big girl!

Today I listed a turtle for a change. That's another creature I love to make. This one is called Orangina:

Her shell is orange with vanilla yellow pattern. It's encased and on the top Iäve added a pattern in white and light lemon yellow.

This is the kind of bead that cracks on me most often. And, annoying enough, it's always as I add the finishing touch - the toes! They are quite hard to get there and melt in without them disappearing and it takes quite some concentration for me to get it right. And while concentrating on the toes, I sometimes forget to keep the shell hot. So it cracks. Any lampworker know the sound of a cracking bead and what it feels like when you've put a lot of time and energy into a bead when just to hear that sound. And there is nothing to save a turtle that has cracked!

But this one made it! Count your blessings! :)

For more details on the listed beads, please visit my ArtFire studio!

Valentine sale for all Facebook fanclub members

It's very much winter here in Sweden and I'm looking for ways to cheer me - and you - up. So I decided to have a sale for all my Facebook Fanclub members. Maybe you can cheer someone up to with a little gift!
Go to my fan page and see what the deal is!

BabsBeadsandDesign on Facebook

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.

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.