These beads are somewhat unusual in that many of them are made on an opaque colored base, as opposed to the colorless effettre that I typically use. That's because I had a whole lot of cheap orange and red Indian glass that tested almost perfectly compatible with Effettre. However, the importer, Arrow Springs, vowed they would never get more, so that's the end of that. Using a base color helps to disguise the fact that it's difficult, owing to the muffin tins, to perfectly cover proximal end of the mandrel.

And as so often happens, it suggest other possibilities for abstract bead designs, that I so far have not pursued as much as I'd like...

Frits, Thompson enamels, 22k and fine silver leaf, trailing

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