With the Women's Fair coming up I thought I should make some Christmassy themed beads so here's a preview of some I'll have available that day -



I've wanted to make some Goddess beads as well, but can't bring myself to try the torso type so decided to take another track.  There are some beautiful torso's out there, but I don't think I could bring myself to wear a naked body round my neck (it's the prudish side of me coming out I guess!!), so here's what I did instead.  I've got some ideas to progress with these which might be fun to try.  Don't pay too much attention to the trees, they will require YEARS of practise!



And here at last is CL's necklace, I am really pleased with how this project turned out, there are so many colours in it I think it would go with anything.  I took the beads into the local bead store to see how best to string them and got such a positive response from the owner and other lady that works there that I came away on cloud nine.

Just when I think I've found the most amazing thing about the glass I'm using, I do something else and get blown away by what happens!!

These are the latest, the base beads are wrapped in silver foil, which is then burned off in the flame resulting in that wonderful colour and texture!!
 
I've put dots on top, and also used glass that will reduce in the right kind of flame giving a metallic shine to them.  

The reducing part is a bit tricky, I seem to get the effect but end up with one part of the bead where it burns off again, I guess it's another case of PPP -- I have to make more of these beads....
** A word of caution - silver fumes are toxic, so if you are going to use any glass with silver make sure your ventilation is VERY good!**

These beads remind me of the colours in butterfly wings

And the blues really pop if you put iris blue over top of opal yellow!! The picture doesn't do the colours justice.