I've just taken my first workshop from a very famous beadmaker, Kristina Logan.She is justly called the queen of the dots! I'm inspired to try a new look, lots of dots.

I haven't taken a workshop before because I am ambivalent about being affected by another lampworker's style. I usually work in a solitary fashion making the beads that come into my imagination. With these new beads I see them as "Kristina" beads and quite unrelated to my style.

But they were fun to make, she helped me with heat control and the idea of multiple layers. She was a delightful personality and her beads reflect it. I will try to find a picture of one of her famous and expensive beads to add later.

I've discovered that I most enjoy the fine detail work of using "stringers" to create my floral beads. Both sides of the beads have different flowers and in a set I don't repeat a flower.In the box lids are some of these finely pulled strands of glass. They are thinner than spagettinni!!! To make them I pull a very hot blob of glass with tweezers in opposing directions until it is as thin as possible.

These miniature garden beads have become my trademark. Now I only make a set each month because they are so time intensive.

When making beads almost daily I have ended up with lots of extras. I realized I've created a ranking system without realizing it. Rank 1 beads go into sets to be sold in my Etsy shop, (or for me to wear). Rank 2 beads go into my bead bowl to be sold in destashing groups, usually by color. Rank 3 beads I give to my daughter to take to the beach when she's surfing to toss along the shoreline. Rank 4 beads go into my garden between the bricks in a walkway. Rank 5 beads are those that turn out ugly so I take my tweezers and pinch and pull out noses, ears, mouths, then add eyeballs. These I call My Mad Monkeys ,( after the first one I made looked like an infuriated monkey.) I string them up casually on clear stretchy elastic and wear them for fun. I especially like looking at them when I'm stuck in traffic or a red light- ALWAYS brings a smile to my face.

This shows some very simple murrini I made. It's something I want to do more of and learn more advanced methods. There are some glass artists in Italy who ONLY make murrini.Theirs will show detailed scenes, faces, animals, and butterflies.

Here's how they are made.. many layers of encasing with transparent and opaque colors, slowly building up the design. Then the bundle is heated until soupy soft and slowly pulled to a length. When cool it is cut with glass cutters into thin slices, it is the cross section you see applied to the bead. Those little murrini slices in the white spoon are about 3.5mm in diameter .

Murrini

Trying out new possibilities in glass is intriguing. The element of chance is the excitement, the open-ended "what ifs" are compelling. I have been making my own simple murrini slices to add to my beads. Now I've started to buy complex murrini made by steadier hands and am having fun trying out different ways to use them. Here they are floating surface design elements and then they are flower faces growing in a garden.