As I said in my last post I would talk about how I got into lamp work. So, I met a wonderful woman on one of the big fiber arts forums, ArtQuilts, and we became fast friends. She is a part time fiber artist, full time painter and ceramic artist. She lives in the UK but had spent some time in the US where her husband comes from. We somehow got to talking about fusing glass and lampwork, which she had also done, and she mentioned that she had a kiln in storage over here. She offered it to me for the cost of shipping, her hubby was going to be over here visiting his father and would ship it to me. I jumped at the chance to try glass fusing. While waiting for the big day to come, it would be some months before her hubby came over for the visit.
I started aquiring glass and all of the goodies and tools needed to learn to fuse glass. So, the kiln finally gets here and it looks like the thing was used to pay football with. Now it's not a small kiln by any means and the solid metal flanges on the back which the lid are hooked to have been bent beyond repair, the lid won't even open, every time I try to open it the kiln bricks start crumbling. I was crushed, I called UPS and they came back out and picked the kiln up.
My friend was reimbursed the price of the kiln and I the shipping, actually this was a great deal for her...LOL but I was left without a kiln and all the supplies needed to fuse. So, I started saving for a new kiln, two months later I was fusing glass. I loved it, and because I had the kiln I figured I might as well give lamp work a try, I got a cheap kit, the hot head torch kit that you hook to small canisters of gas, and gave it a try.
Needless to say the rest is history. One thing lead to another and I now have a "big girl" torch, bead annealer and all the glass I could melt. Probably more glass than I could melt in a life time truth be told. There is a whole lot more to making beads than just melting glass, learning about the different types of glass, reactions of one glass to another and which glasses did and did not like to be encased with clear glass, that being said, melting glass is seductive, it's a quiet time to think and just watch the glass going from a solid state to liquid.
I've been melting glass for three years now, my how the time flies. I've learned so much and am learning new things about the glass every day. I just wish spring would get here so I can torch every day.
I recently retired and it's been so cold I haven't been able to torch. I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms one of which include the decision to relieve myself of a lot of my hand dyed fabric. I'm selling on eBay under the seller name "jquiltie" if your interested. Don't worry, I'm not giving up fiber arts, just clearing out room so I can find the sewing machine...LOL
Subscribe to this comment's feed
