[squeek-a-mouse]

De, this is a very lovely tutorial. I've been wanting to do something similar with my dad's ashes, but I can't bring myself to try it, should I mess up horribly. (He would tell me to go for it - he was very encouraging about my glass hobby and in fact got me started with my first kit in 2006 about a year before he passed. But, like I said I won't try it until I'm sure I can pull it off.) Unfortunately, I lost my kitty-soulmate on Tuesday and would like to make my husband and myself something to keep him with us always. I'm not ready yet, still a mess and haven't gotten any torch time in a couple months. I just wanted to thank you for this gift of knowledge because I know one day I'll be able to do this.

Dave, you did a wonderful job and I know these pieces will be special treasures to you and your family always. I have a few questions about your process on the larger implosion, which is just so stunning and breathtakingly magical.. I have done a few rod implosions before, so I *get* the basics. After imploding your design, I assume you pressed the maria on the cremains and it appears you put color behind, as well. Did you implode further after you added these or did you just flatten and finish it off from there? Also, what method do you use to make your loops? I have not gotten good at the "pull, loop, touch" method and have more recently used the "melt a big dot of glass, squish into a tab, and put a hole through it" method. I don't have handy andy's or a reliable hole-making tool, so with the 2nd method my loops are left with imperfections. I hope I'm making sense. I'm just curious because your loops look really nice. Any advice at all about your process would be extremely helpful. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures.

No matter what, I'm going to PPP and PPP some more until I'm comfortable enough to do this.