RyanBaker's Progression: Journey Through The Wu

[DIMBW]

If your punty is off axis when twisting the vortex your can twist color onto the front.

[PyroChixRock]

I like your experiment on the pendant with attachments. It's tricky getting that down. I've found it to be easier when I heat the heck out of what I'm attaching and then keep it nice and hot while I heat the spot I'm about to attach it on. And of course a hand torch is super handy.

Keep it up.

[RyanBaker]

So after making that piece the other day ive been totally stoked on pendants.
Made a couple more,both cracked,but I learned a lot from them.
Initially I thought they were cracking because I was messing with the attachments for too long and the rest of the piece got cold.
However,after looking at them again with a clear head (and clear pictures) I can see that my welds are pretty shitty,usually one side better than the other.
I thought I could get away with doing crumby seals and just cleaning them up with the hand torch,but it looks like I really need to get a good rippin hot connection first.
The hand torch is great for working out a a couple kinks in a weld,but having to run circles around an seal is no bueno.

After taking them around the area the main comments I got were that the center piece didnt draw you in enough and obviously a tighter more even spiral.
All the improvements ive made on my vortexes is 100% thanks to DIMBW. He gave me such a huge amount of help, pretty much layed out his entire process for me. Your pendants are a huge inspiration man. So I made a couple vortexes with no attachments but a loop, with different variations of lenses,line thickness,and the amount of twisting. One of them cracked and I was really confused as to why,but after looking at it again today some of the frit on the back wasnt melted in all the way.

Anyways the blue and orange one I used 2-3mm stringers and left part of the rod it was formed on to make a lens. On the red,yellow and orange pendant I used 1mm stringers and left little to no lense on the front. I definitely like the depth I got out of the first one but I cant seem to get a nice tight spiral with no gaps. I figure its either my amount of lines or amount of twisting. I only do 4 opposing lines and try to twist one full rotation. I also threw on a couple of those badass encalmo loops dimbw makes and I think they actually came out pretty sweet. Ide like to see if I can apply it to tube bails by using a steel mandrel to wrap colored sections next to each other. I might need to use a black stringer in between the different colored sections to avoid it all smushing together but I think it could look sweet. Only other way i can think of is by encalmoing hollow sections but I think thats a bit too much work for a loop.

Well, im rambling now,
Thanks for checking everything out guys!

[Enigma]

Looking good!

[GhostWorks]

Very cool! Keep it up man!

[RyanBaker]

Thanks guys!

I'm still having a lot of trouble with my vortex creeping up the sides. It really sucks, I end up loosing more than half my pattern.

I just made this piece a few minutes ago using some pulled down disco (not mixed just pulled down into 2mil stringers) as the vortex and slapped on a white backing.

Dimbw told me it was just about your cone being off center when twisting. However I don't think that's the case due to our processes being a little different. Also I've been meticulously making sure my cone doesn't go the slightest bit off center the whole time and if anything I'm getting worse results.

Where we differ is he leaves a cone on the back and I leave my backings completely flat. So after I twist my cone I ball it back up, get it ripping hot, let it fall into a maria on my marver, then add my backing before ripping off the rod.

I'm thinking maybe I have to ball up some extra clear before flattening it to force the pattern to the back.

What are your guys thoughts?

[DIMBW]

Try condensing back down toward your punty and when Its almost as flat as you like, then switch your punty the to face and then press your back flat. I'm thinking your getting all your art on the side when you make it back into a gather.

[RyanBaker]

Try condensing back down toward your punty and when Its almost as flat as you like, then switch your punty the to face and then press your back flat. I'm thinking your getting all your art on the side when you make it back into a gather.

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, when I condense it down into a ball it's still on the 12 mil handle it was formed on. It's only on a punty while I'm smoothing out the lens and adding a bail.

[RyanBaker]

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, when I condense it down into a ball it's still on the 12 mil handle it was formed on. It's only on a punty while I'm smoothing out the lens and adding a bail.

Edit: I think I got you now

[Shattered Dreams]

I think its like you said, you need more clear on the lens side before you maria.
if you want the color to be halfway, you need an equal volume of clear behind the color.

[TCsGlassworks]

Looking good man, love seeing the progress

[RyanBaker]

Hey guys

I tried condensing the pendant down on itself last night like dimbw describes and it went fairly well.
I had a 8mil punty on the back so once it got down to just the cone I couldnt keep much control of it to spin out the whole thing.
If I use a 12mil punty next time I think I might be able to get the back just about flat besides a little bumb to keep some depth.

Ill also try your suggestion later today shatter,i'll just have to make my initial cone smaller so I dont end up with a massive pendant.
I had a couple air gaps in this one and it got a little out of round but the depth sells it,literally. Not 5 minutes after I posted it online someone scooped it.
Can't thank you enough for all the advice and encouragement you've given me dimbw,all this progress is thanks to you.

[RyanBaker]

Great day yesterday!!

Got a bunch of new color including some of bohica's glow glass( which is fucking awesome) I went nuts and had a great time.
I tried doing the pendants two different ways,the smaller ones are done using dimbw's method just with the cone almost completely flat.
The bigger ones are done by condensing the cone back into a ball after terminating,then gathering up equal parts clear from behind the design and flattening on the marver.
I still have a bit of tinckering to do because I dont feel as though I have a clean, fluid process yet, like with the frit implosions.

I also bought both a 24inch blacklight and a small flashlight one to see if they would do the job of charging the glow glass. the 24inch bulb works amazing and its what I used to take the uv pictures. However the flashlight is kind of weak,if I run it up and down a glow rod or piece of the cosmic tubing itll charge it up pretty nice but I get next to no glow when i try to use it one the pendants. Which is ideally what it would be for.I figure you give someone a blacklight flashlight that actually charges up their pendant in a few seconds, with their order theyd be more inclined to pick it up because it would no longer be just a novelty.

Anyways,enjoy the pics!

[Mattypo]

Vortex pendys are looking tight man. Looks like you are getting those down. Sweet encalmo bails too!

[ApeironCreations]

Nice Boro, looks like your finally getting it down! On picture 2 thru six it looks like you were really paying attention to that Depth that you mentioned a few posts back. Keep following that idea and you'll have these super clean in no time. I suggest you follow a few marble selling groups on Facebook and really LOOK at the marbles and the designs. I feel like because your looking through a perfect lens from all directions you can kind of Reverse Engineer the designs.

[RyanBaker]

Upgraded to warlock status!

After doin those couple multisectional pendants I realized my seals needed a bit of work, so i decided to take up warlocks!

I have to say im pretty pleased with how it came out for only being my very first attempt. In the future I think ill match up the color of the two knuckles and horns instead of doing opposites.

The horns are a little big and the seals have a couple kinks but im already getting a much better understanding of what is and isnt a good seal. Im also gettin real comfortable with my hand torch.

I can't wait to do more of these,easily some of the most fun ive had making pendants.

[BurntHands]

I keep mine as a cone, and then I smoosh a big ball of clear on the back, then flatten that, usually put on a backing. Then I punty to that, and make my lens off of the original stick. When I'm done and I have a cabuchon/pendant shape, you can clearly see the coned vortex/tornado shape inside the pendant - not on the backing, or on the surface of the sides. After I make the cone and twist it up, my hot gather completely covers those lines, then I flatten that new area from the sides/beginning of the vortex to the flat back into like 1/4" deep patty before building the domed lens. My 'cone' usually opens up quite a bit, a bit when I flatten the back, but a lot more when I add the lens. There's 2 distinct halves, so the vortex starts in the middle and cones towards the flat back... like a vortex marble but flattened. I always have a line between my backing and my lens where the lines hit the outside, and I keep my bails behind the line.

The depth on the one in post #52 looks great, but the pointy back bugs me. I hope that tip about the clear gather over the cone/lines helps. I know you said a few posts back that you try to get a completely two dimensional spiral, but the cone gives the depth - try a couple my way. I don't get online much these days, but if you're not clear on the stuff I said I'll elaborate more or maybe post a profile shot of an unbacked pendant. Your color combos look awesome, so do the tube bails... lots of progress in here.

[RyanBaker]

Sup boys and girls??

Still trying to get these pendants right,im just not capable of moving on to something else until I feel like ive nailed it.Been trying to conquer this bad boys for like 2 months now. We're getting reaaaal close though,but for the love of all things wu I can't force the tails of my vortexes to the back of my pendants.

The pictures of the 4 pendants down below are all done a little bit differently in hopes to solve my problem. I got close with one of them but nothing thats giving me the desired effect im looking for.
First one using Satori's method of puntying up the tip of the cone and condensing the lens down toward it.
2 and 3 I balled up the cone and flattened on the marver.
The 2nd one was kind of a cluster,i tried to leave very little lense on it and screwed up the termination.
The 3rd piece I left a little more lense on,it came out alright but again,still not exactly what im going for.

On the first three shown I take an entirely elbow down approach to condensing the lens,I figured the lens would just flow down and push the vortex tails the the edge but no such luck.On the last one I thought back to doing my frit implosion pendants,and how you have to force the pattern to the center by going elbow up before removing the original rod.
So I gave it one last go treating it kind of like an implosion without shooting a sharp flame up the center before i ripped off the rod and condensed the lens. It was probably the closet to having the whole vortex but still no cigar.Plus its also pretty majorly imploded which again isnt what im going for,however I might mess with it again, I still like it.

At this point im at a complete loss,I just dont know what to try anymore. None of the techniques im trying are really making any difference in the amount of the pattern i can get on the back. I feel like im missing something painfully obvious that I just cant wrap my head around. Im great with complex problems,but I fail over and over to see the easiest and most obvious routes to take.

Im not a huge fan of posting other peoples work but I threw two photos at the very bottom for reference of the type of vortex pedant im trying achieve.
The first one is made by satori/dimbw but unfortunately I dont know the name of the second artist. Really more than anything I just want my whole vortex to actually be visible.

[LooseSeal Baller]

the vortex's in post #53 look descent. and the 3rd one on the last post.

I think leaving it more round might give you the results you're looking for idk...

[RyanBaker]

Thanks barry,ill give that a try.

Also burnthands,I didnt see your post until right now. That sounds like an interesting way to go about it,so after you twist your cone you mash a hot gather of clear over the entire thing? Do you have any pictures of your finished pendants?