and More Beads!

Toho6

This is the plant manager, Shigeru Nishimura. A very gracious man who spent a lot of time with us, treated us to lunch, answered all of our questions and so much more. I have always loved Toho beads, but after this tour…I have devolped a new love and appreciation for beads, their beads especially. There are 80 employees in this factory that makes all these beads for a world-wide distribution. I am sure that they work way more than a 40-hour week. I wanted to ask what is their normal work week? but I never had the chance.

Toho8

This area was extremely hot! and I mean hot! I used to be a chef in a commercial kitchen and I know what it means to slave over a hot stove, but trust me that pales in comparison! We were warned not to get too close many times over.

8Toho

This man would scoop out an amount of the molten glass and bring it over to a table where it seemed as if he was kneading it as you would do a loaf of bread dough.

7Toho

He brought it over to this table to accomplish that. This is not one of my better pictures!

Toho5

and then it would be scooped up and placed into this other piece of equipment. Yes that is fire that you see beneath it all!

Toho4B

Then we went downstairs and watched it come down.

Toho4A

and watched it travel some more!

TohoA

and travel and travel.

TohoD

it was still hot as you could see the steam rising!

TohoC

and it was still red hot in areas!

TohoB

and it would travel some more!

 

 

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About Vicky

Needlepoint, morning noon and evening! what could be better than this? I work on the computer in the daylight hours editing stitch guides and drawing stitches that you will see in the next Needlepoint Now for your stitching pleasure! In between this, there is time for taking pictures of my stitching adventures, Facebook and writing stitch guides for canvas that I am stitching for Needle Deeva, Maggie, Ruth Schmuff and others. Mostly needlepoint you ask? well we will talk about my cats Sylvester and AlleyCat, better known as "the brat". Of course I can't forget Felix who was the love of my life for over 14 years. He broke my heart as he departed for the Rainbow Bridge last year. Oh did I mention baseball?

4 thoughts on “and More Beads!

  1. so interesting Vicky. I always wanted to learn how beads are made. I remember going to Venice, Italy and to the Murano glass co and wow was it hot in there!

  2. Vicky, you know I’m all drooly over all those gorgeous beads! I use a lot of Toho’s in my needlework, the quality is excellent and the color selection is really good. If you want a donut shaped bead instead of a cylinder shaped bead, it’s my first choice.

    Were you able to buy anything here??

    BTW – I think the process of kneading is called “marveling” but I could be wrong….

    • I bought several packages of tri-cuts since Mary Alice told us that Toho doesn’t import those. Not sure where I’m going to use them, but at least they’re in the stash. The new bead shop in Eugene, Mona Beads stocks Tohos!

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