Land's Glass

Those pendants are great! Nice job.

You might as well get some blow tubes and start practicing using those as well. It will teach you to do nice even welds.

Also, you need to taper the mouthpiece down more and open the carb up. The carb needs to be bigger or the same size as the mouth, otherwise it will always pull through the bowl and never clear. Make sense? When you start a piece, shape the mouth piece first thing, that way when you come back and pull it off, you only have to clean it and it is already the right size and shape. If it still ends up to big, heat a little back from the hole and use a marker/paddle to work it down to a good size.

Good job sticking to the clear/fume, and you still get color play with the pendants. You are learning how to work various colors without wasteful results, and sticking with clear for pipes gives you a great foundation. All colors move and behave differently. If you play with color on pipes while learning, I think it takes longer to get a good understanding of how the glass moves.

Plus rep for sure once i figure out how to give it to you Aymie!! I def agree with everything you said, but i dont know how i never thought out the carb to be bigger than the mouth piece. That just makes so much sense now that you said it. I also do have blowtubes, I use them for the first and last blank (I break down my 5 foot tubes in to thirds) I get about six welds. Sometimes my welds are so bad i just use the blowtube as a handle to pull a point. Only recently though i have started feeling comfortable pulling points, so i guess its time to switch it up.

I definitely have trouble making the mouth piece. I know i just need more practice, I think switching from points to blowtubes will force me to focus more on shaping the mouth piece. Although they will be a little more wompy for a while i will eventually get it.

I have been doing mostly fumed, with the occasional r-ball or blow in, but I think i will stick with mostly fuming for now, till i can comfortably condensing down tubing without burning off all the fume. I did just buy a bunch of frit though, so i will definitely be playing with that once it gets here. As far as color goes, i have a lot of trouble not boiling them, So i know if i put color on my pipes it usually just looks like shit to me.

Thanks a lot for your encouragement and tips its really making sense to me.

Things have been a little slow right now, but i did just restock my glass supply, so now i have a case of 25x4, a couple 38x4, and one 50x5 to play with plus I also got some other solid rods in their too. I have been making lots of clear fumed spoons, but i tried playing with a little frit, I learned a lot, but out of the 3 pieces i made none of them are useable. Only the green chillum had its frit melted in all the way, and that cracked. I have also mostly stopped pulling points except for the occasional to make sure i still can do it.

Here is the rest of my work from a couple weeks. I like doing the implosion caps or whatever you call them. Plus i sold a couple other before i got pics of them, so i think i am going to try and do a bunch of they today.
Happy melting

I made some more pipes, these were all done on blow tubes. I am still having some trouble welding/shaping, but i am figuring it out as i go.

Things have been a little crazy for me lately, and i haven't been getting as much torch time as i would like. Welding has been kicking my ass, i think i am using to much heat, and condensing the opening to much before i join the tubes together, but i'm not really sure. Other than that my biggest problem right now is trying new techniques, I have been a little short on cash lately, so i have only been making what i know i can make. I guess it is not the worst thing to happen, it just makes my progress seem to go even slower than it really is.

Don't feel too bad about it, progress is only made when you do the same thing over and over and over again and then again. Repetitive work gives you a chance to concentrate and perfect every step of the way. You get to know the glass as well as yourself a lot better. Those repetitions will make you money because what you end up making is good work that stands up to scrutiny ... having money means you can take some time to work on the next step of your evolution and concentrate on perfecting that ... and so on. A lot of people in this business don't understand that and want to jump right into making he hotdiggitty shizzle ... and end up taking more time to learn than if they'd grabbed the bunny by the ears instead of the tail. Keep it up, I know you're being forced into this a bit due to financial realities, but in the end you will see this is not such a bad thing!

One tip, use precisely as little heat on doing something as you absolutely need. It'll save you oxy and you will run into less trouble gathering up too much glass. This approach works well when doing joins. If the heat was not quite enough, you can always work around the weld, if your glass gets too hot and gathers up too much before joining, that's when you get into trouble.

Well put Aussie,
I know i just need to push through and keep going with what i am doing. Just at times i feel like i am going nowhere, and just about every person who knows i am a glassblower is always like "dude you should add some more color to your work", and the famous "when can you make me a bong"? And it is those types of questions are what really get to me, and makes me think about how long i have been doing this and how little progress i have made. Well anyways i am going to stick with it no matter what, because glassblowing to just to much fun. Now i just need to go find some head shops and off load my current stash of work.

Here is my current stash of work. I am going to try and call around and see if i can get it to some stores this week.

Right on!!!! ..good lookin stuff there man, good luck with the solicitations!!

Thanks man,
I tried calling a couple smoke shops, but everyone i talked to didn't know anything about buying glass, and they weren't very helpful. Probably tomorrow i will try and actually go to a couple local stores.

Just don't take that cracked pipe to a shop ... Not a good look ...

When you call the shop, ask for the contact number for their buyer and talk to them directly. Most of the people behind the counter are usually just peons who don't have the authority to make purchases.

Ahhh, I wasn't to sure about that one, i thought it looked pretty cool at first, but your right i should not sell cracked pieces.

Well, i learned a lot about negotiating yesterday. I was able to sell everything i had, so i guess i did ok. I went to two stores. The first one is the one i have been in a couple times now, so it was an easy sale, and i was pretty much got what i was asking. Now the second store really busted my balls, and i was not ready for any of that. I still made money, but i probably should have not let them kick me down so much, but he could tell i am young and inexperienced, so he def got a good deal.

Well i got a little tired of making bowls, so i tried a bubbler. This is my second one, but first to make it out of the shop. I def learned a ton making it, like once the downstem is in place i should not try to rework the can to make it longer, causing the downstem to tag the side of the can. Also i need to fully work in my welds on my bridges. What a pain when they break. It was super fun to make, and i really enjoyed doing it. Maybe after i make another 30 pipes i will try another. Thats my goal for this week, as Hemp fest is this weekend in Boston.

LOL,
I just realized the rush is in the wrong spot. I should have put it on the can and not the bowl. Guess i ended up rushing at the end, and didn't think about that.

i notice you put a cap on the can and then pushed the bowl on the cap, if you want to save time and glass you can push the bowl right on the downstem theres no need to add the cap for a bowl. nice spoons i like the implosions simple and nice

Quote:

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Originally Posted by willy47

i notice you put a cap on the can and then pushed the bowl on the cap, if you want to save time and glass you can push the bowl right on the downstem theres no need to add the cap for a bowl. nice spoons i like the implosions simple and nice

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Hey Willy,
I was going to do the push on the downstem, but i made the downstem to long, and since the downstem tagged the side of the can. I had to add the extra to piece to make it work. Next time i will try the way you mentioned. Now knowing to make the downstem a little shorter than i think it needs to be.
Thanks for the comment

Heres my work for about a month. I have 45 silver fumed spoons, 4 with some gold/silver, 6 silver/ clear line work, and 7 silver honeycombs. I also sold off about 10 or so spoons at hemp fest. Which was pretty fun except for all the people. I guess i was expecting a much much more friendly atmosphere, but it was not really there. Their was only a hand full of people who i met that would be friendly, and want to talk/smoke and have a good time. Most times when i would walk up to a group of people, and try to sell some glass, they would straight up just say No. I mean i know i was just walking up to people and asking if they wanted any glass, but i figured it was hemp fest, and i thought people would be way more inviting. It was probably a huge waste of time trying to sell glass there. I could have just walked to a head shop and off loaded everything i had for a little less money, and then i could have just chilled the whole day.

I made two more bubblers. They both dont sit straight, and the first ones mouth piece cracked really bad, so i tried to recover what i could. Its a little off now and doesn't sit to well. The second one came out a little better the weld is smooth, but it is still a little uneven. I should have worked it a little bit more to try and even it out. I still having a little trouble with bridging they keep breaking off. Not at their welds but where i bend them to fit. I guess i need to be a little more careful to try and not to put the bridge in direct heat.