I hate asking questions! but... Fan Leaves???

[Sketchball]

Hey GLDG!

I really hate asking questions - so I avoid it at all costs. I lurk around here like crazy. But I kind of got myself into a small bind.

Backstory:
I'm doing a demo/colab with my best friend out in front of a dope headshop on 4/20. I was hoping that it would be pretty low-key but it's turning into a bigger event than I would have anticipated (30 people staffed for the day). We only agreed to it a week beforehand... and because of some burns and a ton of homework - I haven't been able to get much practice on the torch as much as I would have liked.


Feel free to make fun of me as much as you'd like for putting myself in this situation. But all I'm asking for is your best advice on how to approach this, even if it's one sentence long. I was trying all sorts of stuff last night but was getting inconsistent results.

I'm trying to make this, basically...

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/PotLeaf.jpg

Fan Leaves attached to a marble in the middle... With thicker, less tapered leaves (at least near the bottom, I want a bigger connection spot)... I'm going to add veins instead of the sharp edges on the leaves.

I was practicing with clear 12mm. I was trying to get an oblong gather super hot, mashing it between my marver and paddle away from the handle to stretch it, then puntying up to it to do the final shaping/polishing. I also tried using my small masher tool to make a small disk and shaping it from there. Both methods just ended up with an inconsistent product.

My plan is to either mix down Mystery Adventurine with clear, or coat clear with Mystery. I'm going to do a full dry-run of it tonight... but I want to do a lot more practice with only clear to get the leaf shaping down first - and I'm not sure if I'll be able to figure out the proper method in time.

How would you make nice, thick consistent leaves? Any responses are greatly appreciated!!

[Riley]

i would just make a large gather of the color you want for the leaves. might consider a solid clear core with whatever mystery adv. or layering you choose.

then make this into a thick flat patty. heat again and take a knife and put a crease down the center. pull this down for all the leaf prep.

not sure about how good attaching all the leaves to a central marble will look. thats up to you. i might suggest just building the leaf as is, then make the marble flat on the back and weld it to the center of the leaf.

a few more tips. some small cup shears can be used to cut the ridges rather quickly, thats a nice effect and will look better than just a vein down the middle.

another tip, don't worry about making it symmetrical . let the leaves flow naturally. this will save you from any tedious alignment and will also help mask any size or shape inconsistencies. you could also flow the leaves around the marble a bit. this shaping would also lend itself to the integrity of the piece, as the leave tips going just flat and straight out of the center will be leverage points that could easily break.

it really depends on how you will be using this piece, if its a stand-alone thing or part of a larger assembly.

last thing, i like a jade core, with lochness over it. once cut with shears and shaped, it will give you nice transitions of dark to light green, and should be a crowd pleaser. good luck on the demo

[Riley]

also good to mention, if you do use the shears to nip out ridges, be sure to go back and clean up the shaping with a sharp flame. you can concentrate this on the rear of the leaf to avoid melting out any detail. this will ensure that the sharp edged cuts made won't cause cracking.

[Sketchball]

I don't have any sheers but some solid advice man, I appreciate it!

The marble is going to be welded to a jar and another one welded to a hammer. The leaves will curve around the other pieces slightly as to not be to vulnerable to breaking off... but there will only be one connection spot because we don't have a hand torch and can't really get in the a lot.

I want to do a ton of veins branching off of the center vein. I like your idea and prefer that look I just don't have all of the color and tools I'd need to pull that off.

Thanks again for the tips!

[nicko0]

ive used household scissors plenty for nipping glass. those long surgical scissors are nice for little nips cause the thin blades dont twist up the glass as much. tried fingernail scisssors; best nip but had to get too close to the heat on big leaves.

[Greymatter Glass]

I'd use a butter knife, flat rod, and some color...

color the rod, pull it down, sculpt with the knife....

The heat gradient is what's going to determine the base shape of the leaf, from there it's control, consistency, and creativity.

GL

-Doug

[Sketchball]

I <3 the GLDG...


Thank you guys so very much. Pictures to come

[hwcglass]

asking questions is not a bad thing.

they make good reading and some people really like answering them.

be stoked to see some pics.

[Greymatter Glass]

...And very specific and/or new questions are ALWAYS welcome.

Most of of us here with answers will pick and choose how often we want to answer "hey I just got started what should I do" or "which torch is better?"


Asking "how, how do I do this, specifically?" then posting a drawing/sketch of their own idea is a great way to get helped.

posting "hey how do I do this?" and posting a picture of someone else work... probably not the best approach - and likely be told to ask whoever did it. If they tell you to take their class, that's your answer. And that's usually not to be rude, but there's a big different between being shown a few basic tricks and explaining an entire process. Consider it "public seminar" vs. "semester in collage" ... you get what you pay for (not to start a debate on the economics of education...)


anyways.... how'd it go?

[Riley]

"semester in collage"

listen to doug, he has a phd in scissors and glue :D

how'd the "fan leaves" demo go.

[Greymatter Glass]

ahem...

it's a JD, and it's in pipe cleaners and macaroni art copyright law.... jack ass.

...you don't see me belittling your associates degree in kicking rocks and chumping with the fellas, do you?

[Riley]

:)

[Sketchball]

hahaha. Some people gave me the impression that this place is turning into just a place where n00bs ask questions...:shifty:

Thank you HWC and well put Greymatter, it is expanding the forums - because there was nothing about fan leaves before this. I may do a little video/tut of how I ended up doing the leaves.

I made 2 last night - and am pretty reluctant to take pictures of the original mock ups before them (if nothing else it was good leaf pulling practice, haha).

The pictures are of our dry run from the night I posted this thread. I didn't take any pictures at the demo - just one small video I had trouble uploading


http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_01-23-18_715.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_01-32-12_251.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_01-32-51_510.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_01-35-01_513.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_01-35-47_273.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-20_04-05-13_865.jpg

I started with flat rod. Puntied with 12 mm. Tore off 2 1/2 inches of the flat rod. Coated it with a sparkly green (looked like Mystery minus the silver and much less transparent). Puntied to the other end with 12mm. Gently melted all of the lines in, then stretched it.

It wasn't a perfect stretch but the way I was making them it all worked the same.

I attached a small punty to the end and stretched the tip a little. Then I heated up a disconnect spot enough for two leaves, stretched it a little in the center, let it cool down and disconnected it. Puntied to the other side and split it in half. From there I took the flat-ish oblong leaf-looking gather, got it pretty hot, set it on my marver and then flattened it towards the tip with my paddle. If it was too disk looking I puntied to it and stretched the tip a little.

From there it was mostly my butter knife (with a serration). Heated up the flat face, set it on the marver and pressed a line into the middle. Then I carved the edges of the leaves, heated up each face gently, then re-flattened between the marver and my paddle. Then I carefully carved the veins of the leaves, trying not to burn out the rest of the carving. To finish it off I puntied to the tip of the leaf, heated up the front lightly, then heated up the back and gave it a nice stretch. Removed the punty on the bottom, tore off the excess and let it cool.

Made all the leaves and attached them one at a time to the marble. Was very satisfied with the way it came out. We're about to go to the shop and check out the pieces we made for the demo. I'll grab some picture of em' while we're there.

Thanks again all - more to come!

[n3rd]

this thread has it all! genuine help to and from good people, and it managed to give Doug a hard time too, repworthy!

the piece looks great JET

[Adapt]

Word!! Great job guys! See you at the DFO!

[Sketchball]

Thanks for the props n3rd and uc! (uc: we're road tripping it again this year too if you'd want to hang out in your neck of the woods again, either way - see you there!)

realized I never posted a final picture of the actual demo piece.

Once again, mucho thanks to all the words of advice that helped us put together our first "demonstration" successfully! (or at least my end, lols)

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/Bleezies/2011-04-21_16-16-27_735.jpg

[shark bait]

nice work

[Shatner]

Nice work. Looks really good.

[CripSkillz]

hell ya they look great.. nice job

[SkyKingGlass]

looks awesome...

[menty666]

I like them!

Kind of after the fact, but I was going to suggest coating some tube, blow it out slightly, cut it open and cut leaves out of it.

[Rowdy]

Nice work, makes me wanna try some now! Great job at executing such a nice 7 leaf. I bet whoever gets the set is going to be stoked.

Good luck, peace

[Eric S]

these look great if i were to try something like this, i'd either put the marble on the piece first and then add the leaves ( to make sure the weld of the marble to piece was super clean, without causing the leaves to sag) and/or have a brace structure keeping all the leaves spaced so that when you put the marble on the piece you can get it super hot without things distorting. looks like you pulled it off good though.