TAG Glass Video Demo
 

Hi you guys. I thought I would share a video I made using Trautman Art Glass. In the video I use Dalai Lama, but I also work Tibet and Transcendental the same way. This glass seems to require more heat than any of the other striking type silver glass so if any of you out there are still having trouble with it, I'm hoping this little demo might help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOGX2...ature=youtu.be



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I loved watching the video. It's funny that you said this glass takes more heat than some others, because it made me realize that I've been over cooking the strike stage by a lot with all silver glass.

Great video. Thanks for giving me a reason to get my butt of the couch...2 questions...does it strike then in the kiln? Since the Dalai Lama was a purple color going in, is that what it is coming out? Also,fire lotus by TAG is worked the same way!!!

And...last but not least, what is the colors in your last set of beads? The yellowy one's...Love those!!!

Who sells TAG glass? Loved the video, thanks for sharing.

Really interesting video. Gorgeous beads! I noticed you didn't change you O2 or gas settings. Did I not see the change? You also have what looks like a creation station. I have one and have a hard time resting my wrist as the adjustment is so hard to attain...thanks for sharing this information.

She didn't change her settings. I just made like 5 beads and I think I might have actually done it lol! We'll see what happens in the morning when I get to take them out of kiln!

Sh*t! Have to buy MORE glass. Dawn you are spectacular at this .... thank you for any and all secrets!!!!!!

Thanks Dawn. Your beads are so beautiful and the video rocks.

Thank you so much. I can't wait to give my TAG glass a second chance. Great video and very generous of you to share.

Hi Reenie,

No, it doesn't strike in the kiln. It comes out of the kiln the same color it goes in. The clear encasement keeps it from changing or over striking in the kiln. I garage my beads at 950 and ramp down at the end of the day.

Fire lotus all depends on if you're doing a solid bead or just surface decorations. I only use Fire Lotus on the surface and it doesn't require the deep super heating.

Hi Deb,

You can buy it directly from the factory. They have a $100 min order policy.
http://www.taglass.com/

Most other places carry it too. I've ordered it from Frantz Art Glass and Flame Dame.

Hi Marla,

No, I don't change my flame settings while I'm making the bead. I just start out with a low, neutral flame and leave it there.

My Creation Station was one of the first ones they ever made. It does come loose sometimes so I keep a wrench right next to me for when I need to make adjustments. I adjust the tension on mine so that I can just lightly rest my wrists on it, but when it's in the way, I can push it down and then lift it again with one finger. Does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is that I keep it adjusted loosely because if I'm rolling a bead in frit or using a bead press I end up pushing it down and lifting it up a few times throughout the course of making one bead.

Well....when I encased it, it had the brownish color that had turned really, really dark. They came out of the kiln pretty much the same way. 2 were like a brown orange and only one color has some blues :-( Oh well!

IS this Dalai Lama too??? Looks like a base of yellow.



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Oops! Forgot to answer this.

All the beads in the photos are Dalai Lama. Just different batches. As beautiful as the TAG glass colors I mentioned are, they're not very consistent from batch to batch. But I don't mind really, it makes for a nice variety.

The beads are nothing but a Dalai Lama base, encased in clear, and a few have the surface decorations. I didn't layer the Dalai Lama over anything.

The top two photos were made with rods that I could actually see light through. If you hold them up to the light they look like a milky amber color.

The next two photos were made with more opaque rods. When I hold these up to the light, no light shines through.

The last photo on the bottom was from a few opaque rods that my friend Gretchen gifted me a few years ago.

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Nothing but Dalai Lama encased in clear. This is what the opaque rods do. They tend to make beads that have a yellow opaque core.

Wow....huge difference. I was a distributor for TAG Glass so I have a boat load of colors still. The rod I used last night was opaque. Really opaque! I did what you did and got it really hot to the point of droopy (yes some too droopy that's on my work bench now) and took it out to cool. Some beads went clear and some were a pale grey green. Then I struck the bead and they either turned a brown color or went so dark that I couldn't tell ya what color it was. When I encased, I could see some blue in it (very little) but it was still dark. That's the color they ended up. I'll take a few pics! I did use fire lotus as well because I used to be able to get great color from that a few times but darn it, this time not so much. I think the easiest glass to use is Transcendental. That color is easy but then again, as soon as I encase, it's gone :-(

It may just be the batch you have. I would try doing the same thing again, then after you get that dark color, strike the bead in the flame just a little bit longer before encasing.

After the bead gets to that really dark stage, the more you strike it the lighter it becomes. The trick is to get the encasement on before the bead becomes too pale. That said, with some batches, they might require a little longer striking before encasing.

Are you encasing with fat stringer the way I showed in the video?

This is actually an important step for me in retaining my colors. Because I use the stringer, the encasement goes on much cooler than any other method, like the "blob it on all at once" thing.

Yea. I pulled a rod of Vetrofond 12mm into stringers.

The second cone bead with the silvered ivory is GT Glass black Nebula. There's a round one that's fire lotus but the rest are Dalai lama. Don't mind the black stringer mess lol. Used stringers that weren't pulled hair thin and I can't do the method you do lol

When I sold TAG the thing Jenny told me was get it really, really hot like you do. Then when you go to strike you do it over and over. and each time more colors come out. Blues, then greens, then will go to purples and pinks. Normally when i do that and encase, it goes back to mud. But doing it your way apparently went back to mud for me too. I had the kiln at 965 and they annealed for maybe 35-40 minutes.

and yes silver glass frustrates the hell outta me!

Well, you certainly have quite a variety of results there! The only thing I can suggest is to just experiment with the different batches you have. But it looks like you're on the right track with getting the colors to bloom.

I find that a nice thick encasement shows the colors off really well too. So after you get the bead encased with the first thin layer, try layering on a little more clear but try to keep the bead from getting overheated.

Looking at your beads and counting down from the top, beads 3 & 6 are what mine look like after that first thin layer of encasement.

I wonder if I may be heating too much after the first encasement. My daughter wanted a sqaure bead so there was alot of pressing, heating, pressing etc....I'll keep trying. Thanks for the video. It helps to have a visual but bad for me because I watched a few Kristina Logan demos and other people's demos on beads....Not good lol!

That's quite possible. That's why I don't do larger pressed beads or big focals with this glass. With the smaller beads I can encase them and get them back in shape quickly and without heating them to the core again.

How very generous of you to take the time to make and post the video-- thank you so much. And I took a look at your website and holy cow! Are those multi-colored beads glass? I can't begin to figure out how you did them; they are stunning.

Mimi

Yea but you also have that magic touch.....one day when I grow up, I'll be like u ;-)

Thanks Mimi!

And if you're referring to the photo on the home page of my website, that's just a "cartoon edited" photo of my beads. I only WISH I could find glass that bright!

:lol::lol::lol:
Who says I'm grown up?

Yes, I was talking about the ones on your home page. "Cartoon edited" or not, I'm convinced that if anyone could make glass look like that it would be you. Thanks again for the video and the inspiration.

Mimi