I decided to use the kiln for a bit of fusing (might as well use it for fusing when I'm not making beads). I made a couple of sets of coasters (complete with silicone feet) and thought I'd throw them up for this post. I'm of course partial to the blue ones. :)

Sunday we hooked up the oxycon to the torch and low and behold we had flame! I made a few beads and was amazed by how quickly I could now melt the glass. I used some raku frit on a bead and it looked like I was getting color I had never seen before on the Hot Head torch. I was excited to see the beads Monday morning, but they all turned out "scummy". It seems I will have to play with the fuel/oxy ratios before I get good beads. That's okay though as I have already designated Febraury as play and experiment month. I bought a few rods of Double Helix Silvered Glass that I will play with once I have the new torch mastered.

Well, What can I say? It's been a month since I posted because I've been waiting for something good to happen.
Our gas fitter is awesome and came out just before Christmas and installed the shut off in the studio and got a hose made to hook up my new torch so I could use it over the holidays.

We had bought an oxygen concentrator in November so we opened it up and followed the instructions to do a power on test. Unfortunately, it sounded like it was leaking air, and the ball-bearing to show LPM (liters per minute) did not move. We discovered there was a broken part so my plans of holiday torching were not to be. But a big thanks to Jean and Paul at Nortel Manufacturing, we have a replacement regulator that we were able to install ourselves just this week. So the test will be this weekend, fingers crossed.

In addition to the oxycon troubles, we had to get our car repaired after being rear-ended in December, had to fix a broken dishwasher rack, our oven stopped working so we had to get that repaired, and three big money vet visits. So in January I've been putting out fires, rather than playing with fire.

There is nothing new on the studio front as the contractors have not been back, and we are apparently waiting on a tile guy to come and do the floor.

Here's hoping February will be a more productive month!