Got Gas, Will Melt Glass

Yesterday I bought a couple of cans of MAPP gas towards making something I can't reveal yet, because it's a gift for someone who may read this blog. So today, I made lots of beads, and I ran out of mandrels for the first time! I have been using only the larger mandrels because the smaller diameter ones I got from someone else are all bent, so they produce consistently non-round beads. I really need to buy more mandrels.

The glass I used was all Satake glass again today, because I can work it faster with my Hothead. My favorite color is this lovely periwinkle blue; however, it is dreadfully prone to gooiness. Even after it's been out of the flame for a while, it wants to keep moving, and I have never been able to get it to not pick up the pattern from the kiln bottom, even if I wait a long time before putting it in to anneal. On the other hand, it cools quickly, and if I reintroduce the rod to the flame too fast, the rod shatters! Today I tried covering it with clear, so we'll see how that works.

My two fun projects tonight were trying to make a hollow bead and making another vessel. I was amazed that the "hollow" bead turned out with as much of a bubble as it did; the clear glass got too gloppy and was hard to form together. The vessel turned out nice, I hope. I also experimented with putting a bit of dichroic on both. Hopefully the different COEs won't cause too much stress on the glass. We'll see when the annealing cycle is done!

Pictures to come, to be taken on the very snowy, blizzardy day tomorrow!

P.S. Happy Birthday Rebecca, and Hi to all the girls at the party!