Lampwork Lemur bead

Here is an end-of-torch-session-mess-around-bead. Meet little Lemur bead. Or as my youngest daughter 11yrs and collector of Furbies calls him,..a Furby bead.

Because I don’t yet have a kiln to anneal my beads straight from the torch (buuuuut,..I’m finally picking up a kiln tomorrow yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!),. I’ve never attempted to make anything sculptured or anything riskier than the snowflake beads simply because they most likely would not survive and would crack during the vermiculite cool down. The other night at the torch however, as I trying to choose some colours for my last bead for the session, my 15yr old daughter was wondering around the studio chatting to me as I worked and I said to her “I’ll make you a mobile phone dangly, what would you like?” She chose to have a black bead with ‘Watercolours’ Frit Fusion.

She left the studio and I had a brain snap . I thought,..I might just surprise her with a little black and watercolour frit kitty. Whaahaahhaaaha…yep little Lemur was suppose to be a kitty ROFL@myself. Ok,.. well it was my first sculptured bead and maybe I overdid the eyes just a little LOLOLOL. Anyway,. I thought, if I keep it small..it might survive like the snowflakes did, and I will anneal it when I get my kiln,..so little Lemur was born,..all of 15mm high. My daughter loves him, and even my hubby likes him,.. he took him to work, (for three days grrrrr) to show him off *giggle*.

It is hard to see in the pic, but he has a pink and blue fritty body.

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Latest Lampwork bead set

Here is my latest set. I was not quite sure what these beads reminded me of as I was making them and it was really annoying me,.. I was thinking maybe kind of tribal but that still wasn’t quite it either. As soon as a dear friend of mine saw them she said Batik!,..and yes that was exactly what they remind me of,…gorgeous patterned fabric, created using hot wax masking…. oh wow that brings back some scary,..yet fun memories of my teen years. I can almost smell the beeswax.

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