Sometimes maybe we just get lazy.
I've been experimenting with lampworking glass beads recently. I drool over them incessantly on Etsy. It's always been on my bucket list to learn now to lampwork. A friend asked me a while ago what was stopping me.
Fair point.
Enter the homemade lampworking set up. Have the hood vent to keep from asphyxiating myself with fumes. I buy individual propane bottles at Home Depot and use an inexpensive Hot Head torch tip. Glass (ohhhhh the glass) from Frantzartglass.com.
And I just practiced.
A lot. Eventually, I started playing around with sculpting and shapes.
Glass flowers
Sculptural owl heads
Boston terrier for the seester
Liddle kiddens
And I spent a bunch of free time on lampworketc.com lurking on boards.
I even got a used Chilipepper kiln on Ebay (which is engineered inside of a red carry-able toolbox and is adorable) to make sure that the glass was properly kiln fired and wouldn't become unstable and shatter in months or years.
The real fun is when I started feeling confident enough to use them in my own jewelry pieces.
Now it's June in So Cal and it's 100 degrees every day. Given that my "studio" is in the garage, working next to a hot torch is practically unbearable.
This gives me more time to use the already kiln fired beads in designs. Right? Of course right.
More designs forthcoming.
