How are witch balls made?
 

They look like a big christmas ornament with some stringers dropped down the blow tube.

Is that all there is to it? It still looks tricky to make.

http://www.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0...=1172887356000

I've blown them in the hot shop. After you get your gather, roll on your frit, reheat and make a small bubble, you stick something it in (I usually use a fork). Make sure the fork goes all the way through and touches the other side. Then blow it out.

Wow, I want to try it out, thank you for reveling the trick.
:D

If they are real thick and durable small ones might make nice pendants or even ear rings.

For simple ones, the stringers down the tube approach *does* work as well.

The poking method is more reliable though.

How is this one done, if it's not a protected secret?

OH my! I want to know too. I can ruin some glass trying that.

Wicked! Thanks

use a sharp ice pick

These are really cool. I've been googling trying to find a video to see how these are made but no luck. Do you know of any out there? It'd be a no go on the torch for me in soft glass I'm sure but I'm curious to see it done.

It looks like a ball suspended within a ball with hair-thin stringers - I can see the hole in the center one, but the technique is so beyond me....

I also looked to see if I could find any vids on how they are done to no avail.

I sort of know how they are made but haven't tried it yet - pull a point, blow out a bubble, get it really soft and then take tongs or some pokey item and press the side of the bubble into the wall on the other side so that they stick, then blow back out. It will leave a stringer where the two have touched. The number of "pokes", determines how many stringers.

As far as the bubble inside a bubble connected by stringers - no clue - I have ideas in my head but not tested and certainly more like science fiction at this point LOL

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...e435ef6183.jpg

I found this in my mother's house.

I made witchballs some years ago.
This one is lampworked and a bit tricky to make :

- pull a point and open one side
- put the pre made small ball(that has a small hole) inside
- close the point
- poke into the outer wall to get small connections to the inner ball
- melt the whole (not oo much) and blow it up in one step

Another way is to fill thinn (hollow and solid)stringers and/or shards into the open point and then melt and blow

Give it a try and show

That sounds tricky. I'm a beginner so that's out of my league. I'd love to see this method on video.

Thank you for sharing.

-BEP

I was able to make a quick ball with the point by stabbing the bubble with a tungsten pick. Much easier than I thought it would be.

My ball is wonky but it was just a test.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psnmtwwa9t.jpg