The master at work.

I went out to the studio to ask John something, and found him making a border collie. The light seemed good, so I took a video. I also took some stills. Warning - the sound on the video is just noise from the fan, oxygen concentrator and the torch, and it is LOUD. So turn down your sound or mute it.



Sorry for any jerks but I was shaky (that makes beadmaking fun, I can tell you) and trying not to let him know I was there, because I was afraid he might drop the bead or hurt himself!

It gives those people who have not seen a torch in use a sense of what we do anyway. At the end of the video he is putting the white tip on the dog's tail. I will do another one closer for more detail at some point. As you can see, he puntied up to the nose (the rod of black glass is attached so he can hold it - called a punty - he will melt that off at the end, hold the dog with tweezers and firepolish the nose to remove any marks). Apparently it was on mandrel at first, but came off.

Close up of above, so you can see the creature a bit better.

As you can see, the bench is full of stuff. I will be very glad to divide into two torches, since I tend to sit down and decide what I need while holding hot glass and a mandrel. We don't use the same tools, so the stuff I need is never out. And I never remember that ahead of time.

I will post a picture of the finished puppy when it is out of the kiln.