Question for lampwork artists

I was a kid with a new chemistry set. It had an alcohol lamp with a blowhose attached and there were some tiny Pyrex tubing and rods. I was able to blow little bubbles in the ends of the tubes and thought that was the coolest thing. Of course I used up the glass in no time and had no idea where to get any more. Fast forward about 30 years, I had been taking workshops on furnace work and ran across a beadmaking workshop. It was a horror, Hot Head torches screaming and an instructor who was very good at making metal parts for jewelry, but not much of a beadmaker. I remember one woman in the class made a bead that dripped and she slung the drip over the bead. She went around say "Look, I made a penis. Don't you like my glass penis?" And I said, "Very nice. And it is life size too." Which got a big laugh. Other than that there was one woman who made amazing flowers, which I still don't know how she did that on a Hot Head. At any rate, I had the revelation I could play with hot glass for much less than a fortune, and the art center sold us the setups (torch and holder, glasses, graphite marvers and some other stuff) for $100. I bought some glass from the instructor and went home and made beads like a fiend. No annealing, just fiber blanket, no info on annealing (fortunately I knew about it from the furnace classes), just a lot of fun. Eventually I took another longer workshop, got a kiln and a real torch and am still plugging away at it.

I love it! Thanks, Louis:)

It's kinda funny but I set up my HH on a table and started it up. I got the glass hot, wrapped it on a mandrel and almost cried it was so pitiful. I didn't take any classes and I only had Cindy Jenkins book. The one thing the book doesn't talk about is how fast to turn the mandrel. You don't go fast. It's a steady turning pace. You'll get the feel for the glass but not at first. First you just need to try stuff out.

It was at a beginner beadmaking class in Portland at Rose's Glassworks. The class was a gift from the people here at RCB!! The teacher was Vince, and the class had about 8 other people. I enjoyed the class - it was a 2 day class. We didn't have much ventilation though, and it was in the middle of summer, so I was light headed. :) I immeditately took to the torch - it was a Minor, which is what I still use now. We learned basic stuff - how to pull stringer, how to wrap the glass on the mandrel, how to make a round, cube, tab, etc. We learned some simple dot patterns. I got a visit during class from Paulette, who eventually became my teacher and mentor later on. That was a little over 2 years ago, now!

I think some of us here got more enjoyment out of that than YOU did, Kandice. I know it thrills me to this day. I'm totally hoggy and selfish and wallowing about it. ~~ Sooz To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~~Joseph Chilton Pearce

Kandice that's so cool that your first class was a gift from RCB!

My first lampworking experience was at Marj Bates' studio in Scituate. I pretty much took the class on a whim, because I felt like learning something new. I was pretty sure I'd be hooked. I'm not sure why I felt that but I did. I brought DH with me hoping to hook him, too. Well, I was hooked and he wasn't. My first beads were horrible. The first one didn't even look like a bead - it looked like a blob. DH made perfect beads from the get-go. Figures. Oh it was fun and my 3d anniversary is coming up - November 3d.

-Ellen

Oh fab! Our 2nd anniversary was Monday. >SIGH< ~~ Sooz To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~~Joseph Chilton Pearce

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 17:02:17 -0400, Kandice Seeber wrote (in message ):

Wow! TWO years, already?!? Time flies, no?

Kathy N-V

Oh, you guys have been patrons/patronesses of artists for some time now. Wow!

.Stephanie.

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Thank you, Kandice:)

Ain't it just like a man to be able to do something so well, and then have no interest in it? LOL Present men excluded, of course;)

Men tackle lampwork differently than women do. It's what makes us so different. I love, love, love it when men take interest and start making beads. Their mechanics are different, their color choices are different, and the way they lampwork is usually different. I can't wait to see Adam's first beads. Don't beat him if they are perfect from the get go.

Well you kinda just spilled the news, now didn't ya? LOL:)

Uh, I guess I did. Ooops.

*grins* No worries......but since we went that far, I guess I'll bust it all out now. Less than two weeks ago or so, I mentioned IN PASSING to Starlia that Adam and I have wanted to give lampworking a try ever since we saw our first artisan made beads. The next morning, she said she had found some angels to make it happen for us.

We received three boxes between yesterday and today, full of glass bead making paraphanalia. Hothead torch, a buttload of glass rods, mandrels, bead release, all the hardware to attach the torch to a table top, marver pad and paddle, a squeezy thing, glasses, Cindy Jenkins' book, the stand for the gas tank, and a connector hose. All that's left is for us to figure out where (we're thinking outside on the porch, because ventilation inside bites butt in here) to get a table and chair, and I was told something about a fiber blanket coming along soon. My mom is also bringing Nana's old crockpot down for us next week.

Adam is going apeshit with excitement, and I'm (once again) flabbergasted at such generosity (but learning to accept it gracefully, methinks). Even Darian is all up in it, because he has such a love for "lamperk beads."

Speaking of which, didja all know that when I sit down to clay, Darian does too? He also strings beads to make his own bracelets:)

Soooo.....Starlia, Kathy K, and Kalera are our lampwork angels, and we are most intensely grateful. And Apeshit. HA!

Couldnt happen to a nicer couple. I dont know why this group is so over the top giving, but the feeling is contagious. Diana

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 7:40:34 -0400, Diana Curtis wrote (in message ):

Because it feels so wonderful. I feel like the richest woman in the world to be able to give even a little bit, and I suspect that I'm nowhere near alone.

Kathy N-V

I missed the original question, so I'm hitchhiking on Kandice's reply.

I have to give two answers. LOL My very first attempt was about a week after Christmas. My niece found one of hothead kits that Lark books was selling at the time, and gave it to me as a gift. That evil brat turned me on to polymer clay a few years beforehand, but that was payback for getting her hooked on beads in the first place. (She's now off on knitting and dyeing, with a nudge from her auntie, so lord only knows what she'll introduce me to next!)

So, right after New Year's I sat down at a table in my basement, bravely lit my shiny new Hothead and yelped because it was so hot and LOUD! Turned it off, consulted with my now-ex, and tried it again. Still intimidating, but what the heck! So I picked up a nice purple mandrel (kiln release-dipped) and a blue rod (always my favorite test color) and tried melting it, following the pictures in Cindy Jenkins "You Can Make Glass Beads" booklet. The good news is, I didn't burn myself. But I had nothing resembling a bead, that's for sure. LOL I gave it a try a few more times over a week, and figured I just didn't have what it takes for glass. Back to the dyepots for me.

Flash forward a few months. I found some cool websites while surfing one day at work on my lunch break. Long story short I ended up taking a class with Kate Fowle-Meleney down in Washington DC. What a rush! First, it was the first time I'd gone AWAY since having kids. The freedom was a real treat, as was staying in a nice hotel in the DC outskirts and taking the Metro to Kate's house both days. (I know, I'm weird, but after 4 years on NYC subways, the DC Metro is a delight, trust me!) Kate's class was incredible. I made real, almost round beads within an hour of sitting down, resolved that I HAD to have a Minor if I was going to keep doing this, and by the end of the weekend I was totally seduced by the glass. Kate was a marvelous teacher, going over safety VERY carefully, and sharing some of her stories of ooopses. She's great at watching you and making suggestions on how to do things better, from holding your mandrel to timing the melting and stringer placement and dots. And one of the coolest things was that at the start and end of each day we gathered in her dining room, where she'd placed trays of MANY lampworked beads from various artists (her private collection). She could tell stories about some of the beadmakers as well as explaining how some of the beads were made....then demonstrating some of those mysterious "how's". Having all of that inspiration was intimidating in some ways, but exciting in many others.

I got my own Minor within a month of that class, and I've been making beads ever since...My first class was in May of 1997.

KarenK

I want to tell you more about my second class. The first one was at a local glass studio, with Marcia Kmack, that I found out about by seeing her demo at a farmers market. At it, I learned how to turn on the torch and how to make basic round beads with dots. I don't know how anyone can teach more than one beginner at a time....soupy glass dripping everywhere! I was one of 2 students. I didn't like the feel of the process but I did take to it naturally, if that makes sense. I was actually disappointed because it didn't feel as satisfying to work with glass as people made it look. We all know that's changed.

Anyway, the second class, not long later, and very little torch experience later(maybe about 8 hours torch time to date?), I was called at 8:10 a.m. and told that someone didn't show up for Corina's class, come on up and fill the spot if I want. I didn't even know what pulling a stringer meant, and that's what I walked in to. Talk about being intimidated!