Hold your nose, take a deep breath and...

......jump in. Sounds like a swimming lesson and today did feel abit like diving into the deep end. It is an age since I have had the energy to get into the workshop and today I did it big style. I fired up the kiln, gathered together all my tools and then..... total blank. I couldn't decide which colours to use. Then I remembered the lovely MiniMojo box from Jolene. I have signed up to receive one a month. I have been too 'scared' to dive in before now - not sure about using shards and beautiful twisties but I am going to get one of these boxes each month and if I don't start to use them a)they will pile up and b)I'll never get to know how to use them. Here are the results.

This is a picture of the shards on CiM Kryptonite and Chalcedony. I had quite good bead shapes until I applied the shards, in some cases I found I was pulling the bead out of shape while trying to pull the shard around the bead. I find the CiM glass is softer than the Effetre. However, I think these beads will look quite good when cleaned and made into the bracelet that has started to form itself in my mind, hhmmmmmm.

These three are CiM Kryptonite with some twisties from the same MiniMojo box. I had a hard time trying to decide what colour to use with these twisties, and I wasn't happy with the results so I decided to put the twisties away. I really like twisties on disc beads and disc beads are on my list of shapes to master.

I then decided to revisit a design I was working on before my latest 'break'. During my previous session at the torch I was playing with Rubino Oro and I managed to get some of the lovely deep pink shades that had been eluding me.



I was pleased with these beads at the time. The egg-shape on the far right was an experiment in stringer control and although the shape isn't very good the pattern is great, its quite subtle in this shot.This set is called 'Honeybee' not very original but what else could it be? So, as I said I've had quite a break from the studio and I made the next set at the end of a long session (well it was a long session by my current standards)



I like the colours, I think, but the pattern is not quite as even around the bead as I have achieved in the previous attempts. The main thing is that I have had a really good glassy session that I thoroughly enjoyed. I should have been designing some new workshops but hey there's always tommorrow!