New Tigers

Messing around with my tiger design, not that it needs it, but I feel the need to try and shake things up sometimes.

This first one, I put some amber glass over the tiger twisty, not sure that it adds all that much, but it does make it shiny. The center is reduced helios gold glass that came out looking like a mirror almost.

The second one is, hmn, looking rather snaky. Perhaps the snake is wearing tiger's clothing? I don't know, but I do like the effect, it's organic and animal all at the same time.





What do you think? Don't mess with the original?

Tiger, er... Snow Leopard Beads?

Remember a bit ago, before I got hooked on Kalypso glass, when I was all Tiger beads all the time? Yeah, I only have a few of them in the shop left - I should make some more, don't you think? One of these days. In the meantime, I found these three beads. They were my prototypes for my Tiger beads. I was so bummed with them at the time - they were not the vision I had in my head... and I just tossed them aside. But I found them again and now I think, hmn... they are not so bad, in their own way. They are certainly not Tiger beads, but I can see some snow leopard in them. Can't you? They sure don't deserve to sit in a dark box all the time, so I'm going to list them on Etsy.

A Whole Litter of Kittens

No, not really, but wouldn't that be fun? What I really have is 13 wild tiger beads, all listed on Etsy. Here are a couple of them - check out the store to see the rest! Thanks for looking. xoxo

Size Matters

I've been getting a lot of "Wow, that's a BIG bead!" and "Whoa, that is HUGE!", and "Holy Moley, Girl, how much glass is in this thing?" and not enough, "Oh, how beautiful!" lately. I think I've been handed a sign, what do you think? I love making them big... though they have been getting bigger and bigger on me, and I realize, not everyone wants a big honkin' paperweight to wear around their neck. So, I've decided to try to work a little smaller. Sometimes. Not as a rule, but as an option.

This morning I was cleaning my new "little" beads, and Luke came up to see what I had going on.. and he was all excited: "Hey Mom! Your bead had babies!!!", And he went and got one of my big beads and brought it back to show me. He said he really liked these sizes, they were more "portable". Isn't that funny? Portable. I love his vocabulary. He also said he didn't love the rounder fat one as much as the thinner squished one. (One is made with a Zoozi press and one with a masher). I have to agree. He has good taste.

Here you can see what I'm talking about, with a quarter even for reference. How clever! Yes, they are still big, but not BIG. What do you think - are they more "portable"?

Just listed a bunch of Tiger Beads!

All on Etsy this morning:

The Blue Tiger Bead

I'm trying this out in some other colors (though I love the traditional topaz and cream and gold!). So far, this is not quite right, I got a reaction I don't love on the blue - the part that looks a little pink? Not what I wanted. I'll try again though! And I'm going to try purple too!

Another Tiger Bead

Freshly listed on Ebay!

Hear Me Roar

I am so excited. These are the beads... THE BEADS... that have been waiting to come out of me for ever and ever. And they are finally here! My big cat beads, wild cats, beasts of the jungle, the Serengeti, the mountains, and yes, even the back yard. My Tribe of Tiger Beads.

The inspiration:




















For many years, I've been messing around, trying to create "jungle print" type beads. Several years ago, for my birthday, Frank got me a private class with Corina. (My favorite birthday ever, Friday Harbor, kayaking, melting glass with Corina - pure perfection). I remember Corina asked me, what beads did I want to learn how to do - and I answered "animal beads, jungle beads". I'm sure she was thinking, "oh no! not animal beads" but she was great, she pulled out a big encyclopedia and found a picture of a giraffe and another one of a jaguar and we made "animal beads". They were lovely beads, I still have them and will treasure them forever... but they weren't "it".

I tried doing the tiger thing, the jaguar thing, even the zebra thing (I know, that's not a cat!)... but it was never "it", not quite what I was going for, whatever that was. My Rainforest beads hinted at "it". I love those beads... but there was something... else... I was still reaching for.

I finally found "it". Big cats. In glass. Beautiful reactive metallic sparkly shiny glass. My Tribe of Tiger beads. I love them - I hope you do too.