Glass Icicles

Today I had another lovely day playing with my glass and torch.  I made several new things.  I think I am most proud of my icicles, however.  Once I figure out where I can get thicker glass rods, I'll be able to make even more impressive pieces (actual Christmas ornaments!!).  Ironically my first icicle looks the best, but that's probably because it was the smallest. I couldn't quite get the proportions right with such thin glass when I was trying to make it longer.  Overall I am extremely happy with my projects for the day.

My First Icicle!

Sadly, my first attempt remains the best.

My first tiger stripe bead

Another view of my tiger bead

Clear with orange and blue inside the bead, rather than just on the outside (another skill I learned)

Just a random bead to try something new

I have found a magnificent Youtube channel, which I recommend to anyone who is planning to try glass scuplture at all.  I am a big fan of TimiaGlass.  He teaches concisely and clearly.  You can't believe what this man packs into five or ten minutes.  He makes me think that my dreams of turtles and ladybugs (that I thought were so ambitious) are not only possible, but that I can far exceed them if I want to.

Lampwork Glass Pendant

After watching a brief video on Youtube*, I was inspired to try making a glass pendant.  The main problem I saw was that the person in the video was using a glass rod that was much thicker in diameter than mine (but I figured I could try it anyway).  It turns out having a thicker rod would have been very useful, but I won't bore you trying to explain it.  The loop itself was also difficult and is a skill I'd like to practice more.

My first glass pendant . . .

. . . and its fate.

It wasn't broken when I finished it, but it was cracked.  The problem is that if you shock the glass by heating it too quickly or cooling it too quickly, you get cracks.  Apparently larger pieces are easier to shock than smaller pieces.

My First Turtle Attempt

This was supposed to be another pendant attempt, but it started looking so much like a turtle.  I figured I had better try to make it into a turtle.  The irony is that if I had finished it as a pendant, it would have survived.

The poor turtle was killed as I tried to give him limbs

Devastated by the death of my pendants, I decided to make some beads to make myself feel better.

Orange center with a clear outer layer

Translucent green with blue dots

Translucent aqua with dark blue stripes

I tried to make a bead like the Pandora ones I have seen

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY65HHoJDl8

Smoldering Lava

Here few action shots of my bead making today.  I wanted to post some pictures of the actual process, highlighting the glorious blue flame and the orange glow of the melted glass. 

Me making one of my latest beads

The two new beads I made today (on the left)

I'm pleased to say that I had a 100% success rate in removing my beads from the mandrels (as opposed to my success rate of 75% yesterday).

Lovely Blue Flame and Molten Glass

Part two of my glass bead making adventure began today.  Today, I was actually going to attempt making a glass bead.  I began by examining all of the parts of my kit and reading through the directions.  I learned that I had to wash the little steel rods that you make the beads on because they are greasy when they are new.  I learned that I had to coat the little rods with "Bead Release" and let it dry so that I could get the beads off the metal rod after I made them.

Bead Release and Mandrels

Coated Mandrels

Once I had laid out all of my materials and made sure I knew what to do with all of them, I put in the instructional DVD.  This "instructional" DVD was a whopping two minutes and thirty seconds.  In less than three minutes, apparently I learned all I needed to know about how not to blow my house up, where to place the rod in the flame, how to know it's heated enough, and how to create beautiful masterpieces (oh wait, they didn't address any of those points in the video or the written instructions).
 

Set up and ready to begin

Thoroughly educated in my equipment and how to do amazing lampwork, I began.  I tried to start with some uglier colors, just in case I slaughtered my initial attempts.  True to my fears, the first attempt was a bit of a disaster.  I couldn't get the molten glass to stick to the rod (maybe because they never explained anywhere how to do that), and just ended up disfiguring my glass rod and getting a bunch of bead release flakes mixed in with it.  Wondering slightly if I had severely overestimated my abilities, I tried again.  The second time around was much more successful, and I was able to make an actual bead.  Basically you have to hold the glass rod in the flame at the tip where it melts and turns orange and pliable.  Apparently if your tools are hot, the glass will stick to them (which means if it is your bead mandrel you want it to be hot, and supplemental tools should be cool so the glass doesn't stick to them).  It was stickier and thicker than I thought it would be.  It felt like I was manipulating taffy.  I made four beads tonight.  I can only hope that I'll be able to get them off the rods.

I made the beads in order from right to left.

Bead number two had some problems with the bead release and was basically fused onto its mandrel.  However, the others released nicely.  Below are the finished products of my beads.  Bead number two was destroyed in order to remove it from the mandrel.  I reheated it and transferred the glass onto another mandrel with the release on it (I didn't make another bead out of it because it had flakes of the bead release mixed in with the glass).  It looked kind of cool, so I took a picture of that too.

My first glass bead

My third bead

My fourth bead

Bead number two, destroyed and transferred onto another mandrel

Glass Bead Making Adventure

You, my friend, are extremely lucky because you are invited along this journey with me.  You may find yourself asking what journey, and I am so glad that you asked. I am about to embark on a glorious, glass bead making adventure. I have absolutely no idea how to make glass beads, but what could be better than playing with fire?

This week I purchased a "Glass Bead Making Starter Kit" (pictured above).  This glorious assembly includes "15 glass rods, self-igniting torch, 12 stainless steel mandrels, heat-resistant work surface, fiber blanket, 2 texturizing marvers, bead rake and release, canister holder and instructional DVD."  I still need to purchase my fuel, after which I will write about how my actual bead-making goes (complete with pictures, of course!).  After I made my purchase, I watched a few glass bead making tutorials to help me know what I was getting myself into.  It looks great to me!

I have visions of learning how to make things like beautiful glass beads and little lampwork turtles and bugs.  It may be terribly ambitious and not really ever happen, but someday I want to make things like these:

Please note I did not make any of the above items.  We'll see what I manage to make probably tomorrow.  I hope it's not impossibly hard and I can grow up to make handsome turtles like that...