Our Trip for Lampworking tools and a bit of Texas!

I'm blogging today about a really great trip my husband and I took 3 hours away to Austin Texas yesterday. This trip was to get my Lampworking tools! A really exciting day for me because I've waited to do this for 3 years. We had such a great time as we haven't ventured out of Houston alot. Probably because we never really knew where to go. Houston's so jam packed with cars on the roads we actually stay at home alot just stay off the roads and heat. Lesson learned=get out and do more things!

Here is a view from the car. We saw so many cows and hill and dale. Meadows and rolling hills but hard to capture from the car so I didn't take anymore from the moving car trying to get to our destination.

We saw this!

We saw lots and lots of corn..rows and rows of it for miles..

We ate here, The restaurant was called 290 named for the Interstate it is on I-290. There were lots of cars here so you know its a good place to eat. Lots of cars=good food! And it was. A charming place too where we also met a British woman with her George Bush look alike husband! It was great fodder as she and my Brit man talked about England..

It's a small world!

Some one I'm sure shot this rattler which was on the wall above out table!

Real quaint huh?!

It had alot of charm..

So we finally got to our destination Blue Moon Glassworks! It was so exciting to drive up to it! I knew what was inside..glass making supplies, stained glass, PMC kilns, tools galore! The shoppe is located in a lovely area with old Victorian homes and old style homes with white picket fences and rose arbours a really lovely part of Austin. So we finally got to our destination. Blue Moon Glassworks. The owners Jim and Rose Berry were so helpful and such nice people where you don't mind so much parting with your hard earned money! Nothing like hands on to getting exactly the right things you need.

So we walked in and saw this..

A very exciting place!

These pictures are just a small smattering of what the shoppe has..

Here are the Owners Jim and Rose such a charming couple. Don't they take a great picture. He is holding this book which I would love to have about bead making from 30,000 years ago to present. I'd asked him about making beads how do I make some Id seen and liked..but not to copy. He then went and got his book he is holding and said "Janet its all been done before everything you see today many times long ago"! I got his jist! See the bead he is holding? Its the same bead (made by Jim) on the cover made many many many years ago. We all see things we like and we all are influenced and put our own spin our own ideas into what we see..

Some pictures I took they have everything all over..

I immediately spotted Marcy Lambersons torched beads in the pic below. Marcy who lives in Georgia is the Master specializing in people, vikings, Elvis, dogs and cats you name it!

Glass supplies..

Stained glass..

My husband looking at Lampwork tools..

There was a class with Jill Symons teaching. Many happy women torching here. Jim let me take pictures..

In this picture they had cut out copper ? not sure..and were applying it to the lampworked beads in the flame. I loved the blue nail polish btw!

This is what we bought..all of my and Ronald's Lampworking tools. The glass is wrapped in bubble wrap.

My husband was very impressed with the Chili Pepper kiln that was at one time made into a tool box thus you can see now it is made the same way. Fascinating. Here are the hoses and Oxygenator too.

See the Stainless steel table? I saw this older man at Lowe's with it on his truck and he sold it to me for $125.00 not bad! Very thankful at that..

After 5 hours there we hated to go but went home 2 pretty happy shoppers..

We will go back soon and take some more classes. Lampwork is very relaxing to do. When I first ever did it I thought it was a rust rush thing but tis not the case at all.

So I'm out to my finished garage now to sweep and rearrange things. Am I a diva?! I want Rome built in one day! patience Janet patience. I shall slay the Jabberwocky!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!