With the type of glass I use it is often tricky to find a wide selection of nice, rich purple colors. You usually have to get pretty creative layering different colors of glass to achieve the shades you’re after. This batch of beads was a challenge to see how much variation of purple I could get into each bead without repeating the same murrini too often.

This resulted in a nice mix of purple, violet, lilac, lavender and other colors that went nicely together such as amber, ivory and purple; aqua, indigo blue and purple, etc.

Unfortunately there aren’t many beads to choose from in this batch – not because of the issue with purple glass, but mainly because of our hot summer weather!

In years past I have taken the entire summer off from torching because it is nearly impossible to do when it’s 100+ degrees. Especially when you add on the heat coming off the torch, kiln, and bead warmer! And the older I get, the less tolerant I am of these conditions and would just rather hibernate in the air conditioning until the weather changes. 😀

But when you have a passion for making beads, and have new ideas that are nagging at you, it’s hard to wait out the heat. Our high summer temperatures typically last well into October and sometimes early November!

This summer has been no different heat-wise. But I have been trying to catch a cool-ish morning or two now and then so I can torch for at least a little while. This way I have some beads to share, as few as they may be…

These are available on Etsy. Enjoy!

Thanks for looking! 😀