Silver glass – inspiration from the past

It’s been quite a while that I haven’t worked passionately with silver glass. I guess after making hundreds and hundreds of beads with them in the last 5 years, I grew a bit tired of silver glass (can you imagine?). So for the last couple of months I’ve blissfully neglected it … it might even have been a year or so that I haven’t made a new designs with it and that I didn’t order any silver glass. I wasn’t even tempted by the new releases that came out in the last year.

But for some reason, the muse was missing in action in the last couple of days. What is an artist to do? I pulled out some old pictures from two years ago, and drew inspiration from past work. And I have to say, I had a blast working with silver glass again :).

Funnily enough, the results of some of the beads are different. Everybody that ever worked with silver glass knows that it has a fickle heart … results can vary from “poop color” to magnificent, depending on the equipment, the humidity, propane tank pressure, your breathing pattern, the cycle of the moon and the constellation of the stars. :).
My equipment changed in the last two years, because I use now a Cricket torch and upgraded my oxygen generator to a bigger model. Add to that a different time of the year and other variables (star constellations!), and voila, a very different outcome.

Here are a few sets that I made yesterday, revisiting old designs.

Zanzibar (two different silver glass colors by Double Helix, 22K gold leaf and encased in clear):

Fearless Fall (StrikingColor silver glass, wrapped into clear stringer)

Steampunk Lentils (simple design – actually no design at all – but always stunning color reactions: Reichenbach Iris Green)

As always, these sets are available in my Etsy shop.
Off now to the torch …it’s time to have a serious word with the bead muse and drag her out of hiding :).