Going Up in the World

So its been rather quiet for the pst few weeks in terms of me making beadies and trying anything new. But it is now easter and I have made the trek up north to visit my parents and now I have the chance to work in my mother’s studio where she has a Nortel Minor and Oxycon setup. I normally work on a hothead on bulk propane; I didn’t realise just quite how noisy it actually was until this week!!

So the Minor has this supremely quiet flame that is overly adjustable - and I just keep twiddling with it and tweaking it. I am finding that my beads very quickly disintegrate into molten blobs of uncontrollable goo without a moment’s notice and as yet I have not achieved anything much worthwhile (although I did got to Tuffnells yesterday to cure my hangover and picked up lots of nice new glass - its like a sweetie shop but far more expensive)! Mum asked me this morning if I thought I would upgrade my HH after playing in her studio. I said that I thought I might if I ever just happened to have a spare £400 lying around but actually at the mo I am quite happy with my HH. Yes the peace and quiet of the Minor was audio bliss - and I could listen to the radio and have a conversation at the same time as beading, but perhaps I actually enjoy the slower and bushier flame of my HH. Now I know people often get frustrated with the lack of heat, and subsequent “speed”, of making large beads and I can quite understand that.... but the idea of forking out a considerable amount more for a torch that just is too fast for how I am currently working is just not cost effective at this time.

Less for getting anything much out of Magic, Multi and a few of the DH colours there actually isn’t much that I can’t do on the HH that can be done on the Minor and suchlike (its just it might be safer and you would get less burns from trying to create a reducing flame). And there is some stunning work being produced by us simple HH users so why should I change? I am quite content (ish), but then Flame Off is just around the corner and who knows what I will feel when I see all those lovely torches lined up just waiting to be tried, tested and taken home! Unitl then I will just have to turn the volume up on the ipod under the ear muffs!