Things I learned tonight

I torched tonight again. After making a bead in the set I'm working on, I tried to make a black stringer. My first attempt was terrible, resulting in a big blob of black glass that would be useless. The second attempt was better, though extremely (too) thin.

I also had another disaster trying to apply glass to several layers of bead. Still getting the hang of applying glass in this cooler torch than Tink's. This one broke the bead release and ended up in the can of cold water. :-( It was gonna be a good one, too.

My big problem is seeing. I just don't see clearly with the clip-ons I bought with the kit. This makes what I'm doing more dangerous. If I keep the glasses flipped up, I can see better, but then I risk problems with my eyes. So next purchase: a better pair of lampwork glasses.

Very important learning experience: Be careful of what music I listen to! A rather harsh song started playing on my iPod, and it affected my nerves, leading to destruction of bead. (Don't worry, not using a headphones, rather a portable stereo setup.) So I naturally switched albums after that. Calming but peppy music works well for me. One song came on that made me want to dance, which is another no-no while torching, at least for me!

Day 2 of torching and my house is still standing. Wonderful! May it continue forever after!