Well, um, not exactly: I have some little stripey beads from earlier, but I don't seem to have bothered photographing them, and even if I did, I couldn't document very precisely when I made ’em —though it's probably safe to say my experiments date back no further than 2005 or 2004 at the very earliest.
This latest batch of beads came out of a desire to tidy up the bullseye scap pile. Yes, normal people flip through books to get ideas from other beadmakers, or are inspired by advertising circulars showing the latest color trends, or even allow music, nature, or a favorite book to inspire them; but oh no, I have to dig through scraps and clean.
The image below is actually a mixed photo of some new 2006 bullseye minis mixed with some small but standard size satake stripeys from 2005, which if nothing else illustrates clearly how one trend comes out of earlier ideas—I think the beads blend beautifully, and the involuntary exclamation of delight by another beadmaker when she happened to notice the image on my computer screen would seem to confirm this supposition.
Stripeys, some twisted, satake and bullseye, 2005 and 2006 respectively. 7–13mm hole to hole
I wish I could say that I have a quantum leap in my ability to make striped beads, and though I think I've improved, the reason the satake beads are not up to snuff (or at least the excuse I choose to believe) is not that I've gotten so much better, nor even the time-honored excuse that I wasn't used to the low viscosity of Satake (though it no doubt played a small part) but that I made these beads on a hothead, and I'm not very good at it.
(I never understood the people who look down on hothead users. It seems to me that it's an ideal torch for a beginner, because you work more slowly and it's cheaper; moreover, having mastered its limitations, the dual-fuel torches should be a breeze. And, for some glasses—I'm thinking particularly of Satake and dichro, which are both very sensitive to burning and boiling. That said, I had a terrible time with it, and owing the noise, was unwilling to discipline myself to the learning curve when other, quieter, and more familiar torches beckoned. But then it's been my observation that real lampworkers are happy to include hothead users in their ranks. It's the folks who know just enough to be dangerous, and wish to hide their insecurities, that look down upon their less expensively-equipped fellows.)
So here are my latest stripeys. Enjoy.
This file created 08sep06, though the file name was first used for the bottom post...(ah, the joys of poor organization). Added photog indexing 3jun08.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
