I have finally decided to put my expensive Jim Moore coring machine to good use. I have been coring my beads. I screwed up a few because of using the tubing cutter instead of the mini saw I bought at harbor freight. I also cored some unevenly. I don't know why, but when I use a tubing cutter to cut the tubing, it puts dents into the tubing and looks really bad. Even though I have to deburr and pull off some leftover silver when using the harbor freight saw, the tubing ends up looking perfect with no flaws. I deburred and even sanded when using the tubing cutter but I still get flaws so I am going to discontinue even bothering with it.
I also decided to hook my phantom back up to play with boro. I have been trying to make hearts like Mr. Smiley does from his tutorial. Also, I absolutely love encasing with boro, it is so much more pleasant than encasing with soft glass. If I wouldn't miss the colors of soft glass, I probably would stick with boro from now on. You can stick boro right in the flame and it won't crack and fly everywhere. A bead will not crack if you leave it out of the flame too long and then put it back in. It is just a wonderful glass to work with. You will be seeing a lot more boro stuff from me now on. :)
