blackberrybeads -faceted focals

Faceted Focals

I thought you might find it interesting to see these beads as is...the first one in the photo is the very beginning of the grinding process...As you can see from the thick layer of ivory and black, it will take a LOT of grinding to get a 'window' effect and I think I'm going to have to do some clever experimentation in order to remove enough of the outside glass to make it useful..As a result, I made the second bead yesterday using enamels which give a very small amount of color and boy is that a life saver! A tiny layer of bright orange (looks gold in the pic) and a thin layer of black on the outside, and for fun I went ahead and faceted it (see below)...

The last bead shown is one you've already seen, but I bet you haven't seen the end blown off - I did that a few weeks ago, getting out of my car to pick up my tax returns from my accountant...the neck wire I was wearing just sprung open and the bead hit the concrete sidewalk...I think I can just grind down that edge and turn it into a 'customized' bead, right? and it was my first try at this technique, so there are lots of issues with it (see the thick bands of color and black around it? that's why I went to the enamel process)...So while I was bummed, I wasn't TOO upset about it...I'll show ya what it looks like once I get some more grinding done to it...

I think you can get a fairly good representation of the faceting from this angle shot... lemme tell ya - this multi-faceting takes a TON of time, especially in the polishing stage...there are 4 disks to the process, and I have to grind/polish each facet with each disk...not something I plan on doing a lot of, well, who knows...maybe I will...

I like the fact that this bead is so much smaller than what I would normally have had to make in order to get decent grinding from it...there is a LOT of clear on this bead of course, but the thin coating of orange and black give just a suggestion of color without overpowering the bead..I also like that you can look 'up inside' the bead and see the full layer of orange (not shown in the shot)...

These are seed bead bracelets that Janice Peacock showed us in class a few weeks back...Well, it was after class, we all hiked to Mick's house and spent the night making bracelets..The salmon one with the yellow bead (Janice's bead I bought from her) was the one I learned in 'class' and the other three (pink, teal and cocoa) I've been working on here over the past few nights...

I use a single strand of thread because its easier for me to pull the needle off and rip out mistakes and I make plenty...the poor cocoa bracelet has taken twice as long because I keep doing things wrong, but its almost complete (see the string in the photo), I'm on my last pass and then it'll be done...

I've been using squeeze beads that I had in my bead box as my clasps and so far they've working pretty well...Janice's bead has little indentions in it which is a great 'safety' catch but I'm making the loop slightly smaller so the bead doesn't easily fall out...