Raked Flame Set

Striking Effetre pastel orange-yellows

Page and I tend to go for a sort of goth or victorian look for a lot of our work, which translates to clear, jewel-toned transparents when we make beads. I wanted to do something a little different for the bead designs I made for this show, and I have a batch of untagged opaque yellow effetre that I particularly liked. The opaque yellow/orange/red pastels can be somewhat flameworked to strike them darker (Frantz was selling a transparent version of glass that could be variably struck from yellow to red for awhile), and this particular batch could, with some effort and more luck be struck to a very appealing orange tinge.

Set of five hollow lampwork beads. Effetre, July 2006. Roughly 13 mm hole to hole.

That was the basis for this design. Because I wanted the hollow aspect of the beads to show, as well as fire's gaseous, semi-transparent nature, I used blue filigrana for the ice half of the bead. But, the cool thing to me is that, to get the glass to strike, you need a reducing flame, that is, one that is blue on the bottom with orange tips. So the design of these beads, simple as it is, works for me on three levels---aesthetically: I think they're pretty; metaphorically: in that they reproduce the flame that made them; and literally: in that the contrasting blue and orange colors recreate the title of the show, "Fire&Ice" for which I particularly made them.

I liked these beads so well I made a slightly larger pair of them in the same design into a pair of earrings for me, the first earrings I've made for myself in what---five years? A long time, at any rate.

File created 19jul07.