honeycomb blowouts

[john madden]

ok this is my first post here. ive been trying this technique for the longest time now and i cant seem to figure out the best way to do it. usually i fume a tube, sleeve another clear of standard wall over the fume and melt in as best i can to not get any trails on the fume or bubbles, then blow out real thin, put clear dots, shrink down the bubble(ussally the trickiest part of the whole process) without distorting the comb. then i put a little clear lens on. i dont know how everyone else does it. a couple of real nice ones that come to mind i saw done by Erik Anders, Adam G, im sure there are others that do it.
ive never seen anyone do it before in person, nor have i asked anyone how to do this, i dont usually like to ask for pointers, but im at the point where im assed out on ideas on how to do it with a better sucess rate. any advise would be muy deliciouso

[Turning Point Glass]

I don't know about anyone else, but I blow a bubble, fume it, apply clear dots and shrink back down so the dots get tight. Seems to work, although I've never tried any of the more complicated combs I've seen.
I don't know why the encasing in clear stage would be necessary. I also like to fume after blowing the bubble so that when you shrink it the fume gets more opaque.

Chris

[jusbag]

Try coiling up some NS Yellow, blow it out real thin. Put clear dots on it and melt it down.

Or if you just want to use fume.
Fume the inside of a point really heavy. Close the point up and blow out into a thin ball. Put your clear dots on this and melt it back down.
These look real cool if you leave them in the kiln for a few cycles.

[john madden]

yeh ive heard leaving it in the kiln helps it grow or something, maybe ill try that.

[rhodium]

try blowing a small patty of color through a large clear marble and then slap on your dots. you get quick encasement while using very little color, and after you have your dots on all condensed there is pretty good depth too.

[john madden]

hmmm thats a new one to me. sounds like a good idea though. anyone know if your supposed to keep the comb in the kiln at 1060-1070 to strike the silver? or just at 1050

[Firekist]

i'm not sure i've seen anyone's "blowout honeycombs" so if you have a link to one, i'd like to see it. i'd say skip the sleeving and do the fume inside the bubble, dots on the outside, and condense.
as far as kiln striking these.. 1050 will probably take a few days to get the comb out of it. 1075-1175 should speed it up. adam i beleive flame strikes all of his.. i've only flame struck one of mine.. it takes some time... let it cool below glowing, then slowly slowly reheat until the surface is just slightly glowing.. then keep it at that temp for a couple minutes.. should get you a comb.

good luck---z---seth

[jusbag]

Here's one done with a blowout...

[duh]

ok check it out.... save yoursefl mucho time and frustreation.... don't blow a bubble and open it and fume.. you have too blow it too thin to make it worhtwile....
instead, fume the inside of a larger tube and pull it down to say 19 -22 mill tube... then you will have tube to make many many honey comb marbles...

also, yes if you leave your fumed honeycomb in the kiln it will strike up and get the halo effect which is very cool... you gotta leave it in there for several days of working, and if you put a kiln brick in your kiln and your marbles ontop of that they will grow quicker cause the temp is a little higher near the top of the kiln... or you can ramp your kiln up to like 1150 to speed up the process....

there's what i have to say.... good luck!

[glasshead]

I'm confused as to the terminology here. From what people are posting it sounds as if there is no difference between doing a regular honeycomb and a honeycomb blowout. I had never heard of a "honeycomb blowout" until now but i interpret it as meaning doing a blowout with a color of your choice (gathering up the color solid and blowing it out hollow instead of coilpotting) then adding clear dots and shrinking it back down. Am i not right to think that this is the correct meaning? Can somebody please clarify here? Thanks.

[glasshead]

don't blow a bubble and open it and fume.. you have too blow it too thin to make it worhtwhile...

p.s. I have to say that i completely disagree with this statement. I get depthy honeycombs everytime and ive found the trick to getting them depthy is having a heavy layer of fuming (but not too much). Thats not to say that you dont have to blow your bubble thin, but its not like you have to blow it ultra thin. As long as you apply your clear dots with your bubble outside the flame, its really not difficult at all. And Duh- dont take this to mean that your technique isnt a good one. It sounds like a time saver for smaller mibs.

[Stratisphere]

Try cutting a section of a striking colour with some snip so it doesn't hit the flame. Then case it in some small tubing, thinner seems better and tighter is better. Take that chunk and blow it out, throw some dots on that biotch and have fun with that.

[john madden]

encase a rod with clear tube? then blow that out? is that what your saying?

[Julian]

I honeycomb coiled and blown out color all the time. Coiling is nice and fast; blowing out gives you a different type of swirly pattern and more control over reduction effects with polychromatics. It also is convenient for layering.

If you don't cover the color with clear, you can exploit the contrast from the reduction on a color like Amazon Night.
If you do cover it in clear, you can get better depth effects from sparkle colors and opaque colors like Orange Crayon or Peacock.

We were making some beads a few years ago that were turning out pretty well based on putting Ruby over 12 mm rod, covering with splerks of Triple Passion and NS Yellow and then blowing it out and honeycombing. These days I'd probably use Persimmon over 12 mil, that color rocks!

[Chris Carlson]

here's a honeycomb blow in
http://www.glasspipes.org/Images/FullSize/000061000/Img61668_corncob8.jpg


i made this coilin up ns yellow and blowing it in to 46x4.8 and pulling it down. i made about 5 or 6 with that prep.

[john madden]

sick yo, thats what im talking about

[Firekist]

blowin blowout.. heh.. i got confused =)

z--seth

[mistahead]

it seems theres alot of different results you can achieve with this tecnique with alot of different variables all seem pretty sick!!!! im havin fun with this one!!!

[glasshead]

ok good-glad that the terminology is all straightened out. I bet light cobalt or blue AP blown in to some fumed tubing would look sick. Im gonna have to give that a shot tomorrow. I bet if you textured before the blow in and then honeycombed that shit, it would look dope. Or would blowing the bubble out thin b4 honeycombing make the texture pattern go away? Anyone done that before? It would be cool if you could trap an air bubble in the middle of each individual honeycomb...

[Julian]

If you want litle air bubbles, try the 'plunge' technique a la the flower beads so popular with the mandrel ladies. It's easier on a solid, and you can't do iot too thick... but all you have to do is get the section where the dot is going a little how, and push in the tungsten. Create a little indention that you then cover with clear, and theres your air bubble.

[Snurf]

oops

[Snurf]

warm yellow over Mystery adventurine is the bomb blow out http://www.glassartists.org/Images/FullSize/000042000/Img42020_old_dot_box4.jpg

[Batou]

Ratty thats some sick color in that! :bouncy: too bad most of this is greek to me, soon though i'll be able to play.

[The Lorax]

loving the honey combs keep it up guys, great thread too.

[Vapor Glass]

blow bubble, fume inside, dot outside, shrink.
or
open tube, fume, blow out, dot, shrink
or
gather 1" clear glob and push color stick into it like a mushroom, push a dimple, add a colar,
blowout and pull down, then blowout thin dot and shrink.
or
coil color, blowin to clear stock tube, melt pull down then blowout dot and shrink.

the thinner the bubble the deeper the comb will be.
for my fume combs 1 out of every 10 or so is nice. all the rest useually end up in the garbage.
good luck and have fun!

[Emmett's Glass]

here's a couple of marbs done recently with honeycomb backs done from mystery adventurine, moss or mellinium moss. Coiled color blown thin clear dots applied and shrunk back to tube, then added to the marble.
E

[rumplephorskin]

nice E

[john madden]

yeh eric i love you fume honeycombs. i hear ya when you say 1 in 10 make it, i never get them to come out the way i want. but now i just use color and they come out bangin everytime. thanks to this post ive found a way to make them real nice. coil a small bit of color , wrap on clear, blow out transparent thin, dot, shrink, works everytime.

[Din]

A while back, may or may not still be on the site, Seth advised putting another set of clear dots over top of the first set of clear dots, so that one didn't need to blow the bubble quite so thin. This method has worked absolute wonders for my honeycombs, as at a certain thickness, a bubble with a bunch of thick dots starts to warp in the flame (or at least, mine do).

-Din