Glitter - A Little Goes A Long Way - Sharing New Experiments

In my last post, I shared my initial testing of a few of Lori Riley's dichroic strips.

On her site she describes these as "premium dichroic strips are fused and ready for flame. These prefused dichroic strips help prevent scumming and are much easier to use."

I was also blessed with some Lumiere Lusters glitters that I have only started to experiment with.

I wanted to share a few more focal beads that combined some various new glasses that I am trying out from Double Helix Glassworks with these various glittery treats!

First up, these two focal were created over a clear base with encased layers of Double Helix Oracle Violet Opal (I am not certain which one I have, but click here to review them)

Streams of Double Helix rare silver glass known as BE-462 Purple Luster was added along with Dots of Riley Dichroic Pink & Teal Crinkle strip. 

A final encasement of Double Helix Zephyr completely the bead before the final shaping.

These would be lovely pendants.


This next bead was created on a base of CiM - Creation Is Messy's Maroon, a dense maroon red. Streams of Riley Dichroic Pink Teal Crinkle and Double Helix TC663 test glass. 

Zephyr clear encasement was added to capture the glitter and the mother of pearl luster of the silver infused glass.

Finally, just a couple of first tries at adding Lumiere Luster's Ion Opal glitter to a simple bead base of CiM’s Midnight. 

This glitter is much easier to manage than the pixie dust of the "old days" of my lampworking beginnings.

I look forward to testing and trying to find the best way to use this glitter to it's best potential without adding any burnout or scumming that sometimes results from working the bead with too much heat.

Nortel Glass in Toronto has a wonderful selection of these little treasures, so definitely contact Jean or Jennifer to purchase some for your next bead making session!

#creationismessy
#cimglass
#cimmaroon
#rileydichroic
#lumierelusters
#nortel
#doublehelixglass
#pendragonfyre
@creationismessy
@nortel_glassgirl

Why have I never tried Dichroic glass strips before?

On my visit to Nortel back in October, I was blessed with a couple of strips of dichroic glass to experiment with.

These strips of sparkly goodness are the creation of Lori Riley Designs. 

On her site she describes these as "premium dichroic strips are fused and ready for flame. These perfused dichroic strips help prevent scumming and are much easier to use."
They are easy to apply and I have a fun time creating the focal beads in this post, trying out a different one on each bead.

Nortel Glass in Toronto has a wonderful selection of these little treasures, so definitely contact Jean or Jennifer to purchase some for your next bead making session!

All of the beads were created with CiM - Creation Is Messy's Midnight Ltd Run, a dense transparent that color shifts between purple in daylight and navy blue in fluorescent light.
For each of my beads, I feel that the base glass appears more as a black. 
Midnight is a great base for silver glass as well, so I added a few streams of it in each bead as well as I really couldn't resist!

First up.
A base of CiM Midnight with melted Violet dichroic strip and streams of Double Helix Melia 2015. The bead was encased with Effetre Super Clear and hand shaped into the round barrel bead.
The ends of this 35.6mm long bead were decorated with Melia and reduced to a shiny metallic finish.



This 29mm long round barrel focal bead combined Riley's Dichroic strip simply named G/Magenta Crinkle and reams of rare Double Helix KA 357 on the base of CiM Midnight.
The bead was fully enacsed in Effetre Super Clear.

Riley's Dichroic strip named RBA GN Magenta Blue and Double Helix Psyche glass were streams on CiM Midnight. This handformed barrel focal measures 36mm after fully encased in Effetre Super Clear.

Last but certainly not least...

CiM Midnight excelled as the base for Riley Dichroic Aurora C/DK Red and Double Helix Elpis silver glass. This round barrel focal is 34mm long after being encased in Effetre Super Clear and handformed.

Aren't they so pretty and so different?

I recommend trying something new is a great way to finish out 2022 and expand your beadmaking horizons for 2023.

Next post will explore a few more glittery beads that I recently created.

Til next time,
Darlene