Lots of dots...

I have not done these types of beads for a while. I missed making them but I have been doing a lot of boro lately. I may try making a bead like this in boro and see what I come up with. The thing about going back to soft glass after you have been using boro is the shockability of it and the soupiness. Boro is very stiff and takes a while to shape and get moving. Soft glass shatters in the flame and it feels like hot butter. Sometimes I have trouble keeping it off the table it is so soft. I love both types of glass and do not want to limit myself to either one. I think they both have their good points and bad. I also like the bullseye and coe96 glass even though I do not have a huge amount of either. I always envy other lampworkers that have the option of buying so many pounds of glass. I just never have the money so my glass supply is limited unfortunately. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything but it sure would be nice.

My mojo is finally back..

Well, after being sick for almost 2 weeks, I am finally back to torching. I have been playing with boro for a couple of days trying to make pendants from Mr. Smiley's dvd. Last night I decided I was frustrated with boro, even with the very hot outer flame of the phantom. I decided I would rather play with soft glass and one of the beads is ruined because I accidently used a clear boro rod to make accent dots. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't stick to the bead but then when I took it out of the kiln this morning I discovered cracked and smashed accent beads all over the bead. I try to keep the boro on one side and the soft glass on the other but unfortunately they got mixed up. The following bead luckily didn't get any boro mixed in with it, I used ivory, hades black, kronos2 and encased with marine wave. I don't know if I like marine wave that much. It tends to get scum on it and it gets all bubbly kind of like moretti clear. I tend to like laushca for encasing because it is so clean and pretty but I had to try Sarah's tip on hades and marine wave to see what would happen.

Spreading Colors!

I was playing around with spreading colors by following Sarah Hornik's tutorial. They never come out quite as nice as hers. :(