Macro – rubbish beads

Since I work a lot in white and translucent clay, sometimes tinted, I generate a fair amount of colorless scrap which isn’t very interesting.  Lately I’ve been playing around with ways to use it up with stuff I already have lying around – Pan pastels, Genesis Heat set paints and alcohol inks, for starters.  I’m always drawn back to making Natasha beads ( inside-out beads) because I enjoy the process tremendously.  Who doesn’t love looking to see what they’ve got after cutting the bead open?  It’s the same thrill you get from revealing what your ‘stack’ contains in the mokume gane technique.  What I’ve become more obsessed with is the idea of controlling the result ( bad idea, Claire – relinquish the iron fist…) so that I can make bead sets.  And also, just because I like to understand process.  There is the distinct possibility that if I gain control, I’ll also loose interest or fall into a rut.  Will take the risk as I suspect that will never happen.



                            

Just made these all in the same basic shape and tried to work some contrast in – contrast is all-important in this sort of design.  I love the softness of the colour lines, and discovering which colorants bleed and migrate and which stay put.  Very interesting discoveries to be made for making other sorts of beads.





This pair has very soft and subtle color.  I love white paired with off-white, ivory or translucent.  Some lines are crisp and some are not…





                



           

     Just lines…

     Could be a little monotonous, but there are so many ways to manipulate the results and they are quite soothing compared to many Natasha beads. 



                             



Then there are the wildly contrasting ones for a bit of excitement.  Not sure I really like them, but I certainly exerted control over the result.  See, you have to let loose…



                                                          



                                                  



All in all, I think I really like these ones a lot – and the ones with just lines! Rubbish can be so satisfying…expect periodic updates along these lines.

     

   







   By the way, Live Writer let me crop the photo to the left by just clicking on the ‘crop’   command at the top left of the format header.  SOOOO convenient, instead of opening up another program to do it and then uploading it again.









So, a fun beginning, or, more truthfully, an extension of my investigations.  The blurred versus sharp lines are most interesting to me.  Side by side, they can really make things pop forward or sink back, depending on how your eye interprets it!



                   

And of course, every post which includes macro shots needs these photos of my rotting bananas!  You’ll be happy to know that these beauties became part of a Banana chocolate loaf about an hour after these shots were taken!  I just really like the spots and freckles…

Oh, and I’m going to be in a book!  Great excitement, more on that to come…