Glass Bead Making : Full Professional Grounding Introduction Class Pt. II

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Work Room chat:
Will be away this weekend, thinking of making one or two scheduled post but Blogger's been acting up in that feature lately and I couldn't seem to get it sorted out. o_O
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Part V,Part IV,Part III, Part I



And so the course was jointly taught by Diana East and Sally Carver at The Old Dairy, Diana East's studio in Enderby, Leicester.


That's Sally on my right and Diana on my left. They've got pretty cool highlights on their hair! Sally's in green and Diana's in blue, which I reckon must be their favourite colour! XD Sally's wearing her own logo T-shirt cuz if you've been to her site, she called herself RedHotSal. Erm, wait.... then does that make her favourite colour as red instead?

The Old Dairy was a small but spacious studio with 7 stations to work in.




3 on this side. 3 more on the opposite side and one more at the entrance. The table in the centre was where most of the demonstration took place and also where the kiln is to anneal the beads.

And to the other corner of the entrace are these few tall glass cabinet.......





where Diana keeps her collection of glass beads by other artists.

The class starts at 10.00 am and I was late for the first day's class.

Well, we reached there at 9.50 am already actually but had a hard time looking for Studio 19, which is where The Old Dairy was at. Can you believe that there was 2 streets of the same name in the same place but at different corners? Even GPRS was not of much help because we were going in circles in that place and even when we try calling the studion, nobody answered which I reckon was because class has started. The funny thing though, the GPRS managed to lead Sa Kor to the right place the second time around when she came to pick me up after class! Just when you question on the reliability of modern technology...... o_O

Anyway, I ended up half an hour late to the class! Well, there were a minor traffic along the way which we weren't expecting. Uni of Nottingham was having their Open Day and caused some congestion there. So even if we had had a hard time searching for the place, I guess it might not have been so bad if we have had arrived much earlier. Oh, well....

I was put at the work station right behind at the corner. Oh well, not that I've got much of a choice anyway.

Like damn pro, right? :P

So, those were all the tools and materials for the glass. The pile of rods you see on the right will be what we are going to melt into glass beads, which is the same as the ones I saw in Uncle Ghee's studio!

By the time I entered the studio, Sally was already explaning on the gas and torch used as well as the safety precautions in the studio.



To be honest, I was quite lost then. For one, because I was late and missed out on the front part. Secondly, all I was hearing was some technical jargons like flashback, arrestor, regulators, propane and what not. o_O

Okay, moral of the story is be prepared when you are going for classes like these. When I say be prepared, I meant go and buy yourself a book to read up on it. Some technical knowledge prior to the class would be very helpful for you to follow what is going on in class.





Well, I did read up a bit from the internet but it obviously wasn't enough. All I know before going for the class was whether or not to use a Hot Head and we did not even use Hot Head in the class! We were using the minor torch.

Which brings me to the topic of torches in lampworking.

You see, the heat has to be of a relatively high temperature in order to melt the glass into molten glass to make glass beads. Therefore, for this purpose, you'll need an oxygen-propane systems i.e oxygen gas mixed with propane.

There is the option of small, inexpensive single fuel torches to sophisticated oxygen-propane systems to choose from. Hot Head is one of the popular single fuel torch, to be used with the MAPP gas tank where the two gasses are premix inside the torch and exit together at the tip. Inexpensive because it only costs £31 over here in the UK. Yeah, rite....can someone define what's expensive then? o_O





The sophisticated oxy-propane system would be the minor torch by Nortell which utilizes surface mixing of the gasses. Minor torch invloves a more complicated set up of an oxygen tank and propane tank. Yes, I meant T.A.N.K. Major setup there, I tell ya. Just the torch alone will set you back at around £170 over here. And we have not even include the cost of the gas tank hoses, regulators, flashback (I think it's something to do with the flow of the gas) arrestors and what not! Rrriiggght....so THAT is expensive. -_-



Despite the price differences. There's still reasons why one would choose one over the other. Why Hot Head is what they call the entry level torch and why you might read some can't be done with a Hot Head.

To begin with, Hot Head is much noisier and its flame isn't as hot as the flame produced by minor torch. This is probably good for beginners as this allows for more working time to construct your beads. The minor torch however gives you much more control over the flame quality and produces a hotter and quiter flame. So, the common practise seems to be working with a Hot Head first before investing in a oxy-propane setup.

So this is what I've come to understand after missing the first half an hour class!

Diana demonstrating how to turn on and off the gases on the torch.





Another safety precaution that is NOT to be ignored is the safety glasses. These don't come cheap either, and it's not like you can replace them with dark glasses, ok.... unless you want to risk a detached retina from the soda flare!

These are called didymium spectacles.


The first pair they gave me was the one at the back which turns out to be too big for my face which they later on changed to this pair for me.


And just to demonstrate why these glasses are so important.....

This would be how the flame would looked like to the naked eyes.

Very glaring hot flame on the molten glass.

And this I took through the lenses of the spectacles.

Notice how the flare of the molten glass is reduced to an orangey glow?


And the cost of the spectacles? Well, it averages around £50 over here. Well, do the maths! And we haven't even touch on the glass rods YET! o_O

No wonder this craft is pretty slow to develop.....