First time at the torch this past week.

Well Sunday I was finally able to sit down and try my hand at making
some glass beads... and have done so every night since ;-)

As usual, I read just about everything I could get my hands on prior to
starting so when I began it almost felt like I had done it before.. and
I would suppose, according to my wife, it paid off. Had some issues at
first though... one was that my wife kept pulling up the fiber pad to
peek eventhough I kept telling her not to (LOL) and there were a number
of beads where I was just forcing the glass onto the mandrel and
thereby destroying the bead release underneath. Consequently I have a
quench jar with a lot of broken glass in it.

My work area is located in a box style office (3 small rooms and a
bathroom) in our 50x50 warehouse that sits on the back of our property.
Last night I sat down to make beads and was only able to create four
of them due to the fact that it is blazingly hot in the box office even
with the AC unit and fans running. So instead of that I decided to
attempt (again) to create some stringers.. still wrestling with them
though since they are still coming out way too thin.. though larger
than the first batch I tried.

I was bitten by the problem with the MAPP gas cannister getting too
cold and affecting the flame... although I have read about (but not
tried) the trick of putting the bottom of the cannister in warm water,
I was wondering if it might work to wrap it in a small heating pad
turned on low.. kinda like how we used to engines and what not warm
when I was still living in NY. I've got a small one that I used to use
to wrap around my elbow... it's smaller than a blood pressure cuff...
would this work or am I asking for trouble ;-)

Well looking back that was quite a bit of rambling... hehe

-M

That was cool -- I enjoyed reading about it. Oooh, can we see some
pics of the beads?

````````````````````````````````
Michael LeBlanc wrote:
Well Sunday I was finally able to sit down and try my hand at making
some glass beads... and have done so every night since ;-)

As usual, I read just about everything I could get my hands on prior to
starting so when I began it almost felt like I had done it before.. and
I would suppose, according to my wife, it paid off. Had some issues at
first though... one was that my wife kept pulling up the fiber pad to
peek eventhough I kept telling her not to (LOL) and there were a number
of beads where I was just forcing the glass onto the mandrel and
thereby destroying the bead release underneath. Consequently I have a
quench jar with a lot of broken glass in it.

My work area is located in a box style office (3 small rooms and a
bathroom) in our 50x50 warehouse that sits on the back of our property.
Last night I sat down to make beads and was only able to create four
of them due to the fact that it is blazingly hot in the box office even
with the AC unit and fans running. So instead of that I decided to
attempt (again) to create some stringers.. still wrestling with them
though since they are still coming out way too thin.. though larger
than the first batch I tried.

I was bitten by the problem with the MAPP gas cannister getting too
cold and affecting the flame... although I have read about (but not
tried) the trick of putting the bottom of the cannister in warm water,
I was wondering if it might work to wrap it in a small heating pad
turned on low.. kinda like how we used to engines and what not warm
when I was still living in NY. I've got a small one that I used to use
to wrap around my elbow... it's smaller than a blood pressure cuff...
would this work or am I asking for trouble ;-)

Well looking back that was quite a bit of rambling... hehe

-M

OK... something has changed in the last day or so... just about every
bead that I have done today has sheared in half when cooled and taken
off of the madrel :-(

All week I was using the method of letting the beads cool off in a
fiber pad.. but last night I was finally able to get the vermiculite
set up (had a tough time finding the stuff for some odd reason no one
is carrying it). I created 4 beads last night and placed them in the
warmed vermiculite for about 45minutes to an hour.. and then in room
temperature vermiculite for about the same amount of time. All the
beads last night turned out fine... and yet today.. following the same
procedure, most of them are breaking. Matter of fact, the heart shaped
one I made for my wife broke in half as it was sitting on the counter
in front of us. What is similar between them all is that they are all
breaking cleanly in half lenghtwise along the mandrel. Is there
something I should be looking out for that I am possibly doing
differently today or is it just one of those days and I should attempt
to pick it back up tomorrow.

TIA.

-M

I'll have my wife take some pictures of them tomorrow so I can post 'em
up

On Oct 20, 3:13 pm, "Dr. Sooz" wrote:
That was cool -- I enjoyed reading about it. Oooh, can we see some
pics of the beads?

I've never made lampworked beads, but I do know for best results you need an
annealing kiln.

--
Karleen Page
Member International Jewelry Designers Guild (IJDG)
Vibrant Jewels: http://www.vibrantjewels.com/jewelry/welcome.htm
JustBeads: http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=21770
Join our Yahoo Group:
"Michael LeBlanc" wrote in message
ups.com...
OK... something has changed in the last day or so... just about every
bead that I have done today has sheared in half when cooled and taken
off of the madrel :-(

All week I was using the method of letting the beads cool off in a
fiber pad.. but last night I was finally able to get the vermiculite
set up (had a tough time finding the stuff for some odd reason no one
is carrying it). I created 4 beads last night and placed them in the
warmed vermiculite for about 45minutes to an hour.. and then in room
temperature vermiculite for about the same amount of time. All the
beads last night turned out fine... and yet today.. following the same
procedure, most of them are breaking. Matter of fact, the heart shaped
one I made for my wife broke in half as it was sitting on the counter
in front of us. What is similar between them all is that they are all
breaking cleanly in half lenghtwise along the mandrel. Is there
something I should be looking out for that I am possibly doing
differently today or is it just one of those days and I should attempt
to pick it back up tomorrow.

TIA.

-M

Michael, do you have a kiln to anneal them? Otherwise you're just
****ing into the wind.

`````````````````````````````````````
Michael LeBlanc wrote:
OK... something has changed in the last day or so... just about every
bead that I have done today has sheared in half when cooled and taken
off of the madrel :-(

All week I was using the method of letting the beads cool off in a
fiber pad.. but last night I was finally able to get the vermiculite
set up (had a tough time finding the stuff for some odd reason no one
is carrying it). I created 4 beads last night and placed them in the
warmed vermiculite for about 45minutes to an hour.. and then in room
temperature vermiculite for about the same amount of time. All the
beads last night turned out fine... and yet today.. following the same
procedure, most of them are breaking. Matter of fact, the heart shaped
one I made for my wife broke in half as it was sitting on the counter
in front of us. What is similar between them all is that they are all
breaking cleanly in half lenghtwise along the mandrel. Is there
something I should be looking out for that I am possibly doing
differently today or is it just one of those days and I should attempt
to pick it back up tomorrow.

TIA.

-M

I know I should have one... and probably will eventually, but I
couldn't see potentially throwing a few hundred dollars away if I were
to decide that this stuff wasn't for me. I can imagine that there are
a number of kilns collecting dust in corners from people doing just
that... hehe perhaps I can find one of those ;-)

I'm not expecting the beads that I am making to be durable.. and I
certainly don't expect them to be perfect; but it just seemed odd to me
that I was having so many problems today since just about every one
that I have made since those first few mistakes have been fine.


Dr. Sooz wrote:
Michael, do you have a kiln to anneal them? Otherwise you're just
****ing into the wind.

`````````````````````````````````````

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the group, and welcome to the wonderful world of melting glass!!!
The beads are cracking along the mandrel due to shock (cooling to fast).
Back when I first started making beads I used the crockpot with vermiculite
in it for the first few weeks while I was learning. I kept it on high while
I made beads, adding them to the pot as I went. When I was finished, I just
turned the pot off, and didn't touch them until the pot was completely cool.
(Tell your wife "No peeking!"....LOL!) Also, you want to keep your bead
small, like maybe 10 - 12mm or so. This is a good method for just starting
out while you're learning, but eventually you'll want to get a kiln so you
can properly anneal your beads. And once you do, you could even batch anneal
the beads that survived the crockpot.
Good luck, and happy torching!

--
Dawn
"Art Insomnia"
Web Site http://www.art-insomnia.com
Auctions http://tinyurl.com/qyva7




"Michael LeBlanc" wrote in message
ups.com...

Well Sunday I was finally able to sit down and try my hand at making
some glass beads... and have done so every night since ;-)

As usual, I read just about everything I could get my hands on prior to
starting so when I began it almost felt like I had done it before.. and
I would suppose, according to my wife, it paid off. Had some issues at
first though... one was that my wife kept pulling up the fiber pad to
peek eventhough I kept telling her not to (LOL) and there were a number
of beads where I was just forcing the glass onto the mandrel and
thereby destroying the bead release underneath. Consequently I have a
quench jar with a lot of broken glass in it.

My work area is located in a box style office (3 small rooms and a
bathroom) in our 50x50 warehouse that sits on the back of our property.
Last night I sat down to make beads and was only able to create four
of them due to the fact that it is blazingly hot in the box office even
with the AC unit and fans running. So instead of that I decided to
attempt (again) to create some stringers.. still wrestling with them
though since they are still coming out way too thin.. though larger
than the first batch I tried.

I was bitten by the problem with the MAPP gas cannister getting too
cold and affecting the flame... although I have read about (but not
tried) the trick of putting the bottom of the cannister in warm water,
I was wondering if it might work to wrap it in a small heating pad
turned on low.. kinda like how we used to engines and what not warm
when I was still living in NY. I've got a small one that I used to use
to wrap around my elbow... it's smaller than a blood pressure cuff...
would this work or am I asking for trouble ;-)

Well looking back that was quite a bit of rambling... hehe

-M

Dawn,

Thanks for the tip! I actually tried that very thing on Sunday night
with just ONE bead (the rest I put in the fiber pad which has been
pretty successful thus far) and it turned out fine.. so I may attempt
using the vermiculite again.

I made a handful of them last night and I am now starting to control my
glass usage. We were looking at some of my earlier ones and they were
MONSTERS! My wife has since then challenged me to make crow beads for
her since that is the size she typically uses. Although I do keep
telling her that these beads may not be durable enough for her usage.

I also noticed a pattern last night as I was scanning through the
container that holds all of my finished beads. Most of the 10 that
have broken thus far are all ones that have dichroic glass in them. I
think the only ones that have survived are ones where there were only
small pieces of the dichroic glass in them. I scored a hit on picking
up dichroics from a local woman that was getting out of doing
glasswork.. bags and bags of it (about 3 lbs of it) for $30.00.. and
that price included the crock pot, lots of fiber pad, rakes and picks
and what not, torch mount marver, and a bunch of silver smithing
supplies (which my wife is getting into). Anyhow.. I am thinking that
since I do not know the exact COE of the dichroics, that this might be
the problem. I made the leap that since the prior owner was working
with a hot head torch then she would have to be working in softer
glass.. so why would she have dichroics that were different!? Perhaps
that's a bad assumption on my part... but is there a way to tell COE (I
wouldn't think so.. but figured I'd ask).

One other thing my wife and I were talking about last night... since
she, in the past, did a lot of ceramics, is there a kiln out there that
will do double-duty? Glass and Ceramics?

Thanks again....

- Michael


Dawn ^..^ wrote:
Hi Michael,

Welcome to the group, and welcome to the wonderful world of melting glass!!!
The beads are cracking along the mandrel due to shock (cooling to fast).
Back when I first started making beads I used the crockpot with vermiculite
in it for the first few weeks while I was learning. I kept it on high while
I made beads, adding them to the pot as I went. When I was finished, I just
turned the pot off, and didn't touch them until the pot was completely cool.
(Tell your wife "No peeking!"....LOL!) Also, you want to keep your bead
small, like maybe 10 - 12mm or so. This is a good method for just starting
out while you're learning, but eventually you'll want to get a kiln so you
can properly anneal your beads. And once you do, you could even batch anneal
the beads that survived the crockpot.
Good luck, and happy torching!

--
Dawn
"Art Insomnia"
Web Site http://www.art-insomnia.com
Auctions http://tinyurl.com/qyva7

Hi Michael,
Yes, the dichro being of an incompatible COE will also cause your bead to
crack along the mandrel. As far as soft glass goes, there are several COE's
to consider.
Bullseye has a COE of 90, Reichenbach, Gaffer, Zimmerman and Uroboros System
96 have a COE of 96, and Moretti / Effetre, Vetrofond / Murano and Lauscha
have a COE of 104. All of which are considered soft glass but the COE's are
not compatible. Sometimes you can use a very small amount of incompatible
glass for a surface decoration, but us lampworkers have this thing called
the 5% rule. The incompatible glass should be no more than 5% of the glass
in the bead. For instance, if you make a bead with Moretti, and decorate it
with Reichenbach raku using small lines or dots or a light roll in the frit,
you should be okay. But if you put a large piece of incompatible dichro or a
thick layer of incompatible glass over your base bead, it's almost certain
to crack.
The thing about these cracks is....it can crack right away, or an hour after
you clean it, or next week, or six months from now, so it's always good to
know exactly what glass you're working with. I'm not sure how you can figure
out what COE your dichro is. And I can't answer your kiln question either. I
use a Chilipepper Bead Annealing kiln with a digital controller. You
definitely want a digital controller on whatever kiln you end up getting so
you can program in an annealing cycle and not have to baby-sit it.

--
Dawn
"Art Insomnia"
Web Site http://www.art-insomnia.com
Auctions http://tinyurl.com/qyva7
"Michael LeBlanc" wrote in message
ups.com...

Dawn,

Thanks for the tip! I actually tried that very thing on Sunday night
with just ONE bead (the rest I put in the fiber pad which has been
pretty successful thus far) and it turned out fine.. so I may attempt
using the vermiculite again.

I made a handful of them last night and I am now starting to control my
glass usage. We were looking at some of my earlier ones and they were
MONSTERS! My wife has since then challenged me to make crow beads for
her since that is the size she typically uses. Although I do keep
telling her that these beads may not be durable enough for her usage.

I also noticed a pattern last night as I was scanning through the
container that holds all of my finished beads. Most of the 10 that
have broken thus far are all ones that have dichroic glass in them. I
think the only ones that have survived are ones where there were only
small pieces of the dichroic glass in them. I scored a hit on picking
up dichroics from a local woman that was getting out of doing
glasswork.. bags and bags of it (about 3 lbs of it) for $30.00.. and
that price included the crock pot, lots of fiber pad, rakes and picks
and what not, torch mount marver, and a bunch of silver smithing
supplies (which my wife is getting into). Anyhow.. I am thinking that
since I do not know the exact COE of the dichroics, that this might be
the problem. I made the leap that since the prior owner was working
with a hot head torch then she would have to be working in softer
glass.. so why would she have dichroics that were different!? Perhaps
that's a bad assumption on my part... but is there a way to tell COE (I
wouldn't think so.. but figured I'd ask).

One other thing my wife and I were talking about last night... since
she, in the past, did a lot of ceramics, is there a kiln out there that
will do double-duty? Glass and Ceramics?

Thanks again....

- Michael


Dawn ^..^ wrote:
Hi Michael,

Welcome to the group, and welcome to the wonderful world of melting
glass!!!
The beads are cracking along the mandrel due to shock (cooling to fast).
Back when I first started making beads I used the crockpot with
vermiculite
in it for the first few weeks while I was learning. I kept it on high
while
I made beads, adding them to the pot as I went. When I was finished, I
just
turned the pot off, and didn't touch them until the pot was completely
cool.
(Tell your wife "No peeking!"....LOL!) Also, you want to keep your bead
small, like maybe 10 - 12mm or so. This is a good method for just
starting
out while you're learning, but eventually you'll want to get a kiln so
you
can properly anneal your beads. And once you do, you could even batch
anneal
the beads that survived the crockpot.
Good luck, and happy torching!

--
Dawn
"Art Insomnia"
Web Site http://www.art-insomnia.com
Auctions http://tinyurl.com/qyva7