The World's Biggest Bead ???

The beadmaker's name is Daniel Silverberg. He doesn't make beads commercially; he does it because he loves the work.

This bead is made of fossil-bearing limestone. It is 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter and averages 9 inches (23 cm) in width.

Atop the bead is a piece of carved California jade. He couldn't find the picture of Clark the cat resting in the hole.

In Dan's words: "There is something elusive and fundamental about beads and bead making that can't be more than provisionally defined. I am, however, always interested in other perspectives and experiences."

By the way, Dan says he finds it curious that people ask if the big bead above is carved all the way around. It is.

Skullishly Wonderful

How do you like this new skull style? This was created inside of a Geldard inspired window bead to show off my skullish talents. Only problem with this one is that I so overworked it that I lost track of keeping the entire bead warm and it developed a crack the day after it was taken out of the kiln. DRATS! The concept is solid and the bead is a great variation on skull work so I will do it over. Also, it was a great place to use a tip from Brad Pearson (he was a presenter at the Gathering). Brad recommended to anyone using black for detail work that they replace it with TAG Oxblood. It’s stiff and instead of reducing itself to purple when pulled into a stringer, or worse yet IMHO spreading like it was laid down on Ivory glass, it stays crisp. It may not be a deep blue black but it’s a definite improvement when you want to get a ridiculously small detail into something. Thanks Jennifer and Brad - - - and all of the other sharing and giving lampworkers for the continued practice of information sharing. You guys ROCK!

More Monsters to Love

I’m hoping you will all think that no news has been good news, hahahaha. There isn’t much of an excuse for not writing in the blog except that things here are just hopping. Let’s take for example one of the new monster pieces (named: "Do they Bite?")...listed, and sold to a good customer. I can’t help it I just love these guys.