From feety to heady. Joseph Mullan and his glass journey.

[Joseph Mullan]

Thanks to any and all that may read or critique and hopefully one day enjoy my work. My dabblings with glass started with an old friend, of which I no longer talk because of life choices I made, coaxed me hard enough to get a hot head and got me rolling with a couple pounds of soft glass and some great info and better encouragement when it was deserved. I ordered a small oxy con setup and it laid dormant for a couple months. A local blower gave me two colors and a few feet of boro rod. That switched me from 104 to 33 Coe.

After setting up my oxy con torch I made some crappy implosions. And rough retticellos on 10 and 15 mm rod. Then I moved to a friend house and set up on his outside deck. And pushed the limits of my setup. I felt the lack of balls, and then I heard of a local glass studio being built. I arranged to see the studio and I was in awe to be in such a place. Getting to see blowers in their element. Was truly inspiring. I got the nuts to finally ask if the studio had a torch I could rent. They had a red max. And that's what I played in for about a month. Made a bunch of out of round marbles and very novice spoon pipes. I very soon after renting hourly was offered a monthly rate. And have also since obtained a phantom torch. And I adore it. I've been making better pipes and I hope to continue with my progress. I'll be posting pictures of my earlier endeavors if I can find them.

I'm excited to finally melt. And I'll be posting enough to warrant a thread. Please enjoy.

[Joseph Mullan]

A good chunk of my soft glass beads

[Joseph Mullan]

First fuckings about with boro. Was fun.

[Joseph Mullan]

A few of the last items I made not at the studio.

[Joseph Mullan]

The red max I rented for a bit. The bench spot I'm at. Two more stations are in the process of being built. One is mine. And myself. Getting acclimated with my fiery friend.

[Joseph Mullan]

Some updates to show.

[Joseph Mullan]

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/yowh...show/talkglass some more.

[Kato]

Nice work! And cool shop, looking forward on seeing more!

[ahreno]

i might steal that table design for my shop.

[Joseph Mullan]

The hood was made on site using sheet steel and a brake. Not sure but rather confident the table tops were not made on site. The shaping does help traffic, gives a nice sweep around people that are working.

[PyroChixRock]

Digging this thread! I love it when people share the story of how they got into glass. You have shown great progress already. Keep it up!

[Joseph Mullan]

Been busy with work and blowing. But I've been moving along. Going to upload a bunch of pics of what I've been doing tomorrow after work. Got a pair of mini tubes it want to take a shot of.

[Joseph Mullan]

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/yowh...slideshow/work

Heres a bunch of recent work. Enjoy

[Joseph Mullan]

My latest Sherlock. Number 9 after taking a few months to learn a bit more about heat base and control. Looking ok. But I need to shape it up a bit nicer in a the can and mouthpiece.

[Joseph Mullan]

Put in a bit of elbow grease this last week or so.

[Joseph Mullan]

Most recent colab. I made all the attachments, and was fun as fuck. Need to start making minitubes my damn self. Still need more practice on shaping up the can.

[Joseph Mullan]

http://youtu.be/zBT8sc5gJP8

Recent marbles I've been trying. Learned the DNA tech last week. And just started layering/lensing. It's fun.

[genentics]

Love the DNA marble. If you're willing, would you mind PMing me the tech?

As you may be able to tell from my user handle, I love all things genetics, and this is right up my ally.

[Joseph Mullan]

Love the DNA marble. If you're willing, would you mind PMing me the tech?

As you may be able to tell from my user handle, I love all things genetics, and this is right up my ally.

I use 25x4. Standard wall works as well. I like the rigidity of the heavy wall. Take a 2-1/2- 3 inch point and make a wide flair. Because you'll be laying inside out lines. Gold then silver then gold then reduce the fume to give it nice hues versus muddy ness. Lay 8 lines, should look like a pizza. Close the point being careful not to aim the flame into the point. Reduce and blow out 3 times to give the lines depth. The trick to getting the helix looking right. Is to pull your point to an oblong oval, and to pull a slightly smaller portion of the point. As you pull. Twist once you start to pull but stop pulling and continue to twist, not to much though. You need to chase the air out as you create the helix. Try not to over pull. You need the glass to stay relatively close to the molten collapsing area. It's a dance you'll get in time. It's tedious but that's the tech. Enjoy.

[genentics]

Awesome. Thank you. That'll definitely take a lot of practice to get right.