new to glass need help

[Mego]

hey there partner. just started on small stuff like beads a few weeks ago, i have a mentor or two but theyre not very good teachers and i can't keep up! i want to eventually make pipes for myself and my friends, and then eventually move up to large scale stuff like vases and light instillations. i'm having trouble even with beads tho! ive been making some things ugly as sin. it hasn't clicked yet.. i even changed my hair like it might start some kind of a chain reaction of change.. things are looking better.. but a pendant is like the bane of my exisistance, and so are encapsulating flowers in clear glass and even making them.. i have such a passion in this and studied for a year before getting my torch but am getting discouraged with my blobby results.. i mean, if i'm having such problems with something as small as beads how can i expect to be great at the huge projects i already have in my head????????????

[J proper]

I recommend reading contemporary lampworking vol 1-3 and really pay attention to the part on heat base, those books should really help you understand glass, its heat base and how it all works together. At least it helped me a lot so I hope it helps you. Good luck

[Plum Tuckered]

Homie you just need to take a deep breath and listen to the words in this post. Buy yourself Contemporary lampworking volume 1,2 and 3. Read them, they will answer almost all the questions you will have for a while.

As far as a short term plan are you talking about implosion flowers? There are a boat load of tutorials which walk you through them on this site. remember heat and gravity are what moves the glass. Another thing to think about it once you think the glass is hot enough heat it up MORE! Good luck and don't forget the search functions on this site they will help you out and keep people from yelling at you for being lazy.

Good luck man!

[Boozeclues]

Glass is a feeling more than anything. Keep at it and learn to feel how it reacts at different temps and it will become second nature. Don't get discouraged because it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be. Everyone's first glass looks like shit.

Expect to be disappointed. Your going to have bad days. Your going to make something your super proud of only to have it break on the last step. You will cut yourself. You will burn yourself. Its not easy but you have to learn from your mistakes and laugh off failure.

[Jestr]

^Listen to Boozeclues, there's a lot of truth in a few words. I tell people if you really want to adopt glass as part of your life, there will be blood, sweat, and tears in your future. But if you can stick with it through that worst awkward-phase, you will find the benefits and rewards to be quite enticing and beautiful. But definitely read Contemporary Lampworking, like these guys said. It's the Bible. I've only read volume 3 which is an awesome treasure trove of knowledge, and I badly need 1 and 2.

But yeah, listen to the glass. See how it moves, never forget you invisible partner, Gravity, You have to make the glass your friend first, then you can make glass your bitch.

[AlexSchmalex]

make 100 mushroom pendents then do implosions for a month or two, like others mentioned its all about understanding heat base

[T-Rex]

I don't know man, maybe you just weren't meant for it.

Haha nawww, I'm kidding, anyone can do anything they want with the right motivation and dedication.
It sounds like you want it bad enough. Just keep at it! You WILL get there. You said it hasn't clicked yet, and it probably hasn't. YET is the key word though, keep practicing and you'll get better. That's how it works!

[Mego]

hey thanks thats very helpful.. yea ive already been burnt twice (i was told i have three more to go then) had some shrapnel explode and my favorite stuff break.. i think i also have to realize not everyone has the the taste thats as funky as mine.. i found a mentor who lampworks beads instead of blowing pipes and making very complicated mindblowing stuff.. i kinda think he does that so he keeps me intruiged and really wants me to go the distance and end up selling in his shop.. but i think that will help alot... he'll be like grade school and then i'll go to highschool kinda hahah. so i'm excited about that. and hell guys i'm prescribed valium. seriously could not be more relaxed when shit goes wrong. ever see a dog its so ugly its cute? well ive made a couple of beads like that lately which is mildly exciting. thanks for the support

[2wheeler]

where's the pictures mego? I'm sure people would be down to give some pointers if you showem what your struggling with...

[Aymie]

Your work is going to be ugly for a long time. I cringe when my dad brings out some of the first pipes I ever made him.

I spent a full week welding Rods when I started. You get a feel for how the glass moves, learn clean welds, learn to keep it straight and so on. It's boring. I get that. Everyone wants to jump right in to making stuff. But that's not how it works.

Read, and practice with clear. Until you are familiar with how clear works and moves, color will just be a waste of money.

And when I say read, I mean books and threads. Everything you asked is already here somewhere.

[eb4evr]

as a fellow newbie, in the first couple months i had a lot of those moments where i thought there's absolutely no way i can do this, i just must not be cut out. but then busting ass and practicing more and more gets you over those humps. now, i've kinda figured out that each time you try something new with this thing, especially as a beginner, it's like "holy shit, i absolutely cant do this, those other guys make it look so simple," but that's just the culmination of their own fuckups and learning from them. how can you learn to do something correctly if you don't do it wrong first?

[AdamCotter]

I posted this in the main dealie but these guys might get something out of it too.

We might be skipping ahead, I gave it some more thought.
The only problem with the books that are currently available is that they don't offer much help to the Super Noob novice. the 1st month or so can be frustrating, and that is when people are most likely to quit.
For example, in Contemporary Lampworking (Which you Absolutely Must Have) he simply says something like "And then make a loop at the top". I remember having a really hard time making the loop itself.

The only tools you need are heat, gravity, centrifugal force, and surface tension.
OK, more basics...


I will assume you know absolutely nothing so don't be offended by the basics here.

the first thing I want you to do is go into the kitchen and get some honey. Now take a 14" rod of 8-13mm rod. With a sharpie draw two two parallel lines lengthwise down the rod (two extra sets of lines in red is helpful too,.

This will give you marks so that you can see how fast you are spinning your rod.

Now dip the end of the glass rod into the honey (Put in fridge first for best results) about an inch or so deep.
Pick up as much as you can on the rod.

Now, spin the rod in your right hand while holding it parallel with your table.

Hold the rod by cradling it with your ring finger and pinkie and spin it in complete circles using your thumb and middle and pointer finger. This is a skill of paramount importance! keep your marked rod and Spin it all day, in the car, at work, always.

Now, just by spinnning, keep as much honey on the tip of your rod as you can. this is the first lesson I give people, I make them spin that honey rod for a week before I let them touch the fire. you should start with 8mm rod for pendants, but also practice with 13mm(Half inch) tubing or rod. NOT 6mm or less, it will break and you will be cut badly. thin rods are for experts only. Do this until you can keep the blob of honey evenly coating the rod as you spin.

Hold the tip of the rod where the honey is directly in front of your face. Visualize a level line going thru your rod parallel with the floor, now as you spin the rod keep it level, notice if you lean one end down the honey runs tword your hand, the other way it starts to drip off the end. Glass behaves the same way.

So you are rotating your rod with a teaspoon of honey, you can see the lines are making complete revolution and the honey is uniform thickness. You could do this all day without getting hand cramps? Why am I doing this???? Wax on!! Wax OFF! that's why!

Perfect! now we can move on! Later we will be doing the same exercise with a marked rod in each hand, turning them at the same speed, but that is for later, that is how we make the wig wag and spiral patterns. By turning one hand slightly slower than the other.

Take your not quite round pendant and pop it in the annealer bring to 1050,
or else warm it up SLOWLY in the flame, to do this set up your torch to give you the flame you normally work with and then crank up the propane until it looks like bushy dragon fire, that is called an annealing flame. You want it just hot enough to not leave soot on your piece. Anyway, get it warm. This is assuming you are making a flat, hemispherical pendant.

1. Attach a 10-14" piece of rod, 8-10mm in diameter. This is called a punty. 1st heat just the tip until it is a glowing ball. Next pull that ball off with tweezers so it looks like a eyebrow pencil point. Heat just the tip to white hot (Don't boil) Then blow on it a half a second to give it a skin, or touch it very briefly to your paddle (to make a skin) when it has cooled past orange to a orangey reddish color (we call that second stage red, cause orangey red is a mouthful) this all takes place in less than 3 seconds.
While holding the pendant still with tweezers push the punty into the center of the back of your pendant, tug it gently back out (this will make it easier to remove when you are done). Practice on a pendant shaped piece of glass you don't want. If you have done it correctly (Cold stick a punty) then you should be able to knock the piece off cleanly and then fire polish the scar. If not, you can melt it off. Be careful because if you do your stick too cold it will crack your piece. Now anneal (Flash) the pendant back up to temp. You will find a happy medium, you want it to not fall off.

2. next spin the pendant by rotating the rod (Imagine a power drill, actually you can chuck your rod into a power drill set on super low speed, but that is for later). KEEP IT SPINNING All the time. Like you have OCD and you must do it or airplanes will fall out of the sky.

3. get your flame raging hot. While spinnning your pendant heat the edge of the face on the pendant. Keep spinning and as it softens centrifugal force, and gravity will pull it into a circle. Periodically straighten and chill the back of the pendant with a graphite paddle (optional, but good). If it is really far out of round you can roll the pendant gently against a marver, or use just the outer lip of a marble mold.

4. When it is round enough to your liking touch the back of the pendant with the graphite paddle to chill it.

5. next you want to turn the flame sharper. THe back has chilled so it is not floppy. Hold the piece so the front is twords the ceiling, Now, starting in the center and moving out heat (Using the bottom edge of the flame) just the surface of your pendant, Surface tension will form a nice lens on top which will give your pendant depth.

6, allow it to cool slightly,( use care at this point, I once ruined a whole days work making the dicro medallions for ill'y glycerine chambers by thinking they were cool and mashing their faces with tweezers) and run the back of your cold tweezers around where the punty attaches to the pendant,( I dip mine in ice water first). Crack it off by gently tapping the seam with a 10mm glass rod. Now pull off the tip of your punty again, this time just barely get it to stick to the bottom. (Punty up to the bottom)

7. Flash

8. Put a loop at the top. Method 7
a.. Place a large dot on top where you want the loop to be.
b.. now, using a waxed butter knife's edge press down into the dot separating it to two.
c.. Place a dot on the front half and the back half, or if you have the hand skills, pull up a daab of glass from the front and back
d.. then bridge with a dot.
e.. Melt it all together gently, using a tungsten rod or waxed tweezers to coax the opening to the size you need. Don't use tools in the flame EVER.



So I guess I could have just said, Punty up to the back and spin it in the flame, add a loop and Bingo was his name O!

Hand CramP! Whsew!

[AdamCotter]

I posted this in the main dealie but these guys might get something out of it too.

We might be skipping ahead, I gave it some more thought.
The only problem with the books that are currently available is that they don't offer much help to the Super Noob novice. the 1st month or so can be frustrating, and that is when people are most likely to quit.
For example, in Contemporary Lampworking (Which you Absolutely Must Have) he simply says something like "And then make a loop at the top". I remember having a really hard time making the loop itself.

The only tools you need are heat, gravity, centrifugal force, and surface tension.
OK, more basics...


I will assume you know absolutely nothing so don't be offended by the basics here.

the first thing I want you to do is go into the kitchen and get some honey. Now take a 14" rod of 8-13mm rod. With a sharpie draw two two parallel lines lengthwise down the rod (two extra sets of lines in red is helpful too,.

This will give you marks so that you can see how fast you are spinning your rod.

Now dip the end of the glass rod into the honey (Put in fridge first for best results) about an inch or so deep.
Pick up as much as you can on the rod.

Now, spin the rod in your right hand while holding it parallel with your table.

Hold the rod by cradling it with your ring finger and pinkie and spin it in complete circles using your thumb and middle and pointer finger. This is a skill of paramount importance! keep your marked rod and Spin it all day, in the car, at work, always.

Now, just by spinnning, keep as much honey on the tip of your rod as you can. this is the first lesson I give people, I make them spin that honey rod for a week before I let them touch the fire. you should start with 8mm rod for pendants, but also practice with 13mm(Half inch) tubing or rod. NOT 6mm or less, it will break and you will be cut badly. thin rods are for experts only. Do this until you can keep the blob of honey evenly coating the rod as you spin.

Hold the tip of the rod where the honey is directly in front of your face. Visualize a level line going thru your rod parallel with the floor, now as you spin the rod keep it level, notice if you lean one end down the honey runs tword your hand, the other way it starts to drip off the end. Glass behaves the same way.

So you are rotating your rod with a teaspoon of honey, you can see the lines are making complete revolution and the honey is uniform thickness. You could do this all day without getting hand cramps? Why am I doing this???? Wax on!! Wax OFF! that's why!

Perfect! now we can move on! Later we will be doing the same exercise with a marked rod in each hand, turning them at the same speed, but that is for later, that is how we make the wig wag and spiral patterns. By turning one hand slightly slower than the other.

Take your not quite round pendant and pop it in the annealer bring to 1050,
or else warm it up SLOWLY in the flame, to do this set up your torch to give you the flame you normally work with and then crank up the propane until it looks like bushy dragon fire, that is called an annealing flame. You want it just hot enough to not leave soot on your piece. Anyway, get it warm. This is assuming you are making a flat, hemispherical pendant.

1. Attach a 10-14" piece of rod, 8-10mm in diameter. This is called a punty. 1st heat just the tip until it is a glowing ball. Next pull that ball off with tweezers so it looks like a eyebrow pencil point. Heat just the tip to white hot (Don't boil) Then blow on it a half a second to give it a skin, or touch it very briefly to your paddle (to make a skin) when it has cooled past orange to a orangey reddish color (we call that second stage red, cause orangey red is a mouthful) this all takes place in less than 3 seconds.
While holding the pendant still with tweezers push the punty into the center of the back of your pendant, tug it gently back out (this will make it easier to remove when you are done). Practice on a pendant shaped piece of glass you don't want. If you have done it correctly (Cold stick a punty) then you should be able to knock the piece off cleanly and then fire polish the scar. If not, you can melt it off. Be careful because if you do your stick too cold it will crack your piece. Now anneal (Flash) the pendant back up to temp. You will find a happy medium, you want it to not fall off.

2. next spin the pendant by rotating the rod (Imagine a power drill, actually you can chuck your rod into a power drill set on super low speed, but that is for later). KEEP IT SPINNING All the time. Like you have OCD and you must do it or airplanes will fall out of the sky.

3. get your flame raging hot. While spinnning your pendant heat the edge of the face on the pendant. Keep spinning and as it softens centrifugal force, and gravity will pull it into a circle. Periodically straighten and chill the back of the pendant with a graphite paddle (optional, but good). If it is really far out of round you can roll the pendant gently against a marver, or use just the outer lip of a marble mold.

4. When it is round enough to your liking touch the back of the pendant with the graphite paddle to chill it.

5. next you want to turn the flame sharper. THe back has chilled so it is not floppy. Hold the piece so the front is twords the ceiling, Now, starting in the center and moving out heat (Using the bottom edge of the flame) just the surface of your pendant, Surface tension will form a nice lens on top which will give your pendant depth.

6, allow it to cool slightly,( use care at this point, I once ruined a whole days work making the dicro medallions for ill'y glycerine chambers by thinking they were cool and mashing their faces with tweezers) and run the back of your cold tweezers around where the punty attaches to the pendant,( I dip mine in ice water first). Crack it off by gently tapping the seam with a 10mm glass rod. Now pull off the tip of your punty again, this time just barely get it to stick to the bottom. (Punty up to the bottom)

7. Flash

8. Put a loop at the top. Method 7
a.. Place a large dot on top where you want the loop to be.
b.. now, using a waxed butter knife's edge press down into the dot separating it to two.
c.. Place a dot on the front half and the back half, or if you have the hand skills, pull up a daab of glass from the front and back
d.. then bridge with a dot.
e.. Melt it all together gently, using a tungsten rod or waxed tweezers to coax the opening to the size you need. Don't use tools in the flame EVER.



So I guess I could have just said, Punty up to the back and spin it in the flame, add a loop and Bingo was his name O!

Hand CramP! Whsew!

[AdamCotter]

encapsulating flowers.

orchid
coat 1" yello crayon rod with clear and pull a 5" stringer. set aside
Make a 12mm clear ball
Put a 6mm dot in center, use pink, or likke that,melt in.
heat dot and plunge yello string deep into center
dab clear dot over it all
melt in. Orchid. Use three dots for posie

rose implosion. (simple variation)

Pull 3 5" stringers from elvis red or indian red crayon
Make 1" ball on end of 10mm rod. flatten so you have a disk 1.5" in diameter with the rod pointing out the back.
add 3 tiny yello specks to center
drawl 3 6mm skinny lines that dont touch around center
drawl 4 lines around those lined up with the spaces of the first lines
repeat
add green dots in 2 rings around those
add a ring of brown 4mm from the edge of disk.
Roataing constantly heat from center outward, allowing disk to shrink and implode back into ball.
the red stretches into petals, the green dots become leaves, and the brown comes together into the stem.
Add dot of black and paddle flat
melt in
punty up to the back, burn off rod, melt smooth.
Rose, my favorite marble.

Trying to encase flowers you make by pulling pedals wont work in boro, use moretti and a stump sucker or else forget encasing them

[Aymie]

Wow. You just got some serious lessons there. Good ones.

To add to it, always remember a few things. Heat rises. Gravity pulls down. Centrifugal force pulls out. Faster spinning pulls out, slower spinning allows gravity to pull in. Heat what you want to move, then heat where you want it to move to...the key to implosions. Implosions are a great way to practice all of that. When you polish the face of your implosion, if you spin fast, it will thin and spread out. If you spin slow, it will gather and thicken. If its got a clear dome on the front and you want it flat, heat the center (what you want to move) then heat the outer edge (where you want it to move to)...all while spinning of course.

[JCeast]

Nice, way to make us search and read. No, I kid, thanks for the info

[727jon]

adamcotter i think i might love you...

[PoMo]

so much useful knowledge in this thread!