Preps for show

In the last few days, I've been madly getting ready for the show, as well as for the end of the school year at my teaching job. So much work! I have the steps (like on a cooking show) to prepare, so the only torching I've done was to make beads showing the different steps of making the focal. Lots of work with rings and maille, though, and writing up the long notes for the show itself.

I treated myself to making one other bead - another kidlet. I got its parts a bit more exact this time, including the hair and eye dots. However, for some reason, it turned out to look very much like a character on South Park. It cracked me up when I first held the head and body beads together to see how they would look. The other members of my household found it funny too.


It'll be nice when I can spend some quality time at the torch progressing in my skills and doing my experiments. For now, most of my mandrels will be tied up with the beads for the show. Time to buy more mandrels?

Oh, I did do one experiment. One of my mandrels had a hideous bead that went wrong on it - the darn thing would not come off. So I thought I'd gently heat it then dunk it in water for it to crack off the mandrel. Funny thing is, I KNEW this was a bad idea, because I'd experienced the shattering that happens when you try to reheat a bead. But I really wanted this mandrel.

Sure enough, the bead virtually exploded, throwing glass everywhere in the room, and a lot because it was a larger bead. No more going barefoot in that room! But I got my mandrel back and managed to escape unscathed.

Don't try this at home...