Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Hot Glass: 2nd Session Lampworking

My 2nd session lampworking went well today.

I tried a few things differently. For one, I decided to try making smaller beads so that I could get more control over their shape.

I tested out plain ol' propane on the first and second bead. They turned out fine with no "muddiness" on their colours. I don't know if this means I will go with your garden variety propane for my bulk gas solution, but it certainly bears more research...

The encasing with clear and transparent turned out okay, and really adds dimension to the beads.

I made my own aventurine stringer with a transparent aqua blue rod and goldstone chip frit. It turned out reasonably well and I used it on several beads (gorgeous!).This stringer was inspired by a gloriously sparkly stringer given to me by Mark P. (I'm going to have to ask him how he made that!)
I'll probably take a break on bead making until I get the whole fuel issue figured out next week. I pretty much used up my second 1 lb. tank of MPS gas today...
*sigh* I'm really enjoying getting back into the swing of this artform.

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