As some of you know I make lampwork glass beads.  It hasn’t really been anything I have spoken of in my blog since I restarted it but it is and has been a major part of my life.   I made my first bead in 2004 and had quite a successful (in my opinion at least) bead business up until about October 2009.  Truthfully, I made the mistake of taking wholesale orders and reorders of previously made beads.  Remaking the same bead over and over again coupled with the tremendous Florida heat, just burned me out and zapped all my creativity.  There were a lot of changes going on in my life at that point also including selling off my full-time business (not bead related) and starting college again, I just decided to step away from beads and allow myself a break.   It was the right thing to do at that point.   It’s something I regret now because picking up the mandrel again has been a bit harder than I expected when your glass studio gets buried beneath two years of garage mess. 

The garage studio is finally near the point where I get the propane filled and fire up the torch.  Thinking about it makes me smile.  There is something about playing with fire and hot glass that is alluring.  I won’t be giving up resin or clay but its where my heart is.  I had not shared this video on here yet but I wanted to share some of the things there are to come for those wondering what they looked like, etc.  I am anxious to fire up the torch.