More Good Stuff!

Glass!

I drove out to FlameTree Glass first thing this morning to stock up on glass I had run out of. What'd I get? Hmmm... here's the receipt. It says: 904-Gelly sty pink, 224-light sky blue, 422-orange pastel, 418-yellow pastel, 428 light red, V228-dark sky blue and lots and lots of 004-CLEAR! Is it weird that my favorite glass color to buy isn't actually a color at all? And that I actually prefer plain ol' Effetre clear over the supposedly better, certainly more expensive alternatives?

I'm not knocking Lauscha, believe me, because I think some of their colored glasses are absolutely luscious , but I never did very well using their clear for encasing. It's waaaaaay too stiff for my purposes and I ended up losing most of the beads I encased in Lauscha to cracking. And I don't mean little hairline cracks. Oh no - I mean big honkin' cracks that actually split the beads into 2 pieces that rock back and forth on the countertop when I go to clean them! Considering that probably 95% of the beads I make are clear encased, I just can't take the risk, you know?

And speaking of beads, I selected next month's color combination and have already started working! I am loving the new system - I feel so inspired!!