A generous community

Since I started lampworking, people have been so sweet... Rebecca S. offered to send me a care package. I found another lampworker, Debbie S., in my area, through the ISGB forum. She was offering free cans of MAPP gas she doesn't need anymore. When we got in touch, she offered to let me buy a few supplies from her. Yippee, especially since I had that problem at that store!

We met today, and she was so kind. She told me all about the properties of different glasses. It's amazing to find out so much information; she knows the glass almost like intimately knowing another person. She also told me that the man who gave me a hard time has quite a reputation and routinely puts people off. I wish it were otherwise.

I picked out some beautiful rods from her extensive collection, as well as some gorgeous dichroic glass pieces. She said it's actually easier to work with that glass on a Hothead torch than a "better" torch. I'm still going to wait until my skills improve, though!

I took a couple of hours to work on beads today. Made a sweet little turquoise one with just the right shape and good puckers. I'm so proud! I added black dots, but had some trouble with one of the dots I placed late in the game. Should have left well enough alone...

I also made a nice one that looks like a creamsicle, with violet and cream mixed together. And the last one was a big experiment; I'm not sure how well it turned out. I tried lots of things on it. Good for learning, anyway.

Will post pics when possible. Back to teaching school tomorrow!

One more thing. Someone posted a link to a majorly extraordinary lampworker, and I want to save it, but not in my mess of bookmarks. So here it is: Tobler Glass Creations. I doubt that I'll ever get that good!