Making Opalescent Glass video

This video, from the Science Channel is fun to watch and is full of information.

Click here to view the video!

Gryphon Zephyr ring saw video

This is a great video for any glass artist that's thinking about buying a glass saw to watch.

Watch the video here!

What is Dichroic glass, short video

This is a nice YouTube video to watch if you are wondering what is Dichroic glass!  A lot of people see Dichroic glass jewelry and even fused glass items for sale online but don't know what it really is.

Click here to watch the video.

Fused glass pendant using decals, tutorial

We discovered this great blog, Fused Glass Decals and wanted to share it with our readers.  It is loaded with excellent information and tips on creating glass art using their glass fusing decals.  Below is a sample of what you will find on their blog.

Pelican Beach Fused Glass Decal Pendant Tutorial

www.aaeglass.com presents:

Pelican Beach Pendant

Welcome to our first monthly fused glass jewelry tutorial! Each
month, I will share a new design using our fusible glass decals.
I love to teach and share my designs with fellow glass enthusiasts. This is why
I came up with all these snazzy, glass fusing decals for your pieces!
I spend a lot of time actually designing individual pieces, rather than making
slabs and producing large batches. I have a sketch book with hundreds
of designs and with the constant new development of fusing products
I find that almost any scene can come to life using glass. This Pelican Beach
pendant was created using very little dichroic glass. Try making some
pieces without the glitzy dichroic glass, and see what your mind comes up with.
You will be surprised! Please let me know if you need any assistance
with this project! info@aaeglass.com.

Materials Needed:

Tropical Scenes Fusing Decal Sheet (DL-120)
White Fusible Glass
Blue (your choice of shade) Fusible Glass
Dichroic aqua glass
Glass Line White Paint
Frit Blend
Glue
Dremel
Paint Brush or Paint Stick
Glass cutter & breaker

Step 1: Cut your glass blanks. I used a 2"H x 1"W white opal glass blank.
For your second layer, cut a white piece of glass that is 1" x 1" for the bottom
(the beach) and a 1" x 1" blue/turquoise for the top (ocean.) Glue these pieces
to your white base piece.

Step 2: To create the beach area, I use my own frit blend. I have lots of these
made up, and this will take some planning on your part, but I love making
these blends. In this case I used "beach sand" colors of frit, put them in a
large jar and simply stirred the frit colors with a Popsicle stick to get a nice
blend. Put your blend in a container and mark the blend. This blend
is simply called "beach blend" for me and I used tan, amber, shell & black.
Take your WHITE GLASSLINE paints and spread the paint over the bottom
portion of your piece. While the paint is still wet, add your frit blend to the bottom.

Step 3: Take your Dremel (etching creme will also work if you do not
own a Dremel) equipped with your diamond tip, and literally "draw"
wavy lines in your blue dichroic glass. The dichoric side must be facing
up in order for your design to be etched into the glass! Glue the dichroic
piece to the blue part of the glass. Your underlying blue will show through
the dichoric glass you just etched revealing your wavy lines simulating
the ocean.

Step 4: Go back to your glass line white paint and use a small paint brush
or the tip of the bottle to add accents to the ocean water indicating
the surf. Do this sparingly!

Step 5: Fire your piece to a full fuse face down on a kiln washed or thin fire paper
shelf. YOU MUST WAIT FOR THE GLASS LINE PAINT TO DRY FIRST.

Step 6: Once the piece has cooled, add your clear cap and full fuse again.

Step 7: Cold work your piece with a grinder or tile saw (or both.) Fire polish
your creation.

Step 8: Apply your low - fire fused glass pelican decal from your
tropical scenes sheet. (See website www.aaeglass.com for full decal
applying instructions.) LET DRY OVERNIGHT! Do NOT cap clear!
Your decal will go on your finished, fire polished piece.

* Why not add a blazing orange sun decal from our sun and moon pack? :)

Step 9: Fire your LOW FIRE fusing decal to the low fire schedule provided.
These schedules, along with full instructions, can also be found on our
website at www.aaeglass.com. Add a bail of your choice. Viola! Masterpiece!

Cutting glass circles, how to video

This is an excellent video to watch if someone is having problems cutting glass circles!  The circles are made using the Morton Circle and Border System.

Click here to view the circle cutting video.

Chunk glass casting video

This video was made by the Corning Museum of Glass and shows how a chunk glass casting is done!

Click here to view the video!

Mouth blowing glass video

Today we are sharing a hot glass video with our blog readers.

Click here to see this really interesting glass blowing video on YouTube made by Steven Dale Studios.

Blowing glass shards for lampworking or fusing, tutorial

Blowing Shards- a tutorial by Jennifer Geldard

A couple of people have asked me to do a tutorial about how I blow

my patterned shards... while nothing beats a live demo, I'll try to describe the process

as well as I can.

I start with a stainless steel hollow mandrel or blowpipe.

Heat the end to a glowing red so that the glass will stick well to the pipe.

I start my first wrap of glass a bit back from the very end so that

the glass can't travel to the inside of the tube.

I then continue to

wind on the glass as if I'm making a disc bead on the mandrel.

The process is very similar to making a hollow bead on a mandrel

except the other end of the bead is off the end of the tube somewhere :)

Be careful and try not to leave tiny holes in betwwen the wraps, or

when it's time to heat everything up, your bubble will collapse.

I like making shards with many colors of glass, so I'll change colors

often as I wind on the wraps, as well as add a bit of frit or twisties here and there.

As I get to the half-way point of the form, I start to wind each wrap

slightly to the inside of the previous wrap so that the shape begins to

close. What I'm aiming for is a hollow ball.

Don't forget to keep everything warm while you're building

up the walls... especcially where the metal touches the glass... the metal is like

a heat sink and will draw the heat from the glass.

Eventually the ball will close , and this is when I might add abit more color

with frits or some surface design. Try not to add too much

glass thickness to any one spot, or your bubble wont blow out evenly.

Ok... Now the tricky part...

Melting it all smooth and blowing your bubble:

The trick here is to keep the bubble molten without having it collapse

on you before you're ready to blow it out.

Remember that the tube is really a hole, and that the heat inside the bubble

wants to escape out that hole and make all your hard work collapse like a sad

little popped balloon hanging off the end of the tube. There are a couple

of things you can do to avoid this...

One, is to cover the hole at the mouth end of the tube with your finger

while you turn the bubble in the flame.

The second is to periodically blow in tiny soft puffs into the tube from time to

time to help the bubble keep it's shape. I do both of these things.

It is important to keep the mandrel/tube turning while you do this

so that the bubble stays on center.

To even out your wall thickness, you're going to want to expand and contract

the glass a few times before you do your final blow.... in other words,

puff up the shape a bit, and then let it collapse down a bit... back

and forth a few times. This really helps with your final bubble shape.

When you're ready, and the glass is evenly molten...the same glow

throughout the bubble, it's time to blow your big bubble.

Do not blow hard or you will blow out a side...

Not only does this ruin all of your hard work, but the little cellophane-like

glass pieces that float about are very dangerous to breathe in.

Using a soft breath should be just fine. If the glass isn't expanding

with a soft breath, it's not hot enough. Blow slow and steady until the ball is

about the size of an orange, and the walls are very thin.

As I couldn't photograph myself durring the blowing process, here are a

couple of pictures taken by Cindy Brown ( Cindybeads ) durring

my class in Omaha.

And then you're done!

I drop the whole shebang into a coffee can until it's cool, and then

bonk it with something heavy like a hammer ... the shattered pieces are

your shards. Have Fun!! Be Safe!!! And dont get too

discouraged if you fail the first few times...

it's a learning process, and you'll eventually get a feel for it!!

-Jen

 GALLERY \ ARTIST STATEMENT \ TEACHING \ SHOWS \ LINKS & PUBLICATIONS \ PURCHASE WORK \ HOME

Wigwag lampwork stringer tutorial

We found this tutorial on the lampworketc. website.  The author, Mustang Dawn's information is listed below, be sure to check her links out!

Wigwag Tutorial

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I posted this over in a gallery thread so I thought I would re post it here. Wigwags are fun to make and really help you practice your heat control. This is how I make my wigwags.

1. Using the clear rod of glass wind a ½ inch long barrel shape on the bare end of 3/32 mandrel. Using clear for your base will give you a nice stiff glass to work with and will make pulling your wigwag much easier.

2. Next spiral encase with your base color rod that you want to use and melt smooth. Shape back into a barrel again using your graphite paddle. Make sure to cover your end of the barrel with your base color as well.

3. Now place stripes down your barrel with the different colors of glass. I use 3 to 4 different colors. You can use stringers and full size rods for your stripes to give you different looks.

4. Melt your stripes smooth and roll it into a barrel again.

5. Heat the end of the boro punty and your barrel end. Once they are glowing attach the boro punty to the end of the barrel.

6. Heat the barrel until glowing making sure your have a nice even heat throughout the barrel. This is what gives you a nice smooth wigwag. If you have uneven heat you will have ridges in your wigwags.

7. Next take the barrel out of the flame and let a skin form over the barrel. This is where you have to read the heat. The barrel can not be soft or too firm. Pull out about an inch from the front of the barrel and let it rest a few seconds, then twist one way 4 to 5 turns. Next keeping the flame toward the rear of your barrel pull out another inch of glass and twist the opposite direction 4 to 5 turns. Keep repeating this step until your barrel is too small to pull off any more glass. Your wigwag is now made.

Tip: When using wigwags I like to press them into my bead to keep the wigwag from spreading out.

Have Fun!

Attached Images

  

__________________
 
My Ebay Auctions
Frit Testing

by Mustang Dawn 

Wavy Bead Tutorial

Wavy Bead Tutorial

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I would like to add that I do not claim to have developed this technique. There are other ways to make a wavy bead. This is how I do it.

1. Start by making a disk about 1 inch in diameter. For this Tutorial I used SS5.

TIP: - Try to make your disk layers as skinny as possible. More layers will add to the depth of the bead and make your end result that much more interesting. I try to have at least 5 layers or more in the disk.

2. Next, using a 6mm clear rod place a fairly large dot on the disk (does not matter which side you start on).

TIP: - Hold your mandrel perpendicular to the flame so that the disk is parallel with the flame. Once you place your dot pull your rod toward the flame and flame cut just above the disk. (See Picture)

Place another dot the same size directly opposite of the first one.

Now place another dot in between the first two.

TIP: - DO NOT - touch the mandrel with the dots.

DO NOT - Let the dots touch each other.

Make your dots as large as possible without doing the above.

3. Perform the above procedure on the other side of the disk placing the dots in between the ones on the other side.

TIP: - These clear dots (When melted) will travel across the face of the bead creating the wave pattern. The larger the dot, the farther across the face it will travel.

TIP: - When placing dots on the face of the disk, wait for a second before pulling it towards the flame to flame cut. This will ultimately leave more glass where you placed the dot.

4. Your next step is to melt everything down into a bead.

TIP: - When you first begin to melt down your wavy bead start by melting the tips of the dots where you flame cut them. After these are all melted down and even with the edge of the disk you can get more aggressive with the melt down.

Here is a pic before encasing it with clear

Here is a pic after encasing it with clear

Here is another example using a 3 color twistie.

1. Make your disk.

2. Apply your dots.

3. Melt it all down.

Before encasing.

After Encasing.

Final TIP: - Soft glass moves much different than Boro. Soft glass users will want to slow down the melt down. You may have to pull it out of the flame and let it cool for a few seconds, pull it out of the flame and let it cool for a few seconds, pull it out of the flame and let it cool for a few seconds, You get the idea. If you are using soft glass and you end up with a big blob and don't get that unmistakable wave pattern then your probably melting to fast!

I hope this helps some of the people out there that have struggled with this technique. Please post your questions and your pics.

Happy melting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Below we have included the information and links for the lampwork artist who made this great tutorial, Rob Keys!  We hope you enjoy this tutorial as much as we did.

__________________
Rob Keyes
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

My Etsy, My Ebay, Wavey Bead Tutorial.

Feathered rainbow lampwork glass bead video by Jeannie Cox

If you have ever wanted to learn how to make a feathered looking lampwork bead, or if you don't even know how to even make a lampwork bead at all, this is the video for you to watch!  We are hoping to try out this technique ourselves in our glass studio!

Click here to view this lampwork glass bead video by Jeannie Cox!

How To Mix Glass Stainer's Paint Into Ink To Draw or Write With

Today we wanted to share this valuable glass "painting" information from Kristina at http://www.finefolly.com/.  She posted this information on 4/26/2011 on the Lampworketc.com forum.  The pictures of her work in progress and completed are simply wonderful!


I just got this question and I thought I would share the answer in case anyone else is interested in the information on mixing "ink" to use with a quill from Glass Stainers Paint. Please let me know if you have questions or I haven't been clear enough.


THE STEPS & INFO:

You need to mix the dry Stain paint with pure Clove Oil to use it with a quill.

You need to have an inkwell or candlestick holder ready to put the "ink" into. Put a teaspoon or so of dry stainer paint on your glass mixing-surface. Then use an eyeglass dropper to put maybe 1/2 teaspoon of Clove Oil or less on the paint and mix it together using a spatula.

Keep adding Clove Oil in drops and mix until the grit is gone (5-10 minutes with a spatula). You want a thick ink. Scrape it onto your spatula with a razor blade and pour it into your inkwell from the spatula blade. 

When you are done using the ink, cover the top of your inkwell with a piece of Duct Tape or some type of wide tape cover to keep dust out. 

It will form a thick layer on the bottom of the inkwell after sitting over night or all week. Stir it up before you use it the next time, and then keep mixing your ink in the inkwell as you work because it will separate. Thin with more Clove Oil in the inkwell if needed. If you let your ink work sit and dry overnight it can be scraped with a fine pointed X-acto knife to clean off any wobbly lines or thick areas. I tighten up my line work that way before firing. Fire based on the instructions for the Stain you are using.


Hope this helps. Please ask if you need more information. You can see an example of a drawing being inked on glass below with the pattern under it as it is being inked. I use a soap dish to tilt my inkwell on, and hold my ink quills in case I want to change size as I ink.



____________

Thank you everyone. It's such a glorious art that I feel we should share and help others come along when we can.

Yes, I use the Reusche paints. I have also used China Paints and they are a finer grind. This is useful for flesh coats by the way. That's what I used for the flesh coat on this piece.

Lampwork beads, purple glass tips!

We found this excellent post in the Chestnut Ridge Designs blog.  It is full of valuable information for lampworkers who use, or want to use, purple glass in their beads!  You should check out their blog,  they have stunning beads, photos and paintings for sale!

Purples are the second-most frustrating colors to find in the glassy world.  At first, you buy all the “mainstream” brands of purple, only to end up with pounds and pounds of glass that is too grey, too red, too blue or just plain ugly.    So after years of frustration and wanting to incorporate this color into my sets, I decided to pursue the dream of finding the perfect purple.  I’m going to share what I found so you can be judicious in choosing your glass! (And from spending your hard earned money on glass you won’t use.)

I am still somewhat frustrated with the opaques and seldom use them, so we’ll get these out of the way quickly.  The contenders are (from left to right):

 

Effetre Violet Pastel 591272, Effetre Soft Violet 591273, Effetre Dark Violet Pastel (handmade) 591274, , ASK  #006 Lavender Fields, ASK #008 Berry Creamy, Effetre Lavender Premium 591221, Effetre Prem. Dark Periwinkle 591222, and Effetre Handmade Premium Violet 591254 (Evil Devitirying Purple, or EDP).  I pulled out two canes of EDP- the left one is more purple, the right one is more pink.   You can see the resulting beads are distinctly different.

I put the Dark Periwinkle in there so you can see the lack of color saturation in the opaques to the left.  Most of them  have a grayish cast that looks out of place and these will wash out your color if you use them as cores to your encased beads.  althought I have to admit  I was really (really!) excited about the Handmade Violet 591274 (third from the left) that was oh so beautiful in rod form, but alas, the resulting bead is almost the same color as the first two.  My hopes were dashed!

Now onto the fun stuff- the transparents- I didn’t bother with the Vetrofond colors- I find them to be too much on the red side (more like the CIM Simply Berry), so I’ve listed the best I’ve found.  I made some paddles so you could compare them side by side:

CIM Crocus Unique 3 511660-3, Lauscha Dark Purple #255, Effetre Ink Blue 591058, Effetre Light Premium Violet 591041, Effetre Dark Violet (Glycine) Premium 591039 (this is a really dark color- almost black in rod form) and CIM Simply Berry 511618

Now I have to say that Crocus Unique 3 is my hands-down favorite purple.  Here I put some EDP beads in the picture- perfect match!

Its color is like nothing else out there- a saturated purple-lavender-fuschia that adds a shock of color to everything and it can be added as a second layer of encasing that really brings up the red tones.   Now the bad news- it is no longer being made.  As of October 2011 it might still be available at some retailers, and I hope that CIM decides to bring it back.

To create a saturated purple, you will need to layer your colors, much like a watercolor painting, like I did with the pinks.  On the plus side, the purples don’t soot up and oxidize the way the pinks do, so this process is much faster and easier.  One thing I have noticed is that they are harder to photograph, as the digital seems to pick up the base color- if it is periwinkle, the beads will look bluer in the picture, whereas the pink cores seem to photograph truer to life.  I made a few different combos for you to look at (left to right):

For these three pairs of spacers,the first is just Crocus Unique 3, the second pair is light periwinkle encased with the Crocus 3, (Notice the blue tone?).  The last pair is light periwinkle encased with the Lauscha purple transparent topped with Crocus.

It’s easier to create dramatic rich color with the transparent purples, but you have to watch or they can get too dark.  On encased beads I use light periwinkle, light pink or white as bases, because these allow the most light to be reflected back up through the bead.  I use a stringer to make a small donut bead, flatten to a thin barrel and encase it with thin wraps of transparent purple.   Then you can add clear encasing or use Crocus as the outer layer.  Some examples:

From left to right: Effetre light pink core/Crocus 3, periwinkle core/Crocus 3, periwinkle core/Lasucha purple/Crocus 3, EDP core/Effetre dark purple/clear  and periwinkle core/thick layer of Effetre Ink Blue.   

You can see how the thick layer of Ink Blue on the last bead makes it really dark.  It is beautiful in person, but so hard to photograph.  That being said, after comparing all of my experiments, one of the best results was simply ink blue over periwinkle encased in clear- it is a little on the blue side, but a very nice purple with little fussJ

Because florals have such a thin layer of transparent, I switch to the darkest most saturated transparent and pair these with darker versions of the opaque bases- dark periwinkle and EDP make good bases for petals.  Pictures coming soon!

Light periwinkle as a base for the Dark Violet Premium (039) also works well, as seen in this picture:

It contrasts nicely with the olive bead to the right- those dots are EDP topped with Effetre Light Violet.

So play around with these- I would say to start, purchase Effetre Periwinkle and Ink Blue and then expand into the other colors- layer, experiment and above all- have fun!