Baby Lampwork:)

On Jun 5, 4:33 pm, "Vibrant Jewels"
wrote:
YUCK ALERT

OK this sounds gross, but it might work. Squash the roaches (step on them,
beat them with a hammer, whatever),
[...]

--
Karleen Page
Member International Jewelry Designers Guild (IJDG)
Vibrant Jewels web stohttp://www.vibrantjewels.com/jewelry/welcome.htm
Vibrant Jewels JustBeads Auctions:http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=21770
CLICK HERE to join myYahoo Group: "~Candace~" wrote in message


living in one of the roach capitals of the planet, some time soon
after
I moved here (20 years ago), somebody who grew up here told me to use
a frying pan.
It works.

Maren (unless you're in certain parts of Texas our roaches are
guaranteed
to be bigger than yours. If you're in Texas there's some annual
competition)

On Jun 8, 6:51 am, Maren at google wrote:
On Jun 5, 4:33 pm, "Vibrant Jewels"
wrote:

YUCK ALERT

OK this sounds gross, but it might work. Squash the roaches (step on them,
beat them with a hammer, whatever),
[...]

--
Karleen Page
Member International Jewelry Designers Guild (IJDG)
Vibrant Jewels web stohttp://www.vibrantjewels.com/jewelry/welcome.htm
Vibrant Jewels JustBeads Auctions:http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=21770
CLICK HERE to join myYahoo Group: "~Candace~" wrote in message

living in one of the roach capitals of the planet, some time soon
after
I moved here (20 years ago), somebody who grew up here told me to use
a frying pan.
It works.

Maren (unless you're in certain parts of Texas our roaches are
guaranteed
to be bigger than yours. If you're in Texas there's some annual
competition)

frying pan do you cook them or beat them? V

Candace your progress is amazing! 3 weeks... and look at those dots!
Fantastic dot control!

~Candace~ wrote:
So...one week in, and we can see our improvement over the course of 7
days. We fired up the kiln twice, and decided it wasn't worth it just
yet, so we're just using the fiber blanket for now.

I keep pulling out the beads we made 2-3 years ago, in our stolen
moments at the torch in my folks' basement. Wow. Compared to what we
made this week, those beads are insanely bad Its amazing what a bit
of reading (over and over) will do for your rudimentary skills.

So far, my focus has mostly been on learning what each glass can and
can't do...how it reacts to other glass, to different flames, etc.
Adam's has been on technique, since the basics seem to come naturally to
him. By Friday, I could make a pretty darn good basic bead, the donut
shape with good dimples. It took some trial and error, figuring out how
best to position my body, the torch, the glass rod, and the mandrel. It
turns out I'm a side winder--I need to look at what I'm doing from the
side in order to lay down a good, even footprint. After that, I can go
back to looking over the torch to do the decorating

Adam's big hurdle is prepping the bead properly for the fiber blanket,
and keeping his beads warm and rotating while working on them. He's
very impatient, and wants to be Done when he's done. I keep reminding
him...okay..nagging him...to keep the glass warm, and to follow the
steps for prepping the beads for the fiber blanket, but he's a stubborn
dude After working on a bead for half an hour yesterday, and finding
it cracked right down the center an hour later....he may have gotten the
point.

So...we've learned some important things. One, Candace cannot and
should not use opaline glass. It will boil, and it will burn. Nor
should she use most of the yellows, and one grass green. They strike or
burn, every time. Adam should not remove beads from the mandrels. They
will be unusable after leaving his hands. Adam should also not take
glass rods from the jar and thrust them directly into the flame. The
amount of shattered glass is growing by leaps and bounds

All in all, we're having a blast. Hopefully, our skills at the torch
will continue to improve, and someday, I'll post our first lampwork AD

Wanna see the beads?
http://flickr.com/photos/duet/

~Candace~ (who has found the color Powder Pink and wants to hoard about
a million pounds of it!!!)
http://duet.etsy.com