Beads made on April 29, 2013

Because my son chose to go to his archery class the next day, I was able to do some torching last night.

I wanted to experience with black background, white dots and then cover the dots with transparent colors. Turned out not bad. I also made black base with aventurine rod and turned out ok. 

I tried transparent blue with dichroic frit, but didn't want to stick to the glass too much.

And finally, clear with white stripes and frit. The clear could never melt because it was too stiff.

But, all in all, the beads turned out good.

Beads made on April 29, 2013

First Beads Made by my HotHead Torch

I was very very happy when I got my torch bracket in the mail on my birthday.
As soon as I got home, I fired up my kiln, screwed my bracket on the table and started torching.
It was harder than I thought and I was too nervous, especially how to start the torch.
I made a couple of beads (which by the way 1 cracked, 2 shattered and 1 was ok but lost the lustered color because I worked on it too much in the flame).

1st batch from left to right: lost its luster, cracked, the last 2 on the right: shattered :(, made Apr25,13

2nd Batch: much better, Apr26,13

3rd batch made on Apr27,13.. even better

Lampwork preparation place almost completed

This weekend, we've set up the lampwork area where I'll be working at (my basement/family room), right beside the table where I'm doing my stained glass. I've got all the basic kit, mostly from Devardi glass and Bead Annealing kiln Paragon Bluebird Jr. So, we fireproofed the desk by getting few metal sheets and tile to put under the bead warmer, screws, and 2 bottles of propane to start.

The only problem was, I bought the wrong torch bracket. The one that came was to use with hose propane, while I decided not to use any hose or bulk propane. I'll just be using 1 lb propane each time.

So, little more delay because I need to exchange the brackets. But, I'll be patience.

The lampwork table right beside the stained glass table

My lampwork table all fireproofed

The bead kiln has been moved to inside the fireplace

The Beginning of Lampworking studio at home

After I took 2 classes using torch at my favorite glass place: Live Laugh Love Glass, I fell in love with lampworking. I started gathering information, researching, and finding great websites and books to learn more and more. I decided to do it at home but my house is not cut out for torch that uses Oxygen and Propane. So, I decided to do the lampworking using the most economical way of Hot Head torch, which only uses propane; in this case I'll only use 1 lb propane, which is the safest way.

I started gathering beginner's kits and kiln and this weekend we'll start fireproofing the area where I'll be working at. For now, the only ventilation I'll have is 3 open windows: 2 in front of me and 1 from across the room, so it'll do for now until we'll get the better ventilation system.

I'm so excited, though a little bit nervous of starting another new hobby. I love glass, I love torches, I love beads and I love detailed work, so this hobby is such a perfect combination for me.

So, here are the things that I gathered so far:

Paragon Bluebird Jr. Kiln

Glass Rods warmer, Hot Head torch, Tools (from Devardi glass)

Glass rods (from Devardi glass)