my first pieces in cronological order

[Shiny]

These are the first pieces ive made. I finally got a bench set up about a month ago. Before that Chad from soleil et lune let me try my hand at pendant making at his shop twice. Heres what Ive got so far. What can I do to get the appearance of my stuff out of the gutter?

[Shiny]

Mo

[Shiny]

Recently ive been trying the kind of I/O where you just flare really big tube a little instead of gathering and blowing and bla bla. It seems to be alot harder to get everything to groove right and spiral in the same direction. That really has more to do with the gathering part, but I mean when I close the flare back down it seems to be alot harder to get everything to close off clean with the big tube flare.

so how do I get a clean spiral on the end of the bowl. What is the best way to close a flare clean. I always fuck it up with the paddle.

[Shatner]

I use a carbon rod and just marver it down. Make sure to read the glass and heat evenly. Are you only spinning in one direction?

[Shiny]

I have been spinning the glass in one direction except when paddling it i spin the other way. I stopped doing that and it works better. The thing that really fucks me up is the gathering. I can gather things fine pretty much, but when you bring the flare down its so damn thick at the one end. When I gather its really thick on the end I closed and normal thickness for the rest of the chunk. This makes it difficult to gather all together and because of the thickness difference they gather gets a little screwed up so the design isnt nice.

Also, I think the design Im using on these is stupid. Im making Vs of color on the flare. When I close it down it scrunches the top of the v and the middle stays fairly wide making a crappy looking diamond. So not doing that would probably help.

[PyroChixRock]

only post clean pics please.

[steven p selchow]

heh...probably just some unfused frit in their.

[gravdigr]

I can gather things fine pretty much, but when you bring the flare down its so damn thick at the one end. When I gather its really thick on the end I closed and normal thickness for the rest of the chunk. This makes it difficult to gather all together and because of the thickness difference they gather gets a little screwed up so the design isnt nice.

I'm sure you know this but just in case...when the glass on the end of my pipe gets thick and I do not want to remove any remember gravity is your friend. You can try heating below the thick part and hold it so the thick part is up. The glass will flow from the thick area to the thinner area. You may need to blow out a bit then condense it down a few times but this method usually works well for me.

[Firekist]

getting the tip of the flare thick as you're closing it down happens a lot. myself and my 2 apprentices have gone through this. here are my tips:

use a very big, hot flame. not a soft bushy flame. the bigger flame gets more of the piece evenly heated, and the less time spent on the closedown, the better it seems to go.

be aware of the angle you're holding your piece at. correcting it like gravedigr said often works, but prevention is what you want most. i do'nt think there's a step by step as to when you should tilt which way.. so.. just pay attention.

first, use a a paddle with a handle while the piece is in the flame.. keeping the flare in the flame keeps it hot. i start with the paddle back where the glass is a bit hard, and then "scrape" along the surface toward the open hole. this moves the surface of the glass, pulling the clear along. dunno how exactly this helps, but it will.

if these didn't work: you can blow into your flare before it's completely closed down to puff it open slightly, if it has thickened up a bit too much. lastly, if you have the surface of the glass hot enough, you can tilt it handle down, and then pinch and stretch the edges of the open flare with a tweezers. this'll thin that lip right out. make small adjustments, and you shouldn't distort your pattern too much. i will sometimes grab just the clear with the edge of my tweezer to pull it "over" the edge to cover the color on the lip.

have fun
z--seth

[Gibsons Glassworks]

i dont even flare for iso, i use anywhere from 30-50 mil tube and just tack the line at the point end and tack at the open end, lay them all down the i have a big reamer to press them all up against the wall. so much faster then flairing and bullshit.

[Shiny]

what do you mean tack it at the point end.

Sorry about the pics. I sampled some pipe tobacco out of them.

[Shiny]

FireKist, pretty much all of those tips were helpful. Thanks

[newmexicomagma]

i call it tack and weld but what u do is after u open ur tube have your stringers ready and just heat up the end of the stringer and tack it in the bottom of your point where your mouthpiece will be and then heat and weld it to the open end. lay alll your lines straight fume close tube and make your pipe.

[PortlandGlassBlowers]

I blow a bubble flare for inside out.
You have more control for detail when laying down you're stringers.

[Shiny]

yea ive done a few bubble flares. They got alot easier when I figured out how to get a nice even flare, but if I can get more consistent with the simpler way I think Ill stick with that. I tried the tacky weldy whatever tonight and it worked well.

[nodice]

I blow a bubble flare for inside out.
You have more control for detail when laying down you're stringers.

Me too, when I'm not workin on the end of a tube(I mean the last two points of a tube). It really doesn't matter so much in the way of control if you're using a wide/short tube.... For this reason, it's nice to be able to start out with a tube that's as large in length as inside diameter, and one that's as thick as possible for production. Yesterday I was just doin squigles on the inside of a 1.5 inch section of 44x4, and stretchin em out into 5 bats. A bit hard to see the pattern, especially since it's all clear/fuming work, but you get the point. What you use and how you use it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish.......

Ya can't really do much about the end you're closing getting thicker until it's closed and you blow into it, but here's a little trick on closing the hole quicker. I also use a pad also(graphite on a stick), and once the hole gets small enough(say 15-30mm), I move the flame to the very end of the glass, and use a clear rod to close it up with a circular closing motion. I leave the rod in there(maybe a 12mm rod), and use that rod as a punty(which has a hot connection...). What I mean is, I stick the rod into the hot glass, and swirl it around the edge to draw all the hot glass together and close the end. Then I blow into it a bit, stretch it out, and make it straight. Next I work the other side of the piece(basically everything except the bowl).

Once everything is melted in and shaped(other then the bowl), I heat up the end with the rod on it, and twist it while I'm pulling it off. Make sure to twist it all the way to the point where it comes off, and to remove all unwanted glass. Then I heat up the bowl to melt the colors in, shape it, and vuala. You can also twist back and forth as much as you want while/before removing the rod.

http://a982.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/53/m_16888d4889f66881d02d4b5d9870acbd.jpg

Helps to get tighter spirals if you thin/stretch out the end then melt it back, as ya get a longer section of glass to spin the way you want, even though a given amount of glass will still take up the same amount of space on the pipe. Ya don't really need to do this a ton to make a spiral look nice though(as seen above).

[Shiny]

I used to close the last bit of the hole with a rod but it kinda wigged out the design sometimes. when you attach the rod, do you pull it away a bit or leave it kinda pushed in? I mean stretch out the end of the piece a little so it angles away from the rod slowly, or leave it pushed in so the edges of it come away from the rod in more of a 90 degree angle. I ask cuz sometimes I have a problem with the rod getting super melty when im gathering it and melting in

[nodice]

I usually pull it out and blow in a bit.... There are lots of little things that I do which might help, but I have a feeling you will find your way. For what it's worth though, if your rod is bending, it's getting heated up too much. Either use a thicker rod, don't put it in the fire/hot glass as much, or both. You're bound to screw up at least a little part of the glass at the end. One of the tricks to this is messing up as little of the patter as possible if you're planning on using the whole pattern. Either way, you have a choice of what glass you use, and what you rip off.