Work Space

Thought there might be some question as to how the beads I talk about and show are made.

This picture shows my torching area. You can see I'm a messy artiste! I sit down to make one thing and the glass has other ideas. The plan goes up in smoke and new glass seems to leap out into my hand and so the clutter begins...

The box on the left side of the desk holds a number of lengths of PVC pipe which hold my glass rods and separate the colors. On top of the box are jars of frit and some Zoozi presses that are used to help shape the lentils, diamonds, pillows, tablets and tile shapes I like to play with.

The kiln is to the far left of the picture and on top of it is a can of mandrels. Those are the stainless steel rods that the glass is wrapped around to make the beads. The mandrels are dipped in a "release" which is sort of a clay mix which keeps the beads from sticking to them. The reason those mandrels are on top of the kiln is that I just dipped them and they need to dry . What better way than to put them on top of the kiln as it heats up?

The desk is littered with rods and tools left from the last couple torching sessions. Pictures for inspiration are on the wall and actually inside the hood over the torch. The hood is fitted with a fan to suck the noxious fumes out out of the room.

The cup in front of the torch holds water in to cool tools and quench beads which have gone wrong! And last but not least, the plant on the windowsill is an aloe.... for burns. Luckily, I haven't had a lot of occasions to use it (knock on wood!)