Stupid newbie tricks

Hi everyone. I've been a polymer artist for years and only recently
(as in 2 weeks ago) have gotten into glass.

I'd been eyeing Fireworks' lampworking kit for a looooong time and
finally broke down and bought the stupid thing. Well about a thousand
bucks and less than 2 weeks later later I have a kiln and a load of
soft glass headed my way. Addictive, my god yes. (And of course now
that I have the kiln I must buy some PMC and earth clay...it's a
vicious cycle)

So, I've mainly been playing around with what I have on hand now. I'm
using a torch with disposable canisters of MAPP (and I can already
tell I'm either going to have to buy refillable canisters or just set
up an oxy/propane torch) and so far it's been working. I've turned
out a handful of clumsy beads, some rather pretty if not a bit uneven
and a miniature tacky vase for a white trash dollhouse I'm currently
working on with a very close friend of mine.

My question is this - I'm utterly fascinated with encased beads,
marbles, anything that has opaque bits of glass floating in it just
fascinates me, it has ever since I was a little bitty thing. I'm
doing fairly well (just made a REALLY cool bead the other night
actually) but the one problem I seem to keep running into is that I
seem to scorch the glass.

At first I thought I had my flame too high, so I turned it down, but
then I could never get the glass hot enough. Then I thought perhaps I
was holding the bead too far in the flame, so I tried holding it just
at the tip of the flame and that worked...sort of. It took FOREVER to
heat the glass to working temp and even then I had to turn up the
flame half the time.

So, what am I doing wrong? I readily admit that I have zilch for
instruction or training save one Cindy Jenkins book that's proven very
helpful. I'm a d-i-y type person and prefer to learn on my own with
very little outside instruction. It's how I learned with polymer clay
and it worked out exceptionally well for me. However, this scorching
issue has me stumped. The beads I'm making are becoming more even and
more attractive save for the swirly scorch marks on the surface. I've
even tried etching the surface hoping to etch off the scorch marks but
it was unsuccessful. I just ended up with a very pretty matte bead
with equally matte scorching Obviously I can not, nor will I, sell
these to customers like this (unannealed as well, but that's soon
going to be a non-issue) and since I wear very little jewelry myself,
I have to sell them or risk being taken over by beads.

And despite the running theme of this post, I'm not strictly
interested in beads. Actually, I'm mainly interested in glass
sculpture and fusing, possible some slumping, it just seemed beads
would be a good starting point - little glass, realtively easy to
make, simple shapes, etc.

Any suggestions, criticisms, book recommendations or classes in GA I
ought to attend will be most appreciated

Regards,
BH

www.hussydesigns.com

Sounds like you are using a hothead with MAPP right now....

I'm not sure you have what I would call "scorching" -- are you talking
black/smoky marks on your glass?

Is this only certain colors (particularly the light blue or turquoise colors
and the petroleium green - and all the alabastro colros).

if so - no solution - get a minor....
You need more oxygen than a Hot Head can pull from the air.

Book recommendation
Everything You ever wanted to know about Beadmaking
Jim Kervin...

email me if you want other tips.


Cheryl
last semester of lawschool! yipee!
A HREF="http://www.dragonbeads.com" DRAGON BEADS /A
Flameworked beads and glass
http://www.dragonbeads.com/

I think Cheryl nailed it on the head about the transparent colors if that's
what you are using. I have a very hard time, even on a Bobcat, with Moretti
blues and a few greens....all transparent. What color glass is getting
marks?

I worked on a hothead for a while and had some problems at first. I don't
recommend Jim Kervin's book unless you need a lot of technical information
on torch setup, safety, etc. I would go to WetCanvas to get that
information. For instruction you can't beat Corina's Passing the Flame,
either edition. I've seen some first editions for sale in second hand
stores now. The book is in the $70 price range but well worth the money.

Do you have a digital camera? If so, can you post some photos of the beads
that are messed up? Or you can send me the photos to sklopman at
cox-internet dot com. I'll try to help.

Starlia

p.s. Wetcanvas is www.wetcanvas.com. There is a great Art Glass section to
include a technical forum where we might be able to help.
"www.hussydesigns.com" wrote in message
om...
Hi everyone. I've been a polymer artist for years and only recently
(as in 2 weeks ago) have gotten into glass.

I'd been eyeing Fireworks' lampworking kit for a looooong time and
finally broke down and bought the stupid thing. Well about a thousand
bucks and less than 2 weeks later later I have a kiln and a load of
soft glass headed my way. Addictive, my god yes. (And of course now
that I have the kiln I must buy some PMC and earth clay...it's a
vicious cycle)

So, I've mainly been playing around with what I have on hand now. I'm
using a torch with disposable canisters of MAPP (and I can already
tell I'm either going to have to buy refillable canisters or just set
up an oxy/propane torch) and so far it's been working. I've turned
out a handful of clumsy beads, some rather pretty if not a bit uneven
and a miniature tacky vase for a white trash dollhouse I'm currently
working on with a very close friend of mine.

My question is this - I'm utterly fascinated with encased beads,
marbles, anything that has opaque bits of glass floating in it just
fascinates me, it has ever since I was a little bitty thing. I'm
doing fairly well (just made a REALLY cool bead the other night
actually) but the one problem I seem to keep running into is that I
seem to scorch the glass.

At first I thought I had my flame too high, so I turned it down, but
then I could never get the glass hot enough. Then I thought perhaps I
was holding the bead too far in the flame, so I tried holding it just
at the tip of the flame and that worked...sort of. It took FOREVER to
heat the glass to working temp and even then I had to turn up the
flame half the time.

So, what am I doing wrong? I readily admit that I have zilch for
instruction or training save one Cindy Jenkins book that's proven very
helpful. I'm a d-i-y type person and prefer to learn on my own with
very little outside instruction. It's how I learned with polymer clay
and it worked out exceptionally well for me. However, this scorching
issue has me stumped. The beads I'm making are becoming more even and
more attractive save for the swirly scorch marks on the surface. I've
even tried etching the surface hoping to etch off the scorch marks but
it was unsuccessful. I just ended up with a very pretty matte bead
with equally matte scorching Obviously I can not, nor will I, sell
these to customers like this (unannealed as well, but that's soon
going to be a non-issue) and since I wear very little jewelry myself,
I have to sell them or risk being taken over by beads.

And despite the running theme of this post, I'm not strictly
interested in beads. Actually, I'm mainly interested in glass
sculpture and fusing, possible some slumping, it just seemed beads
would be a good starting point - little glass, realtively easy to
make, simple shapes, etc.

Any suggestions, criticisms, book recommendations or classes in GA I
ought to attend will be most appreciated

Regards,
BH

www.hussydesigns.com