Tumble Polished Porcelain

Well the first batch is out of the tumbler - only took about a week of constant tumbling to get the finish I wanted. Phew!

But, even if I say so myself, they are just lovely. I will most certainly making more of these. A bit of a shine - tho more of a sheen on some. Even the finest details are still visible.

I have some porcelain that I have stained that I am sure will look stunning in this lovely finish.

I have started listing these on my new Etsy store along with a lot more, so go along and take a look. The link is at the top of the page. The picture quality here is not as good as it should be - they are not as blue as they would appear to be.

Bye for now

Terri

And the winner is!!!!!!!

Sarah.


All names went into the hat this morning and Sarah was drawn. Congratulations Sarah!

A bag of beads will be on their way to you just as soon as you send me your address details.

Thank you all for taking the time to look and leave a comment - and such complimentary comments they were too.

I will be getting my new Esty shop stocked over the next couple of days - if you are interested there is a direct link at the top of the blog page.

Well must get on.......beads won't make themselves y'know.

Terri

The first batch of finished beads!!!!

This is the first batch of finished beads - fresh from the kiln. They are porcelain finished in stains and unglazed. I like the feeling of unglazed ceramics - though that is not to say I will not be using glazes at times as well.

Once my Esty shop is launched on the week before easter these beads will be listed for sale - but you can get your mitts on some sooner than that!

I am offering a bag of mixed beads in a free draw.

The rules are:

Sign in, register as a follower and leave a comment giving your reason of why you should get a bag of free beads - simple! But the conditions are that there must be at least 20 followers registered for the draw to go ahead, and you send me a picture of the piece that you make using the beads to be published on the blog.

Closing date is Sat 27th March at midnight.

Good luck!

Terri

Experimenting going well.

Here are the lastest beads. In the first pictures is a big pile of porcelain beads that are straight from the biscuit firing this moring. They are destined for various finishing techniques including glazing with under glaze colours, coloured without glaze. A few are going for a special test - I am going to attempt to silver them - just the the Greek Silvered beads. Watch this space.

Also featured in the bottom photo is the latest batch of Egyptian Paste or Faience. Turquoise and creamy tan. Still needs some work - but we are getting there.

And last but not least - lampwork. Following the tutorial in the current edition of Making Jewellery Magazine these are my first attempt at scuptural lampwork. Not having any lampworking mashers to hand I adapted some stainless steel tongs and they did the job in the flower petals just nicely. They have not been cleaned yet so ignore the dark stuff in the hole. I will be making plenty more of these in the near future and listing them on my Etsy Shop.

Shop is not live yet - but will be by the end of the month.

Any comments and feed back is always welcome.

Till the next time

Terri

The beginning!!!

Here we are, at the beginning.

The beginning of what? - I hear you ask.

The beginning of my adventures in the land of bead making. This blog will chart my progress through my experiments in bead making. Glass, ceramics, silver and polymer clays are my materials of choice.

I hope you will enjoy following this blog through all the ups and down of my progress, and get to enjoy the beads first hand. I will record the failures and celebrate the successful. As things progress I will offer the beads for sale via my online shop (when I have set it up) and there will be regular competitions and offers as well. So come by regularly and get your friends and colleagues to follow as well.

I have already made a start. I am practising my lampworking 2 or 3 times a week and making decent progress and I will soon be offering my glass beads via my online shop. So keep an eye out for news of that.

Porcelain beads. I am working on several ideas with these and will have some ready in the very near future - hopefully by the middle of next week.

The more technically difficult Faience or Egyptian Paste is still very much in the experimental stages. The first trials had mixed results and a second batch is on it's way to the kiln. They should be ready by the end of this week. Fingers crossed.

Polymer clay. Have been working with Cernit polymer clay that I bought from Emma Ralph at EJRBeads. Much softer than Fimo in the making stage but is making some very nice beads indeed. I have made a bracelet which has been entered into the Making Jewellery Forum - February competition. This was made of Cernit polymer clays, sterling silver wire and finished off with a Tibetan Silver toggle clasp. I have loaded a picture of said bracelet here and would welcome all your comments.

Cheers for now

Terri