Happy 5th Birthday, Blog!

On November 5th, five years ago, I made my first post on this blog.  I was still pretty new to glass (just over a year of weekends), and it is pretty entertaining now for me to be able to look back through all of the posts I made in my first few months and the beads I made in those early days.

So, to celebrate the beginning of my sixth (wow!) year of blogging about glass, I am going to go back and do the same thing I did in my first year, only hopefully I will be a bit better at it this time around :)

I can't use the same colours I used in 2009, because many of them have been discontinued, and I don't still have all of them. Also, it would be unfair to any of you who want to play along to use colours that are no longer in production. So... I have revised the list a little bit, and for the foreseeable future, I have restricted my palette according to the following set of rules (copied from my 2009 post):

1. The palette must have no more than 15 colours. Black, Clear, Ivory and Dark Ivory don't count as colours and are always in the box as staples.
2. At least five of the palette's colours must be transparent.
3. Silver Glass colours do not count towards the total since they are used mainly as an accent.
4. I must use the same palette (see #5) for at least eight consecutive torching sessions.
5. I am allowed to make ONE adjustment between torching sessions if I decide that I really don't like a particular colour or if there is a new colour begging for me to try it RIGHT NOW, but if I put something new in, I must take something else out.
6. If I make any adjustment between torching sessions, I lose credit for the sessions I've completed with the palette to date and have to start over again (see #4). If the change was because I ran out of something, I can just carry on normally.
7. I start with around 1/4# of each colour. When I use up all of the rods of a given colour, I can select a new colour to replace it, or just grab another 1/4# of the same colour if I don't feel done with it yet.

And here is where we will start on January 1, with this initial selection of colours:

• Effetre Spanish Leather
• Effetre Striking Orange
• Effetre Opal Yellow
• Effetre Kelp
• Effetre Apple Blush
• CiM Slytherin
• CiM Shrubbery (you could use Olive, Leapfrog, Split Pea, Goblin, etc)
• Effetre Mosaic Green
• Effetre Copper Green
• CiM Mint Lozenge (you could use Poseidon or Kryptonite)
• Effetre Dark Violet
• CiM Evil Queen
• Effetre Lizard
• Effetre Oliva Nera
• Effetre Wood Legnos
• Staples: Tuxedo, Peace, Intense Black, Ivory, Dark Ivory
• Silver Glass: Assorted Colours
• Metals: Silver Mesh, Silver Wire, Copper Mesh, Silver Leaf, Silver Foil
• Dichro: Dichro on Clear (various colours)
• Goldstone: Gold Aventurine Chunks

What do you think?  Do you want to play along?  If so, get your colours and join me on January 1st. I will be blogging about my progress, and will show you all the beads I make and how I combine these colours to hopefully stunning, but possibly hideous, effect.

I may start earlier, but apparently I have to go to Australia this month, I'm pretty sure I have one more trip to the east coast before mid-December, and my mom is visiting in December.  Also, Christmas is apparently going to happen again this year. There just isn't enough time in my days!