Recent bead photos

Here are photos of beads I made at demos in Israel and here.


This little one was made with copper green as a base, then green-and-black striped stringer over it. Turned out really cool.


This one was made in kind of a hurry, so the ends aren't too great. It was my first bead experimenting with making flowers with striped stringer, and it turned into kind of a mess, not what was planned. But it was cool anyway.


This was my first attempt to implement Wendy's technique to make Harlequin-type beads. Didn't quite turn out, but still pretty.


Another attempt at the same technique; since there were so many clear layers over a larger bead, they blended together so the dots sort of floated. This is also the shape that makes a pretty drop; it's the "Yeah, sure, I meant to do that!" bead.

Oops, accidentally deleted the photo of the dichro bead. It's my last dichro bead left; all the others got taken in swaps. I'm glad people like them. Maybe I should make mare!

Implosion beads... a little discouraged

Since seeing Or's demonstration of implosion beads, I've really wanted to do them. Not so easy on a Hothead torch, I know, but he did say it should be possible to make them using soft glass.

I tried once in Israel, shortly after seeing the demo, and while the result wasn't pretty, it was closer than tonight's attempt. True, I hadn't lampworked in a while other than in demos, and I ran out of gas partway through the bead (!!), probably leading to the crack, but still, the bead turned out really ugly. I also managed to get white areas that almost look like scarring on the bead somehow, and the clear glass turned muddy around the edges.

In trying to figure out what went wrong and how to improve my technique, I found this link tonight: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2108. It has some info about how to make it better next time. I'll try again, but really wish I had a kiln! It should be delivered soon, I hope.

No pictures of this ugly sucker. It's way too embarrassing, even for me. If anyone has a good resource for me on how to make these, I'd really appreciate it. It's been hard to track anything down on this topic on the net.

New article publication status

I'm now an expert author featured on ezinearticles.com. I put a couple of my articles over there. Nothing about lampwork yet, but hopefully at some point! This link will take you directly to my articles.

If it sounds too good to be true... aka Indonesian scam

This isn't strictly lampwork-related, but I think enough jewelry-makers read this blog to make it worth putting this here.

A week or so ago, I received an inquiry from a man in Indonesia about buying multiple copies of certain items on my website. I immediately suspected fraud, so I explained that I only had one piece of each. The man, who wrote impeccable English, said that was fine. I asked why he wanted to buy so much money's worth of jewelry (it was around $250). He said it was for his wife and daughters.

He then asked if he could email me the billing and shipping info instead of using the catalog. I told him the catalog was better, since it was more secure, and figured if he was a scammer, it would be too much work for him.

No such luck. He was unusually together. He placed an order for the same items he had asked about (most scammers forget). I started allowing myself to feel happy about such a large order and the money that would bring. At the same time, I started researching shipping to Indonesia, as well as fraud protection, and found that a) Indonesia is second only to Nigeria in credit card fraud levels, and b) jewelry is prohibited to ship to Indonesia.

Per suggestions on another site, I asked the customer for a CVV number, the bank listed on the credit card, and the customer service number on the card. He sent me the CVV and customer service number. He also said he had just received a diamond ring sent to him, so he didn't think the prohibition existed.

Today I started checking. Called the customer service phone number he gave me; it was for a Canadian bank, and the number didn't belong to one of their cards. The fishy smell grew stronger.

I then contacted an American bank to find out where the number originated. Got the runaround for a while until someone there gave me the number for Visa International, 800-847-2911, since the card number started with a 4. Visa International told me which bank to call.

When I finally got to the right bank, and told them I was a merchant checking on fraud, they confirmed my suspicions. The card was at an American address, and it had no other suspicious charges on it. I asked if there were any tiny charges, like for penny amounts. Indeed there were. This part is important!

In Indonesia, they are very sophisticated; one of the ways they get CC numbers is to run random computer-generated numbers with expiration dates until they get some that go through. They put through charges for tiny amounts that people won't bother to contest, and if the charge goes through, they know it's good. So do watch out for penny amounts showing up on your credit card bills.

I asked the woman to check the CVV number as well, and she said it did not check out. So the charge would not have gone through anyway, but I feel better having checked, even if it took way too much time.

Lesson: the scammers are getting more sophisticated all the time. They can also read materials on the internet that give warning signs about scammers. So they are trying to avoid some of the more obvious signs. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

More on Demos, and Upcoming Podcast

Last time, I promised to write more about the other demo done here. It was simple and sweet, for my co-homeroom teacher, Claudia, and her children. I made a cool bead that turned out lopsided, but as the eldest girl pointed out, it looked perfect as a drop bead. "Yeah, I meant it to look like that!" was the decided outcome of this fun encounter. I'll try to post pics later.

The girl made a bead, too. It turned out nice. She was the youngest person I've taught to make a bead, and it was only because she's exceptionally responsible and crafty, and her mom was right there. It's definitely a challenge for those who are lampworking for the first time to remember everything !

My main project right now has been preparing a podcast series connected with my jewelry and personal development work. Tonight I composed a piece of music for an audio download to be made available soon, about how to detect the nature of a stone for yourself. The podcast itself will be about why you would want to do this instead of just taking what others have said the properties of the stone are. I'd love to make the detecting audio free of cost, but it is just taking too much of my time to be able to do that. The cost will be low, though.

Other than that, glass has been on my mind, with lots of reading, but no doing other than the demos. Soon, though! The studio awaits!