Lampworking Rocks!

So I've found the new hobby! This is my thing completely. After my little pity party about my talents, I randomly found a site (http://www.beadingtimes.com/artist0508.htm) that inspired me. It was a women who does lampwork beads. The name lampwork comes from the fact that handmade glass beads used to be made by using a lamp to heat the glass. I started reading about it and just thought it was fascinating. I had seen lampwork beads, but it never really occurred to me that they were handmade and even more that I would be able to do such a thing. So after some investigation, I found an online store with the supplies to get started. I talked James into letting me order them and had them for about a week before I had gone to get the propane and had time where James could watch Sariah for me to get started. Last Saturday began my adventure. It took a while to get everything set up and then of course I couldn't get the torch to light. Then James had to go run an errand. So I got Sariah to sleep and decided to try again. After a bit I got started. It is addicting. I didn't want to stop. I did one set just as a trial. to get used to how it worked. Then Sariah woke up so I took a break. This allowed time for the first beads to cool and let me see how they really turned out. Here are my very first beads:

James came back home and took Sariah, so I started up again. I tried a few more fancy things. Here are my second set:

This last one is a flower bead. It was the one I was the most proud of. So I made it into a necklace and wore it to church on Sunday.
My first beads:

More to come for sure!!

Also if anyone is interested in trying your hand at this, you would be welcome to come over and do it with me. I'm no pro, but I would show you what I know so far. Also there are tons of people on you tube who post how to videos that are pretty awesome. Just search lampwork or lampworking or other things like glass beads, hot head beads, etc.