I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got a look at the beads I made. They're not bad. There's one that even looks close to something a professional would make. Purely accidental, I assure you.
Here's the whole collection:
The plain beads were the first practice ones just to get a feel for working with the melted glass. I started to have a bit more fun and play around with these round beads between the plain spacers.
Then I was feeling more comfortable and tried a few new things - making dots, using frit (broken glass bits) and a metallic-looking glass.
Then we tried making long beads using a little metal plate to roll the bead on. I didn't expect the orange to be quite so orange. You really don't know how the colours are going to turn out because the beads are still quite hot when they go into the kiln and the true colours don't show. But it turned out pretty well. My favourite of all the beads I made is the darker long bead. It looks really cool.
Unfortunately the photo doesn't do the bead justice. The metallic sheen and layers of colour don't show up too well. I definitely will make this one into a pendant to wear and proudly say I made it.
