Z-99 headpin/thingamajigs. Building up inventory for BABE! 2011.
Z99 Purple Rose Special
Something to Sink Your Teeth Into..and a shop update :)
Had a consuming craving for bacon after our lovely bike ride but had no tomato (don’t really like them anyway) and had to figure out how to make it a little more well rounded rather than just snarfing the bacon right off the paper towels as they drained.
Luckily, I have some of those thin bread rounds- can’t remember whose, but mine had the 9 Oats or some such and was toasted and while still warm slathered on one side w/ goat cheese then warm bacon which helped the cheese become even softer.
Cut the thick bacon in half and do 3 layers, top w/ lettuce, roasted red peppers and a light swipe of Trader Joe’s Caesar Romano dressing on the other slice before topping the sandwich.
Oh, Yum!
Now onto what’s going into the shop shortly:
Still playing w/ the Pixie Dust. 
And the Z99..
Still playing w/ the Pixie Dust. And the Z99..one more update for the weekend..Z99
Thought I’d edit a few more for the shop while the little man is napping, up on Etsy shortly:
Nesting
My lovely sister-in-law was nice enough to play around w/ her new camera using some of my beads as practice macro shots. Hubby leaves soon, so just the pic: 
Press Play
Between playing with the Straight Sided Lentil Slim Lg. + press and trying to figure out if hubby’s camera is better than the one I’ve been using reminds me of the saying: PPP (practicepracticepractice). 
I rediscovered Picnik– the pic above is a before and after using that feature, it did improve it a little, there is a lot to explore and I just haven’t had the time recently. Definitely something to put on my to-do list.
This shows my progression using the new press, the second and third beads are the only ones not on a white base. Seashell Swirl and then Yellow Ice over a core of clear are the 2nd and 3rd bead’s base colors. The Yellow Ice reacted badly w/ the Dk. Raku powder which is that black color you see on the bead..live and learn.
Tumble Etching Beads
My Mr. is home for some R&R, so this will be a quick post 🙂
My first try w/ tumble etching was a big FAIL- never use the Harbor Freight grit sampler to etch beads. I ruined a whole bunch of hollow focals, maybe they can be saved when I get my sandblasting set-up ready to use. The two beads below are a few that etched well in around 8-10 hrs. The hollow fumed focals still have very tiny shiny spots from the crackling of fuming, I assume. The ribbed beads didn’t tumble etch well since the valleys stayed shiny while the ribs etched well. They are on deck for sandblasting. I’ll try and get some pics up for the visual peeps among us. 
Z-99 Experimentations
Time has certainly flown during my absence of blogging. Didn’t mean to be gone and have the shop closed for so long- time moves differently when a spouse is deployed and the New Year wasn’t as big of a deal as his R&R coming up will be. I’ve been experimenting when it’s warm enough in the studio to fire up the torch, here are a few:
The beads above are made w/ a hard to find glass- Z-99 Purple Rose Special. The Zimmerman family has stopped production and decided not to sell their glass recipes to the industry. It is a wonderful and reactive color, these beads were made on a base of Effetre White- yep, just white- w/ various frits and powders added.
Not to worry, I’m still in love w/ making my organic hollows. Here is a set that hasn’t been etched yet:
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and shared it with the ones you love. This gal knows better than to make any resolutions, but perhaps we’ll be seeing each other a little more frequently at this space 🙂
Aja Vaz 