Joyful Weekend

This weekend I got to go to the Tournament of Love and Beauty in Atlantia.  A member of my household was accepting a belt as a Protege and I wanted to be there for the ceremony.  The event itself was a bit on the cold side, but it was a great day.  I got to geek out with people over garb and glass and watch several performers in the bardic competition.  I even did the dancing in the afternoon which was a blast!

As soon as I got back home from the event, I fired up my rod warmer to play with glass (and make some awesome mistakes, which will be detailed below).  I have a long weekend this weekend, and am planning to hook up a 20lb tank of propane rather than continuing to use the small tanks for lampworking.  I hope to really make some improvements with lots of time to work!

Above: Master Flaithri O'Cearnaigh takes Lady Karin Taylor de Cameron as a Protege. Below: Some of my favorite A&S entries from this weekend.

For my glass work - I got to go out and play twice.  The first time out I had some issues that I had not yet encountered.  I overheated the glass to the point of burning it on the bead in the center between the two blow ones in the left hand photo.  That glass was a clear bright blue and it ended up with crazy opaque orange streaks.  It looks cool, but I either got it way to hot or just heated it for way too long.

The red one in the same photo was also over heated to some extent.  It was a clear amber rod (I have several) and it came out a rich red, that was not so clear.  I realized after the fact, when I looked at the rod it self, that it was not one of my normal amber ones, as the tip had changed to a bright clear red.  I tested that one again in the next batch, and you can see the clear red bead there (with an orange twisty stringer applied to the surface rather badly).  So many things to learn!

Still working on shapes and dots and hope to make a great deal of progress this weekend.  :-)