I have always loved fire! Any kind! Bigger, hotter, better! At 16 I really fell in love with the cosmic colors in the striking and fumed boro glass department. My first exposure to boro was through pipes, and as an artist/pyro I knew I had to utilize this amazing medium! At 16 though, no way would my parents sponsor such an endeavour. So beads it was! I got a hot head torch, fibre blankets, and all the bead basics with an assortment of soda lime. Sold my first set after a few days practice, and before I knew it I had purchased all the essentials for making boro beads! I developed my skills as a boro bead artist and worked up to getting 3-400$ for a set of 5-6 of my focal beads. At that rate even when switching to pipes was an option I held off for close to a decade. On a trip not to long ago, I met an artist in Eureka and decided then and there, no more beads! I have a lot to learn in the pipe making area, and using an alpha to start with wasn't ideal. But I am a couple hundred pipes deep and loving it! Tomorrow I hook up the redmax and am looking forward to all the doors a bigger flame opens! Happy lampworking everyone!