What ive been up to

[Sparko]

Hey everyone, ive decided to contribute pictures in hopes of giving back some of the inspiration that ive recieved from everyone elce. Im really new and dont know much so it should be a cool progression thread. Have fun out there guys :)

[Sparko]

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[Sparko]

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4'' blanks on various length blow tubes to figure out how long i like them. The mods say do 100, so i got 40 more to go before i start making clear spoons with them. Probably gonna try clear hammers after that because ive always loved them. All the above stuff was curiosity getting the best of me, gonna tryn stay on track here now. I wouldn't dare start throwing up junk covered in expensive color, i know better then that ahaha.

[snoopdog6502]

screwed up my edit so this post is blank now.

[snoopdog6502]

Damn man you sure practiced maria's. Over all you look like you are having fun.

I almost have 2 years in and im loving it, pushing myself to learn more as a priority, less on pipe to sell. Iv been working on my marbles but am going to start getting serious on my multi-piece hollow functionals.

At this stage of the game everything we make is a lesson.


For colors silver is a lot of fun and you can get some amazing results if you see one of the web seminars by the bad ass's.

What torch are you work with?

[oG Glocc Coma]

I LOVE seeing this much clear in a starter thread, YAAAAS! All your practice stuff looks on point and like you are progressing after that practice, Good job bud!

[OceanMelt]

Yeah, nice progression TrichGnome. I started heavy on the clear as well, it definitely helps avoid color waste, but more importantly gives you a true understanding of how the glass moves. Have fun shaping all those blanks!:)

[Sparko]

Hey guys thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all the kind words. that's why i made this thread in the first place, to make some new friends.

I agree snoop, everything we do is totally a lesson at this stage and silver fuming is alot of fun !

That's how i made the smiley face bowl, those two pics are the same bowl just one has the flash on (i was shocked when i took that picture and the fume came out).

That was my first ever fuming attempt, i started with a 12mm blow tube, then fume and dots and fume and dots. I got lucky and the shape came out ok too.

And yeh i love marias, i think they look so classy.

Oh and im on a Mirage, and having trouble finding that flame thrower annealing flame on the lynx, i got it once or twice but still working on it, since im not garaging those blanks first and practicing heating them up from room temp.

The clear has been really helping me see my mistakes too because bubbles, stress marks, acute angles, wall thickness, bad seals, or any other kind of "wonk" sticks out like a sore thumb its awesome.

Tonight i figured out how to blow threw my blow tube as i push the bowl without popping the hole before, then i used the tungsten to drill threw where my bowl push tip indented.

And bam, no more "scooby snacks" (lol) from the bowl hole being too big.

Then while getting ready for the next 3 spoons, something regarding my oxygen broke again, mind you i just got this thing back from being fixed and it only lasted a few hours before breaking again. Its also brand new.

Im so sad, i just want my money back at this point.

His actions will dictate mine but im hoping this is all anyone has to hear about it, but id feel obligated to let my potential tmp buddies know so they dont make the same mistake i did. Ill find out what the deal is later today hopefully, wish me luck.

I was hoping to have a bunch of spoon attempts to post but there's only 6. Ill be posting my complete screw ups along with the ones that look half decent too. Those are the ones where you guys can see what im doing wrong, the most important ones to post at this stage i feel.

[snoopdog6502]

Oh and im on a Mirage, and having trouble finding that flame thrower annealing flame on the lynx, i got it once or twice but still working on it, since im not garaging those blanks first and practicing heating them up from room temp.

From your neutral flame crank the propane wide open and there you go. The tiny bit of oxygen you were running will do nothing but consume some of the dirty carbon soot but will still coat your work with plenty of soot.

[LRG]

here is a vid that has how to do just that,had to relearn myself last night been while since been on a gtt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs92s0ymnNY

[Sparko]

Sweet, the soot was what i was going for. Ill try that as soon as my oxy situation is fixed. I missed the part in that video where it describes this type of flame, ill have to watch it a few more times i think. he goes my last 6 soon attempts, 1 outa 6 aint bad right now. I can live with that, plus that was the last one before the technical difficulties .86557

[Ray]

Having fun with the spoons I see, They look like the spoons I'm making.



LRG: Thanks for the link to the flame type video on you tube.
It refreshed my memory and it also showed that where I set my default
settings are in fact a reducing flame... I can't wait to get my soon to be new O2 setup
going with more Oxy con's. Then I can learn to dial in the neutral flame for standard
usage :)

[Sparko]

Post um up homie, itll be fun to look back on in a year or two.

[Sparko]

Forgot i practiced flares, v-necking, and lenses with my random color handouts from class. Just cleaned the back of the car, these are from like 2 or 3 weeks ago.86561

[Nuka Glass]

Nice work man. I picked up a hand torch for like 80 bucks and it has done wonders with fixing stretched bowl holes. Not a bad investment is what I am saying.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

[Sparko]

Thanks nuka, yeh ive been eyeing up a smith little torch on cyberweld.com. they sell them for 100 i believe without the tip, so i gota decide on the tip now. Trying to decide between the hornet 1.3 or the 5 hole Blast shield i think. I really want it for fuming once i get shaping down, and hammer bub connections when i get clear spoons down. Im preaty dead set on using my tungsten for the holes unless someone convinces me other wise. But to take your advice and twist and run with it...It would be the shit for adjusting my carb hole size. Wouldnt have thought of that any time soon without yah, good look man! I doubt anyone here would argue its a bad investment in any way too your so right.

[Sparko]

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I tried a implosion for the first time last night. I realized i havnt made anything for myself yet, just friends and family. Figured i would use more of my free color for a little gift to myself.

[Ray]

It looks like you melted the color in ..but didn't get any imploding to happen.
To implode it.,.you would have to heat the 'tread of the tire' section while holding the glass face downwards. Gravity will cause melted glass to come down over the tread onto the face..and then you lightly press that in on the marver which takes your color and pushes it up and into the glass.

[Sparko]

Nah, its imploded all up in there. The pictures just dont show it well. I did exactly what you said though so were on the same page :). Im not gonna start asking "how do i make the picture look like it does in reall life?" Theres just too many variables to consider and i havnt "utfse" yet.

[Sparko]

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[Sparko]

86741 not sure why it came up so small when i tried to upload from the ipad. Guess ill just use the computer for uploads.

[Sparko]

86746 Ive been making all these spoons from my massive pile of blanks with my bethlehem alfa instead of the mirage. The shaping part is fine but when i go to decorate there just isnt' enouf heat to keep it warm for the lenses.

Im also not using my kiln yet so no garaging. The words of the week would be "heat base" for sure. Thanks Aymie and everyone elce who stressed shaping so much. Form and functions where its at, now that the bowl holes down its snorkle carb time

[LRG]

The little dots are causing some of your issues I bet,hard to really tell but to me they looked like they are not cooked in all the way...that will add ton of stress and no kiln =cracks.The are few ways to cool glass with out a kiln,fiber blanket,vermiculite in metal bucket.Try less dot and cook them in extra good for now.I do a dot then bigger dot and so on by the bowl.Looking good!!!

[Sparko]

Yeh i deffinitly agree with the dots causing the cracks, that in itself was a good lesson ill take away from this.

I wont lie, the alpha doesn't do surface work as well as my lynx in my opinion.

Im going to look into the vermiculite/bucket tech, thanks i forgot about reading that.

While i have a kiln, i have a feeling techs like these have their place as well and i want to be well rounded.

I took your advice and put the lense work on the back burner to focus on the shape of my bowl head, middle marias, and carbs last night.

Ive been trying all types of stuff for the carbs like picking the hole, blowing it out a little then picking it and just the standard flame pop.

I really want to get my bowl shape into the "disk type shape" if you know what i mean.

Reall flat front and tall, i think those look so heady but no luck as of now.

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[Cerberus]

I'm no expert for sure but looking at your carb shapes and sizes it looks like the wall of the head is a bit thin...and kinda big imo. That will also contribute to losing heat base and possibly increase cracking.
Next time after blowing the head out to shape condense it back down again then a few small puffs to shape it round then hold it head up (still glowing a little and continue spinning) while letting it cool a bit. The head will flatten out slightly giving you the "disc" shape you want as well as thickening the walls for a longer carb and better lens melting. Thicker walls are much easier to work with.
In the last pic the one with the single maria looks the best (to me), take a look at that one and see what is different than the rest.

[LRG]

I know what you mean,kids being insane right now but in a few I will tell you how I do that.As for the carbs you really should not have to pick open the hole.The wall thickness can ha a lot to do with this,being to thin,much harder to push a bowl/carb in thin bubble than thick,should like you got the idea now but use more glass on the head to get same size but thick.There are no rules but I like my carb to be at least even with the bowl hole but really in to the shaft some.No burnt fingers.For the disc..squatty shape as I call it heat the spoon head when it is at a good thickness and even,holding the blow tube downward,letting the bubble fall in to shape,it gets a little puff to even things back out but that's how I get that shape,sometimes it take 2 heats to get the shape/thickness I want.When I push a bowl I blow the hole a bit toward the mouth piece and lift the blow tube up so the push goes at a angle,no ash in mouth and the look good.Thicker head and it will go better.How that helps...

[Sparko]

Thanks guys :) the reason the carbs look so thinned out and jacked is cause i was trying to pick them out and like lrg said, it wasn't a good idea haha.
Wall thickness is good though, i mean not perfect but its not blowing out from being thin in spots anymore, trust me i know how that goes haha.
I liked the one maria too, until i tried to make 3 that got slightly smaller on each one towards the mouth piece.
Im going to keep working on it and try to make it part of my style.
Here's a pic of my favorite one so far.
I look forward to combining both of your advice on achieving the bowl shape i desire. Thanks again, it means a lot.

86760

[Sparko]

A piece of advice, dont buy used concentrators especialy from a 3rd party (imo). End of discussion :(

[LRG]

^Junk out on you?

[Sparko]

Yeh but they resolved the issue though

[lumpyhead]

Whoa. Anyways, stick with it and your spoons will get better. Some days it will seemlike two steps back but it gets better.

[Sparko]

Havnt heard that saying in a while lumpy but it sure hits the nail on the head. We'll see tomorrow where my steps lead tonight. Without days like those the good ones wouldn't feel as good though so i appreciate those too. Either way i got to escape everything for a good 5 hours, it just flys by and i feel great when im done. Its the closest thing to meditation ive ever experienced.

[Sparko]

+ rep to Cerberus and LRG, Just as i was starting to get the hang of it i ran out of blanks. Time to practice seals again.86769

[Sparko]

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Just got my new studio built. Since its been so long i wasnt able to force myself to do prep like i should have and went straight for the random color scraps from class a few years ago and made a matching jar. Wrap and rakes are fun, learning how fast different colors melt compared to clear. Ordering some gold and silver today and making a game plan for some locks.

[Sparko]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KDQpo3O84 Smoke bomb test, whatcha think Mike? Any tips?

[Sparko]

i mean besides the wood baffles, i fire treated them and put some galvanized infront of the torch there. None of that even gets hot. I know your still gonna say no because of insurance but i honestly do plan on covering them in the future for good measure.

[snoopdog6502]

Looking good, so you want to fume some eh?

I had some fun with inside out fume on some 32mm and was super happy with my first try. I fumed, striped pulled it down to wig wag it and condensed it back up and blow tubed up off axis.
Inside out fume wig wags are easier then out side fume or outside striped color, I was shocked at how easy it came out to be.

this is my first try at iso wigwags. I am thrilled.
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[Sparko]

Thanks snoop, its funny, i feel more proud of my ventilation then anything glass ive made so far. That line work looks sweet! Its funny how that happens, i seem to do better on the first try of stuff then i over think it and screw a bunch up. Did you flare the 32 at all?

[snoopdog6502]

Thanks snoop, its funny, i feel more proud of my ventilation then anything glass ive made so far. That line work looks sweet! Its funny how that happens, i seem to do better on the first try of stuff then i over think it and screw a bunch up. Did you flare the 32 at all?

yes i flared it out pretty good, raged it with the phantom a couple times but did not try very hard to flare it wide open. I could have gave it a bit more to make it easy.

[Sparko]

Cool, yeh thats deffinitly a technique im interested in doing soon. So many good skills involved with doing that.

[snoopdog6502]

I have found flaring gets easier with a big hot torch, with the bobcat it was a bitch, the cheetah was better, the phantom will get it done , the mirage will flare a tube by spinning it because its a hot bitch.

It just dont work well with a small torch.

[Sparko]

Totally agree with that one, big flame seems to = even heat . All ive flared so far is 12mm blow tube so ill keep that in mind when i step up to a larger tube here soon.

[Sparko]

Been tryn the way snoop did, realized that poping a hole in a big bubble is easier then tryn to flare. Many views no comments, this is more like watch glass.

[snoopdog6502]

Spring time, folks are out doing things in the sunshine and fresh air no days. This forum is more like a library of info with not a lot of Chatter.

I hope you are doing well and getting a handle on some new ways to tweak the glass. Iv been off the torch for a week, seasonal allergies have me all messed up so im sick and dizzy all the time.

[PyroChixRock]

Looking good.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

[Sparko]

Thanks pyro, and snoop too, sorry to hear you've been under the weather. All is well over here, knock on wood anyway. Dizzy and sick sounds horrible, cant torch under those conditions, your right.
Its definitely a library around here, feels the same way i did when i was in a library too. Meaning, lots of cool information but im not the best at navigating it. I never did figure out those library code things back in high school, i just kinda walked around and acted like i did.
Im better here though when i can just click things though lol. I was kindly joking when i said the watch glass thing too, i just haven't looked at this thread nearly that many times and i know you haven't either haha. Im down with anyone posting here as long as they're a positive person.
One tip i learned from pyro i think actually was dish soap on burns, which is coming in handy ( literally ). Something ive discovered and want to throw out there is using those sham wow material sweat towels they have at walmart for 5 bucks. They stay really cool, and help me torch longer.
Grabed a few the other day to try and it worked in my opinion. Now, to get that flared out cone back to a tube..... And i thought getting it flared was hard... Ill get some more pics up here soon

[PyroChixRock]

Yeah for sure dish soap is a miricle.

If you need help finding info here let us know.. :)

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

[dplaza]

i dont remember who said it but i heard someone say "once you think the glass is hot enough spin it another 3 or 4 more rotations in the flame" it takes a lot of heat to move the glass at all, and even more heat to avoid making wrinkles and chill marks up the wazoo. basically the hotter you can do a task the easier and cleaner it will work, right up until it gets too hot and everything goes to hell haha.

[BurntHands]

For a flare just think of how much glass has to move where, obviously the lip has to move the most, so you want it hot. Heat base should be tapered toward the open end, like you don't want the area right next to the lip to to be any hotter than the lip, especially if the lips thicker. If you can spin fast without wobbling than you can just blast both sides of the lip with the big flame (once your heat base is setup) and spin fast fast and it'll open. The more you can get centrifugal force on your side the less you'll have to push the glass around with a tool . Also when tooling do it very gradually, like start on the inner wall and roll your way out to the lip, don't just push the lip. Lip very hot, like it'll start to move/close if you don't spin fast and/or tool it.

Go check out vids on spinning out goblet feet or flipping rondelles. Timiaglass has a good one, redbeard has a good one. They make it look so easy! Spinning out feet helped my flares a lot, so did moving up to a mirage. I recommend a thin and long punty like 4-6mm so you can spin it faster, and the extra length helps me balance without wobbling. Be prepared to fill a bucket with scrap feet, but the wonk ones can be turned into inside-out pipe/sectionss when your skills get there.

For closing them gravity, heat, and an L-marver work wonders if you have one, or if you watch revere vids he does like a bunch of tears from the hot lip towards centre, and it's really efficient for closing tubes without thickening the walls once you get it down.

I guess most of that advice is for bigger flares. When I was first year frustrated at flaring small tube I liked a very reducing flame so it didn't get too hot and I had a little more of a time window to tool, I have an old book that calls a reduction flame a flaring flame but all the exercises are also on tiny thin tube. Also I knew nothing about heat base on thicker glass and was a bit scared deep down like most rookies. I also made shooter tubes out of 32mm back then and the flare/lip took me longer than closing the other end and sizing the hole, like a few minutes if not 5. Now I can flare a 32mm quick, maybe a minute if that? So there must be at least a little knowledge in this huge rambley walloftext. Hope something helps, practice is always the best teacher but knowing what/how to practice can save lots of hours of trial & error & frustration, we've all been there. Have fun!

[Sparko]

I took the advice given in my thread and practiced a ton. Shout outs to Dplaza, Burnt Hands, LRG, Snoop, and everyone elce who threw me some knowledge i really appreciate it.

To Ray and OG Glocc Coma, I hope the next part of their journey is filled with love and joy, im honored to have had them stop by my thread.

Im going to post some new pics soon now thats its been like a year later. Should be cool to look at. Thanks for being here TMP.