After a mere three, maybe four years, Thane and I finally set up the Minor Burner torch set he'd given me for Christmas. Yep, it took all of about 30 minutes.
What's a Minor Burner torch, you ask? Good question. It's a very nice torch for lampworking, much better than the one I've used before. What's lampworking? Ah, another good question. It's making glass beads in a flame, such as the one a torch produces.
I did a bunch of beadmaking many years ago with a greatly inferior, but functional, Hothead torch, and have had the opportunity in more recent years to play with a Minor Burner. The Hothead mounts onto a bottle of MAPP gas and doesn't create a particularly hot flame. A Minor Burner, on the other had, uses oxygen and propane to create a wonderfully hot and controllable flame that melts glass with ease. Thane bought this torch for me a few years ago when he thought I was going to get back into beadmaking. One thing or another interfered, and I never did.
Several months ago, however, in my endless quest for new hobbies on which I can spend too much money, I saw (and bought, of course) Torch-fired Enamel Jewelry - a Workshop in Painting with Fire by Barbara Lewis on Amazon. Enameling, in this case, is essentially using heat to coat a metal base in glass enamel powder. Lewis's book demonstrates how to do so using a torch rather than a kiln. "I must try it!" I said to myself. More money to spend - I ordered a small selection of enamels and some odds and ends a few months ago.
Anyway, being both of us finally home for a weekend, Thane found me a small oxygen bottle and a propane bottle, and set up the torch in my studio (I need a bigger studio). Time to play!
Play started this afternoon with cutting wonky circles and rectangles out of some sheet copper I'd bought. I used my new punch to put holes in the rectangles, and my new dapping block to dome the circles (the dapping block was a gift from Thane; everything else was me). Unfortunately, I forgot to put holes in the circles before I domed them, so I wasn't going to be able to use them in jewelry. This evening, I decided it was time to play a bit more. Rather than waste them, I thought I'd test the colors on the copper domes. I didn't have quite enough for all the colors, so I did a couple half and half. Here's a picture of the result.
Nothing too exciting, I know, but a worthy first experiment. I learned that at least two coats will be needed for good coverage, and I need to figure out a different way to hold the metal so I'm not left with plier marks (like on the purple one). I'm excited to play some more tomorrow, and see what I can come up with to make a pair of earrings for myself. It's a good thing I don't mind organic and asymmetrical! I'll let you know how further experimentation goes.
