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Silver glasses are those which have silver included in the manufacturing process. Hence they come out more costly that the "ordinary" glasses. Double Helix glass company in America makes a well known range and their base is here Double Helix A silver glass ring top, Psyche glass on the outside and one of the TAG (Trautman Art Glass in Germany) glasses in the centre. Sorry I can't remember the TAG name but the rod is a transparent blue.

Here's my latest two story one,

The beading forum I belong to, Frit Happens has a few members who are sourcing rings, either stainless streel or silver with a small screw fitting attached, They also sell the nuts that fit onto the screws. It's possible to make a bead on top of the screw so that the bead fits onto the ring. It's possible to change the ring tops easily to suit your mood or the outfit being worn that day. This is my latest one,

I wasn't having much luck with my beading yesterday so decided to cut the session short with something simple,

I just picked the nearest dark rod available for the feet, hence he has blue ones.

I decided to try this type of knot with leather cord so used 1.5mm soft green lether and put one of my focal beads with it this time. The focal has silver wound around it so I used more silver to hang small spacer beads in the same green as the focal.

A week or so ago, I bought a focal bead from Amanda Manda's site while attending a glassy get together at Di East's Studio 19 at Enderby in Leicestershire, Studio 19
I wanted to try a slightly different form of knotting to form the necklace so got the instructions from Suzen Millodot's book "Ornamental Knots for Beaded Jewellery" and this is the result.

I haven't posted for ages so here are some of the latest beads,

I'm going on a sculptural glass course in early September and wanted to keep my hand in as it were so made a red, pregnant glass goddess the other day

Some of the well known, ( to the lampworking, i.e. beadmaking community) bead makers produce tutorials to help hobbyists like myself improve. Michael Barley's baleen tutorial is here and I bought a copy a few weeks ago. You can see some of the beads I've made following the tutorial, with modifications here.
Early beads start from number 1 with the designation a or b relating to both sides of the same bead.

I went on a master course with Kate Drew Wilkinson at the Old Kennels for three days from 20th September. The Kennels is a fabulous place in Devon where handcrafts are taught, see here.
This course was to improve my beading skills and was a great opportunity to meet Kate who was visiting the UK from her home in Buffalo, Wisconsin, USA. Her website is here.
Here are the beads I've made since getting home,

We Lampworkers (i.e. people who make glass beads)in UK have just had our annual meet up at Towcester Racecourse. The get together is a two day event for lampworkers with a further day for seed beaders.Traders attend, there are demos and torch tables with a variety of torches set up for people to try. Among the demo artists this year were Sharon Peters and Theresa LaLiberte with our own Di East and Lorna Prime. Di showed us how she fumes in silver and gold while Lorna did intricate patterns with hair thin stringer.A good time was had by all.