I'm Letting Go of it And Sending it to Beads of Courage

Once in a while, I do clean deeply.  I open boxes to see what's in them.  I made 3 piles:  give away, garbage, and keep.

The goal is to make the keep pile the smallest one.

Cleaning out beads is difficult because it takes time.  

Beads I sort into piles of:

Beads of Courage, sell, and keep. 

It's about the same, but the goal is to have the Beads of Courage pile be the largest one.

This does take me a while because you have to be careful with the beads you send to BOC and make sure there is no metal or metalic glass on the surface of the bead because it can react with the children's medicine.

As I clean, I find more boxes of beads that I had put away.

Some of them are beads that I made when I began to torch.

I used to participate in a lot of exchanges.

I have a lot of my trial beads.

These I keep finding, hidden, and I wonder,

Why did I keep them?

Some of them bring smiles because they were so poorly made.

Some were accidentally great!

Those I keep!

Today, as I cleaned, I found this bead.

 Now, this one made me smile. 

I made this bead on my Hot Head Torch.

A Hot Head Torch is a single fuel torch (propane) that many lampworkers use when they start to lampwork.

There are still some amazing artists who use only a Hot Head, but that's another story.

I made this bead for an exchange in which I participated called a Long Bead Exchange.

The bead had to be 2 inches or more in length.

I turned on my Hot Head torch, and I made this bead.  It took me over an hour to make.

The heat on this torch is less than the heat of my dual fuel torch.

I melted and marvered.  I melted and marvered.

Finally!  This bead came out of the fire and went into the kiln!

Whew!

When I measured this amazing bead,

it was 4.25 inches in length!

Amazing for a Hot Head Torch, and I was very proud of it!

I still am proud of this bead, but it's time to let it go.

Beads of Courage is in need of Acts of Courage Beads.

They suggest a length of 1.5 inches or more, if possible.

This one qualifies,

and,

even if it's not the most beautiful bead ever,

I hope it brings a smile to a child's face.

I hope they are able to forget what they had to endure for just a while and smile!