It's a Bullseye Life... and other important stuff...

I've been converting my lampworking studio from Bullseye (my original choice) over to a combination of Spectrum, recycled bottle glass, and Boro.  It's been a year since I did any work with Bullseye, but I have a lot of leftover Bullseye glass laying around and decided I'd pull up my chair, light the torch, and make some Bullseye beads.  Here is my BEFORE photo.  It looks full of hope.


Left and Center:  BE fusing glass and rods.  Right:  Frit, glass powder, millifiore.
Far right : assorted tools that I'm thinking I'll use.
Bottom:  My Nortel Minor torch with a marver on top.

And here is my AFTER shot (several hours after, of course!)

Working with BE was fun - I suddenly remembered how sweet the glass feels as it melts. But I also refreshed my memory  of why I'm getting rid of it - it burns too easily and it strikes when it isn't supposed to.  OK, I agree that all that is MY fault, no one else's, but it doesn't happen to me with any other glass. I'd rather put my effort into making a beautiful bead instead of focusing on keeping the glass at exactly the right place in the flame. I firmly believe that bead-making should be fun. Really - - I even managed to burn and strike the clear. Although these beads look fine in the photo, several are "throw-aways" that I save for visiting children to string into mobiles. And some of them (including one, unfortunately, that came out really well) are still stuck on those mandrels. I've got blisters on my hands from trying to twist them off. Again - this doesn't happen to me with other glass. So it's bye-bye, Bullseye!

What does a book editor do?
Several of my friends have asked me, so I thought I'd write a bit about it. I'm going to start with an apology to Rochelle, my tireless and ever-patient editor from Quarry, because I probably made her crazy the whole time I was writing The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook. 

She wasn't my only editor and I'm quite certain that I don't know everything that all of them do. Rochelle was my aquisitions editor; she worked with me to develop the Table of Contents, she reviewed all my submissions, she made sure I understood what I needed to do and very gently steered me back in the right direction when I strayed. She taught me that there should only one space after a period (I'm still struggling with that). She caught my mistakes and acted as my liason with every other editor I worked with.  Art, graphics, photographs, copy, layout, marketing.... the number of people who work on a book like this is endless. Some friends have asked me if I couldn't have done this book alone (after all, I do professional translations and editing on the side); before I started this project with Quarry I would have said yes, of course, it's just much more convenient to have a book publisher behind you. Now that the book is almost on the shelves, I can honestly say that I NEVER could have succeeded at this alone. I learned so much - I hope I learned from every step! - so maybe I could do a future book independently, but I'd have to accept that it would never be as good or as professional as a book done with the support of a book publishing staff. Not because I can't edit my own work (I was constantly editing the Handbook and even self-published my novel, Rahel) but because I know now that it takes a team to put together a book of this scope.

Speaking of Which...
I know you are all intending to read my novel, Rahel. So I'm just reminding you that you need to buy it... it should be on your summer reading list. It's a good book, I promise.