Ok..Hi everyone. Here are some beads from Sunday. As you can see I am finally getting the "round" bead shape...it is hard to control the molten glass. We also learned cylinder beads, although now I look at them mine look like suppositories or larvae ...lovely. One onf the beads here is from the instructor Wesley Fleming, who was demonstrating the gravity swirl design. My turquoise and red bead was an attempt at that, but my torch got too low and it was taking forever!! I guess serious beadmakers/glass sculptors use a stronger torch with separate oxygen tank and propane which burns much hotter, so processes happen more quickly than with our little propane dinkies.
So around 3pm on Sunday I burnt the c**p out of my hand. I was concentrating so hard on getting this little dot in exactly the right place that I put my hand OVER the torch and burnt the tips of all four of my right hand fingers. THe middle one got it BAD. Luckily Wes was prepared and had my soak my hand in a bucket of water for 1/2 and hour or so..this helped, but on the way home I had my hand pressed up against the glass of my car (It was snowing out) to cool the agonizing burn that would not go away!! So, I have a great blister now, and some sensitivity still, but obviously I can type, so it isn't bad now.
Overall--awesome class and I intend to keep going with it as a hobby. I may invest later in a bigger torch set up, but for now, I will practice with dinkies and send the beads to my friends!
Don't ya want one??
