I have two new tone-on-tone transparent blends, perfect for summer. "Catalina Blue" and "Violet Storm", both are gorgeous--they even pair nicely with each other.

with silver foil:

Check out the new 'Ample Samples'

Some of my favorite colors and blends in a sampler size.
It's an 'Ample Sample' and it's just perfect!

This weekend, I set out to make beads with a limited color range. I chose 6 frit colors/blend, you can see them lined up in little row: Gold Pink, Gypsy Skirt, Red Violet, Oriental Blue, River Dance and Autumn Green. I had a great time and fell in love with a couple of frits all over again. Gypsy Skirt is my new favorite! What a complex delightful blend. It stirs with magic when silver foil is involved. My second new favorite, which I haven't played with much, is Red Violet. Gosh, what a luscious, lickable color that is. I wanted to lick it, but no!--too hot.

The Red Violet and Oriental blue wanted to play together, I tried to keep them apart, but when I wasn't looking they jumped into the sandbox together and a couple beads (which happened to be my favorites) highlight both colors in one. I used a bit of Silver Lake frit where you see the white, otherwise all of these beads are done on a clear base. I love silver foil and many of the colors color shift to a warm or green tone when silver is invited in. With silver, the pinks tend to turn warm gold and the violets a green.

There are so many ways to melt frit in beadmaking, here is a simple method I use quite a bit for fast, colorful beads. Heat the end of a rod of clear, dip it in a bit of opaque. (I've used Silver lake here--yumm!). Melt that in. Then while the glass is hot, dip it in another color--I love the transparents! Melt that in and get it hot in anticipation for wrapping around a mandrel. Wind the glass on and let the clear of the rod that's already warm encase the bead on the final wrap. It's simple, one handed, no tools required and can be made in a minute or two!