I was cranking along just fine, torching my little heart out, making beads, even starting to add dots, learning new things (yay me!) when
CRACK!
Glass flew everywhere and a big chunk flew directly at the torch and MELTED over the part where the flame comes out. Right. On. The. Front. Where the gas and the oxygen comes out. Which, if you've never lampworked before, is, um, kind of stinking crucial.
I managed to flick off the biggest glob, but of course, as luck would have it, bits of glass got into the tiniest of the holes and there was no getting it out. So the torch is on its way to Bethlehem Burners to be fixed.
I'm bummed because I just bought a ton of glass and was really getting into a groove and was trying to fill up my Etsy store with spacers and had decided to take a deep breath and get brave and start exploring.
Not sure when I'll get the torch back (2 weeks? More?) which is NOT a long time, but I hate when momentum gets stalled. It's like running like hell and then turning your head to look behind you to see where you've been and then WHAM hitting a wall. Looking back, it's funny, but when it happens, not so much.
I tried to make some jewelry today but it's just not happening. So I'm giving myself permission to relax with reruns of "The Office", a bag of M&Ms, open windows, and the cats. Rick and Zack are at the farm, so the house is chaos-free. The Bead Soup Blog Party started today, so I'm visiting a bunch of blogs, too.
There's a slight bit of guilt inside that whispers, "Hey, you should be working," but thanks to so many of your wonderful comments over the past weeks, I'm finding it easier to just... let it be.
Thanks.
Lori Anderson designs jewelry for Lori Anderson Designs and also writes the blog Pretty Things.
