I picked up some beautiful Italian Marble shards from Avenue Beads while I was at Bead and Button but I kept putting off playing with them for various reasons. I’ve worked with shards before and I’ve even made my own but I never really saw the appeal of them. The technique is just to wind glass off the end of a hollow mandrel and then blow the glass “balloon” steadily until a thin-but-not-too-thin sphere emerges. Kind of like a light bulb body. Applying them takes a little effort and technique but…still, no big deal to me.
I finally played with them a couple of weeks ago and after I saw what came out of the kiln, I ordered two more colors.
Take a look!
Italian Marble
Italian Marble
Lunar Rainbow
Lunar Rainbow
Borealis
Borealis
Please note, I don’t think I did justice to the Borealis. I read the instructions on striking after I made the beads but I still think they are beautiful!
Take a look at Joe’s work at
http://www.avenuebeads.com/ or on Etsy at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AvenueBeads.
