Jet Age Studios Lumiere Lusters - A Full Session of Experimentation!

Pendragonfyre Tales blog is where I share my passion for glass bead making. 

Today I want to talk about something that has somewhat changed my perspective on adding sparkle to my beads: Lumiere Lusters!  These are products from Jet Age Studio that create stunning color shifts and shimmer effects on glass. 

I have been experimenting with them since my last visit to Nortel and I recently spent a full day at the torch working on a proper method for me to incorporate them into my style of bead making. 

I have never been a fan of glitter or mica dust in my studio as I find that the cleanup after a torch session created more work than the reward. I preferred to use silver glass to create the bling in my designs.

But then I decided to take on a challenge and try something new. I wanted to give a true review and "re-light the fire" of glitter in my studio. These are not your ordinary glitters, they are flakes of pure magic that transform your beads into dazzling jewels. They come in a variety of colors and effects, and you can use them with any type of glass.

In this blog post, I will show you some of the bead sets that I made using Lumiere Lusters and CiM - Creation Is Messy and Effetre glasses. 

CiM is one of my favorite brands of glass because they have such vibrant and unique colors. 

Note: I chose to use Effetre clear for each of the bead sets within this post, because I wanted to see how the lusters would look with different base colors.

First up, combining the luster with CiM's Eel Grass, a nature-inspired transparent green that reminds me of seaweed and algae. 

I sprinkled some Lumiere Luster's Shangri-La on top of the Eel Grass before encasing it with clear. 

Shangri-La is a gorgeous color shifting flake that goes from bright deep magenta / berry-pinks to bright orange to gold depending on the angle it is viewed. 

The result was stunning! 

These round barrel beads sparkle as you shift them with gold accent glitters!

The spacers are pure Eel Grass.

Next, I used CiM's Cleopatra, a super dense saturated transparent purple that is so rich and royal. It is so dark that in many bead applications, I dilute the glass with clear otherwise the beads appear almost black. 

But for this experiment, I wanted to see how the luster would contrast with the deep purple. So I used Lumiere Luster's Agua Verde, a beautiful color shifting flake that shifts from deep greens, to aqua, to deep blue depending on the angle it is viewed. 

I applied some Agua Verde on top of the Cleopatra before encasing it with clear. 

The result was amazing! These round beads look like they have tiny galaxies inside them!

I'm so excited to show you these amazing barrel beads that I made with Effetre striking red transparent glass and Ion Opal luster from Jet Age Studios. 

This luster is a stunning flake that changes color depending on the angle and the light. 

It looks like magic on these beads!

The color of these beads makes me think of candy apples that I used to eat at the country fair. They are so delicious and shiny!

The next set of barrel beads that I want to share with you is made with Effetre Black Olive glass, which is a dark transparent glass that has a brownish tint when it's thin. 

I used Flame Red Opal Lumiere Luster for this set, which is another gorgeous flake from Jet Age Studios. 

It has a fiery red glow that contrasts beautifully with the dark glass.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and got inspired by the possibilities of Lumiere Lusters. They are truly a game changer for adding sparkle and color shift to your glass beads. If you want to try them yourself, you can order them from Jean or Jennifer at Nortel  in Toronto. And if you do, please share your creations with me! I would love to see what you make with these magical flakes!

#creationismessy

#cimglass

#cimeelgrass

#cimcleopatra

#jetagestudio

#lumiereluster

#lumierelusteraguaverde

#lumierelustershangrila

#lumierelusterionopal

#lumierelusterflameredopal

#nortel

#pendragonfyre

#handmade

#handmadeincanada

@creationismessy

@nortel_glassgirl

Glittery Goodness - CiM - Creation Is Messy Cleopatra

Just a quick post to share... It has been a very cold February after such a mild start of 2023.

This set of sparkle beads was created on a base of CiM - Creation Is Messy’s Cleopatra Ltd Run, dense and saturated transparent purple.

This is another glass that is so dark, it appears black in most applications as a base glass.

Each bead was generously sprinkled with Double Helix Helios glass frit and reduced to sparkly goodness.

#creationismessy

#cimglass

#cimcleopatra

#nortel

#doublehelixglass

#helios

@creationismessy

@nortel_glassgirl

Silver Glass Reactions

Two quick sets to share today.

Starting on a base of CiM's Mockingbird Ltd Run, a transparent gray on which Double Helix Ekho silver glass frit was sprinkled and reduced.

Mockingbird is a great base for silver glass and assists in coaxing out metallic hues of blue, pink, silver and gold.

The set below uses the storming technique that I mentioned in a post a few days ago, but this time the storms were captured under multiple portals of clear glass around each bead.

The base glass is CiM's Prairie Grass Ltd Run. Each bead uses multiple layers of ivory, CiM Cleopatra Ltd Run, stormed TAG's Golden Emerald and a final clear encasement.
The result creates unique "storms" of green and purple in each portal. 
Dots of Double Helix Aurae glass were added to the shoulders of the beads for metallic highlights.

Single Focal Beads - Window Panes with Silver Reactions

Today, we are exploring "window pane" style focal beads.

Starting on a base of CiM's new limited run, Mockingbird, a transparent grey, Double Helix's Ekho frit was sprinkled, reduced and encased with clear glass.
Dots of Double Helix silver glass were placed at each end to create this "window pane" bead. I love the hues of blue "ghostly" images peeking as if captured within the bead.

Two views of this bead are noted below showing how the bead's appearance shifts based on the viewing angle.

Starting on a base of CiM's new limited run, Barrier Reef, a transparent teal, silver glass was swirled, reduced and encased with clear glass.
Shards of Double Helix Triton glass were placed at each end to create this "window pane" bead. I love the hues of teal and blue peeking through along with the "mother of pearl" reaction of the silver glass that shines through as well.

Two views of this bead are noted below:

This last focal bead I have fondly name "The Tempest". It started out with a base of clear glass on which I added CiM Cleopatra, a dense transparent purple.  I then added Double Helix silver glass from their recent "garage sale" mystery box.
The bead was both reduced and gravity swirled and encased under clear glass to create the wisps of colors. 
A few dots of silver glass were added to the shoulders of the bead and reduced to a metallic shine for this "window pane" bead.

Two views of this bead are noted below:

Silver Glass Storming - Revisiting a Technique

Today's post explores some experiments that I had with storming silver glass.

Storming is based on a tutorial by Amy Kinsch. The principle is to heavily reduce a silver infused glass and by manipulating the torch's mix of propane and oxygen you can create webbing designs when captured under a clear glass encasement.

In this set, I used combinations of TAG's Golden Emerald and Double Helix Psyche glasses.

The base of the beads is a new CiM color named Cleopatra. It is a dense and saturated transparent purple.

As you can see, there are lots of stormed reactions that make each bead unique.

This dense transparent purple base glass is very dark on its own.

For the round bead, second from the left, I used a clear core before adding Cleopatra purple in order to give the bead more definition by diluting purple. It created a great transparency for both the hue and the texture of the twisted storms.