It's Springtime, TIME for Happy Beads!

Porcelain Pastel Yellows, Blues, and Grays Nugget Mix

 I've been doing some fun cone six firings the last week and wanted to showcase some of what I've done. 

I have these 6 porcelain beads showcased over at the Ceramic Art Bead Market right now. If you are not yet a member of that group, you are missing out on some fantastic bead deals.

The bids typically start out at half price and not all of them are bid up to retail. It's worth your pocketbook to check them out. 

Hearts and Crosses Porcelain Bead

 Oh ...and I did mention that we have give-aways, as well?

On the right here is a bead I have put in my NKPdesigns webstore. 

It's made from porcelain clay, has the sprig technique that I adore, and I have decorated the sprigs with hearts and crosses.

I  dipped it into a black wash of undercolor so that the texture would be certain to stand out and be noticed and I used a rutile glaze.

Ocean Octopus Porcelain Bead

 On this next porcelain bead, I have textured with circles with the same glazing technique. 

I decided afterward that the circles look like the suction cups on octopus tentacles.  It's a fun texture and I am going to do more like this I think.

Turquoise Green Stoneware Ceramic Beads

Now the turquoise green beads in the next two pictures are some of my favorite firings from this kiln load.

I had taken a variety of objects to make textures with and these ended up being smash and squished until they were no longer round, but this funky potato shape and aren't I lucky that Etsy has a category just for potato shape beads?  Yay!

Turquoise Green Stoneware Ceramic Beads

 I put these four in my etsy store, but also, currently I have an auction going on for some more of these in the Facebook group:  CERAMIC ART BEAD MARKET . 



I also added some to my webstore and if you click on the caption (last picture), the link will take you there.  I love how the stoneware clay combined with the turquoise glaze gives a greenish hue. 

Today I have another load of bead firing to cone six. 

In the past I have written down glaze combinations and after the beads are finished firing I tend to sit on my couch and roll them around in the couch and wonder which glaze combination went with which style of bead?

But this time I took a bisque bead and a slip of paper, wrote down the glaze combination and placed both in small little bags. Now I will have all the information I will need in the event I ever want to attempt to duplicate a result.

I admit that I should do this with every firing, but sometimes I enjoy glazing in the moment, impulsively opening jars of glaze and slapping a bit of this, and a bit of that, until I have some bead that will never be duplicated (and sometimes I kinda like it that way).