More Luminobeads

More Luminobeads and there are more coming up soon so if you missed out on getting hold of some this week maybe you'll be in luck next week. If you have any Luminobead colour requests or ideas then please post them in the comments section.

I'm off up to Cambridge for the Bank Holiday weekend. It looks as if this is going to be my final weekend at Chris's flat. The next time I travel up there will be to move into the new house. That's a very strange feeling .....

Thanks for all your prize draw entries and for all the fab comments and blog mentions. I've been visiting the blogs of everyone who has posted about the draw and will continue to do so.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Luminobeads

My Luminobeads are always popular so I tend to make them in batches. After I'd etched this bunch and they were in a heap I just had to take a photo because I love the way these colours look together.

Webnesday

It's Wednesday which means it's time for five weblinks .....

1. Uniqart

Caroline Bletsis of Uniqart is truly an Arty Lady Of Many Crafts. The woman is amazing. She knits, she crochets, she sews, she makes jewellery, she cooks, she gardens, she probably does a bazillion more things but most of all she paints. Caroline creates the most amazing artwork in several different mediums. The photograph above shows a detail of her latest painting which is a sweet little sparrow and some apple blossom. Caroline blogs almost daily and she sells her work in her Etsy Shop.

2. The Panopticon

This is the blog of Chicago-based knitter Franklin Habit. Whenever I see that Franklin has blogged I always smile because I know that I'll be in for a good read. His sense of humour is fantastic and he knits the most fabulous things. Fellow 'Cast On' podcast listeners will know his voice - he has read stories for 'Cast On' many times. If you knit (and even if you don't) do pay a visit to Franklin's blog - you will not be disappointed!

3. myPANTONE

I like colour (obviously) and I like playing about with it to work out new bead colour combos. I also like to look at non-beady things and extract potential colour palettes from them. Pantone have an application called myPANTONE for the iPhone and iPod Touch which does exactly that. At £9.99 it's pricey but so very worth it. You can use an existing photo or you can take a picture of something you see when you're out and about with your iPhone and the app will analyse it and produce a palette based on it. I've used this several times for beads and it really is very useful. Please click here for more information.

4. Print & Pattern

I love Paperchase. I like wandering around it gazing at all the loveliness and stroking the occasional notepad, box or roll of ribbon. If you do the same thing in stationery shops or if you just love fabrics, wallpaper and patterns in general then you need to visit Print & Pattern. It's described as a website 'that celebrates the world of surface pattern design'. It really does do exactly that. Please click here to see all the eye candy.

5. Off-Mandrel

I thought I'd give a shout-out to Off-Mandrel. This is where I buy a lot of my glass from. They have have a walk-in shop in Glasgow but they also do mail order. I cannot fault their customer service - delivery is fast and everything is always presented really nicely. Fab place!

Lonelies Prize Draw

I haven't done a prize draw for yonks! While I was washing up yesterday my eyes fell upon my Lonelies Jar and I thought that it was about time all the beads inside it got a new home.

My 'Lonelies' beads are all first quality. They are experiments, one-offs and leftovers from sets. This particular strand is 300mm long (12") and contains 41 beads - 20 patterned and decorated ones and 21 spacers. That's a lot of jewellery-making potential right there!

If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning this strand all you need to do is enter my prize draw. Regular prize draw entrants do read on as I've changed the prize draw rules ever-so-slightly. They are are as follows :

~ The draw is open to anyone anywhere in the world.

~ It's one entry per person BUT if you have a blog and you blog about and link to this prize draw post I will enter your name twice. Bonus!

~ To enter you need to leave a comment on this blog post. If you've blogged about this draw please say that you've done so in your comment and I will do the two name thing.

~ Please leave a name of some kind, be it your actual one, a nickname or your blog username - just something rather than an anonymous comment.

~ Entries need to be in by 7.00pm (UK time) on Friday 4th June.

~ All entries need to be made by commenting as opposed to emailing me. Commenting is really simple and you don't need a Blogger account to do so. Just leave your name in your comment and check back on 4th June to see if you've won!

I hope that all makes sense. Good luck everybody!

CiM Testing : Sherwood

Sherwood is another brand new Messy Color glass an it's a forest green with a very subtle, slight blue hint to it. In the CiM palette I'd say it's probably closest to Split Pea.

The thing about CiM greens is that they really fill a gap in the 104 palette. Sherwood is a proper 'natural' kind of green. You could use it for vine cane and leaves and it wouldn't be too in-your-face and garish. (Yes, Effetre Grass Green, I'm talking about you!)

The photograph below shows Sherwood compared to other glass colours :

Beads from left to right : Sherwood, Sherwood etched, Sherwood thinly encased with Vetrofond clear, Sherwood thickly encased with Vetrofond clear, CiM Split Pea, CiM Commando, Effetre 216 Light Grass Green.

Here's a list of my Sherwood findings :

• Not at all shocky.
• Melts nice and smoothly - on a consistency par with Commando and Split Pea.
• A little streaky, as in it produces striations.
• Loses its crispness and definition and tends to spread when used as stringer.
• Etches really well.
• Has a tendency to bleed at the edges when encased BUT it is an opaque green and opaque greens do like to do that!

The photo below shows Sherwood as polka dots on a Dirty Martini bead encased with Vetrofond clear :

And the following photo illustrates what I mean about the stringer spreading thing. Of course, this effect isn't a bad thing - sometimes you can use this type of glass property to your design advantage. The Sherwood is used on top of Dirty Martini here :

So yes, Sherwood is a nice green. I'm not a massive fan of opaque green glasses (because they don't always do what I'd like them to do, but hey, that's probably just my glass control freakishness thing) but if I was going to make some realistic looking floral beads then this would be one of the greens I'd go for.