We should put a book together on these WITH pictures! That would be a great fun-raiser for LE!

You never get to old to show your art to mom
 

Mind you my daughter is 35 we went to our first bead class we were just finishing up our first bead when my daughter turned to me and said "mom look at my bead" held here mandrel up with her left hand for me to see and stuck her right hand into the flame. I can't understand why she lost interest in lampworking.

Oh,bother I melted both ends of that rod.Ooops that was the hot end or wait a minute that stringer wasn't that thick.Ended up with burns on three fingers and dropped the rod (silver glass) took 2 weeks to heal.Won't to that again for awhile anyway. Les

I agree! I had the pleasure (?) of catching a marble with some super nice vortex action going on (while I was attending Glass Jam last Memorial day at Playing with Fire in Rockland Maine) with my wrist and bicept area!! I ruined a long sleeve UVA sweatshirt my sister gave me the previous Xmas and I still have scars on my right arm to prove it!

Duane

I torched for thirty minutes this morning before I realized I didn't open the horse trailer window that lets the exhausted air out!!!#-o#-o

I was using some silver glass too. Thank goodness I always wear a respirator.

Lorraine

Don't wrap your fiber blanket in a tea towel to keep it in a nice neat package while in use.

I am sure you can guess what happened. This happened years ago when I was still fire stupid lol

Don't buy a whole bunch of glass of every color of the rainbow (except red!) until you buy just SOME and figure out what you like working with. Sure, transparent glass is pretty and all, but I find myself rarely using it! Opaque red, on the other hand, I find I enjoy working with... So much so that I completely forgot that I only had the one, single rod that came in the sampler until I only had about 2 inches left of it!

It's just not possible to "pick up" and reposition a dot, no matter how hard you try. Nudge, yes. Reposition, no.

Find a storage system that works BEFORE pulling out one rod of every color you own and going to town experimenting. (My brother threw a party -- I'm stealing his glass bottles! Reclaim at least SOME of my work area...)

Not bead-related, but... Make sure to LABEL sheets of Bullseye vs. sheets of glass for stained glass. One is fusible. One is NOT.

Never ask the salesman in the art gallery/store downtown about some of the glass pieces. He has NO idea what he's talking about. If you REALLY want to see more, just ask for a business card and look up the artist's other work on your own.

shit, I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard...

omg, i am pretty sure I did all of those today.....lol

yeah, i have that rod of transparent yellowish color that strikes red

yah, hot glass doesnt work well to scratch your back either, DOH...

I've grabbed striking yellow before when I though it was clear. Now, as soon as striking red, orange, or yellow comes in the house, I strike the end of each rod.

I try to strike the ends of any silver glasses too.. .psyche and Nyx look an awful lot like black!

another idiot move
 

I have SO enjoyed reading these and laughing :)

If the stray kitty from down the street wanders into your garage while you are torching resist the urge to make friends by saying, "Pretty kitty, here kitty kitty" while you are holding hot glass.

If you ARE enough of an idiot to do the above do not be surprised when kitty rubs against your leg then leaps onto your workbench ignoring your frantically waving molten glass rod/conductors baton as she is simply kitty, and not interested in being a member of the philharmonic.

I finally managed to convince my idiot hand to drop the glass so I could grab kitty before she drank the water with all the lovely sharp glass shards sticking out of it.

I turned off my torch, kitty got a nice bowl of water and some kibble, and then I went inside, laid down on the couch, and had my heart attack, lol.

I hope this thread keeps on going for another 4 years!:smile:

Oh, Karen! ROFL!!!! :lol:

Took me two days to read all of the posts...it's done me a world of good...emotionally (laughing)...mentally (learning)...physically (living...with burns) :lol:

Seriously, I'm have learned more here than in my classes. Still wondering about all this shocking glass..hmmm*

Thanks for the witty words of wisdom oh wise ones!! :geek:

picture this
 

I have a friend who used to lampwork who stood her ready-for-use mandrels up in a tub of cat litter. She had three cats, it was available and effective, right?
She went out of town for the weekend and despite all the mandrels sticking up out of it, the cats managed to USE the cat litter.

Hee hee! Man, wishing she had a camera to show THAT feat!!!

Kitties will be kitties.
Joan

LOL I would have loved to see her face when she uncovered that little present. :lol:

If you do take a prescription anti-anxiety pill like Valium, and you take them very rarely and aren't used to them, do not torch after taking one! Your judgement will be impaired, along with your vision, your reflexes, your everything.

I did this once and stumbled around the studio, seeing double with everything, and thinking to myself, "Ah, I'm still standing, I'll make one more bead." Fortunately some grain of common sense surfaced and I called it quits that night after all.

Also, if you are becoming ill and are about to faint, position your elbow and your hand so that your bead is resting nicely in the warming part of the flame, and hang your head as low as it'll go until the feeling passes. Once you've saved the bead, go to bed! (or maybe that first part is bad advice, I dunno :lol: )

I discovered a couple more goodies recently:

1. It's a good idea to get to know your glass before you burn through it in your newbie attempts. Some of the glasses that I WRECKED in my learning the ways of glass were: Curdled Ivory, original Pale Emerald Green, Dark Aurora (yes, the awesome Bullseye colour), and I'm sure there are others. I had them -- must have been old stock from the local glass supplier -- and just went on my merry way, buggering them all up and then I learn they're extinct. #-o

2. It's a good idea to dampen your marver before laying silver or gold leaf on top of it; it's a bad idea to soak the heck out of the marver so the metals float on top of the puddles. You will ruin good beads trying to glop the floating metal off the water and onto the bead. ( I wish I could say that's a newbie mistake, but I just learned that one today....)

3. If you're using stringer to twist some features on your beads, and those beads happen to be of the honkin' monstrously huge variety, you should know those huge beads hold a LOT of heat. Be ready to twist really stinkin' fast, because the heat radiating off the bead will hit you in a real hurry.

I am a newbie who just discovered this thread. The tears are rolling down my eyes. I learned not to bead in a nightgown ... not only did I burn myself when I dropped a short piece of glass the smell of burning hair was a big surprise!!!

Take Off The Label
 

When using shorts remember they can really really burn your fingers.

When using shorts remember to remove the label that identified the rod you were using....they tend to catch fire and can also burn fingers and instructions you printed out from the Tutorials section......:-)

If you are applying precious metal foils or leafs to your bead, burnish them into the bead BEFORE you put them into the flame. BEFORE! Or you'll be left wondering where the hell it went and why it's not on your bead or anywhere else all of a sudden.

Oh yes, do keep a spray bottle nearby for those rod label fires!

DUH
 

Make sure your bead release lid is on tight before shaking....lol. Wish I could say this only happened once, DOH

Um, when this happens to me it means its windy and Im carbonmonoxiding myself to death cuz the fumes are coming back in! lol

RE:
if you are becoming ill and are about to faint, position your elbow and your hand so that your bead is resting nicely in the warming part of the flame, and hang your head as low as it'll go until the feeling passes. Once you've saved the bead, go to bed! (or maybe that first part is bad advice, I dunno :lol: )[/quote]

When melting down your "TINY" point of glass left from a cold seal. Don't hold the glass with tweezers using the vulcan death grip. The glass does get hot enough and it will leave a tweezer mark.... Done many many times on my off madrel work

When I first started I saw this neat pendant with copper flecks in it in a swirl so of course being the newbie I thought to make mine different I'll use a chunk of copper from a copper penny. Talk about your real live volcano damn thing spit, spewed molten fire and globs of glass and I'm blowing on it to get it to quit only its like fanning the flames of fire and getting bigger then I'm thinking to myself "oh shit what the hell am I supposed to do with it" So I run to the shop door and toss it outside only for it to land in my flower garden thats covered with leaves and yep you guessed it now my flower bed is on fire and I'm trying to put that out when the neighbors sees all the smoke and calls the fire department so they arrive after I already put the fire out (did remember I had a fire extinguisher on hand) and I had to explain what the hell happened and the fireman (who happens to be a friend of ours) looks at me and says why didn't you just dunk it in that big bowl of water you have right there on your bench?
Lessons learned:
1) don't use a copper penny unless it is very old, the newer ones are NOT pure copper.
2) Please tell your neighbors not to call the fire department unless they see you running out the door hollering the shop is on fire.
3) try to remember that big bowl of water is there for a reason not just because you think it looks good.