MY DOT EXPERIMENT..

Before I go away, I have decided to post a picture of the recent beads that I've made.These are my dotted "glass beads" and I've included some notes at the bottom which i hope you might find useful.

1- Before you start, decide which colours you are going to use and stick to that decision.

2- Write "silver" on the silver foil book if you don't want to try to make silvered ivory stringer with a palladium leaf. It just doesn't work.... Palladium never melts in glass (at least with my torch) and all you get is tiny flying metal pieces around the room and a horrible looking ivory stringer.
3- That green you used, dissolves in ivory and makes a nasty look. Don't use these two again while making dotted beads. Or try to put some clear underneath it to see what's going to happen next time.
4- And another thing for that green rod, it turns into some kind of red in reduction flame. If you want to have green beads don't use reduction flame with that rod.
4- Working with thicker rods is easier to make large dots instead of thing stringers.

5- Update your blog at least once a week so your only reader doesn't get mad at you. :)

HERE IS THE NEWS...

It's been more than a month since my last post here.
I'll try to summarize what has been happening in my life in and around glass.

I met a Turkish Flameworker whose name is Pınar on the internet and went to her home-studio to meet her two weeks ago. She's a very talented and enthusiastic bead maker. I am so glad I have met her. She showed me all her beads, books, tools and her torch. She uses a Nortel Minor with a bulky oxy tank and is very pleased with it. She told me that maintaining the oxy tanks are not that difficult and gave me all the info on it that she knows. I am a bit afraid to have a oxy tank inside my house but after seeing hers set up safely I decided to give it a try.

If you ask me why I decided to change my torch I could tell you a couple of reasons. First af all the torch I am using now works so loudly that sometimes I can not put up with it. Second of all, it doesn't melt clear and most transparent glass easily. I can say that sometimes it takes me forever and that steals my time. I can only torch at the evenings for a couple of hours the most and my time is so precious on the torch. When I see how powerful and quiet Pınar's torch was I couldn't believe it.

When I was trying to find out where I could get the torch, I called Glass Furnace first. They said they don't have it right now and if they were to order one for me delivery could take weeks. I couldn't wait that much so I decided to ask my dear friend Ari'elle if she could help me out. She was away for that time but she told her brother Ari to contact me. Thanks to her I got another great friend now. He is such a generous and sweet person. I am so grateful to have met him. He gave me the address where I could get the best deal and helped me with the shipping too, thanks to him I got a new torch now and it is on it's way. I have got a feeling that it might be here by tomorrow. Whenever Ari'elle sends me somethings it's usually here in a couple of days eventhough it's coming all the from USA. So it should be here very soon.

The other exciting news is that we are going to Antalya to see my sister Nurgul and her husband Dave tomorrow evening. I can't wait to see their new home and new life over there. I hope the weather will be nice as well. But it is not that important as long as Nurg and me are together. :) She is the most cheerful and optimistic person I know . I love and miss her so much... I wish she were living a bit closer... But heeey Antalya is closer than U.K. and I should be grateful for that.

I think that's all from me for now.

I'd better go home and get ready for the trip.

I'd like to say happy thanksgiving to all my friends in USA.

Hope you all have a great weekend as well.