Pendants. Hooks, other options?

[sapipa12]

I have been hot shop working for 4 years and started torch working 8 months ago. Pendants have brought a good amount of business at shows, but the hooks I have been putting on seem to be more fragile than I would like. I have never had a problem with a piece breaking while being worn, but if things are dropped or knocked well, glass hooks seem to pop off.

Recently I have been using colored hooks as oppose to clear which may add to the increased fragility. This is a facebook link of the items I'm talking about.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118846&id=38001774

I have been attaching the hooks in the flame and have been melting them in quite a bit and still am not impressed with the durability of my connection. At the end of the day I know its still glass and it breaks, I just want to be selling the best product I can.

I have seen some flameworkers that it looks like they press in the top of a pendant on both sides and drill through. Drilling is not something I'd like to do alot of, but may be an option.

Any advice or thoughts are appreciated. Thanks everyone.

[Deez]

it looks like a coulple of those black loops could be melted in a little more. there looks to be a slight crease where the pendant and loop meet.
smooth is strong

[sapipa12]

i like that

smooth is strong

[STROKER]

i dont do facebook so i cant see the work, but if there is any crease whatsoever on your connection. then you have not melted the loop in enough.

color should be very strong for loops as long as you have it worked in properly as was said above. smooth is strong^^

[SNYD]

Its all about the tungstun pick. Also use heavy colors like sparkle colors or blacks that are stiffer when you melt them, they seem to be a lot more durable with what I have made.

[indicablue_]

I make a boatload of pendants and using Peter tweezers and drilling with tungsten is super easy. Or if u still want to weld them, make sure it looks like a mosquito bite on your arm rather than a chocolate chip in a cookie.Smooth. My first bunch of pendants were Junkers so I dropped them one by one from a foot onto the table and watched which ones popped off and where.

[Icarus]

Yeah, I don't do facebook either, so I can't see exactly what you're doing, but I can give you some helpful tips.

First off, a peter's tweezers and a tungsten pick will probably get you your best loop, as far as strength is concerned.

But, I like the look of the pulled loop more, so I learned to do it properly by just doing a shit ton of clear glass teardrop pendants. However, if you're adding glass to pull the loop, you've got to get both faces ripping hot so you get a good hot seal. I usually push them together, and then blast again with heat, wiggle it a bit, and then pull it out a bit to get an even transition. Then I figure how big of a loop I want, then heat the requisite amount of glass on the hot seal punty that I added, and then pull. Then afterward I heat it up with a bushier flame and let it condense a little, then go in their with a graphite rod and make it bigger, then re-condense. If I have one spot where it's really thin, I just heat everything else on the loop up and use the rod to pull it out and make it all about uniform size, then back in the flame to condense.

You'll get it, it just takes a little practice. That's why I suggest practicing on clear rain drops. I can't tell you how many cool pendants i messed up by putting janky loops on them. Finally I bit the bullet and sat down and spent a day just making practice raindrops, it's worth it.

[sapipa12]

Thanks for all the replies. I've been getting the pendants way hotter before attaching a hook and they have been going on more like a mosquito bite than a chocolate chip. I'm going to order the peters tweezers from glasscraft when I make this next order...

[Aussie]

just make your own tool from needlenose pliers. You got a torch, just heat up where you want to bend and use another pair of pliers to bend the tips in. Get some small round nosed needle nose pliers, only a couple of bucks, for making finer holes.

[Cosmo]

One thing that I've found helps...

Once you make the loop, heat the base (where the loop joins the pendant) and pull up slightly on the loop. This will smooth out the seam where it joins the pendant.

But, loops will always break if they get dropped. That's just the nature of glass.

You don't need peters tweezers or any other type of pliers/tweezers. In the last couple years I've made at least 700 pendants and all have had their loops made only with a piece of tungsten and a graphite reamer.

[byron3]

Put you a dab of glass where you want the loop. Make sure both pendant and glass dab are hot. Turn pendant loop down and heat till you have a cylindrical stub. Now take your glass shears, heat the stub and make a cut dead center in line with the equator of your pendant almost all the way down to the pendant. Now gently heat and bend both sides toward one another. Heat the ends and melt together, insert a reamer and open your loop up. Heat in the center and ream, straighten using tweezers ........................

[KT-Old School Glass]

Peter's Tweezers are GREAT!!! I was skeptical until I had the chance to try them and now it is the only way I make pendant loops.

*Attach a bit of glass to the place you want the loop, make sure it is attached well.

*Heat until it is a molten ball and pinch with the tweezers.

*Just before the bit has completely set start rotating the tweezers until you hear a "crunch". The "crunch" means you have broken through and have a small hole.

*Gently heat again and use a reamer to open the hole to the size you want.

After a little practice you shouldn't need to use tungsten to drill at all.

[RamblezMarblez]

Get use to making the swan. So so easy now. Once your hook it attached, push on that little connection and melt in with a sharp flame. Then once smooth, try a small fluffy flame to make the hoop smaller and straiter. Use your pencil reamer for that (not your dick). Some of these glass blowing tools are worthless to me. The cornyest being the color stick grabber for the ends of your color sticks. Punty it up!.........Slick420