Oh, puh-lease!!!!!!! Suzanne, those are divine!!! I love the form, the colors and well, the entire arrangement!! Love, love, love, love, LOVE what you did the concept! (Lots of exclamations from me but I can't help myself. I am excited to see these pictures start rolling in.)

Aww, Theresa, thank you! I'm so flattered that my work inspired you to get into lampworking. Based on the bead in your siggy, it looks like your journey is off to a very nice start!

I ordered mine today:grin: I LOVE your beads and just couldn't resist!

I tried yesterday and I'm gonna try some more today. It's a great tut Lydia, easy to follow and very detailed. Love it!

Hi Lydia! I don't know if it is me or if it is you but I'm trying to check out on your site with the Encased Floral Panels tut and it's hung (the computer not the tut)!

Hopefully it's just a glut of people trying to buy this all at the same time. But I'll check back later and see if it will let me buy it!

Suzanne - your beads look wonderful!

Lydia,
It sent me an order confirmation but I never paid as it would not go to PP. So I sent you an email with my PP email address so you can invoice me.

Thanks!

Please be gentle...I am a newbie. :-)
 

Ok, here is my first attempt at a "Lydia bead" from her tutorial. Please know that I am a newbie (I know the tutorial would be better left to intermediate-advanced lampworkers...but uhhh, I have a problem with not jumping in way over my head when I learn new things). So, that I could come up with this (after spending two weeks not at the torch at all, also) I would say is a testament to how good Lydia's tutorial is. :-)

So, be gentle...but criticism is expected and welcomed. I realize a few things already that I did wrong, but feel free to point out what you see. Sorry about the glare in the pics, I know a good photo set up would help also. One thing at a time though. ;-)




:-)
Beth

ohhhhhhhhhh yummy, good job

Beth and Suzanne lovely first trys.

thanks all!

Beth you did great!

Thanks Cynthia and Anouk!

Beth, you did BEAUTIFULLY!!! I would have never known that you were a newbie! It will get much easier too after you do a few times. Way to go, lady!!

Mary Beth, Sorry about the checkout issue. I have had a couple of incidents over the past two days with people having a bit of trouble checking out. My host has been doing some upgrades to the order management system. It's not suppose to interfere with orders but apparently it's causing some isolated glitches.

Thanks, Lydia! It's all good now:kiss:

Just ordered mine - as it's golf league tonight for DH, I know what I'll be playing with!!

OMG Suznne, Those are awesome and just beautiful to boot. WOW! I have to get mine out and start to read and do this.

Just ordered mine too !! I really like your Black Petal Motif Tut ... great stuff !! Thanks so much for sharing your fantastic Work !

Lydia, finally had a chance to read through it tonight. It looks great! I can't wait to try it.


Lori

Boy this one will separate the newbies from the old timers.....LOL My first try was a mess. I can see that I need a whole lot of practice with my dots, not to mention pulling stringers. I tried it twice and they are both in the kiln but they are sad sad little beads.

The tutorial is great, very easy to follow and understand. I just need lots and lots of practice.

Thank you Lydia for such a wonderful tutorial. I've been admiring your beads for a while now and was so excited to discover you had done a tutorial. \\:D/ It's awesome!

I spent most of today at the torch and made a whole 5 beads. I don't think I have ever concentraited so hard on placing tiny little dots, or taken so long on one single bead! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight wondering how they will come out of the kiln tomorrow [-o<

I might post piccies of them in the gallery tomorrow if they are worthy.

Thanks again so much!

Jenni

In the interest of sharing here is the photo of my first try. Actually had I not use the Averentine stringer around the flowers it might have looked better. I couldn't see the point of using the Raku for the flowers until I tried it with just a pale opaque. Now I can see that the colors in the Raku really do lend themselves to these flower. The flowers really do allow for mistakes, they are very forgiving.

Today I'm going to try it again, with a larger base bead and start the first dots down a bit lower so I will have a bit more room to work with. I'm obsessed with these beads and I don't even like flowers.....LOL I think its the layers of dots that fascinates me. The depth and dimension you get with them. Lydia I bow to you, the master, what it took to develop these florals is daunting. They are truly intoxicating, thanks for sharing your secrets with us.

it's beautiful Jan

Ok Suzanne, you edited your post....LOL (bet you didn't know that the first post is the one that goes out to those that are subscribed, I didn't either)

I must say, you have a good eye, I had to take it under the bright light with a magnifying glass, but your absoluetly right, it did crack. (not that I was going to do anything with it). I'm not surprised that it did, I wasn't very careful with the heat. I was more focused on those darn dots....LOL

You know, when you look at this bead under a magnifying glass they are amazing. That top flower floats, simply intoxicating.

Jenni, thank you! :shock: WOW!! You made five of these beads yesterday?! I hope you decide to post them. I'd love to see your work!

Jan, Thank you for sharing your bead! You did a great job! Thank you for the generous compliments too. I'm glad that you aren't upset about the crack. It's not an uncommon problem when you are learning to make this style of beads. Keeping it hot can sometimes be a challenge because you have to take it in and out of the flame so much. Have fun at the torch today!

Here is my first floral from Lydia's tutorial. I think it took nearly an hour..and those dots really do have to be small, or there is not enough room for all the details! I love making these beads. I used raku stringer pulled from chunks that I bought from Trey Cornette. This raku has not been processed like the cane we usually buy, so it is VERY intense! xiola

Ashton......are you going to have the "middle" bead available as purchase?
I thought that one might be in this tuturial like you had 2 in the first one.
I think it's the music box one? It's the pastel looking looking flowers. I'd love,love to have that one....the colors are gorgeous and my creativity just won't work unless I can see it started in first.
Just checking to see if it was in this one. I noticed you have a blurb in there about it....
Let me know when you can.
Suzanne...great job on the floral panel!!! You're a natural!

oops....I was wrong!!!
It was the winter bead that you show on your tuturial along with the floral panel. It's with your other series and one on the bottom left. That one was cool but the one I was talking about is in the center of your header ...
Here's the pic...



I just love this to pieces!!! And the winter one you have on the tut is just as awesome!!!

Sorry Lydia, I should have been more specific. I made 3 beads using your Black petal tutorial - which is also awesome (I should have practiced these more but I was too impatient to get to the florals), and then 2 of the encased florals.

The first encased floral took me an hour and 20 minutes and then I had to stop for a cup of tea and to give my poor mandrel spinning fingers a rest! Then I had to make another, just to make sure the first wasn't a fluke. :-) I was very happy when I pulled them out of the kiln this morning and no cracks, yay!

I made 2 more today but tried to use different colours and designs. I find that to be the hardest part of making beads - comming up with my own stye. :doubt:

Any how, here are my attempts:




Couldn't have done them with out you!

Jenni

WOW YA'LL!!!!!!! As soon as this show is over I will have some time to actually play with some of the tutorials I bought. Suzanne - just WOW!!!!!!! Xiola - beautiful! Jenni they all look great! Sorry If I'm forgetting anyone - I love them all. Before I started buying tutorials I could not even fathom spending more than about 20 minutes tops on a bead. But I have spent quite a bit of time on single beads now. Somehow all of you tutorial sellers seemed to have included patience with the tutorials. Great beads everyone!

Thank you, Nancy! xiola:love:

Xiola, your bead is fabulous! Hmmm, I wonder what they did differently with the Raku frit in order for it to be more intense? Now that you mention it, the Raku that I'm using is much less intense these days. . . Especially in the 104 line.

Reenie, The bead in the center of my website banner is called "Roman Bath House". It's my signiture bead. I've had lots of requests to do a tutorial for this one, but the bead requires the use of Terra. If Double Helix ever starts making it again, or if another VERY similar glass hits the market, I will do a tutorial for it. There are many silvered glasses on the market right now with brown undertones but all of them are too transparent. Raku doesn't work either either. While it's a nice opaque glass, it spreads WAY too much and yields a finished look that is just too messy.

The "French Music Box" bead was one of my newbie beads. It is the initial idea that lead to the encased floral panel technique. The reason that I wrote about it in the Inspiration portion of the tutorial is because I wanted to show how one little seemingly insignificant idea can not only evolve something larger and better, but it can even spin it off into different directions. I also wanted to explain the thought process that I used in order take the idea to the torch. I had no clue that anyone would would want to learn to make it.

The tutorial only teaches how to make the bead that is on the cover, "Enchanted Hydrangea". I included a gallery with a timeline that shows the evolution of the design. I had hoped the gallery would provide a bit of inspiration, while illustrating the possibilities of the core concept. Each of those beads were created using the encased floral panel technique.

Initially, I had been asked to do tutorials on various floral focals that are in my galleries. Instead of releasing a tutorial that shows people how to make a 2-3 hour focal, I'd rather do the tutorials in a series, with each tutorial focusing on the skills that would be essential for the proper execution of one of the larger focal beads. This is one of the reasons that I started with the "Black Petal Motif". While I don't often use intense black in my floral focals, I do use the raked petals a lot. Learning to create them in intense black requires extreme focus and patience. Once it's learned and practiced, the elements on the larger focals will be easier to apply.

Oh Jenni!! How wonderful! Your beads turned out beautifully!!!

Lydia your tutorials have changed my entire approach to lampworking (they are teaching me patience). They are absolutely amazing and have been well worth the wait. I would still love to take a class with you if you ever change your mind about teaching. In the meantime your tutorials are the next best thing. What is your next one going to be??