Here are the spacer beads I made, again with the not-likely-to-be-realized idea that I might actually string these into a necklace or something. I made them four at a time, and made them as small as I could. They are approximately 3/8 inches in diameter.

The other picture is all the beads, before they’d been removed from the mandrels. The white stuff is bead release.

These are the beads I did after lunch, figuring that now I could try a different technique using different colors.  I didn’t make as many after lunch. For this I mostly used dots and masking.  My dots are not placed very well, because I don’t have the muscle control sufficient to hold my hands in front of me that steadily for that many hours.

These are also approximately 3/4 inch in diameter.

I took a beadmaking class in December, and got my beads back recently.  We were working on stringer techniques, so I tried to use the same simple techniques with the same colors figuring that it was A. good practice and B. might make enough beads for a piece of jewelry. I rarely string my beads, as I don’t care for that sort of jewelry.

This is a piece I did in high school.  It’s raku fired, which accounts for the carbon trappings.  The piece is merely a cylinder of clay, altered to make it interesting, with a loop like a handle on top.  I really love this piece, and tried to duplicate it in 2003 without much success.  I decided to photograph this because I was experimenting with lighting techniques and needed a subject.

This is the largest of all six of this series, and can hold maybe sixteen ounces.  It has a couple dots of blue glaze that got on there by mistake, but it’s still one of my favorite drinking vessels now.