I say ladybug, you say ladybird!

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.)

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!

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 and going out of the saftey zone.

Yesterday I actually listed two items on Babs Beads & Design on ArtFire. One of them is another example from my fish collection:


This one differs from the others in one significant way; It actually tries to look like a real fish! It's a glassy friend to the swordtail fish (Xiphophorus helleri) swimming around in our aquarium here at home. Swordtails come in a lot of different colours and most common is the all orange one, but ours have black fins and tail.

The bead is a female fish as I thought the sword that adorns the male swordtail would be to thin and fragile for a glass bead. At least if it's going to be worn in a piece of jewellery!

The other bead is something quite different. It's easy and fun to make a kind of bead you are familiar with and just alter colour combos and little details. It's also very much fun to be inspired by other beadmakers and see what you can come up with, using their concept.

But sometimes I need to step completely out of the saftey zone and do something different. Just play around with different glass and see what comes out!

Mostly, the beads that are a result of this process end up in the "good idea but need to be worked on"-bowl I've got in the kitchen window. (A bowl that all kids that come here LOVE to go through! They think the beads are all beautiful.)

But sometimes I come up with a bead I'm really happy of. This is an example of such a bead:


I call it Winged raku, cause I don't know what else to call it! :) The black bead has a raku frit deco that developped wonderful colours. I'm deffinitly not a raku-master, so I'm excited every time I get soe kind of colour out of that glass.

The wings are made of light amber and Rubino oro.

For more info on these beads, please visit my ArtFire studio!

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!

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