Playing with fire
Bead making season is underway at last. The optimum temperature range for lamp working glass is between 65 and 80 degrees F, below that range and the glass is too chilled to melt properly, and above that range the artist tends to melt.
Spring and warmer weather arrived long ago but playing in the garden won out, the lawn needed mowing and the vegetable garden had to be planted. Now with summer here I can finally make time for playing with fire.
Below are a few photos of bead making in progress: you wrap an initial core of glass onto the steel rod and marver that into a cylinder, then add additional colors on top. Here I am using a technique to capture a small bubble of air by making a dent in the glass with a sharp steel tool, and then covering the dent with clear glass.
Seattle has a new glass museum, the Chihuly Glasshouse and garden will be an inspiring place to visit.
adding molten glass to the bead
poking dents into the glass
cooling the bead away from the flame
Tags: AuraSunArts, beads, bubbles, Chihuly, encasing, fire, glass, marver, melt, Seattle, spring, summer, temperature, torch
AuraSunArts, making glass beads | mary | 
July 21, 2012 10:47 pm
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