Pick a Peck of . . . Flowers?

Fruits of my labor over this past, very busy weekend! (I also made beads for some mini essential spacer sets, but didn't finish cleaning them yet.)

And here I thought I'd be done playing "catch-up" with custom orders by midweek last week. Yeah, right - famous last words! I still have a bit more to go before I'm completely caught up. 

I need to make another of these sets, the "Bed of Roses" set I sold on Etsy a few months ago.   

And that's only if I can figure out what glass I used to make the focal bubble disk. I'm 80% sure it was a Double Helix glass and not a boro bead, but I wouldn't swear to it. Suffice it to say, there will much poking about in my glass stash, melting of glass, and perhaps even "colorful language" (if I'm being completely honest with myself) until I can cross this order off my list.

Then, I have been asked to make these beads in red, yellow, and orange.

Which should be interesting, because I can't think of any glass colors I actually use less than red, yellow, and orange! (Last encased floral bead order pictured above not counted) The main reason for that is because they're just not easy glass colors to work with. Opaque red glass has a tendency to go livery (basically, it burns the color out and looks like a mucky, grey-ish brown) when overheated, and they ALL three look like the same color when they're hot, so it's very difficult to tell exactly where you've put which glass. 

I'm feeling equal parts apprehensive and excited about pushing myself out of my comfort zone in even attempting to make those "hot star" beads. But even so, I think after the Bed of Roses remake, I'm going to take a few days to make some palette-cleansing beads. I haven't decided what yet, but with the just the slightest hint of leaves beginning to turn on the nearby trees, I'm starting to dream of cooler weather. With today forecast to be in the upper 80's, it's no surprise I'm excited by the thought of things cooling down! It's the weirdest thing, but I find myself wanting to make Christmas beads!