Thanks for watching last night everyone! If you tuned in last night you got to see some different techniques being used. Let see, we blew a vessel, made one of my medallion pendants, and my favorite bead to make, trees!

The handle on the vessel came out a tad large, should have took off some of the glass but this was just a demo vessel anyways

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Here is the Medallion pendant that we made last night. Base is Blue River Streaky overlaid with Silvered Pomegranate shards and twisted in the middle creating a vortex of sort. I am in love with this color combo!

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The last bead we made was this beautiful barren tree focal bead. Which led me to find out that the Woodland Brown Streaky Stingers make excellent trees! When I started drawing out the tree I knew I found a new love for these stringers.

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I think we’ll be making more tree beads today after seeing how good this one turned out. Also, if anyone has always wondered how a particular technique is done and would like to see a demo, let me know. If I know how its done I will be happy to show.

I have some rods and stringer to pull, which is a long and boring process. So I’ll save you guys from the monotonous work involved and turn the cam on when the fun begins. Which will be later this evening. See you all at the next broadcast!

~Joe~

We had a very short night at the torch Wednesday. Made a couple beads and blew one shard. Which you all got to witness me drop onto my lap and burn a hole into my jeans. That was fun lol.

We are still working on polishing the two beads that we ground down so those I don’t have pictures for. So tonight we only have one bead to show. And that is the free bead that we are giving away in tonight’s live broadcast.

It was made with a beautiful base of blue from my Streaky Blue River rods and then overlayed with the brand new very tasty Silvered Pomegranate shards.

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Come join the fun in tonight’s live broadcast to see if you are the winner of this beautiful bead. We’ll be making lots of stuff tonight so be sure and stop in and watch us create.

www.justin.tv/avenuebeads

~Joe~

Are we having fun yet!?

We broke out the enamels last night for this first bead. Remember your face mask! Started with a transparent pale amber base shaped into a bi-cone shape. Then covered it in red and white enamels. Finished it off with raised black nebula paisleys and thin trailing lines.

The real colors didn’t show up to well with the black nebula in the photos. The blue is much brighter in person.
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Tonight’s free bead is this organic, chunky encased ivory, black and silver foil bi-cone. The pattern underneath is very neat. Good luck to all those who will be in he drawing tonight!
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I got a new toy! I’ve been wanting to get a flat lapidary machine for awhile now. I finally broke done and bought me one. We didn’t make the pyramid during the live broadcast but had to show it off anyway. This is the first piece we played with on the new toy.
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We did however make a bead last night that will be ground down and turned into a window bead. It has a green core that was encased in black and then rolled in powder frit. I am going to grind off the back and front creating windows to the inner green. Its about half done at this point, just has to be polished.

Here is the before photo. The after photo will probably be shown tomorrow if all goes well
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Tonight at the torch we will probably be focusing on creating more beads to be cold worked on the flat lap. My mind is all a flurry with ideas!

~Joe~

Happy December everyone! Only 22 days till Christmas eek! Hey and only 29 days till my birthday, hint hint

Well last night we blew more shards, made an adorable little pig, and then made a big off mandrel blown seashell! I haven’t made a pig in a very long time and was worried it wasn’t going to turn out. When he came out of the kiln I squealed for joy!

Oink oink…
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We finished with this beautiful blown seashell, which I haven’t done one of these in almost a year. It came out a tad lopsided but pretty none the less. This piece will be up for grabs as tonights free giveaway item!

Can you hear the ocean?
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Will you be the lucky winner? Tune in tonight to find out if your name is pulled out of the super special shard pot!

~Joe~

Well we didn’t get to stay up as late last night but we still had a great time. Both of the beads that I demoed turned out really great! The snow was falling like crazy here and that always puts me in the Christmas mood. So we just had to make a Santa Penguin. I make these every year and they are always a huge hit! If you watched me make him last night you can see they take a pretty long time to make, but oooh are they just adorable!

Without further ado, here is the first Santa Penguin of the winter season.
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The other bead that we made, was for tonight’s free bead give away. The consensus last night seemed to be pink so I had to please my audience, the great bunch that you all are! When I started to make it I didn’t know what I wanted it to look like. As soon as I started to take form I then new what it wanted to do.

Is this beautiful or what!
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If your name has been entered into the drawing, tune in to see if you will be tonight’s free bead winner!

Also, if you wondering what this is all about and would like to know how to get your name entered into the nightly web cast bead giveaway, tune into www.justin.tv/avenuebeads during a live casting to hear how it works.

See everyone in a few!
~Joe~

Well we certainly had another great night of torching and conversation! I have uploaded two clips from last nights session. The clips are a “how to” clip on making simple twisted canes. The other is of a large silvered ivory shard balloon being blown. So if you missed seeing those two things being done you can still catch the clips.

Twisted cane clip
Blowing a shard

And now for the beads…
Clicking on the photos will take you to full size pictures.

Here is a very small imploded flower by request. I started off with a small gather and should have went bigger for a bigger flower, but this was for informational purposes and seemed to help everyone how it was done.

I also learned that Efettre brown and raku don’t like each other :). Here is the striped bead that was requested that let find that out. Notice the scum on on the clear. There was some sort of reaction and the colors just went to crap on me. Oh well that’s how you learn right?

Everyone loves watching how twisted canes are made so we made another one last night. This one was made a bit different. You can watch the video clip of how it was done if you go to my channel at Justin.tv/avenuebeads or by clicking the video clip link I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

We also made a bead that we will be giving away to one of our lucky viewers last night, who is yet to be announced. We will be pulling the name of the winner live on cam tonight!

Here is the bead. Made with Borealis and the new Silvered Pomegranate shards!

Tune in tonight to see if you are the winner!

See you all on cam in a bit.
~Joe~

You all watched them being made, and I’m sure you couldn’t see much on the cam. So here they are for all to see in detail. Most of them except for the fish were pretty simple beads. I plan on getting into more complicated beads and components on the broadcasts to come. Clicking on the links will take you into the store if you want to see bigger pictures of the items.

First up is the adorable little fish we finished off the night with.
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Don’t really like the color choice for the twisty but here is the heart.
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Next we have the “Safari” bead. Reminds me of an Ocelot
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Here is the long tube bead that was made with the yet to be released shards that have been named “Silvered Pomegranate”.
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Here is a picture of the shards themselves. Don’t you just want to lick them!
Click on the photo for full view.

And last but not least is the tri-color twisted cane that I pulled. I haven’t listed it but if anyone is interested in these I would be happy to list them for sale in the store.
Click on photo for full view.

Tune in tonight to catch some more of the fun. You might even learn some new techniques!
~Joe~

Have you ever wanted to see how glass beads are made? Your in luck! I will now be broadcasting live video streams of me while I work in the studio. The web casts will be complete with audio and chat features. This will allow me to interact with everyone who is watching, answer questions, or explain how things are done and why. Depending on what day it is or what orders I need to fill, you may find me making beads, blown vessels, twisted cane, or blowing shards.

During the week I am usually in the studio from 7pm to 10pm and most often all day Saturday and Sundays. If you would like to be notified when a live web cast has started, go to http://www.justin.tv and sign up. Then find your way to http://www.justin.tv/avenuebeads and favorite my channel. Your done! Then when I start broadcasting you will be sent an email letting you know to tune in and catch the fun.

I’ve already done one live “show” and it was a blast. Everyone watching was so mesmerized and full of questions. So many people don’t understand all the work that goes into each bead. I hope that these live web casts will change that and help everyone appreciate and understand this art in more depth.

Hope to see you in the chat room!
~Joe~

These new lampwork glass bead sets are super fun and big on texture. These big holed “Roll-ups” as I call them, can be worn all by themselves or added to one of your jewelry creations for a unique touch. They are simple beads but are still sure to stand out in any design. And the best yet, they are very affordable!

Check out all the fun new bead sets that are available and let your creative imagination run wild… If you would like to purchase more beads than are for sale for a particular set or don’t see them in a color you would like, please contact me and I will be a happy to make them for you.

Add some bling and some color to your keys with one of these neat keychain beads. Your choice of color of yellow, red, purple, amber, green, or blue. Beads are etched for a nice smooth feel and matte finish. Each bead is handmade by me comes permanently cored with copper and also a 6″ long copper ball chain. Be sure and mention which color you would like during check out. Don’t see one in a color you like? Contact me with your custom color request.

More styles and colors to choose from will be available soon!

These keychains can be purchased through my online store, click here.