Wishing stone (worry stone) tutorial, please!!
 

I love those beads but I cannot figure out how they are made. I guess they are offmandrel, since the hole is very irregular, but how do you get the hole in there? So please, help me out:poke:

They are made off-mandrel, and the hole is made using a tungsten rod. Do a search for "off-mandrel" techniques, and you will discover a wealth of information.

I'll try to snap some photos of one being made tonight. I call them "artifacts" since mine use mostly natural earth tones, but they are made in the same way.

Hi Val!
Wow! Your beads and other glass art is very beautiful. First, I wondered a little bit about you saying that it was a technique "identifiably your own", because I did not have your beads in mind when I asked this question. I don't think that I have seen your wishing or worry stones before; but they are really beautiful!The one I had in mind was one bead with lots of silver mesh and etched from Andrea Guarrino I think.

No problem Maryse! I assumed you were talking about mine because you asked about "Wishing Stones". I have seen others made with a similar technique, but they do not have this name...:smile:
I created this name for mine, and concept of wishing, in honor of my beautiful Mum who has been valiantly battling cancer for the last several months.

The name wishing stone has been around for a long time. I have a jade one with a Chinese symbol carved into it.

Kathie

Can't wait, Cosmo....your tute's are the best!

Actually, you're going to have to wait for that. Or take a class with me.

The person starting this thread was talking about something else, I believe. Also, I have talked with someone else who asked that I not post how to do it because it's a technique they have become known for and they believe it would be taking money from them to post the tutorial. Since I never want to be the cause of anyone losing money, I'm going to oblige them.

But, if anyone who wants to take a class with me, it's one of the things I demonstrate in my pendant classes.

@Val!
So sorry to hear about your mom! Did she win the battle?
@Chad!
Your pendants are soo beautiful just as Val's stones, but both of you work in boro; so you are right that is not what I wanted to know. My primary question was to know how to get those "not round" holes into the glass. I have been enlightened in the meantime, thanks a lot! It was only a matter of ](*,)

Do you have a picture of the bead you are talking about? I'm not too familair with her work.

I just received a couple of back issues of The Flow and Volume 3 Issue 1 has a tutorial for a Tungsten Pierced Pendant done in boro by Leigh and James Keenan.

So if this is the boro tech that is being discussed here a tutorial has already been written on it.

I learned how to make pendants from off-mandrel work in Pati Walton's class by piercing a hole through them using a tungsten pick. This was using soft glass.

So I'm assuming there must be some other "secret" techniques out there?

Mary Beth... it's the same technique... it's in The Flow issue you're thinking about.

This tungsten drilling technique can be used for soft glass as well. I'm not going to speak for Andrea, but I have a feeling it's how she makes her holes. It's great fun to do either glass off mandrel and drill it with hot tungsten. ;) :love:

I will add this to the discussion...

If anyone wants to try the technique in question, try it with clear or something that goes clear when it gets hot (like Elvis, or one of the Amber Purple colors). It's much easier to get the hang of it.

I'm surprised that people are thinking of this as "their own" as well... many many people have been poking holes in their glass with a hot tungsten pick for a long, long time! I've seen several demos over the years, though I didn't try it until Andrea demod it at Frantz this summer.

It's in Jim Kervin's book, too.

ALL I have to say is get the PICK hot, not the glass! The glass should be solid but well-heated.

All else being equal, I would tell anyone wanting to know how to bore holes in glass with a tungsten pick to go ahead and get Jim Kervin's book. That technique was in it in 1995 and it's still in it now (page 55), with a LOT of other information that makes the book more than worth the purchase price.

OMG!!! If I could have foreseen what discussions got started bythis simple question I asked; I would never have done it.

My intention was never to go and make the same beads than somebody else and go and sell them off at ebay, and I also don't have any chinese relations or ancestors:grin: Why do we always have to think right away in "money making" terms? Isn't this a forum where glass people can interact to share and discuss techniques instead of hiding their knowledge from the others?

I was simply struggling with this technique, because I never got the holes long and slender as I would have wanted them to be. I did not post the picture of Andrea Guarrino's bead in this thread; because I do not want to copy that specific bead or make people think I would like to copy that bead; I was just interested in this special technique. If I had the opportunity to take a class with Andrea, I surely would. Unfortunately I cannot afford to travel to the US to go and take a class with her; when I want to take a class I have to drive to Hamburg in Germany, about 900km away and I can only travel during school vacations, because I earn my money to buy my glass as a teacher.

I am sincerely sorry that this simple question caused such a stir; but because there have been many requests for tutorials before and many asking for very specific beads, I did not think this particular one would be a bad thing to do.

Concerning the name "wishing stone" or "worry stone"; I found it in the dictionary. English is not my native tongue and I sometimes have difficulties finding the right words.In luxembourgish, it is called a "pocket stone" and I found a german translation calling it "Hand snuggler" and from there on I got the english terms "wishing or worry stone".

Greetings!

I like "hand snuggler"! :biggrin:

Thanks for posting Maryse.

Well, if you've gotten this far and have no idea why we are discussing this... Val edited her post and now the rest of us look like we're discussing nothing. I so wish people couldn't edit their posts and run away. It makes the rest of this discussion look silly. Oh well. I hope you get your tutorial. If not, I'll help when I get back. ;)

Maryse,
NEVER feel bad for asking a question in this "family"! This is the most generous group of people you will ever encounter in the glass community.

That being said, it was not your post that prompted all the discussion, it was the unedited reply that you received!

Thanks Kalera! I'd forgotten I had that book -- and the 3 sentence explanation is just what I need. (In the 1999 version, it's on page 44.)

I've been wanting to do the off-mandrel big hole thing for a while, but haven't gotten around to checking into it.

I googled Wishing Stone... and by definition - it's a stone with a hole in it.

I believe the OP was looking for the technique to put the hole in the bead.. so she did ask correctly.

I'm not sure how this term can be claimed by anyone since it's already used in folklore.

http://predictions.astrology.com/wd/wishingstone.html

I think I'll go make some wishing stones now. Oh wait, I don't have a tungsten pick! Dangit!

I do!!! I just got my tools today from Dave, and made stones with holes all day with my new pick. Then I came here and saw this discussion LOL

My instructions came from Jim Kervin's book which I have had for ages, and Kalera, thanks for the tip about hot pick and solid glass, wish I read that before I started making these today. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Seriously, if you want some nice tungsten tools give Dave a holler.

Edie

Who's Dave?...LOL

Is there a website?

For anyone that wants to know........... all I do with my off mandrel beads is heat up the tungsten poker till it is glowing red, have the bead warm, not too hot........ keep the bead below the flame and keep the tungsten in the flame glowing and then I just push and twist the poker through the bead!

hope that this helps!
Andrea

Okay, maybe I’m just having a gray moment here but … if the problem is simply the name and not the technique then why the objections to the tutorial? The technique is an old one so how is that taking money from the person calling hers wishing stones? If that is the concern then obviously it is the technique that is being objected to although I don’t see how since off mandrel beads of this sort have been around a whole lot longer then 6 months. I really don't see where a tutorial on a basic technique can honestly be objected to.

Wasn’t this method in Bandhu Dunham’s first set of glass books also? Mine are packed away but I thought I saw it in there quite a few years ago. I might be thinking of Kervin’s book though since I do have the 1995 issue. No offense, but the ones on Ebay appear to be nothing more then boro swirled into a disk and a hole poked through, nothing to distinguish them as belonging to a specific person other then perhaps the name. I have rarely seen anyone elevate this technique to the level of being a recognizable style other then Andrea. I haven’t seen Chad’s though. ;) Most of the ones I have seen over the years I think were actually called worry stones though while others never even included stones in the name. The OP did specify wishing or worry stones so I doubt she was targeting any one specific.

I don’t even want to get started on the undeserved vicious attack of Brent since he asked that it be dropped, totally uncalled for. Tsk …tsk.

Now, where is the smiley that is kicking himself in the butt? I really need him for even getting involved in a post such as this.

This would have been very helpful if I had a tungsten poker. You should have seen what my poor pig had to go through to get that hole in his head, lol! :badgrin:

Thank You Andrea!
Kalera you crack me up!!
Val I think it's really poor form to ask Chad not to post that Tutorial.

Paula

Isn't there a song about being misunderstood??! Ah well...

Tutorial( the point was the name, not the technique...)
Make desired design at end of 6-14mm rod. Squish. As Andrea said - heat tungsten until glowing - push through glass to make hole - (make sure it is warm enough to receive it. but a little stiff too). Attach cold seal to one end, and melt off "blob" from other of rod. Decorate and embelliish 'til your heart is content. Flame polish and anneal - oh, and have fun!

Hope we can now all get back on track with our own glass dreams and visions.
:love: Val
The End.

You one classy dame, Andrea. Always.



As a total aside, I have always heard smooth un-holed flattish stones that fit in your palm called "worry stones" and the ones with holes in them called "wishing stones" or "spirit stones". I have some ordinary beads I call "worrystones" but they don't have a big hole.