Twisties

Twisties also known as twist ups is a simple pattern technique where one or more colours appears twisted into an elongated spiral within clear or translucent coloured glass, although for this description, clear glass is used.

The most common way to do this (although there are other methods) is:

1. create a gather of clear, the size of the gather is dependent on how big you want your final product to be, as you will be stretching out (elongating) this gather. However it is all stil relative, for example if you make a 2cm (in diameter) gather, you may choose to stretch this out to a stringer that is 3mm in diameter but 10cm long or with the same 2cm gather you may choose to stretch it out to 1cm in diameter but only 5cm long (or any such combination)

2. Using a tool (usually a masher) squish the gather so that it is a flat pancake, while remaining attached to the rod (which is now your punty)

3. Apply a colour to one side or both sides of the pancake, or you can also fume the pancake.

4. Apply clear glass on top of the colour or fume.

5. Melt in the clear and attach a punty to the other side.

6. Heat the gather with the trapped colour/fume till it becomes soft like chewing gum.

7. Remove from flame, and twist the punties in opposite directions while pulling to the desired length and thickness. Some people like to use a power drill to do the twising in order to achieve a very tight twist.

This technique is often used to produce what is called a filligri and is a common feature in the stem of wine goblets.