We just released two new murrini chips. For the special this week we are putting these chips up at an introductory price of $2.20 per gram. Regular price is $2.75. Special price ends Friday April 1st at midnight central time.

Marbled Red Chips Marbled Red Murrini Chips 104coe Marbled red chips with stripes of black that create beautiful star-bursts of color when heated and pressed into your bead.

Striped Yellow Coral Chips Striped Yellow Coral Murrini Chips 104coe Black striped chips that have a coral center encased in yellow giving these chips a pretty yellowish orange when heated and pressed into your bead.

New Android Phone App

We released our very own iPhone app a couple weeks ago. Of course many were asking “what about us android users?” Well you’re in luck. I am excited to announce the “AvenueBeads on the go” Android app! Now you can put us in your pocket and take us everywhere you go.

Download this app to keep up with new blog posts, view our twitter feed, watch our youtube videos, view our gallery and the user gallery (*more info about user gallery below).

And…its free!

So what are you waiting for go grab your phone and download our app today! Just search for “avenue beads” in the Android Market.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appmakr.app148320&feature=search_result

*User gallery information

We want you!… and your photos. If you use flickr and have photos of beads or other glass work that you made using our products, consider joining our new Flickr group and share your works. We will be using these photos as an inspiration gallery for our handmade supplies (shards,stringers,murrini etc..). If you upload any photos to the group be sure to put in the photo description what product or products were used in the creation if you can remember. Also if you would like to direct viewers to where your work is available include one store link in the description as well. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the user gallery.

If you’ve been following along on our Facebook fan page you probably know what we’ve been up to. If you don’t know, well now you will.

I’ve had a couple sheets of 104coe glass sitting around for what seems like years, gathering dust in a dark lonely corner. Last week I decided to pull out the sheets and try a little experiment mixing our handmade lampwork glass supplies and fusing. For first time around I decided to use some scrap pieces just in case it wasn’t going to work. No sense in wasting a good sheet of glass on the unknown.

First step.

Pick out some complementary shard colors. I was going for an organic look so I picked some colors that I thought would create some good reactions. In the one closest we have Lunar Rainbow, Silvered Ivory and Silvered Caramel shards. Added to that I overlaid the shards with black stringers, a bit of Rosewood Fusion Frit and a handful of Ocher Spiral Murrini chips.

On the other piece I used Amphibian shards piled high with black stringers and another stringer color that I custom mixed.

Fast forward 12 hours...

After the first firing this is how the pieces came out. I love how all the shards mottled a bit, the way the black stringers set off the shard colors and just the over all look. When I pulled these out of the kiln I was pleasantly surprised by what came out. Obviously the first thought that came to my mind was “I definitely need to make some plates like this!” but lets stay on track here.

Step Two

Now we get to cut up the pendant sheet stock into all sorts of fun shapes and sizes. At this point you could either use a tile saw to cut the pieces out or if you only use one layer of sheet glass for the base like I do, you can still score it and snap it. If the sheet is too thick though the scoring method won’t work and you’ll have to use one of those deafening tile saws! Plus the scoring method leaves a much cleaner edge.

Step Three

We’re almost there! Now that we have our pendant shapes it’s time to give them some holes. For this I used a heavy duty drill press with a 9mm diamond core drill bit. I wanted the holes to be pretty big so people could either add a jump ring or loop fat ribbons or cord through them. To make sure the drill bit went through the glass like butter I cut them under water. Worked perfectly! It’s also a great idea to wear hand protection when drilling. If the drill bit catches and starts spinning the pendant around, you don’t want your bare finger there.

Step Four.

Now that we have our pendants drilled with holes it’s time to put them back in the kiln for another session. Instead of doing a full fuse this time they’ll be going through a contour fuse. All this is going to do is soften out the hard edges that we created from cutting out the pendants and drilling the holes.

Last Step!

After two days we finally have a finished product. Now just photograph and sell These pendants are currently available in our etsy store.

Happy Monday everyone! Hope that everyone had a great weekend! This week we have some more great specials in store for you.

All specials end Saturday at midnight central time Feb. 12th

15% off
104coe Sedona Streaky Stringers
104coe Berry Mint Chips

20% off
104coe Sea Foam Shards
96coe Dark Multicolor Frit

35% off
Effetre 104coe Tongue Pink
Effetre 104coe Powder Pink

http://www.avenuebeads.com/index.php?main_page=specials

Have a great week!

A sale and a free give-away!

Great deals on the following items.

15% off all shards

10% off streaky stringers, silvered stringers, and veining stringers

5% off murrini chips, and vine canes

Sale begins July 1st and runs until July 15th. Two whole weeks of savings. As always we offer free domestic shipping on all orders over $99.

Orders over $35 during this sale also get a free 5 1/2″ red rose murrini cane sampler. Good only while supplies last. We have a total of 20 sample canes to give. These will probably go pretty fast. To get yours you must include in your order (order instructions) that you would like one of the sample canes.

New 104coe Murrini chip now available in the web store.

Blue Nova, a brilliant blue reducing murrini chip that is sure to add a beautiful touch to any bead.

Blue Nova 104coe Murrini Chips
http://www.avenuebeads.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=515

Our kiln is on the fritz at the moment so this is the only example we have at the moment. Should have some beads showing off these cool new chips soon.