You can see that I like to have everything I need to hand, so it is a bit messy. If I tidy up I can never find anything haha.
The photo above is my torch area. You can see just some of the glass I have, the rest is stored in tubes under the bench. I like to have a selection of different colours on the bench to inspire me. You can also see that I have jars and bags and more jars and bags, and more ja....(ok you get the idea) of frit. I do have a bit of a passion for frit, ok you can call it an addiction ;0)
Here's my torch. It's a Carlisle Mini CC dual fuel torch, it runs off a tank of propane which you can't see, it's safely stored away...and it's also connected to an oxycon (short for Oxygen Concentrator). An oxycon machine takes in air, separates the oxygen from all the other chemicals and produces almost pure oxygen. This oxygen pumps through a tube which is connected to the torch from the machine , when mixed with the propane it creates a flame which is a much higher temperature making the melting of glass much quicker. Some lampworkers run 2 oxycons to their torch which produces even higher temperatures for the melting of really tough glass like Borosilicate (Pyrex) glass, I only use soft glass at the moment so I only need one ;0)
A nice selection of glass rods - Lots of lampworkers store their glass in an amazingly tidy and organised way, in tubes or racks by colour. They then take out the colours they want to work with...that would be much too organised for me! You should know by now that I like mess and am totally dis-organised in the way that I work, so this doesn't work for me. I do have storage tubes underneath my bench with the separate colours but I like to take one rod from each colour and store it in this pot on the bench, it helps me with co-ordinating colours when making beads. I can instantly see that maybe a few colours that you wouldn't necessarily think of putting together do actually look good ;0)
This is my kiln...I think (NO, I know!) this is the most expensive piece of equipment we had to buy (eek) thank you Andy!!) but it really was a neccessity. To start I was using annealing bubbles, I made the beads and then had to put them straight into a container of annealing bubbles. These bubbles are tiny little balls of silica, when you place your hot bead into these bubbles it creates an insulation which allows the glass to cool down slowly, this minimises the internal stress on the glass, usually preventing cracking...I had lots of beads crack using the bubbles which is really annoying I can tell you!
When using annealing bubbles the beads still need to be annealed in a kiln! Luckily a very good friend of ours who has a kiln kindly offered to anneal the beads for us. Remember, Andy and myself were hooked on this new lampworking thing, we were producing masses of beads by the day and these beads were then being put into plastic tubs, being transported to another village about 6 miles up the road, left there until Leigh had time to put them in her kiln and then we had to fetch them back....not ideal really huh? hahaha
The kiln made everything so much better (once we had understood the instructions!) Thank gawd Vickie another lampworking friend, who also makes and supplies frit! at her little Emporium, was on the end of the phone to talk us through it, or I think we'd still be sitting here now, 4 months later trying to set that kiln up hehe.
Now the beads go straight from the flame into the hot kiln where they stay until the next day usually. The kiln heats up to a certain temperature where it stays until I've finished my days bead making. It then ramps down slowly by 50 degrees an hour until completely cool and the beads can then be removed from the kiln and they're fully annealed. Then I need to remove them from the mandrels...soak them in soapy water, clean each bead thoroughly with a diamond reamer in a dremel tool to remove all the bead release(yuck, the worst job in the world!) OHhhhhhhhhh, did you know that bead release is really quite harmful if inhaled?! When you buy those cheap lampwork beads from China for instance, the powdery residue you find inside the hole of those beads is bead release. Please take care when using these beads because you really don't want to be breathing that nasty stuff in! All good lampworkers remove every trace of bead release before selling their beads on...anyway, carrying on...I then need to rinse, etch in acid(if I want to add a matt finish to the bead) and finally photograph before sharing them with you guys and listing them on Etsy!
Phewwwwwwie! Did you realise how much work went into those beads?!
Here's my jewellery making area...yep, more mess and clutter
Another view of my beading area. How many beads?! ;0)
Even though its messy and cluttered, I LOVE MY STUDIO!! I can lose myself for hours and hours in that flame, it's a great little space to work in. Even in the snow...which we've had plenty of this last week, I almost needed a sled and a pack of huskies to take me to work last week LOL
That's all for now...I'm off to the shedio now to play with fire :D
Have a great day you guys!
