"how do you get the colors in there?"

[alacrity024]

word for word, this is easily the question i am asked most by people watching for the first time.

does anyone have any snappy answers?

[Shatner]

I get asked if the color rods are plastic the most. I just say "yes".

[sarah]

the best one so far for me: What kind of stone is it?

[edeezevon]

i was making christmas candycane pendants last winter and a woman asked what kind of stone it was and i told her candycanite and without a pause she said...you must have to polish it very long to get that finish dont you?and the clors are applied through an extensive period of squeezing requiring exact pressures...DONT try this at home kids!

[somberbear]

I disagree that you should be a smart ass. i think you should give them an honest answer consitering how much misinfo there is out there... be true to your craft. educate the buying populous and be curtious and perfessional. your not just selling yourself. your refecting on the rest of us trying to make a living at this.

I get alot of very very basic questions. and i try to remeber i was probably in the same boat at some point.

Tell them
I use differnt pre colored rods. It is colored pyrex/etc. i buy pre made or mix myself. Glass has problems if you use any thing else but the same glass with it.

This will also bring a little more apreciation for things like imploades. sence its more involved then just chucking a peice of plastic in it.

Just be honest. and remeber if you start the glass bug in some one you might of add to your market.
This is what we have over imports etc. we can talk with these people and show how glass really is and the wonders it can hold. no shipping container can hold that.

peace
rob

[alacrity024]

oh i'm always honest and happy to explain for the millionth time why you can't smoke out of soft glass and why boro is incompatible with anything besides other boro and blah blah blah, but the least i can do is get a laugh out of it :D

[Shatner]

Oh, I'll tell 'em eventually. I just like to fuck with people.

[Greymatter Glass]

my favorites are:

Kool-aid

Crayons

..and yes, those _ARE_ real flowers and mushrooms.

[JANKYglass]

my reply is ancient italian secret.

and why cant you smoke out soft glass?ive done it.i think your misinformed.

[HumanLathe]

No most soft glass will pop if you properlly pack th bowl!!! :D :D :D :D

[PyroChixRock]

Some I've heard in the past...

Grow crystals in the kiln to form color, or even mushrooms inside glass if you're good enough!

It happens from leaving it in the kiln...so if you want a certain color you have to leave it in the kiln just the right time.

Hmm...can't remember anymore right now. BUt this has come up a lot over the years, i'm sure there are some funny ones out there. :)

[JANKYglass]

i new a dude that had a furnace made piece,was like a big ass old school claw pipe and we used it all the time for years.maybe we packed it wrong because it never popped,but it did get me hi.......................................

[Paul Moores]

Thats ok, when I get beyond newbie, I want to try encasing some individual peices in water clear urethane resin. Somewhat expensive stuff by the gallon but might be able to make a ultra clear and glass world in a single huge lets say 2x2x4 foot oblisk.

So guess that in a way I would be making a plastic and glass creation.

Paul Stankard is the god at his stuff but even he stops at about 8x8x4inches for the most extreme of work.

Will take some experimenting with a gallon at small scales to see if it could ever work.

Then I just have to ask myself, make little glass encased in resin cubes of 6x6x6 inches, then with a number of them, embed in a huge one.

[onion]

haha clarbonite is awesome. encase everything

[blazeoffire]

oh thats not paint???? No sh#t

[alacrity024]

Thats ok, when I get beyond newbie, I want to try encasing some individual peices in water clear urethane resin. Somewhat expensive stuff by the gallon but might be able to make a ultra clear and glass world in a single huge lets say 2x2x4 foot oblisk.

So guess that in a way I would be making a plastic and glass creation.

Paul Stankard is the god at his stuff but even he stops at about 8x8x4inches for the most extreme of work.

Will take some experimenting with a gallon at small scales to see if it could ever work.

Then I just have to ask myself, make little glass encased in resin cubes of 6x6x6 inches, then with a number of them, embed in a huge one.


that's a great idea. i wonder though.. will there be some sort of "checking" where the glass and urethane meet? tittywop if you ever go through with it..

[smutboy420]

It happens from leaving it in the kiln...so if you want a certain color you have to leave it in the kiln just the right time.

Hmm...can't remember anymore right now. BUt this has come up a lot over the years, i'm sure there are some funny ones out there

Heres a wacked one,, We had a guy tell us the thickness of the glass is from how long its left in the kiln. He said he can tell our glass was good glass Because we must leave it in the kiln for a few days to get it as thick as it is. He said he don't like that other glass that peep only leave in the kiln for a day or 2. He said some bla bla about the crystels growing making it thicker.
WTF??????? ya ok buddy. Sure ha ha You want some more? Pepeol are freaks. esp the ones that don't ask a stupid ? but try to tell you some wacked BS that they have no idea what the hell there talking about. or when some asshole starts runing there mouth to some other customer about some crap that is nonsence about "How some thing is done".

[somberbear]

" with mind bullets"
" magic"
"fire sweat and trade secrets"
"5000grand and too much time"
"crushed flowers"
"Punk rock cds"
"Nazis"
"Alchemy"
"better living threw chemistry"
"i have to be on acid to do these"
"poop i swear poop i have to eat clear glass and radishis for a week to get this red"


Fuming ones

"silver vaporized"
"dead souls"
"crystals"
"ashes from gerry garcia"
"exotic earth"
"snodgrass pellets"

[wahoo]

people ALWAYS ask me if I burn myself alot. And this pisses me off because yes, I burn myself all the fucking time. Like right now I have a quarter size nasty fucking burn on the INSIDE OF MY THIGH. It happened while working some of that shitty chinese green rod that matches that sweet chinese green tube I had the end white hot, flashed about a 1" back and the fucker just popped off and landed inbetween the seat and my thight causing me to actually have to put pressure on it while getting off the seat (thank god it didn't hit the naughty bits). I fucking hate that question. I never ask delivery drivers if they get in lots of accidents or doctors if they lose alot of patients or construction workers if they nail their fucking hands to the truss while sheeting. So why is this always the second question after "How do you get the color in?"

[alacrity024]

"Punk rock cds"


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[gypsea]

hey wahoo, i know exactly what you mean, but have figured out that they are just entranced with the concept of working with fire.......so don't let the question get to ya.....they're not questioning your personal abilitiy to avoid harm in the workplace, they're just amazed by the idea of glassblowing as an occupation.....

[pyrorob05]

i always get "dude i got some beer bottles at my house can you use those and just melt them down and make me a pipe id just give them to you"

somehow i always run into that guy with way to many emptys and they always think there hooking me up its kinda funny

-rob

[eternalfrost]

everyone always thinks my implosions are real flowers. i guess its from seeing so many of those scorpions and dandilions encased in 'glass' aka resins.


i over heard a customer say 'they can only put extremely fresh flowers inside the hot glass, if they are too dry, the 2000 degree heat will singe the edges' :)

[gotglass?]

i like the end user questions..... How do you clean your pipes? i tell them.....give it away to someone and make another

[jazz]

give it away to someone and make another
oh yea

[JsN]

i tell people "with a really big torch and some glass"

[prairieson]

Thats ok, when I get beyond newbie, I want to try encasing some individual peices in water clear urethane resin. Somewhat expensive stuff by the gallon but might be able to make a ultra clear and glass world in a single huge lets say 2x2x4 foot oblisk.

So guess that in a way I would be making a plastic and glass creation.

Paul Stankard is the god at his stuff but even he stops at about 8x8x4inches for the most extreme of work.

Will take some experimenting with a gallon at small scales to see if it could ever work.

Then I just have to ask myself, make little glass encased in resin cubes of 6x6x6 inches, then with a number of them, embed in a huge one.

I seem to recall that that's similar to the process Stankard used at one time. Some of his early work was encased in plastic. I saw them at an exhibit at Wheaton a couple of years ago so the details are fuzzy, but Lucite comes to mind.

[shelton13]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm that is such a gooood question.

[Greymatter Glass]

You can buy Xtal casting resin from...who is it... C&R Loo or someone like that.

H.I.S. Glassworks also sells Xtal I think.

it's the absolute top of the line crytal clear 100% solid resin (no solvernts) and it's not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Those scorpions and dasies and stuff are usually cast in a much cheaper pourable vinyl or generic casting resin from Hobby Lobby et. al. It's easy to work with, mixes well, isn't super finicky on the catalyst, and sets up pretty clear, a slight yellow tint. With exsposure to UV it will turn deep yellow and get very brittle... so not foruse in window displays, that's for sure.

The Xtal, I was told, is 100% UV stable.

but why would you encase glass in plastic anyways? just encase it in glass and polish it.

-Doug

[alacrity024]

The Xtal, I was told, is 100% UV stable.

but why would you encase glass in plastic anyways? just encase it in glass and polish it.

-Doug


well i don't have the facilities necessary to heat up enough glass make and anneal a 2'x4'x4" thick glass slab, so this would be the next best thing.. add in the fact that you can encase glass in it and you've brought the scale of stankard to the ordinary lampworker...

[kruger]

magic

[~NattyMama~]

"trick of the trade" is my mantra when faced with just about any oif these Q's!