My First Boro Pendants

[Anakin's Glass Eye]

Here's my first Boro pendants. I just got my Lynx setup last week and finally I can do Boro. I'm hooked. I'll probably still make a few beads here and there to sell and pay for Boro glass, but I'm starting to think my soft glass days are done. I love the control you can have over Boro. Soft glass goes all over the place with too much heat. Anyway, I think three years of soft glass was a good training ground for future Boro work.

Here they is. Your comments and suggestions are welcome. I can take! :devil1:

http://www.anakinsglasseye.com/meltingpot/pendants.jpg

[Satori]

They look very nice! If you wouldn't mind sharing, what process do you use to attach your loops on the top? I've been experimenting with this and can't seem to find a good way to get nice even loops. What I've been doing is fusing a solid rod to the top of the pendant and then bending it around to a loop shape and removing the excess rod. Then I melt the tip to the back of the pendant. This never seems to work very well and I've been thinking maybe I need to make the loops seperately and then attach them. Any tips?? Anyone?

[Anakin's Glass Eye]

No problemo. Here's what I do:

Get the pendant to it's final shape and strike the colors if you need to. Attach a punty to the back center of the pendant. Stick the pendant end into your kiln to keep it hot. If you don't have a doggie door on your kiln, then just set it to the side. On a 3/32 inch (or larger) mandrel, make a small bead. When you have the final bead shape, grab the pendant from the kiln and slowly re-warm it in the flame. Keep the bead warm also. When both are very warm, spot the point where you will attach the bead to the pendant and begin to heat it until it is glowing. Do the same on the bead. So, simultaneously heat both the pendant edge and the bead edge until glowing. When both are glowing orange, touch them together and push the bead in a little to the surface of the pendant. Then pull it back outward to stretch the joint just a bit. Allow it to cool and stiffen a little and eyeball your piece to see if the loop it straight. Look at it from three directions - from above, from behind, and from the side. If it is a little crooked, heat the joint slightly and adjust the alignment. After you're happy with the connection, let the piece cool slightly and then nock of the punty with a light tap on you torchhead (if it's not a GTT) or table edge or something solid and stable. Flame polish the back side where the punty was connected and then you are done.

One little trick that I came up with is to put a little nubbin of clear on the edge of the pendant where you're gonna want the loop attached. Do this before you set it aside to make the loop. This is especially handy when the pendant has a geometric design and you want the lopo attached in a very specific spot. You can look at the fact of the pendant and decide exactly where you want the loop. Then put just a little dab of clear at that spot to help you locate the loop later. Does this make sense?

I find this method easier than anything else I've tried. And I like the fact that the loop is just about perfectly shaped every time.

[Mr. "Awesome!"]

Those are looking good! Great color and detail. Only suggestion I would have is to go a little heavier with the heat when you are attaching your loop. Blast that shit right at the joint so both pieces become one. If you want to save yourself some time when doing these, try doing your loops straight off of a color rod. Just punty to the bottom of your piece and then weld your color rod of choice to the top really well and then stretch it around in stages until you've got a loop. Ream and marver it a little and your done. Maybe that helps eh? Anyways, keep it up- good looking stuff.

[eternalfrost]

good pendants but you should attatch the loops more solidly. you shouldnt be able to see where the loops stops and the pendant begins, they need to be fully fused, no 'crack' where you joined them.

This makes sure you wont loose your pendant in the future and also just looks much nicer.

Personally, I just pull loops right fro a rod like mr awsome mentioned. Just super heat the rod tip and the top of the pendant, use a nice small sharp flame so you dont disturm the rest of your work. Attatch the rod, let cool, then lightly heat just above the joint and pull it around and tack to the back.

Not using a mandrel also give the final piece a great look because the glass is clean and smooth all the way through the hole. It will likke like a pendant, not a smushed marble with a bead tacked on top :)

Awsome work tho. I love your eBay marbles

[alacrity024]

those look very nice. very clean.

[FredLight]

The mandrel loop is a good way to get some made while you learn the specifics of doing a color rod loop. Your design may require you to use a mandrel loop, if it does,do it.
I did a few hundred loops in clear rod first, being that you can see the joint integrity by way of refracted light. The light will flow through a solid piece and bounce off a bad joint. You can see if it stuck well enough from the inside.
(Don't worry, re-reading that to myself made almost NO sense.)

I hope Anakin's Glass Eye gets MUCHO points for the posts about implosions and this one about pendants!! Good Job!

[LTD]

, let the piece cool slightly and then nock of the punty with a light tap on you torchhead (if it's not a GTT)

Huh? My delta is just fine and I tap "puntys" off all the time, the key is a proper cold seal. With acold seal you should be able to "knock it off" with minimal force. If you need to tap it hard enough to hurt a GTT it ain't a cold seal.

[dragon myst]

They are beautiful !:bouncy:

[TorchedGlass]

What I do, whether I am making clear loops or colored is attatch a 5 mil rod where you want it on the pendant and then flame cut the rod off of the pendant so that you have about 1/2"- 3/4" of the rod left on the pendant. Then I will heat up the rod at the base of the pendant and use a small reamer to slightly push the rod towards the front of the pendant because this helps the loop be centered on the pendant from front to back. Then I will heat the rest of the rod allowing gravity to bring it to the back of the pendant using a small reamer to keep the hole in the loop if need be. A lot of times I will use my reamer to push the end of the rod so that it attatches to the back of the pendant or bottom of the loop. Then I attatch the end of the rod to the bottom of the loop and heat both sides and reamer to keep a uniform hole and so that it is square on the pendant. If I am using a colored rod that is thicker than I want the loop to be I will attatch it to the pendant and heat up a section and pull it out to thin it and repeat above process. If this doesn't make sense you can pm me and we will chat... good luck and nice designs on those.:D

[Gibsons Glassworks]

yeeeep sound slike the same way i make my loops, sometimes i will just punty up both sides of a round and stretch the disk to make a "clasp" style, but then its more of a teardrop shape, if im going for rounds, just heat up whatever your making the loop with super hot for a solid fuse, attach, pull out slightly then rip off so thers at least an inch of rod to work with to make th loop check my pendants out!

[LAG]

here is another way to make loops.... fool proof!!!!

[newmexicomagma]

i just streatch the rod i want to be my loop when it is attatched to the pendent i ter it off when its an inch long and i use a fine flame and use gravity as my tool. i heat up at the half way point and let it fall till its at a 45 angle theni heat up halfway between wher i bent it and the end and let gravity take it down till it meets everything then i go and melt in the joint where they meet. did u get that lol.

[jello]

I always premake my loops... put them to the side and when needed i just grab it and attach. takes seconds to complete. anyone else do this?

[petto]

, let the piece cool slightly and then nock of the punty with a light tap on you torchhead (if it's not a GTT)

Huh? My delta is just fine and I tap "puntys" off all the time, the key is a proper cold seal. With acold seal you should be able to "knock it off" with minimal force. If you need to tap it hard enough to hurt a GTT it ain't a cold seal.

Even little taps can ding/scratch a GTT, that is pretty thin metal. I have a set screw off to the side of my torch marver and tap off on that.

[petto]

Oh ya, Anakin, those are pretty sweet. Nice step by step in the glassline too. Thanks

[billtcat]

Anyone else using metal bails?

Bill

[Pilgrim]

nice job,
after 8 yrs in borro i find myself trying to do more and more larger scale soft glass.... thinking of life after borro.......

[yellowplanetaryseed]

I always premake my loops... put them to the side and when needed i just grab it and attach. takes seconds to complete. anyone else do this?

Yes, or at least I try to. Prep work sux.

[Nokey]

Those are sweet! Keep it up