Two Days of Demo'ing at Nortel Open House

Two days of demo'ing torches and talking about glass, torches, beads, tools and the joy of working with glass to any poor unsuspecting soul who wanders in off the street, enticed by the "free chili" sign.

I need a bit of time to organize my thoughts and impressions, but on Friday, I spent quite a bit of time using the Nortel Mid-range torch, and today, I was working on the Red Max - so I can now offer more informed opinions on these two torches. (I want a Mid-Range. The Red Max - really more for boro - that's the short version.)

That's Amy in the first photo - on a Nortel Minor - working on a frog bead.

The second pic is Susan - look ma - both hands - one leg! She's using the top fire Mega, on a mid-range. That's the chaos of a real-life working machine shop in the background. That's where your torches are born!

And the third is me - my hands anyway - making a horse head and working on the Red Max. Big flame, baby!


Oh, and here's a very nicely lined bead - courtesy of Peter's new bead lining machine - which is just about ready for release. More on that later. But I can say - this machine has some significant usability improvements!

Nortel Manufacturing - Open House

Just thought I would give anyone in the area (i.e. Southern Ontario) a heads up that Nortel Manufacturing - maker of the Minor Burner, the Mega Minor, Rocket, Red Max, and other torches, will be having an open house at the end of the month. They are the local wholesaler and distributor for not just torches, but also glass, tools, kilns, and etc.

The open house will be Jan 30 and 31. I (along with other artists) have been invited to come and demo - so if you have any questions, you can come down and ask in person. They will have a full range of torches set up, so if you want to try out a new one, this would be the time to do it! They will have specials on glass, and other artists - and if you want to bring some of your beads to sell, swap or just show off - please do.

The time and location info is on their site, (www.nortelglass) and if you are coming to sell or swap, it would probably be a good idea to call or email them to let them know you are coming. ;-) Bring your friends - this is open to the public. Bring your friends that have no idea what you do, and can't figure out why a single bead should be worth that much. We'll straighten them out on that!