A Little Help From My Friend

There is an amazing bead that Andrea Guarino Slemmons makes called the Sea Garden. She demonstrated it at our class but we did not make one because the class was ending. So when I got out my notes and tried making one it looked AWFUL! It was dark, with no hint of the lovely treasures inside. I made three or four of these. Then I saw a couple using most of the techniques we learned....they were made by Lisa A., who had also taken Andrea's class, in Indiana. Her bead was beautiful, filled with light and lots of aquas, my favorite colors.

So I called her up, and the first thing she asked me was whether I used tanked oxygen. No, I answered, and therein lies the problem. I won't go into details, nor will I give away the even more awesome solution to the problem, but I will show you the beads I made after this generous and eye-opening help from my friend! I am not calling them sea gardens. They are lyrical, and evoke a sense of flowing, of currents, and they are filled with the mysterious colors of dichroic glass. And I am SO HAPPY to be able to make them the way I have!