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Home
sweet home 
Here is
the front of the studio, taken on a cool, overcast day in June. |
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| Here are a few shots of the torch area, it looks dark but I
actually get fantastic bright warm light in here during most of the
day. My work counter is a piece of kitchen counter that runs the whole
length of the studio, on top of it, I have large ceramic tiles which I
prefer to work on. Many people use sheet metal as a work surface but I
hate the feel of it. And, as you can see, I use the wall in front of
the torch to hang reference and inspirational pictures :) Some of those
I drew myself, the mermaid was drawn by my aunt Susie and some are
pictures I snagged from the internet. I just hung curtains in the
studio today, the top picture shows the curtains but the other pictures
were taken before I made them, so they don't have the curtains in them. |
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| Here's a closer look at my torch, it's a Carlisle Mini CC. I
love, love, love this torch because it has a great adjustable flame and
it radiates alot of heat out to the sides making it great for
sculptural beads. |
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This is the area between my torch and the kiln, I keep my
mandrels in a pan of dried lentils and split peas, works great:).
Behind the mandrels are jars of enamel powder and jars of stringer,
working tools, etc. The brass thing on the side of the pan is a bead
press, I don't use these often anymore but I have several of them. The
remote control to my stereo has to be within easy reach for when a
really good song comes on and I need to crank up the volume or play it
over and over again  Oh yeah, the little blue and purple shapes in the lentils are size and shape guides for using my bead presses. They are made out of fimo and help me figure out how much glass I need when using various bead presses. |
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| If you look closely at my torch you will see lots of little
black lines on the back of the marver. I added those to help me judge
the size of my beads while I am making them. It's basically a ruler
marked out in centimeters. If I don't watch it, my beads will become
HUGE! lol! In front of my torch is my pile of favorite working tools,
my saftey glasses are off to the side along with a hand marver. In the
containers marked silver and gold, I keep small torn pieces of silver
and gold leaf so that I just have to reach in with tweezers and grab
some anytime I want some. Very convenient! |
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| Up above my torch is my ventilation system. It's a very
strong kitchen hood vent which vents the air directly outside. It is
mounted on the wall and supported by the chains coming from the
ceiling. It is decorated with ladybugs because I love them :) On the
wall are my big mashers. I also always have a spotlight directly above
my torch, you can see the top of it...it's the white thing in the
picture. Even with all the light that comes through the window, it's
not enough. That's what happens as you get older and your eyes don't
work as well as they used to. |
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| The first picture shows the kiln, this is where I put each
bead immediately after it is made. The kiln holds a steady tempurature
of 960 f° during the whole time I am making beads, so as each bead
is finished, it goes in and is kept at that temp. Once I am done
working, the beads are annealed. That means that the tempurature is
held at 960f° for an additional 1 1/2 hours and then is
slowly lowered down to room tempurature over the next 4 hours. These
makes the beads sturdy, durable and much more likely to last for many
generations to come...unless you drop them that is, but we won't even
think about that will we??? The grey machine, below the kiln in the first picture, is my oxygen concentrator. The oxygen concentrator is connected to my torch, the oxygen mixes with the propane and produces a much hotter flame than you would get from just straight propane. My propane tanks are stored outside, just on the other side of the wall in the wooden enclosure that you can see in the above picture. By the way, the small circle you can see above the wooden box, is the cover to the ventilation duct where it exits the studio.. |
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| Ok, here we are on the other side of the studio, this is
directly across from the torch. You can see my all important fire
extinguisher and coat rack. Then comes my storage shelving, we got this
in a local hardware store but it is similar to the inexpensive shelving
units you can buy at Ikea. There's my stereo, the stereo is a
huge source of inspiration for me, I work much better when it is on :) The second picture shows the same area with the inclusion of the curtains I just hung in there today...I love them :) |
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| In the first picture you can see my frit storage, and in the
wooden boxes are extra silver and gold leaf, silver wire, extra
enamels, etc. I really really love this storage system, and it was
cheap too, which is always a bonus. Below the frit self is my glass storage. I used pcv drain pipe, Peer cut each one into 3 pieces which are just perfect to hold glass rods. On the far wall is a small library, extra mandrels, bead release, extra glasses, my other speaker, a first aid kit, and the orange thing is a neck cooler that a nice lady sent to me last year when it was so hot. You soak it in water and it keeps cool for several hours. I'm sure it will get alot of use this year! |
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| And last but not least, along the back wall is my woodstove,
which I would be lost without in the winter. Beside the woodstove is a
little bed for my studio cat, she loves to sleep in here with me during
the day :) |