Picture 001

The core is opaque black, In this photo you can't see the rainbow sparkle of the CZ, but it's there; you can see how the black core is encrusted with the fine CZ frit. In bright sunlight it would really twinkle. This is about as much CZ frit as I could get away with -- two quick rolls on the marver through the frit, no more. I then marvered the frit into the core fairly hard, to minimize bubbles around and under the shards during encasing. There are a couple anyway (rats). This frit was thermal-shocked, not hammered.

The CZ is very sharp and abrasive, so it's important to encase both ends thoroughly and make sure no little knife edges are sticking out to cut a cord or injure a customer!

This, ironically, is one of the most technically perfect beads I've ever made. I was very focussed on the CZ experiment and not even thinking about the bead as a whole, and it's better than many beads I really slaved over. The encasing pale aqua is almost perfectly symmetrical and there are only a couple of tiny bubbles. Maybe there's something to "letting go and not worrying about it" after all.