Shedio now under constructions!!! Very excited!

[Fruddy]

Well, my lampworking dream now finally appears to be happening!

I have spent all day clearing and cleaning the brick outhouse that we have in the garden.  Luckily for me, it has electricity and lots of plug sockets, as it houses our washer and dryer.  They will be staying put, but my dad came round this afternoon and is constructing me a sturdy and spacious L shaped worktop, so I have bags of room!

I have been making a list this afternoon using Tuffnells and Off Mandrels websites of items that I am going to need to get started - I was hoping you could have a quick glance at my list below and tell me if there is any essential item of kit for a beginner that I have missed off?  It will probably be the end of September before I am finally all set up, with everything bought, installed and ready to go, but I will be buying things each week from now on and installing gradually.  Any help with this would be really appreciated, as apart from one lesson with the wonderful Sabine, I am a total novice!

Okay, here's my list.  Please feel free to add to it, or tell me that I won't need it at the start - eager to save any money that I can, as am having to save until after Christmas for a kiln.

Oxy-Con, Nortel Minor and accessories from Tuffnells
Diddys
Bead release
Assorted mandrels
Tweezers
Bead reamer
Rake
Poker
Mashers
Graphite marver
Doming block
Assorted glass rods (please could you recommend some inexpensive but nice glass for me to play with??)
Ventilation system
Lighting
Swivel stool
Slow cooker
Vermiculite
Fire extinguisher
Fibre Blanket
Stainless steel rod rest
Glass shears
Graphite sheet

With regard to glass rods - I have had a look at what is on offer this afternoon and there is a dizzying array - most of which means nothing to me - obviously I can see a vast difference in price!!  Does anywhere sell a bundle of "beginners" rods that aren't too expensive?  I don't want to be paying a lot of money for glass when the subsequent beads are more than likely going to be consigned to the "sad tin" at least in the first few weeks!!

Thanks all.

Rachel

[SilverGems89]

Looks like you have everything covered, although if you have vermiculite you wont need a fibre blanket (and vice versa) and you will want something non flammable to cover your work surface with!
With regards to glass i would stick with effetre to start with just to keep it simple, ask tuffnells if they will put you a mixed pack together (i know they will) i would get 2 kilos to start with, that will give you a really good selection, you might also want to buy 1/4 kilo each of black, white, clear and dark ivory, i use lots of these all the time!
oh and some silver leaf!

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Rachel, so far that is all sounding so exciting! You are really on the way now, I have had a look at your list and can't see anything off hand that you are missing. If you are looking to save pennies you could probably leave off a couple of things that are non essential but on the whole that is a great start up list.

I would suggest watching lots of dvd's or you tube clips to give you a good idea of holding your tools and set up, things like that.

With regards to glass steer clear of the tricky silver colours, they are seductive but very expensive and yes, most of your newbie beads will end up as drawer fillers.

Definitely black, white, clear and ivory as your basics and then perhaps a light and dark tone of each of the other colours red, blue, green, yellow, orange in opaque, definitely dark turquoise because it reacts so well with dark ivory.

Opaque glass tends to be softer to work with ivory being the softest then white and red seeming to be the stiffest. Perhaps one in each colour of transparents blue, green, purple, amber.

Reds, oranges and yellows of the transparents are striking colours, this means that they are worked, left to cool slightly and then put back into the flame to bring out their colour, these can be frustrating if you are a newbie because sometimes the colour just doesnt come out.

To begin with I would stick with Effetre, its reasonably priced and has a good range of colours, as you start to explore further TUffnells do good colour packs that have for example all sorts of purples or speak to Sean at Off Mandrel and I'm sure he would help you out with a sample pack

[Fruddy]

Thanks so much for all that info Tan!  Really really helpful!

I have some beads made with Clio and Aurae glass and would love to have a go with this, but I am going to wait until I have mastered making evenly round beads before I take the plunge with other glasses!

What about silvered Ivory?  Is this really expensive?

I also read that you can buy stringer - Sabine showed me how to make it, but I was wondering if it would be better to buy some in the first instance, or would you recommend persevering with making my own?

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Silvered ivory is something you make yourself, if you invest in a book of silver foil you can either roll a rod in a piece of foil and pull it into a stringer and apply it that way or roll the ivory bead in the silver and melt it in. Silver leaf is cheaper but very flyaway and fiddly.

You can buy stringers, I think Martin does a mixed bundle for a price, but, I do think learning to pull your own gives you a really good idea of the viscosity of different types of glasses and a feel for how glass works when it is at different glow stages.

For example if you pull a stringer from a rod of cobalt blue, which is a lovely stiff glass you will find it so much easier than its much softer counterpart ivory.

Lampwork is a frustrating process but the more you can do yourself the more the glass will speak to you. I pull all my stringers using a pair of old needlenose pliers, cheap as chips and they do the job perfectly, a lot of my shaping is done with an old butter knife, much better than any tool I have bought. Tools are everywhere, even rocks make good shapes in glass!!

[Fruddy]

Thanks so much for all your advice - I am going to end up making a nuisance of myself on here in the next couple of months, I know!

I do read quite a lot of stuff on the site though, and generally only try to ask questions if I can't find the answer has been provided earlier!

I shall keep you updated as to studio progress and will try and post a couple of photos when my worktops and ventilation unit are in.

Rach

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Keep the pics coming a lot of newbies find it useful to look at pictures of other peoples studios to get some idea of their own layouts

[Krysia@No98]

That's a good list, I would suggest burn cream   

I, too, would say easy on the tools.  there are so many and you may be a person that never uses them.  I don't have any mashers but I do have a torch top marver and a graphite marver that work very well together as a masher.  A torch top marver is very useful for keeping things warm and putting silver on... and for balancing the odd rod on while you scratch your nose...

Ooo I'm so excited for you

[Trudi]

If you look for a starter kit, they often come with some basic tools etc



things I personally wouldn't worry about straight away

Tweezers*
Doming block  - you love it or hate it (I hate it)
Rake *
Mashers *
Graphite marver
Doming block
Stainless steel rod rest *
Glass shears
Graphite sheet (if you have a marver you'll be fine)

* often you'll see these in starter packs, so check
One thing else is the grooved marver - flat one side and grooved the other

Save some old glass jars to store your glass in too!

But if you make a list - either Tuffnells or Off-Mandrel would probably make up a good package for you!