CiM Testing : Count von Count

Like most lavender glass, Creation Is Messy's Count von Count shifts between blue and purple depending on the light that it's in. In natural daylight it's a beautiful lavender (see photo above) and in artificial light it shows up as a pretty mauve-blue:

Either way it's a wonderful colour and it's a great glass to work with. It melts nicely and it behaves a little better than Effetre Dark Lavender, which is probably its closest match in the 104 colour palette.

Whoever named the glass Count von Count got it spot on. It really is the colour of the mathematician vampire muppet in Sesame Street!

I love to use Count von Count as an encaser. If you try putting it over CiM Heffalump and add a touch of CiM Lapis you'll be in some kind of purple paradise .....

..... and if you give the glass a quick dip in a bath of etching solution it looks equally lovely!
CiM's Count von Count is now my transparent lavender glass of choice. If you're purple-obsessed like me then trust me, you need this glass in your stash!

New Video : Encased Silver Wire Bead

I thought it was about time I did another video for you but this time it's a little different. For a start you see me - me and my face actually talking to you as opposed to just my hands making beads!

The video shows you how I add fine silver wire to a bead and then encase it. I've had various emails recently about how to fix silver wire to a bead, when and how to encase it and where to buy silver wire. I'm hoping that this little movie answers your questions. If you like the video (which I hope you do) I will make some more. Just let me know if there are any lampworking techniques that you'd like me to demonstrate for you and I'll see what I can do.

Please click here to visit my YouTube Channel. Big thanks to Chris for the filming and the editing. You're a star, Mister G!

Video Notes ~ Silver wire for lampworking must be fine silver. Sterling won't work. ~ Fine silver wire is available from CelCool Silver and Glass Diversions. ~ My demonstration beads are CiM Leaky Pen with Vetrofond clear.

Beads & Beyond

This is just a quick post to tell you that I have a tutorial in the September issue of Beads & Beyond.

The tutorial shows you how I make my hand-shaped heart beads. The magazine is in shops now.

New Beads

I've just added some new beads to my Etsy shop. Those pretty ice blue ones up there are for sale and there are five strands of glimmery nugget beads awaiting new homes too.

If you fancy having a go at winning a strand of these assorted nugget beads please enter my prize draw. Please click here for all the details.

Twisted Limone Designs

I bought some sock yarn the other day. It feels like an absolute age since I knitted socks and I had the sudden urge to make some. I know, I'm odd.

So I was scouting about online for yarn and then I noticed Karen at Rainbow Feet had updated her Etsy shop with some of her groovy hand painted self striping sock yarn and a ball (or two) of it may have fallen into my shopping cart.

This ball of vibrant acid yellow-green and hot pink 'Fruit Salad' arrived in today's post and after I finished beadmaking for the day I got my knitting needles out and set to work.

The yarn is knitting up nicely. I was assuming that Chris would hate the resulting sock but he said he actually quite likes it. To be honest I was a little bit disappointed - I kind of like shocking him with way out socks!

Anyway, if you're a fellow sock knitter you should go and look at Karen's shop - Twisted Limone Designs - on Etsy. Last time I checked she still had a few balls of self striping yarn in stock .....