My Torch and Tools

I don't have one of the prettiest places to work, but it definitely serves its purpose. I work in the back of my husband's business, which was formerly a welding shop. They have fixed up the front, but the back leaves a little to be desired. Thankfully I am too busy looking at the beads I am making to really look around and worry about what it looks like.

Here is a picture of my work space (my husband had recently cleaned it)

Here is a picture of my torch. I use a midrange with a premix on top. I have never actually used the premix part. The torch runs on oxygen and propane. We have a medium size tank of oxygen and use a regular bbq propane cylinder.

Here is a picture of some of the tools I use. This is an assortment of tweezers, picks, and flat edges. These things are used to push, pull, poke and rake the glass in different ways.

The other night I made some "flame" beads where I used tweezers, mashers and picks.

This one is my favorite tool.


I use this a lot when I am encasing beads. I use it to push the glass around the edge.

This one (poker) is used to make a hole in the centre of flowers (among other things). The hole is then covered with a dot of glass trapping air inside which creates a bubble.


Graphite marvers are used to roll, flatten and manipulate glass. I mostly use them for barrels. The large one I also use for applying frit to beads.

The grooved marver puts grooves in beads.

And lastly, the one "tool" that I couldn't do without - my mandrels. I have three sizes plus three ring mandrels (sizes 7 & 9). These mandrels (which are steel welding rods) are all dipped in bead release ( a clay substance which allows the bead to come off once it is done). They are ready and waiting for me to make beads on.

I guess my kiln would also be a tool, also one of the important ones. It has a digital controller so the beads are always annealed properly. I heat it up to 960 degrees F. The mandrel ends that stick out of the door are almost too hot to touch when it is on.

These are the main things I use to create beads (besides glass obviously). I am always looking for other things to use as well. Once I used a nail. Nuts and acorn caps I have used for drawer pulls. But that is another tangent altogether.

What is Frit?

Frit is crushed glass. There are many kinds of frit - from plain glass to glass that reacts differently under different conditions. You can even make your own frit by placing a heated rod or piece of rod in a cold jar (or glass) of water. I have made my own once by heating short, leftover pieces of rods. I really liked the look of it.

Here are a couple of beads that I made using the frit that I made:

Frit comes in different sizes too. You can separate your handmade frit by straining it. I didn't. I find it too much extra work at the moment. Maybe someday I will become more picky.

There are several types of frit I own. I have plain cobalt and plain coral. I also have four colors of reduction frit - amber, green, blue, violet. They can be the colors they say, or by introducing them into a propane rich flame, the metals in the glass will pop.

The above pictures are coral frit, bottles of frit, and iris gold frit



The beads in the above picture all have a black base and are covered in a layer of clear glass. I used green, blue, and purple reduction frit as the colors below the layer of clear. I did not reduce the glass in these beads. However, the following picture has emerald green glass beads with green reduction frit that was reduced. It creates a metalic look to the glass. Reduction frit has metals in the glass which pop when it is reduced.



The last type of frit I have is Raku. This is an interesting frit. There are so many variations. The frit itself looks brown, green and black. But when used in certain ways, blues, pinks, and purples will also emerge.

Raku Frit

The following are beads that were made using raku frit. Depending on the color of the bead's base and how it was applied, there are many variations in the colors that can develop.

There are many brands of frit out there. There are so many ones I don't even know of. I am by no means an expert on any of this. I just thought I would let you know what I am talking about in my shop listings. I hope this helps.



Caroline

Holiday Ideas

I bought a cute book today, 100 Ways to Spread Joy This Season. I picked my favorite ones besides the obvious getting presents, baking, and doing good deeds.

My favorites are:

• Hand out candy canes on your way to work. (This wouldn't be a great idea due to where I work, but I think it would be fun.)


• Tie a Christmas card to a balloon and let it go. (It is way too cold here to do this but I've always thought it would be awesome to find a card, note, or something that someone attached to a balloon and let go for anyone to find. We actually did this at camp one year. We put our name and adress. No one found mine. Or at least no one responded.)


• Forgive someone, especially if it's hard (This one is important.)


• Watch a favorite holiday movie (We watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation the other day. It does get you immersed in the season. And it's funny!)


• Buy your pet a holiday sweater or reindeer antlers! (My kids would love to do this. I don't really approve of apparel for our pets. They are all indoor pets with exception of the dog, but I still don't think she needs to wear sweaters. If she were a small dog, I would likely change my mind. The antlers would be cute on her though. Hee, hee.)

She doesn't look too impressed!




• Put fake snow on the windows ( This used to be something we did every year when I was a kid. My brother even made a nativity scene out of fake snow. I will have to see if I can find the picture. We don't need fake snow for our windows now. We have enough leaky windows, they frost up naturally!)


• Smile more often! It will make everyone around you smile in return. (I like this because it really does work. Well not everyone smiles, but what can you do? It is Christmas!)

I hope you all have a great holiday season and you can find even more ways to bring joy to the season and everyone around you.

Caroline

Wow it has sure been a long time since I wrote something! I have been working at my real job and working at craft sales and working at home... I am not sure how some people have time for all this!

I have thought of something that I think may be of interest to others. I am going to make a glossary of terms that I tend to use in my listings on etsy. This may sound boring initially, but I will try to make it interesting with pictures of examples and processes when I can.

That is my problem with blogging though. The pictures. I don't really have much of a problem coming up with something to say, I just don't have visual aids to make it more interesting.

Here is about the only thing I could find in my thousands of pictures that is remotely interesting.

This is me making a bead. I have the mandrel in my left hand and a blue rod of glass in my right hand.

My work area is messy. My husband will tidy it from time to time but the glass shocks so often that there are constantly chunks of glass all over the place (occassionally they are stuck to me).

This is not the torch I use anymore. This one is wrecked. Don't ask.

In my glossary I will explain glass shocking and what is a mandrel. Oh I have a huge list of things to write about already started. I am excited. I just have to wait until sometime after this weekend to get started. I still have to work one more day, then make stuff for a bake sale for my kids, then go to the mall for a craft sale for three days. Oh, yeah, I get to work two or three more days right after that.

Well, when I get a couple extra minutes, I will try to add something.

I have a post all ready for Turtle Tarts though. Yum! You just have to wait for me to make a batch before I can post it. Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Time to Think About Christmas Baking

I don't do a lot of Christmas baking (or any baking for that matter) because I usually am the one that eats it all. One thing that I do make, and quite a few people like, is turtle tarts. And they are quite easy to make.

I have two recipies that I have tweeked together to get this recipe.

Turtle Tarts

36 mini tart shells (I use 24 regular)

pecan pieces

1/3 cup corn syrup

1 can Eagle Brand milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 squares chocolate (or 1 package chocolate chips)

1 tsp margarine

Poke holes in ready made tart shells. Sprinkle bottoms with pecans. (I like to add some chocolate as well, a drizzle or a couple of chips). Bake tart shells as directed on package. Mix the filling of milk, butter, syrup and brown sugar. Microwave for 3 minutes (filling boils around edges). Stir for 2 minutes. Pour into cool tart shells. Cool. Melt chocolate with margarine. Drizzle over tarts and top with a pecan.

I actually don't like to use the chocolate squares or the chips. I prefer to use dipping waffers because they melt so much easier and they taste so much better. (If you use the waffers, you don't need the margarine.)

I buy pecan halves so I can reserve some whole ones for the tops and then I crush (chunky not pulverize) the others to put in the bottom.

I forgot to add the chocolate to the base of these. Oops! They still tasted good.


When I first went to make these tarts, I was not confident in the microwave step. When it comes out of the microwave it doesn't look good and you may wonder how that is ever going to turn into a filling anyone would want to eat. Stir. And keep stirring for the whole 2 minutes. It changes before your eyes. And ohhhh, they are sooo good!

This is the filling ingredients before microwaving.

This is the filling after microwaving. I probably should have broke up the butter and sugar a bit. It did turn out in the end though.

Here is one minute after stirring. Keep stirring and you will get...

Yummy carmel-type sauce!

Here is a picture of the final product. These are so good on the second day as they have set up quite nicely.

These are so simple and so delicious. This recipe is definately a keeper.