Candy Canes and Eye Candy Canes

By Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

Image taken from Logan's Candies website.

Have you ever heard the terms "millefiore" or "murrini"?

Murrini and millefiore are made from canes... glass canes made the same way that candy canes are made.

Layers of glass (or candy) pulled and or twisted when hot enough to stretch.

In the case of glass cane they are then sliced into usable chips to melt into a bead base for some stunning and very organic results.

All you have to do is google image "millefiore" which means "many flowers" to see an incredible array of fine glass work. Here is one example of hundreds.

from www.frantzartglass.com 

( my primary glass source for my lampworking supplies)

You can find several sources for beautiful murrini chips on Etsy if you are a lampworker.

Peony Petal Murrini by Beatlebaby

Li'l Pixie murrini by Beatlebaby

or these wonderful ethereal beauties using silvered glass ~

Sea Spider from CCG Glass Art

Aptly named for the holidays ~

Sugar Plum by CCG Glass Art

by Donna Millard of FyreBeadz

She also has an Etsy shop for her magnificent beads using her own murrini.

You see how I used some of Donna's murrini chips for these eye-popping headpins

Here's looking at you!

Murrini has been used in beads for 100's of years

used to great effect leaving them raised in this bead by SkyValleyBeads

A drop dead gorgeous example of magnification of murrini by 

CCGlassArt named "Beachcomber"

or melted in and swirled by JanZart

Lampworkers can make their own canes with their own choice of colors or buy the chips from other lampworkers.  It takes some concentration but the results are so rewarding.

So when you see murrini in beads now you know that the components that went into your bead were created during a whole separate step at the torch and adds great value to your art beads that puts them another notch above factory manufactured beads.

Bead Pairs and Marketing

by Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

There was an interesting discussion over on Creative Bead Chat group on facebook recently that garnered quite a few comments. The question was posed whether bead artists would consider offering pairs of beads when selling online rather than whole sets as there are so many designers that enjoy making matching earrings.

Mini Criffles by Numinositybeads

Judith Billig  ( these are her gorgeous beads)

offered up an interesting breakdown as to why it may be less than profitable to offer bead pairs as a lampworker when selling online.

Tulum Relics by Judith Billig

As a lampworker myself I could identify with her reasoning and her guesstimates as to what goes into making a simple lampwork bead pair as opposed to a set.

Here's what she had to offer up :

 "There's a fine balancing act between understanding the customers needs and being able to get at least the money back to cover expenses and labor (we're not even talking profit). Sometimes I do offer just two beads in one listing, as an earring pair, but never under $12. Let's talk about costs: a medium priced glass $0.25 in material. Let's add $1 overhead costs (energy, propane, bead release, rent/own the space, etching solution,bank fees), add $1 packaging costs, $0.20 listing fee Etsy, $0.62 Etsy final value fee, $0.70 Paypal fee, driving to the post office/mail box (packages don't fit into the thin slit of the "outgoing" postbox in our neighborhood) I'm wildly guesstimating $0.50 for gas/car expenses. We're already at $4.22 just in expenses, for a bead set of $12. We haven't even started with labor. Making the beads: 10 minutes, cleaning 2 minutes, photos 4 minutes, editing, 5 minutes, listing 4 minutes, marketing 4 minutes, packaging/printing/labels etc. 10 minutes, bookkeeping 2 minutes. That adds up to 41 minutes (YIKES!) for one set of earring pairs, and I haven't even brought the package to the mailbox, which is a 7 minute drive away. 
Sorry for the long post, and I hope this doesn't sound like whining. I just wanted to give a breakdown of what is involved in making and listing a single pair of beads. Many bead buyers are not aware of this: expenses $4.22 (wild guess), time 41 minutes. To be honest, I don't see how any artisan beadmaker could cover even expenses/labor with earring beads, unless they go into serious production mode (that's where I'm starting to debate the artisan part of beadmaking) which enables them to cut down on photo/editing/listing/marketing time drastically."

Which is exactly why you may see listings such as this. Bead sets that include matching pairs of a series. ( Pretty much for the same reasons you don't see berries sold in pairs in the grocery store!)

Or this in my Etsy shop

or these which are actually small focals which would cost a bit more due to their size.

I hope this helped a bit in understanding a bit of the behind the scenes strategizing that we handmade artisans need to employ to meet the needs of our customers and keep it a worthwhile enterprise.

XO Many thanks to you readers and enjoy the holiday season. XO

Kimberly Rogers

Frit, What's That?

by Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

Some of us artists who specialize in certain techniques such as lampworking tend to forget that not everybody is as familiar with terms as we are and maybe throw some words around thinking that folks will understand what we are talking about.

Recently I have been asked a few times "What is frit?"

In lampworking or glassblowing terms it's just a crushed glass that can be applied to the hot glass that will give a very organic spotted look.

It can be a slivered glass that will produce more metallic and ethereal effects such as these by JsavinaBeads

or simply a more colorful confetti-like array of colors

Here is an example of frit that has been applied and not fully melted in for a unique texture by

                                                                    CabariBeads

or these more ethereal and organic spots on these rounds by the same artist.

I applied some very coarse frit to this enameled copper here

and  I used some multicolored frit called "raku" although it has nothing to do with actual raku ceramic technique other than the oxides that cause this frit to vary in color when introduced to the heat.

Some of my headpins with some coarse silvered metallic frit

The smaller frit can produce a more granite- like stone effect in conjunction with the baking soda treatment I use to "crustify" my beads

Shiny or crusty it's an effect that I employ for a large part of my handmade components.

Some of you might recognize this from my NuminosityBeads avatar. It's an extreme close-up of a cased bead (meaning a layer of clear glass has been applied over the base and frit to achieve magnification)

So now next time you hear or see the word frit you'll be in the know.

Nails & Stitched Hearts

by Kimberly Rogers of NuminosityBeads

Quite a few of us that make components are always on the lookout for ubiquitous elements to use in our pieces. Things that are common to use in an uncommon way.

When I found a trove of rusty old nails on a scavenging foray I wondered how they would work with lampwork.

I had no idea how they would be received but it was some torch play I was looking forward to.

I was pleased with my results and even more please when I saw how someone creative like  fancifuldevices would actually incorporate it into a necklace design!

By the way, fancifuldevices has a new tutorial on setting rough stones with epoxy putty!

Then I experimented with plunging little steel cut nails of the hardware store variety into the hot glass

I call it "Steampunkture"

This chunky piece might be a challenge in a design but I  couldn't resist the allure of the numbered railroad nail that I had found near our desert property in Arizona

"Lampwonk" is another name for this style of beads.

Here is how Pipnmolly has used one of my lampwonk nails in this magnificent piece.

The beadmaking is a little different in how I have to apply the glass as normally I can simply spin a mandrel this is a little less graceful application resulting in a more freeform bead but I enjoy seeing what evolves from my clumsy application of the hot glass.

Listed in my shop on Etsy

I discovered this shop on y search for jewelry incorporating nails.

these are the creation of Beardyman in the UK.

These are horseshoe nails

Maybe we can convince him that it would be worthwhile to ship outside of the UK, what do

you say? I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. At least go favorite his shop.

Now here's another favorite component make of mine that uses nails in the most imaginative way.

MAKUstudio

whimsical, earthy and edgy in turn

I adore her use of the little hardware nails with amazing raku brilliance and creative shapes.

Which is a perfect segue to stitched hearts.

This crusty number by another one of my favorite  ceramic component makers - 

ScorchedEarthOnEtsy

and here's some polymer clay stitchery by the lovely Jana of HappyFishShop

and one of her stitched hearts which looks like a rusted patinated metal bit.

This brings me to our own Staci Louise of SLArtisanAccents who has been making these stitched metal hearts.

Can you see this sort of component being featured in your designs?