handmade lampwork focals

What’s a lampworker to do when she’s trying hard to watch her waistline but still craves all the foods she knows she shouldn’t have? She makes all her favorite treats out of glass, of course – LOL! 😀

I have always loved to bake and, more importantly…eat! One night I fell asleep thinking about how I might make a slice of pie-shaped bead, going through each step in my mind until I was sure I could duplicate this treat in glass. So, the next time I was at the torch I tried my hand at ‘baking’ the perfect slice of Lemon Meringue Pie and the results were a pleasant surprise.

Once I thought through that process my mind started racing with ideas for all kinds of favorite foods I could turn into glass beads. I have a very long list of things I have yet to try but the beads shown below are ones that I have already worked on and which have turned out well (if I do say so myself ;-).

All these beads are available now on eBay: http://shop.ebay.com/ccglassart

CHEESEBURGER – This bead was so much fun to make but quite tricky to figure out as well. Getting all the elements balanced and real looking was a challenge. I started by layering each ‘ingredient’ just like you do with a real cheeseburger. The bottom bun is topped with a juicy meat patty, then layered with a slice of melting cheddar cheese, crisp green lettuce, a juicy tomato slice then finished off with a fluffy sesame seed bun.

ICE CREAM CONE: This bead is a fond farewell to summer and all the cool sweet treats we’ll miss (because in the winter we just eat ice cream from a carton, right? not in a cone – lol!) I made the vanilla ice cream to hang over the waffle cone so it appears to be just about to melt. I also sprinkled some colorful sugar ‘jimmies’ on top for fun.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE: This is one of my husband’s favorite desserts – mine too! From the flaky and lightly browned pie crust, to the tart lemon filling and sweet, toasted meringue on top – this bead looks good enough to eat (but please don’t ;-)).

All these beads are available now on eBay: http://shop.ebay.com/ccglassart

Stay tuned for more foodie & sweet treat beads to come…

Until next time,
CC
http://www.ccglassart.com

It feels like I’ve been particularly busy this week making beads – which is fine by me since I love it so much! I believe a lot of my enthusiasm has to do with working with the style of beads you see. These are more organic and freeform in nature, yet all the random colors and patterns are captured within a perfect round shaped bead. This contrast of design is something I am drawn to making again and again.

Click here to view all of these beads available on eBay now!

SERENGETI: Lots of sparkle, shine and reactions going on in this bead. The glittering goldstone stringer against the deep topaz glass, shiny silver, and multicolored glass shards reminded me of the Serengeti plains in Africa at twilight.

NORTHSHORE: I’m sure you can tell right away why I named this bead after a popular surf spot in Hawaii. The reactive glass shards I used here bloomed into this wave-like shape with bright ocean colors.

NEFERTITI: When working with this bead I initially had a completely different name in mind for it. But once I took the bead out of kiln the bead had come to life with so many richer colors than I expected. Also, the shape of the shards looked very egyptian to me, even resembling the famous bust of Nefertiti herself.

FEATHER: With the deep raking and the wispy streaks of color that developed in the reactive silver glass, the name Feather just suited this bead perfectly.

NEPTUNE’S NET: It is so much fun to watch some of these reactive glasses come to life in the flame! The interaction between the base glass and the silver glass in this bead, produced this beautiful net-like pattern. With its pale carribbean blue color, I thought the name Neptune’s Net was fitting.

NAPA: This bead has a base of deep, rich true eggplant colored glass which is just beautiful against the reactive glass shards which developed into shades of celadon, chartreuse, aqua and teal. As if that wasn’t enough, the eggplant base glass peeked through the reactive glass creating what looked to me like little clusters of grapes, hence the name NAPA after Napa Valley, CA.

PERSIMMON: Here’s another bead that I originally had planned to name something different until I removed it from the kiln. The colors in this bead range from a true persimmon, to a light apricot and a soft coral. Set against a creamy light ivory background makes this bead especially beautiful in it’s simplicity.