Sculpting question
 

Today at the torch I made this glass rose:



Whenever I make something sculptural I always give it several taps with my tweezer to make sure nothing will fall off. It seemed sturdy so I put it in the kiln. Then I made a second and as I was working on it my hand slipped and it tapped my table. The stem broke in several places, which was really strange because the stem was basically one long thick stringer. So, I reached into the kiln and tapped the first rose with the tweezers - same thing happened.

I am really curious why this happened. Does anyone have any insight? Would it have been fine if I had let it anneal?

TIA

I'm not sure I understand the Q.....

Are you asking about making good connections? or how thin one can make rose stems?

and I Hate it when I drop a just about finished piece :( :pout:

you probably had more of a cold seal then a weld. it seems to me soft glass is super easy to weld...boro sometimes i need to get a pinpoint flame (love the gtt for this) and go around the connection point a time or two.

That would make sense to me if the leaves or petals had fallen off. But actually, it was the stem itself that broke in several places, and it was one long piece of glass. Basically a thick stringer. The leaves and thorns, etc, were all still attached to the broken pieces of stem. :(

So, I guess I'm asking why the thick stringer I pulled for the stem was so fragile, and how I can make it sturdier when I try again.

if your glass was not hot enough when you pulled the stringer it will create stress in the glass. So, you can work it hotter or best of all anneal it - that should help make them stronger - hopefully :)

Thanks!! I'll do both and hopefully it will work out better!

Also, when you attached the petals/leaves you created a lot of stress in the stem. But annealing should take care of that.

That makes sense. I wondered if that might have been contributing to it. Thanks!

yes, the stress in the 'stringer' ends up being at the hot-cold transition area, usually beyond where the actual element (thorn, petal, etc) is welded. So when you anneal in the flame, you need to feather in the heat a little farther out than just the pinpoint area of the weld.

Ok, thanks for the tip. I will try that as well.

that looks thin, it might just be because its made of glass :)