Lampwork Deux

Today was the second and last part of the lampwork bead class. I swore to myself that I was not going to be as nervous about it as I was last time - but I was. I didn't want to be shaking like a leaf everytime I pulled the beads out of the fire. I couldn't believe I still was!! This time the stars were not aligned and the muses left the building because my little beads came out horrid. I was so disappointed I actually wanted to leave and take a breather. Of course it had been a week since I last torched a bead so I could understand that the beads may not have been so round, but the dang things cracked and once the torch went out when I was 85% finished with a bead using a new technique. To make things worse, my back and neck were on fire! This all amounted to having my hands shake way worse than last weekend. Plus, that psycho lady was thinning my patience. She was trying to go way ahead of the pace of the class, wasted too much material AND she almost torched a fellow student. Grrrr.

I was not so disappointed that I would drop lampworking forever, of course. I think with a little nap and a few advils I would have been good to go. I really like the whole process and I know that with more practice I could get better and more steady. On the extreme plus side, I DID NOT burn myself today and I managed to only minimally expose myself to fiberglass. Hooray!

So in the spirit of craftyness, I broke down and bought the lampwork kit that was being sold at the studio. The box was completely sealed and chock full of goodies. I picked up some extra glass rods in colors I liked just in case the rods in the kit were wack. I drove veeeeery slow all the way home for fear of jostling the glass rods and breaking them. When I got home I tore open the sucker and was happy to see that not all the colors were wack (though some were) and they packed in a good number of mandrels. All I need to do now is buy the gas, build a table and find a place in my tiny apt that is well ventilated. I think I may be pushed outside on the balcony for this one.

I will probably buy this book pretty soon.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972660208/qid=1124576979/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1951149-2304718?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I have searched high and low at my local Borders and Barnes & Noble and neither have it in stock. It's a bit pricey but well worth it!

Lampwork

I took a class today on how to make lampworked beads. It was pretty scary at first with the fire and the melting globs of glass but once you get the hang of it and the teacher manages to pass on to the next student, it gets better. My first bead came out perfect. It's a little lime green gem. It was totally beginner's luck. The second bead came out a bit pathetic and the third surprised me a lot. On our third bead, we learned the dotting technique which is basically adding dots of another glass color to your hot bead. At one point the second rod got stuck to the bead while I was making a dot and it managed to crack the bead. I almost had an attack but stuck the little sucker back into the fire and that fixed it.

There were near misses with glass popping from the flame and making a beeline to my eye. Funny how stray objects always manage to make it towards your eye. Sometimes I would get distracted with something else I was doing and forget to twirl the mandrel or the glass rods. It was hard at first to keep track of everything - the glass rods, the mandrel, the fire and your fellow student's fire. There was a lady there who I thought was a bit fire happy. She'd open the torch valve almost all the way and light it like it was nobody's business. She was really scary but she managed not to hurt me. Thank goodness! I did end up hurting myself by foolishly grabbing a hot glass rod with my fingers. I have a nice little battle wound on my thumb. I bet you've never noticed how many times you use your thumb a day for any little thing. You don't notice it until you've burned it!

So, I made a purse pendant with my beginners beads. I think it came out pretty cute!