Bead a Day 20 (May 4th)

WOW! I love this bead! it's huge! 20mm by 18mm (Note to self: pay attention to Laura Sparling's advice that when encasing you only need a tiny base bead!) This is a base of effetre black, covered with a thin layer of reichenbach multicolour encased in effetre clear. The Colours are amazing, it looks like something out of a science fiction film! It has a kind of boro whispiness and, well, I don't know how to describe it, but I think it's amazing! Also, it didn't crack (slow cooked vermiculite strikes again!) going to have lots of fun playing with this glass, just got to hope that the kiln fairies doen't take a dislike to this bead!

Bead a Day 19 (May 3rd)

Following on from the theme of the 2nd this is a focal made from effetre black with reichenbach multicolour stringer, I seemed to get it to behave a bit more this time. It's gone a lovely russety colour!

I started using vermiculite in a slow cooker rather than the annealing bubbles to cool the beads and since then I've had no breakages; so either I'm being more effective with my heat control or the slow cooker/vermiculite combo is fantastic!