View Single Post
  #27  
Old 2014-01-09, 7:41pm
Talonst Talonst is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 11, 2011
Posts: 152
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Onekura View Post
But to keep things easy you could start with simple spirals. Just close the tube, paint on colour swipes (about 20mm long) - attach punty to the front and then heat, twist and pull to get the spiral pattern. Burn off the front (termination point) carefully to keep detail. Then melt it into solid, marver it - take it off the tube and shape the lense. Punch a hole and thats it - no blowing involved.

Just wanted to take the opportunity to point out that success in switchbacks and spirals has a lot to do with uniform spacing of lines and/or uniform distribution of glass viscosities when using different colors (more so even for Encalmo and Montage work)

In the fuming case the lines are probably clear, same as the tube, so as long as they are evenly spaced, consistent width, and melted in completely twisting should be fairly easy and the tube should move uniformly creating a nice spiral pattern.

If the lines are colored then there is a play between the differences in the glass viscosities. So if the lines were say cobalt, a stiffer glass than the clear they might need to be melted in and then condensed and blown out slightly a few times to even out the viscosities so that the tube moves uniformly otherwise the pattern could be discontinuous and funky. The problem grows in complexity when using a number of colored lines.

Remember also that viscosity and thickness go together. Adjusting thickness can help offset stiffness.

These things are less of an issue when condensing the glass for a pendant but become more difficult when blowing hollows for cups or feet.

Last edited by Talonst; 2014-01-09 at 7:47pm.
Reply With Quote