These will not necessarily be in chronological order, but mostly they will. Should have started a progression thread much earlier but better late than never.
I'm not sure of glass terminology of multi piece items, I'll say "assembly". Couple of my first tube assemblies, dry hammers, also first colored carb.
I like the pictures. All of them look cool. Really like the dots on the Sherlock. Fish look awesome.
real nice blue on that. How in the heck do you do that? How does the fume not burn off?
thanks, I am pleased with the color.
How? Best I can describe it; I fume the tube when it is fairly cold; after attaching blow tube I warm the blank up just a very little bit, no glowing at all just maybe 20 seconds in the back half of a big Mirage flame. For adding the fume I use a very small center flame as long as it is wide, about 1/4-1/3 of the flame is yellow candle. Not sure how to describe how much fume goes on, a little or a lot, maybe 10 seconds of fuming? After that the work is done with large flame with almost no yellow in the candles.
How does it not burn off? I have no idea, i cannot burn it off. I have tried to several times to get the nice trapped fume look that others get but I can't seem to make it happen, this is the best I can get unless I do ISO fume and only done that a few times. I cannot get the trapped fume look on the outside, as in I have not been able to invert the colors you see on this piece. I wish!
Last edited by Cerberus; 12-14-2016 at 10:20 AM. Reason: clarification
thats fuckin badass bro, nice progress
May I live like the lotus, at ease in muddy water
Formerly known as Skuzz
Three mini's in a row that didn't crack! Totally stoked!
Center one has a very small flower bowl, the other two have preroll cone sockets. I focused on the welds rather than shape, apparently i needed the "puffing out" of the welds to smooth the inside of the weld joint. More to come, and a long way to go but tonight I'm happy!
I have a really hard time working with clear. I just can't see what the glass is doing when it all looks the same. It's like trying to find raindrops in a swimming pool. No doubt i need way more time to train my eyes what to look for but it's a real challenge right now. I need to see my optometrist for sure, scrip specs would probably help a lot, a couple hours of instruction would also benefit me!
Really good progress you are making.
That Sherlock is a lot like my piece I use in the glass shop. It will look even nicer used.
Happy New year!
your sherlocks are great. really awesome seeing your work get to this level.
I would absolutely buy one of those if i was in a store. congrats bud.
Got started on tube implosions recently and really like the tech. I feel like I'm on the right track with gold fume here, pattern got wonky but color is nice, have to do more and replicate it. I also did a small coilpot bubble backing on this which was new tech for me. Came out great, nice and thin and even, very pleased with this piece. I bought a few back issues of Flow mag and am finding inspiration (and information) in the tutorials.
It's been about one year since i started lampworking so here is a lil milestone post. Besides pipes and such i have not done much hollow work, few shot glasses but nothing worth documenting. I can't say any particular item is more interesting or appealing to me than the others, it's all great stuff. Since i work on all teks and items I'm not great at anything but ok at everything (that i have done so far). I spent a couple hours lesson with Jason Lennon last month and learned a TON in a short time, mostly it was the little details (always is, right?) i picked up that really opened me up to new teks. Now that the weather is warming up to where the shop is tolerable for more than 30 mins at a session i will be back on the torch much more. After a year I am just now understanding the effects of flame chemistry on different glasses to the point where i can predict and direct my color results more consistently. The more i learn the more i enjoy glass.
My spoons are now pretty consistent is size and shape and i feel like i have a bit of control over the outcome of form and decorations. I have learned how to keep consistent wall thickness thru the neck stretch, big deal to me to get a solid grip on fundamentals.
For the last few weeks i have put effort into fuming gold and silver really trying to understand it even on a basic level so i can control it somewhat. Progress pic is from left to right, far right pendant is from last night and is an inch in diameter and im very happy with it.
This started out as a honeycomb, total fail on that but the pendy came out pretty and i did learn from it that i was on the right track, you can't see it in the picture but there is some color bloom inside. I know where to continue from here.
Moved forward with assembly work this week and pretty happy with results. I want to get competent with welds so I'll continue this for a while. Progression is as you read, top to bottom left to right. First bubbler came out okay, bowl is thin and wrinkled but functional. Plain hammer is nice, best one yet (out of three total so far). First lock has a cracked bowl on the inside and not sure exactly how. There is a tiny inclusion inside that initiated the crack but don't know how it got there. Shaping the third one got good results. Had to get parts hotter and the weld came out WAY better, lesson #1. Moving and shaping the bend with gravity, patience was lesson #2. Bridges were lesson #3, good stuff! The inside bend is not totally smooth but it's not too bad and the whole thing approximates a smooth curve. Need to work on kickstand placement. There's no substitute for time on torch!
I do what I know, I don't know what I'm doing
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