Another Noob progression thread!

[dOprah Winfrey]

Hi all, I'm not sure if I've formally introduced myself, my name is Travis and I've been lampworking for only a couple weeks now. I'm only on my second tank of oxygen and loving every minute of it. I had a friend who was blowing and got to watch him and make a few little marbles. Fell in love with it and after about six months of dreaming/not working a torch finally have my own set up. Figured I'd post a few pics for you all to check out and offer any suggestions/constructive criticisms.

These are my first pieces from my first tank of oxygen, just working on getting shape down and messing around with fume a little bit


These are from my second tank of oxygen, started messing around with larger (32x4 instead of 25x4) tubing. Also got a much better grasp on fuming and shaping.


These are some of the little marbles I threw on the sides of my new batch of spoons. I like how silver colors blend well with the silver fume.


This is my favorite implosion that ended up on my not so favorite spoon...


And this here is my pride and joy, easily the nicest piece I've made to date. Its so satisfying when you get fume right!


I'm hoping a local shop will buy a few of these off of me so I can get a new tank of oxy soon. I know there not too pretty, but hell someone must need throw-away pieces.

Please be kind (not too kind actually) in your assesment, I've only been at this for a couple weeks, and again I'm only on my second tank of oxy. But now that I have a kiln I'm happy with how things are coming along. Also if anyones interested I'm working on a bobcat.

I also want to add that this forum has been a HUGE help.

Thanks for looking,
Travis

[FizZle]

those lookin pretty good for a start...good shape...fume looks pretty good...i would try and condense ur tube down thicker...also work on the hole size of ur mouthpiece try and get em so they the same size each time...also looks like some striations goin on in ur bowl...you can flame polish those out...also would wanna flame polish any striations that may form on the bottom when u flatten the bottom...mibs lookin cool...try and fume the inside of ur tube for a different fume look...keep it up..off to a great start!

[hippi]

nice start dude! fume is lookin good same with the mibs...only thing i would do is melt in the seals on the mibs a lil more...just heat the shit outta the mib and the surrounding area and give a lil puff to smooth out the edges of the seal.. other then that keep at it and keep on torchin! great to see another progression thread!

[dOprah Winfrey]

Thanks for the input.

Ryfizzle, thanks for the tip on the striations (had to look that word up). I didn't even notice it untill I took the picture with the flash on. I'm still working on my mouthpieces, trying to figure out which technique works best for me. Right now I'm melting the point off and trying to get as much glass with it as I can, then heating and stabbing with a 5mm rod till it pops open, I guess I should invest in a reamer so I can shape them up a little better. Thanks for the tip on condensing my tube thicker too. I'm just starting to mess around with 32x4 and I'm trying to figure out the best sized point for the size pieces I'm trying to make. Guess I'll try a little larger when I mess around tonight.

hippi, thanks for the kind words and the tip for the mibs. I guess I was kinda riding the excitement of actually making a piece that looked how I wanted and rushed the seal a little bit. I'll take my time more and heat it up. Also wanted to let you know that your progression thread has been a big help. Watching other people starting out helps give me ideas for the next step after I get one technique down and want to move onto the next. Still got a long ways to go before I'm busting out reversals like those sick slides from your thread.

Thanks again, much more to come in the future,
Travis

[steak351]

i like your fuming remind me that i gotta get me some silver

[dOprah Winfrey]

steak, thanks for the props on the fume.

I'm super pumped! I just sold those pieces and a couple I made last night for 50 bucks! I made 15 off my first tank of oxy, and now 50 off this one, I like where this is headed... The shop owner was super nice, even gave me a few decent chunk of blow tube, a 4 foot piece of 7mm rod, and a piece of smiley face milli that he wants me to throw in some marbles for my next batch. Its such a good feeling to have someone appreciate and buy my work, and to see that the first batch of spoons I sold to him had been sold already. Its exciting to know that this batch of oxy and glass was paid for from being able to sell my work. I thank you forum gods, for the information you've bestowed upon me.

Travis

[Fiorino Glass Art]

Damn that's sweet!!! Congrats!!!

[dOprah Winfrey]

Thank you all for your kind words. Got a few new ones here. Still just fume with little marbles but I think my shaping is getting a little better, and the holes in my mouth pieces are starting to improve (new technique).

Heres a group shot of the other nights work

Heres a close up of a couple of my marbles

A shot of my mouth pieces and my slightly improved holes

Heres my favorite from this bunch. Trying out a new shape for the stem, I kinda like it.

Brought these to a shop I've never been into before to see if they were interested in them. The owner loved them, and was super nice. Grabbed them all for 5 bucks a piece. The owner and here sister gushed over them for about 5 minutes and asked me to bring more in. None of there other blowers do just fume work, and they were glad to have something on the shelf for people with less than $20 to buy. I'm psyched, I've made enough money of this set of supplies that I can now mess around and try to learn some new techniques without it being a financial burdon on me! Again I thank you all who have posted both in this thread and in the countless others I've read. You've all been a giant help.

Travis

[phatsol]

Hey nice job chummsdoe.

[faded]

nice pipes. clean pushes and round holes. keep doing that.

[dOprah Winfrey]

phatsol and faded, thanks for the support. I tried making my first bubbler today, while I was pulling it off the blow tube it cracked on me though. Still it was a good lesson and I was suprised I got as far as I did with it. Also made my first pendents. I'm really pleased with a few of them.

Heres my favorite of the 3 pendents I made. Anyone have any sort of idea how much people buy pendents like this for?:


Heres a shot of the other nights work:


Heres a few of my implosion marbles from my new batch of spoons:


Suggestions and comments are always welcome, thanks for looking,
Travis

[TheGlassTree]

great start I would suggest that when you push your bowls instead of pushing them straight down, hold the piece at a slight angle on your marver with the bowl end facing away from you and lower than the mouth piece and when you push the bowl push it at a slight angle away from you... This will make the bowl push at a little bit of an angle away from the mouth piece not so much straight up in down on the piece. This makes it easier to see into the bowl while you are smoking. It also gives the side profile of the pipe more of a streamlined look..Keep on torchin' bro

[Fiorino Glass Art]

^^^ Exactly Glasstree!!! I would also suggest, when you blow out your blow, hold it straight vertically up, lightly puffing, maybe reheating angling down to true up then puff again and so on...and that will give you a more "mushroomed" more pronounced bowl head shape. That will also help give that beautiful angle glass tree is talking about!! Looking good brotha!!! Keep torchin!!!

[dOprah Winfrey]

FGA and Glasstree, thanks for the tips. I started doing what you suggested and I agree that it makes the piece flow better, the shops agree too! I've been doing a bunch of just fumed spoon stuff so I figured I wouldn't post. However I had a shop ask me if I could make them some slides and pendents. These are my very first slides, and like my fifth through tenth pendents. I"ve got to look online to try to get some idea for new pendent designs. Implosions are nice but I'm looking to diversify. Any suggestions-comments are greatly appreciated.

Here are the pendents, nothing fancy but I think there purdy...


Here are the slides, my first ever and I'm super happy with them.


Heres one with more light to show the detail.


Now a few single slide shots to show the detail






Thanks for looking, more to come!
Travis

[dOprah Winfrey]

looking at these all huge on the screen I can already see that I need to melt my horns in more. other than that I'm pleased with these. maybe its because I've yet to mess around with color much till these but they've got me really excited to get back in the basement and make some more.

Travis

[phatsol]

Nice!

[dOprah Winfrey]

Heres a couple blow-ins I made last night. Finaly got them to not crack on me. (Thanks Alien)



Comments/suggestions appreciated,
Travis

[stateofmind]

Damn man, you're only a couple weeks in and your bowls and mouthpeices are better than mine! Good stuff. Keep it up!

[n3rd]

awesome striking on the purples, keep it up!

[dOprah Winfrey]

Haven't posted here for a while, here is some of my new work. Been blowing for about 10 weeks now and couldn't be happier. Why do so many glass things sound dirty out of context..? I think I'm really starting to get the most out of my little bobcat.

A pic of last nights work. 10 blowins and 10 bats. Used to take me over 10 hours to make this many pipes, got it down to just under 8 hours and the quality just keeps getting better and better.



A close(r) shot of a few of my favorites. First is spring luster, then silver strike 5 and green carnival cane coilpotted up, the last is silver strike 3 and solara cane coilpotted up. I really like the way the duel colored ones have been coming out.



Same pipes but the ends of the bowls. I've been doing a mix of leaving some air bubbles in because I like the way it looks (I'm going for an organic look) and making others that look cleaner. Can't decide which I like better so I do them both for now.



Let me know what you all think, I appreciate any tips, comments and criticisms you may have. Thanks for looking.

-Travis