Boro blown round ornaments

[Mountain Snail]

I am a soft glass person but I really want to make blown round ornaments from boro. I am looking into upgrading my torch, etc to do this.

I am looking at simax tubes and I have absolutely no idea what size I would want for standard ornaments. Also, is simax compatible with northstar?

Forgive me for my lack of boro knowledge. ;)

[torchgirl]

Simax and northstar boro are both 33 coe and compatible.

[Mountain Snail]

Thanks!

Another idiot question: what size schott tubing would I need to make standard round Christmas ornaments? (orange size or larger)

[nevadaglass]

Thanks!

Another idiot question: what size schott tubing would I need to make standard round Christmas ornaments? (orange size or larger)

I would use 25m x 4m or 25 x 2m. ( The 2 and the 4 being wall thickness) that relates to about a 3/4 inch to 1 inch diameter tube. Anything bigger may be harder for you - especially if your used to soft glass. you could probably even get away with going down to about a 18 or 20mm but anything smaller than that will give you mini ornaments.....
I took an chandelier class in Vegas 2 years ago and we used 25m x 4 to blow out balls for the chandelier - makes about a 2 - 3 inch ball blown out which is a good size for an ornament.

Just a suggestion - 25mm Chinese tubing is cheap cheap cheap unless you go white, black, pink or red......practice with some of it , then try on the "good stuff".

If you want an orange size you may be able to even go up to about a 40 but anything bigger will more than likely frustrate you. Least wise it frustrates me.

I made the mistake once of buying a 150MM cobalt tubing because it was cheap - OMG - its like 8 inches in diameter and I cant even heat it up on the torch - it explodes and if I put it in the kiln to heat up - I cant hang onto it ( I haven't seen a hot fingers that will hold an 8 inch diameter chunk of tubing a foot long) LMAO - so right now its cut into several 8 - 12 inch high tubes and I use it to hold rods, etc LOL

[Mountain Snail]

Thanks for all of the info. I think I am going to get some 25x2 and 25 x4.

I figure I have most of the year to practice and pull this off. ;)

[nevadaglass]

I have never tried using 25 x 2 mainly because in class we always used 25 x4 and I got used to it. I would think the thinner walled 25 x 2 might be easier to heat up but also be harder for me to stay in control with. I also just saw a really good tip from someone on here a while back - Cant remember his alias but I believe he's a marble maker. I have always worked on getting the glass almost soupy before pulling points - at least glowing red. His suggestion was that you don't have to heat it up that hot, just hot enough to pull - right before the glow stage.... I haven't tried it yet. been working on other things.... but the next points I pull, I am going to try the tip.

[Otter's Flame]

I have two thoughts on this. First, the thicker walled tubing will probably be easier for you to work in the beginning. Also, you will need a bit thicker tubing if you want to blow a round ornamant the size of an orange and have enough wall thickness that it wont be overly fragile. However, you can develop better control learning to use thinner tubing.

If you have not used tubing before, you may want to get some medium walled tubing that has a smaller OD than 25MM to learn to pull points and just to play with and work your way up to 25MM OD. After you practise pulling points, practise contracting and blowing out shapes and keeping an even wall thickness. Even wall thickness will be an absolute MUST for your project.

If I am using 20MM medium walled tubing and wrap it with color I can easily blow out a sphere 40MM in diameter. The raven skull I posted in the boro show and tell started with 20MM clear tubing.

Otter

[Mountain Snail]

Thank you! I am going to get some other sizes to work with too. The only ornaments I have blown were the soft glass Glaskolben and as you know, soft glass does not like that sort of thing. I still made the ornaments, but I am really looking forward to not having to baby the glass so much.

[patienthand]

I am really old school... I learned on 25mm standard/thin wall. I still prefer it because I think the wall thickness is more even to start with and I get better bubbles. It may also be a factor of it what i know.

[menty666]

Thank you! I am going to get some other sizes to work with too. The only ornaments I have blown were the soft glass Glaskolben and as you know, soft glass does not like that sort of thing. I still made the ornaments, but I am really looking forward to not having to baby the glass so much.


Au contraire... Neon workers work in soft glass. Shane Fero was doing his birds in soft glass (may still be, I don't keep up with him), and here is an example of someone doing encalmo in soft glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OtXezwd3Go

It just requires different techniques that's all; you can't just push the glass into the flame like we do with boro.

[getdul981]

I have never tried using 25 x 2 mainly because in class we always used 25 x4 and I got used to it. I would think the thinner walled 25 x 2 might be easier to heat up but also be harder for me to stay in control with. I also just saw a really good tip from someone on here a while back - Cant remember his alias but I believe he's a marble maker.

I believe you might be refering to Cosmo