Not gonna do it!!

Nope, I don't think so!

I just had a session with the little torch, I thought I'd try the bead press which Santa gifted me, that was probably a bad idea because it cools the glass right down of course - then I have to wait and wait for it to heat back up in the flame.  It took nearly an hour to make three beads with it, one of which cracked.

I think the only thing it will be good for is stringer work and very small earring beads.  Melting stringer is like melting a full rod of glass with my mega.  Well, it was worth a try.  So what do I do now?  Try and hook the hh back up for a couple of weeks or take vacation to somewhere warm and sunny that has oceanfront property?

It was a Teeny Tini, Micro Mini Monkee that she made for the first time today . .

Well, yesterday to be precise. I was feeling discouraged with the temporary loss of my oxycon and trying to think of ways around the problem.

• No Torching! - not really a possibilty


• Torch with Hot Head and 1lb cannisters - Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!


• Torch with Hot Head and bulk propane - requires change to current setup


• Try another option! - but what?

Then! Like a bolt of lightening from the blue I remembered the little torch I was gifted a while back. It only requires propane, and has the same hookup as my Mega Minor!
I pulled this little torch out and hooked it up, thinking this might be a good learning experience, making mini beads (for that's all it would do for sure!).

Without further ado, here's my first Micro Mini Monkee - I put it next to a regular sized one so that you can see the size difference. The neat thing about this is how tiny I can make details with this torch, combining this torch with my Mega Minor could yeild some very interesting results! It would also mean I'd need to rework my set up so that I could have two torches running at the same time, or in tandem at least.

I'll be a week or so without a concentrator, I've spoken to John at Artistry In Glass, he has been super helpful and is having a replacement shipped asap from the company in the States, and will have my dead one picked up next week. I am really happy with the service they have given and continue to give me - thank you John and Carri!