Beadness & Badness

Picking up pieces and scraps of glass and silver from the table

Nuggets with copper and silver reactive glass

December Focals


Somehow time slipped away between visitors and other projects and I realized that weeks have gone by since I had been in the glass studio. I had run out of oxygen and am lucky to have it conveniently an affordably delivered right to my studio. Well, several yards way from it anyway. I have to get my husband to place it up on it's perch next to the house. Those tanks are super heavy.

I finally have a day that I'm pumped up to get back in to make beads. Dave had hooked up the bottle for me, something that I'm accustomed to doing myself. When I open the tank there emits a strange clicking noise at the regulator that I've never heard before. It kind of freaks me out as I'm wary of oxygen bottles and the pressure behind them and I know enough to steer clear of the regulator when opening. it. Just to be sure I disconnect it all and re-hook it all up again.

I go into the studio and light up the torch. This time the weirdness is occurring at the torch head and I get blasts of air popping intermittently (or absence of oxygen, I'm not sure which)

definitely worrisome and it makes me wonder if it's my flashback arrestors activating which means there's explosions in the line being quelled or something like that.

I've got no one around to allay my fears about what's going on at this point so I have to quit the whole idea of making any beads until I get this sorted out. I'm not even exactly sure who to ask except perhaps the Car Quest guys that delivered the oxygen. I call them up and the guy that most likely knows anything about oxygen bottles or regulators is out for the next few days so I'm dead in the water as far as making beads. A good time to regroup and go thrift shopping!

It's only a couple of days later and we stop into Car Quest just in case someone may be able to help me figure out what's going on. Johnny, the man behind the counter was so helpful and reassured me that it sounded like it was in the regulator and had nothing to do with the flashback arrestors. He thought that it was diaphragm failure and that I was pregnant. (just seeing if you're paying attention!)

No, he actually thought that the diaphragm was sticking and that it just needed a good blast of pressure unlit with the torch open. He told me to kind of flush it out a couple of times this way and then try it. It worked and I'm back in business!

I used copper red and copper green Effetre glass as well as some bits of Double Helix and Kugler and Dali Lama TAG glass, all with reactive metallics that give more of the ethereal effects that I love so much. I only use these as embellishments and not as a base. at $80 a lb. I like to use them as surface applications to maximize usage for the most bang for the buck.