Some more of my work

Whilst I ponder posts about septic tanks and bore holes (although not together!) I thought I would share some more of my work.  These are lampwork glass beads that I make in my little studio at home.  Lampwork involves (in a nutshell and there is alot more to it than this!) melting glass rods onto steel sticks (mandrels) which have been coated with a fine clay mixture so that the glass doesn't stick to the rod in an oxygen/propane mix flame that burns at 1000 degrees C.  You can then shape the glass, add detail to it, anything you want really.  Once you are happy with your bead (and as you have seen I also make things other than beads) it goes into a digitally controlled kiln (pretty quickly otherwise the glass will crack) to cool slowly and to strengthen (I quite often have a couple of 'spare' beads in the shop and will drop them on the concrete floor in our shop to show how strong they are ;) ).

I then make the beads up into jewellery items (sometimes I do sell the beads on their own) and then sell them through a local farmers market (in the summer), through the workshop/studio I share with 3 other glassy ladies in Bude and through various galleries and other outlets.  These beads are being sold as beads through my Etsy shop :)