It’s so funny, this is one of the most exciting things to happen for me business wise this year and I forgot to post about it! I found out on October 31st that one of my big enamel focal beads was chosen to be in Lark Crafts new book “1000 Beads”!
The Lark Crafts books are absolutely gorgeous. Each page is a full shot of some stunning work, whether rings, glass, enamel, ceramics, etc. They have quite an extensive series. I’ve always admired them so when I saw their call for entry I thought I would give it a shot.
The piece that was chosen is called “Lava Flow”. It’s a very large focal bead I made using plumber’s pipe and a LOT of layers of enamel. I think this bead went through about 50 firings before I was happy with it. Because I fire each layer flat it’s hard to realize that each of those firings was an additional layer of enamel, with a total of about 10 or 12 colours (maybe more, I lost count!). It also takes a careful burn firing to make the colours blend this way. And because there is so much enamel I had to keep flipping it each time I fired so the enamel wouldn’t all slump to one end. So a lot of work for one bead 😉
I’m really looking forward to April when the book comes out and I can see my piece and all the other wonderful creations by artists from around the world!
Here is my lovely Lava Flow 🙂
torched studio 