Noob pics *open fire*

[James Lewis]

these are the other two tubes i pulled lastnight the top one in this pic is the one that everything went wrong with it. This is a i got out of it. Think im going to go back to pulling smaller tubing and work on being able to see it coming with the lines

[istandalone24/7]

are you laying the color down by hand, or doing stacks?
looking good...i've tried to do lined tubing (by hand) a few times and just gave up for now...i'm nowhere near making it work though. still doing silver/gold fume on clear.

[James Lewis]

By hand, by the time i get the clear encasement on my back and wrist start working against me. Makes me realize how much of a pussy jon it is working at my day job. I work at a plastic factory with injection molding. Its amazing how similar glass and plastic act when heat and pressure are added. Doing glass blowing has helped shoot me up the ranks pretty fast and working with plastics have helped me get structural ideas for glass blowing and a idea on heat base.

[hashmasta-kut]

do you sit or stand? i can make a pretty giant tube pull that way before wussing out, but i sit and can rest the arm that holds the tube against the bench when applying color. standing and doing it would be much tougher i think. and if i do get weak, i can actually rest the handle of the tube pull on the bench sometimes, but its kind of tricky.

[James Lewis]

At home i sit but at my mentors i have to stand. Sitting is so much better and its easier to keep the hand steady.

[gambitglass]

My biggest problem with prepping tubing that way is seeing where I'm laying down the clear. That and trying not to burn or reduce sensitive colors. Sleeving seems like the better alternative because its faster and consistent but you need to take the time to work out a vacuum system and also its sometimes a pain finding and cutting the perfect sized rods to all play nice together between your tubes. I've had good result with the old stick stack method too without the inner clear layer.

my last linework pull I did the oldschool way with thick stringers and a really flared out tube section ISO application. That way has a nice optical effect when done well.

Looks good though so keep up the good work and do whatever works for you.

[brettodie]

standing is easier on your body. if your having probs with pain ect. id suggest yoga and or a str. training program focusing on your core and shoulders. that alone will help a ton. glass is much more physically taxing then alot of people believe.

[James Lewis]

I hear you on that

[Sparkey]

these are the other two tubes i pulled lastnight the top one in this pic is the one that everything went wrong with it. This is a i got out of it. Think im going to go back to pulling smaller tubing and work on being able to see it coming with the lines

I've been pulling small sections of tube lately, if for no other reason than when I go larger I tend to flail it. And the tube you think is so bad....you're doing really well for a n00b.

I don't use much color, but had a batch of red elvis 2nds/odds mixed together that I later regretted buying, so I've been using that to pull tube the last couple of weeks. 3 inches or so of 38mm heavy wall tube, fume, five stripes of red elvis (which leaves me room for three lines of 5-7mm clear in between each stripe), a stripe dead center between the elvis, more fume, then do clear over fume over fume for the last lines. You might just try working with clear/fume for a bit to save on color. You could also buy some colored tube and stripe clear over color and clear over fume on that.

[James Lewis]

Its not as good as my mentors. Till then its not good enough for me

[misled youth]

Whom is youre mentor?

[James Lewis]

Ben kappen of illuminated glass near Lawrence ks. Illuminatedglass.com is his website he doesnt have any popes on there but his pipes are far better brad chung (i think its his last name) colab and work out alot of problems together.

[James Lewis]

Ben taught me how to do spirals and lazy curls yesterday. Ill take some pics of the ones i make tonight. He alsp showed me how to keep from getting a burnt out termy. Took me a could sections to keep from getting over lapped endeds.

[James Lewis]

I failed epicly tonight on this fire fade i started wrong and ended up missing three lines of color

[faded]

it looks good from here.

[James Lewis]

The lines where alot more even but i still screwed up. On the other hand this is one of the more complicated tubings ive pulled so far so progress if small but still progress. Its one hell of a learning curve.

[Loki Glass]

Yeah but damn dude.... Talk about progression! You're pulling tube like a madman.

Looks great, you're lucky to have such a good teacher.

[LooseSeal Baller]

thats how i learned.. just made prep for my teacher, and he would kick me down pieces now and then to practice on. that line prep looks very good. are those vac stacks or draw ons? nice stringers. when i first started all we did were draw ons encased in clear rod 10mm, then we started sleeving, and now we pretty much vac everything. blowing glass is so fun i love it. keep up the good work.

and i live in kansas as well...hmmm

[James Lewis]

Their draw ons. Hes letting me keep a 1/4 of each pull now to practice sections with. I think if i do more base lines to start with ill be able to visually see my problems ahead of time.

[LooseSeal Baller]

it can be tricky drawing on as far as how many lines you get, its all about how you decide to lay the lines skinny fat, i used to have the numbers memorized but now have the vac stack numbers stuck on the brain. Lol i used to get colors mixed up all the time, at first i would get pissed but then my teacher would be like sweet dude and make some tight shit out of it. even tho it wasn't that long ago about a year this makes me think about those times.