Wickedly Wonderful

Jay and I saw Wicked this past week. All I can say is that it was absolutely wonderful. I don't think Jay expected to like it has much as he did since he just hates musicals. I'm happy that he had a good time because it made the experience that much more enjoyable. The performances were absolutely amazing. Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba was amazing. She has such a beautiful voice and a wonderful presence. Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda was absolutely wonderful! She was funny and VERY cute. I loved her and all her manuerisms. I loved how their voices sounded together. I really wish I could have the soundtrack to that particular performance.
So, in the spirit of the show, I dressed in a vintage-inspired black top and skirt and wore pointy shoes with a nice tall heel. I made my jewelry all green as an hommage to Elphaba since I loved her so much in the book written by Gregory McGuire.

Baaack!

The end of 2005 was a tad hectic. If it wasn't Hurricane Wilma, it was the constant battles with germs or the hysteria of the holidays. I didn't get many torching sessions in by the end of the year. But it seems like I've more than made up for that this month alone. Monique has joined the torching and now she has a torch of her very own. No more waiting around for her to finish her ginormous beads.

This past session proved to be the best. Not only was it our first with seperate torches but the beads actually came out round! Except of course for the ones meant to be square...
My mom had a jab at making beads for the first time eva. She's bought plenty of glass beads and finally she experienced what making them is all about! Her first bead was a pretty light purple and came out just a bit crooked but overall pretty round. Go mom! I made it into a purse pendant for her so she could carry it with her. Here it is...

Mona and I have a date this Saturday to torch again. We hope this time no little baby birds falls out of the tree and on to our heads (yes, this happened). Here's a pic of us after cooking Christmas Eve dinner.

Torching?

If I thought football season would be bad, obviously I didn't foresee the evil and torturous game between UM and Clemson. This abomination of a 'game' lasted 4.5 hours and went into TRIPLE overtime. Yes, triple!! Now what, may you ask, does this have to do with me? Well, I had been patiently waiting for my husband to finish watching the game so that we could take a quick trip to Home Depot and get the finishing details for my lampwork setup. I still needed a piece of wood for the tabletop and a little fan for the fumes. I also needed the ultra-important tanks of gas and a sparker. Oh! And some type of metal contraption that could support super hot glass rods from landing on the table and causing blob burn marks.

The game was about done so I began to get ready to leave. Next thing I know, they have to go into overtime. So I sit and watch hoping that it would be quick. Of course college football overtime is NEVER quick. At the end of the first, my fears came true! Overtime AGAIN! Yes, I actually watched the 2nd overtime. Clemson scored and then UM scored...3rd overtime! At this point I was on my knees and on the verge of tears. It was too dang late already to actually do any torching and all that time down the drain. We did finally get to Home Depot to get the required materials. It was almost closing but we made it in and found everything but the fan and forgot the sparker.

Come Sunday, after a trip to Ace and the in-laws, the torching table was up!! --for you my darling-- My uber-babe, wonderful husband who is the best and most charming man I know, put it all together for me. Plus he did an awesome bendy thing to the bracket to angle the torch just right for moi. Hooray! It's all beautiful, neat and quite spacious. I look around and notice that it's quite windy. Well, duh, there's a hurricane on the way! But it was so far! How could it affect the wind already?! I light up the torch a few times, get scared and turn it back off. After watching the wind for a good hour, I decide it's calming down - riiiiiight. I go out, spark the torch and actually begin melting a black glass rod. Next thing I know, a gust of wind blows and the flame whips around and almost licks my hand. Trying to keep my composure, I concentrate on not burning my hand and keeping the blob of hot molten glass on the rod and not on my pants or on the table. I turn of the torch, mash the blob and run back inside to have a little freak attack before finally realizing that the day was not meant for torching and pack everything back up. Oh, woe is me! Maybe another day. Sometime after Hurricane Rita! Jeez! 1 day and half off from work and no torching possibilities.

The set-up...

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!

We're blogging!

3 Wishes Jewelry officially has a blog. Who knew?