Last week I told you about my first flamework class with the extraordinary artist and instructor Leslie from crazy woman glass in Lakewood Colorado. On Friday I was able to go and pick up my beads and I must say, they were beautiful. I even asked Leslie if they were really mine because they were stunning.
We created 8 beads in all. My first one is very traditional with the stringer dots, but then as I mentioned Leslie let us do so much more than your traditional framework bead class. We did reactions, frit, stringer reaction, etc., and they were amazing. One of my favorite was the end of the day bead which is basically taking a little bit of anything we made (stringer, frit, chards, twisties) I love it, it’s so crazy and fun.
Just to give you a little more background flamework/torchwork/lampwork involves various COE glass. Soft glass includes 104, 96, and 90 COE and borosilicate is 33 COE also considered hard glass. In our class we used 104 glass, she had such a selection and it was relatively easy to work with.
In case you can’t tell. I loved the class and love Leslie. She’s such a giving teacher and I can’t wait to take another class from her. The possibilities are amazing, I hope to work with either 96 or 90 next time so I can make some components for my fused glass.
Again if you are in Colorado please take a class from Leslie you won’t regret it. BTW you don’t have to take my word for it, Leslie was recognized by Fire Mountain as a featured artist.
I’ll keep you informed of my future flamework classes. If you’d like to stay up on my fused glass activities check out my newsletters and blogs listed on my site – Elegant Fused Glass by Karen.
Keeping my kilns warm,
Karen