I made Penguins!

[M&M's Mommy]

Oh my goodness.. Those penguins are incredibly cute!!! If you decide to make more & sell them, please let me know.

[cassiesmom]

Glacier, the Pingu family is absolutely adorable! What a special gift for your young niece!

[Jessika]

My sister is obsessed with Penguins, too, she'd love if I could make her stuff like this hehe.

You are so talented!

[My Peanuts]

Those are truly awesome! Is this something I could learn how to do too? How did you learn? I'd love to try.

[Glacier]

Is this something I could learn how to do too? How did you learn? I'd love to try.

Anyone could learn to do it. I took a few hours of lessons with another beadmaker first. I'd strongly recommend lessons with an experienced person. That way you can find out if you like it before you invest too much time and money. Once you learn the basics from someone, it's all practice, practice, practice!

Just as a warning, lampworking is a potentially dangerous hobby. You need oxygen and propane to melt the glass. Propane stored improperly will kill you in a hurry. You absolutely can not keep propane inside a building, especially your house. If you do and it blows up, you have no insurance and at the very least you are going to suffer serious injury. A BBQ tank of propane can level a house! Tanked oxygen is very volatile and needs special storage too. I use an oxygen concentrator which is safer, but much more expensive initially. You need proper ventilation in your work space. Melting glass produces dangerous fumes that cause lung problems, breathing difficulties, headaches and if you use metallic glass, heavy metal poisoning. Opening a window isn't enough. A fan and hood plus ducting outside is necessary. You also must have special safety glasses called didiydium lenses. Without those you are risking burning your corneas, plus the glass rods occasionally explode and send shards everywhere! A fire-proof work surface is essential--I have a concrete floor and my table is tiled. I wear a welder's leather apron to protect my body while I'm working. Expect to burn your fingers and cut yourself more than a few times! Those little bits of glass are sharp and they sometimes look the same hot as they do cold!

It's expensive too! Before I bought any glass, I'd spent close to 2 grand setting up my "studio". Besides the torch,oyxgen, propane and safety gear, you need a kiln to anneal the beads. An unannealed bead is useless and will break. Glass costs anywhere from 10 bucks to over a hunderd dollars per pound. A lot of glass gets wasted, especially when you are starting out! And you can never have too much glass or enough colors--those darn manufacturers keep coming out with new "odd lot" colors that they only make once and you just have to try them!!

It's also a ton of fun and highly addictive! Stuart makes fun of me cuz I can't hold a pen anymore without turning it like a mandrel. I look at patterns on people's clothes and wonder if that would work in glass! I dream about beads and get cranky if I can't get to my torch at least every couple days!

[DJFyrewolf36]

Those are awesome!

[kimlovescats]

Those are absolutely PRECIOUS!!! WOW, I'm impressed!

[M&M's Mommy]

. It's also a ton of fun and highly addictive! Stuart makes fun of me cuz I can't hold a pen anymore without turning it like a mandrel. I look at patterns on people's clothes and wonder if that would work in glass! I dream about beads and get cranky if I can't get to my torch at least every couple days!

You sound like a true artist to me. It's a wonderful thing to be this passionate about something!

Keep up the good work girl, and pleaseeeeee share your art with us.

[shais_mom]

omg!
how CUTE!

[kuhio98]

Tamara ~ Ya know, if you put a little glass loop on their heads, you could put these on necklaces or create Christmas ornaments.

Now that's and idea! I think I should decorate this year's Christmas tree with glass penguins and polar bears. Whatcha think?

[Jadapit]

Omg, those are so adorable! I love them.

[Killearn Kitties]

Tamara ~ Ya know, if you put a little glass loop on their heads, you could put these on necklaces or create Christmas ornaments.

Now that's and idea! I think I should decorate this year's Christmas tree with glass penguins and polar bears. Whatcha think?

I think this is a brilliant idea, and I would certainly be in the market for some of those decorations.

[Barbara]

Wow- you could work on Murano island in Venice - this definitely looks like a new line in your business.
But the first ones will always be the very special ones

[NoahsMommy]

Wow!!! They are soooooo cute and it sounds like such a wonderfully fun and interesting hobby!

I just know she'll adore them!!

I can't wait to see more.

[captain]

Ummmm Tamara,
Thanks so much for telling me ALLLLLLLLLL about how to make the beads, setting up costs, etc.

*cough*
..... but I think I will just let you do it, and buy them from you instead, OK?