Hiatus
holiday house
No Lampwork For Me
This has been a bead making free month, no wait, I just worked it out it's nearly three months eek! I went away for a while to see mum in Lancaster back at the beginning of May and had lots of new summery bead ideas to try when I got home. Before I left I tidied up the studio and fixed the poorly oxygen generator ready for my return. Sadly the generator was not fixed at all and despite my best efforts I was not able to resuscitate it. This was very bad news for me as it is the most expensive piece of kit I own and not replaceable. I have been in discussion with the manufacturers who have been trying to talk me through fixing it but it's over 10 years old and it's not looking good.
I have to make something to keep me sane so I have been making jewellery. Obviously I used the opportunity to buy more beads because one can never have enough beads. I bought some very beautiful clay beads from Scorched Earth which have given me some wonderful inspiration for some new lampwork.
Instead I have mainly been
In no particular order
set up my enameling station but not actually enameled anything
investigated making clay beads but rejected it because of having to buy another kiln to fire them (also husband would divorce/kill me)
tinkered/broken/fixed my website
knit a shawl in gorgeous, hand dyed, gradated, sparkly yarn and a sock
painting! (on paper, not the house although lord knows, painting the house might have been a better use of my time)
Pointlessly guddled around inside my oxygen generator hoping against hope it would spring back to life
I've been sick with a nasty virus that took me off my feet for nearly two weeks
watched a humongous amount of crap tv, Sleepy Hollow anyone?
Been on holiday for 10 days in Fornalutx, a spectacular village on the west side of Majorca
Hurrah
Gloriously when I got back from my holiday my superstar mum took pity on me and bought me an oxygen concentrator. I rang up Tuffnells lampwork suppliers immediately and ordered one of their 8 liter reconditioned machines, it's coming tomorrow. I'm so happy but it's is going to be interesting because it's a bit of a different animal to the machine I have been using. It produces less oxygen and delivers it at lower pressure which means I don't want to use my beloved Lynx torch with it. Fortunately I have back up torches (yes, torches plural, what of it?) so I'm finally going to give my Bethlehem Alpha a run out.
I am really excited because duh, new equipment, but also because I know that using a different torch can hugely impact and influence the way I melt glass and therefore the beads I make. I can't wait to see what I make with the Alpha,
Anyhoo I have to go and clean the spiderwebs out of the shed ready for action so stay tuned.
Toodles
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