Beadlust

More Lampwork Beads
&
Treasure Bracelets

So we continue yesterday's post with a look at some of Nicole LeClaire Brown's beautiful lampworked beads.

This carmel/peach set will make a fabulous bracelet. Of course they could be strung with accent beads between them, and that would be nice. But I think they'll look scrumptious in a woven treasure bracelet. Below is one of Nicole's bracelets (she's taken my class twice - once at the Coupeville Art Center, and again at the Bead Festival last week).

You can see how sweet these precious little beads look with just a few other complimentary beads, woven into a bracelet. Below is another set of Nicole's beads, which I plan to turn into a purple/blue dream bracelet.

And here's the bracelet Nicole made during class last week. This one she made for her mom, Renee, who was also in the class. These colors are totally Renee!

The bead sets and bracelets above feature repetition of the same (or very similar) beads, which gives the bracelets a pleasing unity. It's also fun to bring less similar, but still related, beads into a design scheme. Below are two groups of beads I got from Nicole, which I selected from about 200 orphan beads - one of a kind, left overs from sets, experimental beads, etc. I simply chose ones that I really liked. When I got home, and started playing with them, they seemed to group themselves into three different sets. I could only get two of the images to upload... here they are:

Aren't they just yummy?!!!

To ~ Nicole and Terri (see Terri's beads in yesterday's post) ~ Thanks for letting me post pictures of your beads, and here's wishing you all the success in the world with your passion. You are both so very talented!

To ~ All Who Don't Make Lampwork Beads ~ I've tried it and it isn't easy. It requires good depth perception (which was a problem for me) to be able to tell where your bead is positioned within the flame of the torch... a tad too close to the source and your bead is burned, a bit too far away and the glass doesn't melt properly. It requires steady hands and a willingness to get very close to fire. The glass, tools and equipment are expensive (as in: comparable to a closet full of fabrics, top of the line sewing machines, and a full set of templates and cutting tools). For most, the learning curve spans years, with lots of cracked, lumpy, unattractive beads along the way, before they're able to produce the consistency needed for a set of beads such as Terri's Lagoon Relic (picture previous post). Lampworkers, I salute you!

Oh, here's a grand link! It's a site where lampworkers can post pictures of their beads. They are currently showing the work of 1,809 glass artists. Here's Nicole's page.

To ~ Those of you who'd like to give finger weaving a try ~ this book (my newest baby, born just 4 weeks ago) shows you everything I've learned and discovered in the past 15 years about making and designing finger woven treasure bracelets, necklaces, tassels and straps. It's a fun, versatile, easy to learn technique!