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.

Great news on Fire Divas blog!

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!!!

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!

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

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!

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! :)

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!