New Stuff

Finally, my leg has progressed enough to spend a little time torching every day.  I have tried not to waste this time so I don't have many photos.  Naturally, once I get it all together to photograph, my computer decides to act up.  This is just the way my life works.  Not all the beads above or below are recent.  Some were in my last pictorial post, but I like the massed effect.  The beads above are pandora sized and wound on a 3/16" mandrel.  I've done a bit of experimentation, but not a whole lot.  Below are crow beads wound on a 3/32" mandrel.  All will be for sale at the Heritage Days Revolutionary War demo in Westernville, NY on June 5-6.  Any that remain after that will be listed on Etsy.  I am a bit worried about not having enough of a variety but need to realize that this is the first year there will be a lampworker there and no one can predict whether there will be custom or not.  I'm also attempting to have enough of a selection for the reenactors looking for "authentic" beads and the shopping public who are more interested in how a bead looks than whether it was possible to create it in the late 18th century.

I couldn't resist making a rainbow of these.  They are, from left to right, Vetro candy apple, Effetre 432 medium red, Effetre 420 coral sunburst, CiM pumpkin, Effetre grass green (I think), Effetre copper green, CiM smurfy, Effetre dark cobalt, CiM ming unique (the dark one), CiM chalcedony, Effetre white, CiM Gelly's sty, Effetre lover boy (I need to modify my original opinion since there was a lot of variation in the rods), Effetre copper red green, CiM Thai orchid, CiM tuxedo, Effetre sediment, the much coveted lace agate, Effetre sandstone, and Effetre dark ivory.I may etch the ivory and some of the others but I haven't decided.

It's good to be back at the torch.  My daughter described her artistic drive as a desire like hunger or thirst that needs to be satisfied, and I know exactly what she means.  It may be making beads, or candles, or pewter, or weaving and sewing, to name some of the interests I have pursued lately, but I definitely feel the need to express myself.