Beadbijoux by Leslie Deaunne

While the world was thrown into a live action dystopian movie, yours truly needed even more disruption and chaos. If I didn't know better, I would almost think I enjoyed insanity as I tend to rattle my own world on a seemingly regular basis. Let's go crazy and build a house and move in the middle of a pandemic while the world is on fire and supply chain issues abound. Sounds like fun. While we are at it, let's also make sure the kids are ripped from the school district they've known since kindy and introduce them to a whole new lot of kids ... during hybrid learning and mask mandates making it even harder to meet people. And since we are on a roll, let's tear down the one thing that keeps mama sane and pack the studio up first to get it out of the way. MAKES TOTAL SENSE . Fast forward two years and here we are. We survived. The kids survived. The GLASS survived. And we are all happy and thriving and better than we were before. The house is amazing. Our new school d...

Glass Color Families Part Two Previously I discussed how sometimes you get pigeonholed into making a specific style of bead and it can quash your creativity. I changed my mentality at the torch and began focusing on color families instead of specific bead styles. I never went back. Occasionally I still kick out a set that is quintessentially me when I am on beadmaking autopilot ... but my beadmaking 'signature' has moved more towards color combinations and focusing on harmonious color palettes. These recent sets are a shout-out to one of my favorite colors: orange . Is there a happier color than orange? I can't help but smile when I see orange. It is a color I use quite often because I just love it so.  I even love the smell of orange. It smells fresh and clean. It is invigorating and energizing.  My dad's favorite color was orange. Maybe that is why I am so drawn to it and use it as the accent color throughout my home. It reminds me of him. Sunshine: orange, yel...

I have been a long time fan of famous glass mastermind Chihuly. I saw his work for the first time in a garden exhibit on an overseas trip to London with my mom. We were in complete awe over just how majestic and fanciful it all was. What really captured my heart was the masterpiece on display at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. I could have camped out on the floor and stared at the ceiling all day long if they would have let me. I cannot deny the influence it has had on my own glass work - though on a much smaller scale. No room for crucibles and glassblowing equipment in my tiny urban home studio. My latest obsession is making glass disk beads. So much fun color and movement packed into such a tiny little package. They remind me of the colorful blown glass disks I love so much.  Who inspires you? Are you afraid of accidentally copying someone else's work?  This question plagues new artists of all kinds ... but the simple truth is that unless you are intentionally t...

Lampworking Soft Glass Color Reference My series on color families  helped me finally achieve my goal of making a mega set. I'm always impressed with artists that can put together a large collection of beads. I could never seem to muster enough energy or interest to make more than four or five. This concept also worked in combination with my other mission ... to clear out my studio of all 'odds and ends' colors to focus on my stock color collection. A great beadmaker once said you don't need every single glass color that comes out - focus on working within a stock collection of colors. This hit hard. I didn't want to get caught up in the buy every new color  mentality - especially when manufacturers started putting out limited edition and odd lot colors (which I am convinced are just a marketing ploy to make us buy more glass) . My bank account would not be able to keep up. I had 2 rods left of this mystery light blue [old notes lead me to believe it is CIM 519 ...

Let's focus on color families. After making the same style of bead over and over again, I noticed that I was losing my enthusiasm for the craft and becoming stressed out during my precious time at the torch. Lampworking is supposed to be my happy place, not an added source of stress in my life. So I changed my habits. Instead of making a set of all the same bead, I am focusing on the color families - choosing a set of colors I want to work with and letting the beads become whatever they are going to be. This means working with different shapes, sizes, and styles ... but staying entirely within the same color palette. All the beads could work together in a set, or they could each become their own piece of jewelry, or matched up with other components in the same color family. All of these sets focus on a specific color palette. But I explored different styles of beads as well as mixing up the shapes and sizes. It made the creative process more fun while finishing with a unified group...

I have long been a fan of crisp, clean design. I love modern, geometric, squared off things - from the shaker cabinets in my kitchen to the boxy modern sofa in the family room. One feature of fused glass that has always bothered me is the natural tendency of the glass to 'round off' on the edges after a firing. Quite honestly most people don't notice the difference and I am just ridiculously over analytical of it. Nevertheless, I set out on a quest to create a crisp, straight-edged design in my glass. Cue the cold-working. The only way to achieve such a look is through extensive cold-working - which is to manipulate the glass after it has been fired with equipment and hand tools and patience . Coldworking is not for the fair-weather glass artist or faint of heart. It takes a lot of nit picky futzing around. And muscle. My hands and arms are tired from all that buffing. These pieces all went through the saw blade, then the grinder disk, then the bevel disk, then th...

#0877 Orchid A gold ruby where less is definitely more. This is a rich, dense ruby pink with warm undertones that looks its best when applied thin and not overworked. My favorite beads were those that used the least amount of frit. When piled densely on top of itself an almost brownish color resulted. The thinner areas gave way to a bright ruby pink, where the darker areas turned more burgundy. Working Notes Opacity : This is an opaque glass. A thick application over clear transmits very little light. A thin application over a darker base color stays solid and does not show the base color through. Spread : This glass behaved itself and stayed put. It didn't really spread or sink and held its shape. If you squint your eyes and look for it, you can see a tiny bit of color pooling on the coffee bead, but for the most part it lays down where you place it and looks the same. Futz Factor : I found this glass to be the least fussy of all the colors I tested. The un-encased st...