Beginner Suggestions

[hh080311]

I am just beginning. Could someone give me advice on what to start with? Some basic techniques or forms?
I've played around with some color. Pulled a few stringers, made a few mushroom pendants with frit and tried making a few implosions.. but the implosions didn't turn out.
I decide working with just clear rod and tubing. Right now I've been working on making hooks/loops, connecting rods and tubing, and blowing consistent bubbles.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

[hellawacked]

Get past the first page of the pipes section or marbles depending on what you fancy. I'm new too and I don't get how you need help. Anything people would tell you to answer that has all been said before. I can't stand when people jump on newbs for asking simple questions but I see why. I have no idea what to say to help you.

I guess I'll just ask what happened with the implosion? What kind of torch are you running? maybe upload some pic people like to help when you show them something. Try looking at the progression and pics section . There's a few that are beginners well were. They're threads are pretty helpful plenty of newb troubleshooting.

if you want to practice something work on disks and marinas (I haven't slept Ik it's spelt wrong) a tip for getting your disks to be round and on center would be get a gather going make sure it's nice and round now let it cool a bit then heat just the tip of the gather till its hot enough (you'll figure it out) then push it on your marver well don't push let it do it's thing then give it a nudge if it needs it. Repeat till you got a nice round disk.

[Simian]

I have yet to fire up my torch and I have to say that the wealth of info in the forms of video, pictures and written tutorials is shockingly all encompassing. I will end up having questions but not before I do a ton of reading.

[hh080311]

I used this video and another one for the implosions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PEI6wQcgKs
When I add color and press down. Then add more color press down. I can not get the layering effects. All the color is on the same plane or flat. I can not get it to imploded.. the colors are are barely 3-D looking. And the color is solid and bold on the top then towards the bottom is loses color and starts to become transparent.
Am I heating the gather in the wrong area? Not adding enough color? I am just heating the top and not the very bottom where I added the color.

[hellawacked]

It sounds like your just flatout doing it wrong try makin a disk like I said add color lines melt them in a little then heat just the tread of the disk. If that doesn't make sense imagine it like this you want the center cold and the edge hot so the glass folds in on it's self the first time you do this I suggest not marvering it back to a disk and just tip it back so things slump the opposite way but don't worry about that to much go extreme so you can see how it works. The way your doing it it sounds like you skipped the implosion step.

Edit: if you look me up on YouTube I'm subscribed to all glassblowers except like 3. Might be worth going through a few videos.

[maxtsunami]

I used this video and another one for the implosions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PEI6wQcgKs
When I add color and press down. Then add more color press down. I can not get the layering effects. All the color is on the same plane or flat. I can not get it to imploded.. the colors are are barely 3-D looking. And the color is solid and bold on the top then towards the bottom is loses color and starts to become transparent.
Am I heating the gather in the wrong area? Not adding enough color? I am just heating the top and not the very bottom where I added the color.

MMk... I have a couple suggestions. Firstly, you should be getting the gather VERY hot before you flatten, so you shouldn't be pressing at all, just hold the punty straight and let the glass press itself. Also, make sure that before you flatten, your gather looks like this --------) not this --------->. You can accomplish this by holding your elbow down so the glass will naturally flow back down towards the punty.

You say you are heating the top of the gather, what does this mean?
You want to apply color to the maria (marias are the flat circles you get when you press a gather: -------|) on the end of the rod, then melt in the color completely. After that, hit the edge of the maria with the flame until it glows, then focus the heat directly onto the face of the maria while your elbow is tilted a bit up. This will round out the gather, and implode the color. This is when you press. Repeat this several times and you should get a decent implosion.

Also, post some pictures so we can see exactly what's going wrong.