2012 Progression Thread

Hello Melting Pot, I made a few of my first mushroom pendants today. I figured I would share these with you guys to start out my progression thread. Enjoy and thanks for looking!Attachment 41839Attachment 41838

looks like the loops are fairly well melted in. thats one thing that beginners tend to struggle with a little bit sometimes. mushrooms look cool too

Hey guys. I have a few pipes to show you guys. The second mouth piece was made using a method that I came up with today, and I was wondering if any of you have heard of this before. What I did was I pulled off the blow tube off and got the closed mouth piece as thin as possible, heated the tip, then held a blow tube up to the carb and blew like hell. It worked great twice and I got some nice looking mouth pieces. Here are some pictures of my first 2 pipes. The first was using the picking method, and for the second I used the blow tube method.
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Thanks for looking everybody!!

Thanks for the positive feedback Chris! It took a few tries to get the loops to get that way, but since then I have gotten the loops on lock.

Has anyone heard of this method of opening a mouthpiece? ^^^^^

Do whatever works best for you, but no I never heard of that tech, lol. There is always more than one way to do things when working with glass. So I won't say that it's right or wrong.

However there are def a few better ways to open a mouth piece than your way, imo. If you are already pulling your mouth piece thin, then I would suggest learning the "rip n tear" method. It will be worth it down the road to know how to pick open a hole. If you happen to have some diamond shears they'll always get the job done too.

Yeah I made my first pipe using the rip and tear method, but I really liked the method I came up with, and it made a nice even hole very quickly. Thanks for the reply Twist. The main reason I was wondering if anyone had heard of this was because I think it could help people who have been struggling to find a good method to make a clean mouth piece. :cowboy:

Whatever floats your boat.

Looking better then my firsts!
I used that 'tech' at first, trust me, it is easier to learn the rip and tear. At first it took me 10-20 tears to open the pieces, but now its down to 1-3, and as you get better at doing it, they become cleaner.

Thanks MastahGlass. I have used the rip and tear on a couple pipes that weren't worthy of posting. When I get the chance I'll practice that method a bit more.

I've done that before. I prefer diamond shearing off the blow tube some times I pick the mouth piece open. Blowing the mouth piece out isn't as comfortable for me tho.

Your getting divit on your pipes that's what makes them look etched. Let the piece cool down enough just below glowing and then with a neutral flame heat and polish with the flame the cloudy section you don't want to get the whole thing glowing and moving but the exterior of the piece you want real hot.
Shit I hope that's not to confusing lol just had a safty break haha.

Rippin and a tearin. Rippin and a tearin.

I got you man, I will definitely try that next time. What my buddy said to do was to get a propane flame with a little oxy and get it black then burn it off, and that would polish it, I'll be trying what you suggested with the neutral flame next time. Thanks for the tip Aaron!

Make sure your blank spins on a perfect axis. If it spins wobbly before you work your piece will be wobby.

I have tried both methods for making a mouth piece on a spoon and found that the rip and tear gives you way more control of where and how your mouthpiece will look. I always get lopsided holes when I try blowing through the carb hole, plus I feel like I need three hands to do it right lol. I heat just the very end of the spoon punty up pull the point and then crack it of right at the mouth piece with the punty I just used to pull it. Wait to pull your point until the glass has cooled down quite a bit then pull hard, it works for me everytime.

I can't tell by the pics because of the spoons being made out of clear, but it looks like your bowls are being pushed the wrong direction. You want to push your bowl angled toward the user, yours look like they might actually be angled away. That may not be the best way to explain what I am trying to say. If you're holding the mouth piece toward you when you push the bowl you want the bottom of the bowl to to be pointed toward the user. I hope I explained that right.

You want The hole to blow in your eyes if you blow in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bulletproof

You want The hole to blow in your eyes if you blow in it.

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Awesome way to describe it. Sometimes the easiest way to describe things are the best lol.

i always push my bowls away from me. with the hole pointing towards the front end of the piece. this way the ash hits the front side of the inside of the piece and doesn't shoot straight down your throat. it also allows for easy viewing of what's inside the bowl as you light it. i was taught this by a shop owner when i brought in my first spoons.

Thanks for the feedback everybody, I did notice when hitting one of my spoons that it didn't have that user friendly bowl angle. I would have some spoons to show you, but it wasn't really happening today. Ah well, I knew these days would come. :depressed I am hopefully going to be getting my own studio setup tomorrow, and will possible be posting some pictures of my setup tomorrow. Have a good evening Melting Pot :party: