Getting set up...

You are one can-do woman! Can't wait to see your boro creations, Kalera. Now careful with that back, 'kay?

-- Margie

Great news about the O2 concentrator. Bad news about the back. I guess it's that old yin/yang thing happening again.

Good that you can melt boro, but bad that you hurt your back. That's not part of the lampwork craze.

Woo Hoo!!! Glad to hear that your studio is all set up. Boo that you hurt your back! Take care of yourself!!

Thanks guys! My back is feeling a lot better today, and I think I can do a little torching... mostly Moretti and Vetrofond (I have a bunch of new colors, yay!) and some playing around with boro. I have some Bullseye combos I want to play with too... so much glass, so little time!

How exciting! I hope your back heals fast, Kalera. There's nothing to me that stalls my beadmaking more than a backache. Yick. Take care!

Thanks Kandice! My back is feeling a lot better, though my neck's still a little stiff, and I've been making beads for the last three days straight, woo-hoo! I've been playing with a lot of silver, and with the fan on it's been about 45 degrees in there... which is probably why I still have this cold!

Lots of hot beverages for me!

I've been super-happy about the beads I'm making, though. I loooove that new batch of copper green (the red everyone hates) and bought extra since once it's gone, it's gone. And I hear it's almost gone! Also, I wasplaying with my makeup and discovered that the shimmer powder that comes in different colors for $1.99 for a teeny little tub makes lovely pixie dust... more expensive than buying pixie dust from Frantz, but I wasn't ever going to wear those colors anyway...

I hear you there - it's freaking cold here. I need to buy a space heater for my studio, because it's only in the mid 20's outside and I have to have the door open when I make beads. I didn't get any of the reddish copper green, but that's okay - I like the old batch. The beads you're making are gorgeous!

I sure wish I had the guts to use pixie dust and other powders. With my studio in the house (in a utility room on one end), I get a little iffy about using anything that might cause more of a health risk than I already am. I could wear my respirator, but I have my hubby and the kitties in the house, too. This is why I don't ever use metals or powders. Maybe someday I can figure out a way that won't cause harm.

Anyway - rambling!! Carry on!

Thanks Kandice! That means a lot from you... I like your taste, and your beads are beautiful!

If you do check out the new copper green, just do it with the expectation that it's a totally different color from the old. It's just does different stuff.

You can safely use pixie dust all you want; it's just mica powder, which is the same stuff used in makeup to give it a sheen. I read the MSDS on it, and it's considered inert. If you breathe a LOT of it, you could irritate your respiratory system just by getting a lot of it in there... but considering you can buy pure loose mica powder to dust all over your face, and that has no harmful effects, I think you have to be literally working with it in an industrial application where it was in the air almost constantly for it to be a respiratory system problem. Even the colorants used in it are pretty harmless; I checked with my chemist friend. Don't eat the green colors, and you'll be fine!

Now *I'M* rambling! I have to go take a shower and we're going to go finish cleaning out the old house today... argh.

Hee hee!

Moxley is making extra time for me to work tomorrow... love that boy!

Oh, that's really good to know!!! I had no idea what pixie dust was made of. I am sooooooo there - thank you!!!

mica is also the main ingredient in the Pearl-Ex powders. I use 'em on polymer clay either on top of the clay , or mixed in. How would it be used in glass? Melted in/on? Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery

I use Pearl-Ex powders. Here is an example of non-encased Pearl-Ex:

Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery

and how, please? Do you sprinkle it on, the glass in it, or what? Does it melt? Which or the pearlex colors is that in your example? Do you ever use the duo and interference powders?

Please pardon the sudden inquisition.... Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery

I've actually used shimmer powder from the cheap makeup rack... you know the kind in little pots for $1.99? Fun and shiiineeeee!

Applied while the bead is hot, it gives it a pearly luster:

Thanks Kalera! Now, how is it applied--a brush would melt, or catch on fire, wouldn't it? Is it shook on like salt on popcorn, or rolled in it, or what? Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery

Rolled in it...though I hear some people shake it on with a little strainer. That sounds awfully messy to me!