Jxbey's progression thread

[Jxbey]

These were first day on the torch i had made a thread elsewhere just show these i was too excited

these are from the few days following some of my friends pieces in here. hes really getting good shaping down on his spoons/sherlocks atleast alot better than i(which i just realized i dont even have any pictures of lol). the spoon with some hateraid on it is mine just trying to add some color but heating the tube up trying to let color melt in my tube gets all wonky and uneven making the blow ridiculously uneven gonna need to work on that. first implossion marble was the blue and white one 2nd was the disco and yellow. third implossion was that blue peacock pendant which im most proud of. ended up getting a 96j from chubbles waiting on it to arrive but the things we've made we have been setting on a woodstove top/ flame annealing. the larger items crack but getting away without these smaller pendys cracking gonna try cranking out a few more today at the quality of the blue one.

[Jxbey]

some nice implosions and a cool hollow swirl reminds me of a peacock like that style with a coil potted passion color with some contrasting dots think i can make some really cool hollow swirl styles like that, running through the end of my alchemy color kit thats why i left those flower pendants simple no backing gonna try some frit backing today. waiting on mountainglass to reopen up the 4th before i place my next glass order unless anyone knows somewhere i could get some sooner?

[Jxbey]

didnt realize how much progression ive left out from first few days updating it everyday. time flies when your having fun tho right. had a mini tube/rig going that started out as a pendant. what style is that when you blow your nice round ball lay your design and let it melt back together. anyway thats how the rig started and it ended when i was trying to size up the downstem, pulling it out of the kiln 3-4 times smoothly thought wow this is going good i may pull this off. forgot to knock on wood and she falls off the punty

All those pendants were the xmas gifts to the family few left out not the best picture. everyone loved them i think their lack of knowledge of what you can do with glass really played in my favor haha they were telling me how i could set up these in stores right now and im just like if you only knew. all art is a funny thing tho relocating work or presenting it to a different audience and someones bound to love it and thats why i love creating

[Jxbey]

[maxtsunami]

Cool stuff! Looks like you're starting to get the hang of it. Something that worries me are the loops and attachments on the pendants you gave as gifts, none of them look fully melted in, and they are likely to break off (You're cold sealing stuff to the pendant body just like you cold seal a punty, and a light tap will probably break the seal). Everyone has trouble with this at some point, and I've even made the mistake of selling pieces that didn't have the loop quite melted in before I knew the consequences.

What I'd recommend is making sure both sides of whatever you're welding are molten before you touch them together, then keep a focused flame on the weld until there are only smooth edges.

Keep at it!

[Jxbey]

New bench setup a million times better than original bench have space for all the glass in the dresser and space for the kiln right next to the work area

[dplaza]

woah thats not good ventilation... yikes. do some searches on here see what others are doing, make sure your fresh air inlet is actually fresh air. i wouldn't kick it in there with a torch on. once you do that see if you can get a bigger oxygen tank theres no way a tiny tank like that is economical.

nice ambition on that rig tho, i definitely didn't try making multi part things for the first few months.

[snoopdog6502]

Packing a tank up stairs would be a real bitch. I'm so glad I bought an oxygen concentrator and piped in to natural gas. I still have tanks and regulators for my mini torch.

Im about at the same stage of newbness to glass anyway, just started to learn my kiln. Now my stuff is at least durable.

I look foward to seeing your work.

[Jxbey]

oxy con and home refill is in the works forsure, the tank lasts me 2-3 days of torching and i have 2 of them for these next few months gonna be hiking em up and down. my upstairs is the exact same on other end and i crack that window for fresh air and you can literally see the gas fumes on the bench go right to the box fan im only on a beth alpha is it really not good enough ventilation? the way the ceiling is shaped is perfect and ill soon be getting a hood that fits the exact ceiling dimensions because the plan is to have 2 torches on that bench

[Jxbey]

First pendants from new bench alot more comfortable working temps and bench space help tremendously, loops getting cleaner everytime

[dplaza]

yah bro like i said check out some threads see what others are doing, you should do a smokebomb test and see how much of that stuff your huffing.

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showt...ighlight=nasty

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showt...ht=ventilation

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showt...ht=ventilation

definitely get in some reading, i could type out some tips but im not an authority and some things i say might be misleading.

your loops are lookin cleaner on those last 2.

[Jxbey]

went to do smoke bomb test with what i thought was a smoke bomb that ive had in my dresser forever and it was a crackle firework very surprising, the smoke from it disapaited quickly out the window not near the amount of a smoke bomb tho im sure im huffing some fumes hood and exhaust fan for sure the next thing im getting

[Jxbey]

Got some shops around me that are in need of pendants and spoons gonna stack up on each this next week and make drops to em and see how that goes. city right next to me Ferndale decriminalized marijuana made it legal to posses and exchange small amounts on private property. very vague on consumption and the police chief openly stated in an interview that nothin will change due to this law passing " “It is state law and we are not empowered to simply not enforce it,” Collins said. “In fact, we are sworn to uphold state law.” " smh. anyways this has opened up the market for glass a little and grow stores and smaller chain smoke shops in my area are looking to carry some local work

[Jxbey]

Homies first hammer bubbler some poorly melted in frit and connection is a lilttle wonky but awesome for a first one

[snoopdog6502]

That's nice, I have yet to make a bubbler, Now I have a kiln I will try again.

Last time I tried I could not have two hot pieces at once so it failed real quick.

[Aaron Ellis]

That frit in the chamber on that bub looks dangerous is it just tacked on or is it melted in? You realy want the frit melted all the way in. You dont want a piece flaking off into your lungs when ur hitting it.
nice job tho. Keep at it your loops are looking much better.

[Jxbey]

that frit is like halfway melted in my homies got a fucking thick skull im steady on him about little shit like that in his work. before the melting in the frit all the way this dude wouldnt burn his punty marks off and its be a perfectly fine bowl with a little chip of glass from a punty on the end it literally took a week of me saying shit to get him to do it like wtf why wouldnt you want to have a nice smooth finished piece? now its melting in the fuck ton amount of frit he likes to load in haha

[Jxbey]

Some stuff ive made past 2 days. So ive been letting my homie work on shaping spoons and ive been focusing on pendants and getting to know the colors. He wouldnt melt his frit in all the way as seen in that hammer bub and some of the pipes in background of these pics maybe, so yesterday i was like im gonna show him how its done haha. but i actually did!! the 2 nicest spoons are what i was able to knock out first time making a spoon since the first week of me being on the torch and theres a HUGE improvement i was beyond stoked at how those 2 came out, the jailbreak rod on the left first picture came out as a cool effect for sure a rod i want to save for when i start iso. also the "matching" bowl and hollow pendy, the hollow pendy came out awesome best one ive done yet. i used the end of Dallas' blow tube that had some color on it after he was done making the spoon added a little lens. the picture couldnt focus close enough but the effect of that little lens laid over a dot of passion color looks sick theres a single tiny bubble in it that catches light nicely.

[Theborobakery]

Props to you for trying all the things you have tried, but i think you have the idea now. Work on your spoons for shaping and getting used to the heat base that glass moves at. It will improve the quality of your work ten fold. Don't even bother with a hammer or color (besides some simple accent dots) until you can shape something the same way more than ten times. I would say 100 times but I know how it feels in the beginning and you just want to move on to the next thing, but trust me the repetition will surprise you with how much it helps. Also, make your hollow work thicker, when the walls are thin your shit will get wonky way easier.

Keep it up.

[Jxbey]

big ol spoon. sticking to clear for a few days got a kiln full of clear spoons a pendy and a dabber