Showing posts with label handmade beads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label handmade beads. Show all posts

Tuesday 5 September 2017

Seadbeady's Finds on Etsy - Lampwork beads

If you could name one thing you would always be happy with to get as a small gift.......What would it be? Some people would have to think about that question. Others like me would have their answer ready in a second.

Maybe you could guess what mine would be? It's not that hard cause I use them almost every day. Yes them so it's almost always more than one. And some of you might also know that I am quite addicted to them. πŸ˜€

Beads off course in all kinds of sizes and shapes. I already have a nice collection in my closet.......but there is always room for more 😏

Have you ever heard of lampwork beads? They are beads made of melted glass that is formed by blowing and shaping with tools. They require a lot of technique and some are really works of art.

Today I chose some lovely beads from Etsy shops to show to you.


Lampwork Bead Pair - Shimmer in pink. Lampwork glass beads



Lampwork Beads Saltwater Blue per bead



Large Hole Tribal Beads, Bead Set, Lampwork Beads



Metallic lampwork beads - set of streaky yellow mirror finish glass beads



Four Glass Beads - Heart shaped beads in Grey - Handmade Lampwork



Sapphire blue lampwork beads, glass bells 10mm, handmade flowers



Bright Lampwork Beads, Crystal Lampwork Beads, Lampwork Bead Set



Green Glittery Flower Lampwork Bead



Small Core Artisan Bead SRA Lampwork Beads BHB



4 Blue Lampwork Glass Beads 8 x 12 mm Rondelle Glass Beads


They all look wonderful don't you agree? If I would ever win the lottery I think I would have to restrain myself from buying too much of these. Like a kid in a candy shop 😎

Hope you enjoyed my pics and my blogpost for today.........Until next time.........Have a nice day

And by the way if you like my posts and want me to blabber a bit about a shop of yours for a bit of extra promotion - just let me know 😊

Renata (Seadbeady)



Tuesday 22 August 2017

Confessions of a Seadbeadaholic part 5

Last time I told you about my Fimo episode. Haven't made any more beads lately, but that doesn't mean I will never make them again. Never say never, that's something my husband always says. Actually he says it in Dutch "zeg nooit nooit" .

In my surfing I also discovered the art of beading. Surfing on the internet off course, although I did surf ages ago. Well not that long but I was 22 when I attended a Windsurfing Camp. Nope I am no longer a spring chicken. Ok if you really wanna know I am 54. Eek yes stop reading all the rubbish of this stupid old lady haha.

So now for the ones that are still interested 😁
Here is one channel on youtube that blew my mind away:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Beading4perfectionis
Really you should go and check it out. And I also discovered a magazine that really inspired me
http://www.facetjewelry.com/magazine/bead-button
You might as well check that out at the same time 😎

At first I started with pretty cheap beads I found in the Veritas (Belgian shop) from GΓΌtermann size 9


And I made of lot of pieces with them. Like this one that I made in 2013 πŸ˜€


The necklace wasn't too bad but a terrible picture again. It's only since 2 years that I have been working hard on improving my pictures. Let me show you one that's in my Etsy shop now and a bit similar to this one.


https://www.etsy.com/nl/listing/486821866/kralentouw-juwelen-zus-kralenketting?ref=listings_manager_grid

You could say that there is a slight difference between those pictures. I know what shop to pick if I had to choose between these two pictures. Wouldn't you??

But at the time I didn't see it, don't ask me why? Maybe I was a little too subjective?
So I opened an Etsy shop, thinking my pieces would be good enough to sell.

Eh noooo, off course not. So after half a year of waiting for my first sale I decided to close my shop again.

And I am ending my blogpost too for today.......Until next time.......Hope you enjoyed reading

Renata (Seadbeady)



Friday 18 August 2017

Confessions of a Seadbeadaholic part 4

And it's story time again today.

The wire necklaces I made were ok. But that's definately not the end of my bead quest.
I was thinking what if I made my own beads with Fimo Polymer Clay. Then my necklace would be even more special.

So I started experimenting after a quick glance on the internet. Couldn't be that hard I thought. Haha wrong off course. I rolled my beads - nothing wrong at that time. But then they needed to bake in the oven. Ok no problem, I took some tooth picks and pushed them in the clay. But none of the clay beads kept their shape when being pushed on the tooth pick. But I managed to get them shaped again more or less. And in the oven they went.

Great my first badge was ready. After they had cooled down I put on the varnish and waited for a day to let them dry. Finally the next day it was time to get them of the sticks. What did you think happened? The sticks where stuck - couldn't get the beads off. There they went, all in the trash can. 😒

So I decided to buy this book on Bol.com - they even still sell it :)

https://www.bol.com/nl/p/making-jewelry-from-polymer-clay/1001004010363347/

After a bit of training I succeeded into making some reasonably nice beads. Like the ones in this necklace I still have 😊


But I must say making those beads is pretty labour intensive. First softening the clay and making shapes or mixes with them. Then rolling out the beads. And the step that I didn't know about before was putting them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to harden the clay again. And I used special bead baking pins to put the beads on. So then they went in the oven for 35 minutes.

After they had cooled down I put on a first coating with varnish. Then I had to wait until next day to put on the second coating. And finally the third day I could take them of the pins and start to use them in my jewelry.

Some people liked and others did not. And I did sell a few on markets. Yes indeed always enough to cover my costs and buy a few new materials. But I wasn't getting rich - no way. My business was still bringing in just enough to buy me some more beading stuff. And I was still happy with that.

The end for now - gonna tell you more about my bead addiction later

Hope you had fun reading.......Until tomorrow......Have a great day

Renata (Seadbeady)

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