Day 20 Again

Better this time.  Less wind.  And I lowered the torch flame to about the minimum that would still stay going.  That was part of my issue last time, I think.  Just too much heat.  I got used to working with stringer with the torch full-on, but these little loops just don't work in that situation.

First effort, I made the loops all cute and petite, but when I started to melt the white stringer flush with the surface of the blue bead, here's what happened:

The loops closed up and turned into little blobs instead.  Oh, well.  On to the next efforts.  This time, I left the loops larger and loopier than I really wanted them, but the results are almost what I was hoping for.

The one to the far right is pretty much exactly what I was trying for.  Open loops, nice and swoopy.  Great contrast between the white and the blue.  I don't really like working with this blue glass.  Beautiful color, but it picks up crud from the flame too easily.  It is really finicky glass.

I believe I could do a better/more consistent job with these with a bit of practice, but the actual bead doesn't appeal to me very much.  It will make a nice contrast to some of the other beads, but isn't what really makes me happy at the torch.  I intend to go back and make a few more with some other base color just to practice those loops, but for now I'm going to move on to the next bead.