Help snowmen keep cracking!

[playswithfire104]

I learned to make snowmen off mandrel this weekend. We did use boro in class. Now I'm trying to make them here at home with soft glass and they keep cracking on me. Either the punty breaks off while I'm working on another part or I get a big crack right throu the bottom round part of the smowman. Am I not keeping the whole thing warm enough? I guess I should flash the whole piece more often. Once I got the whole way finished, loop and all and when I tried to take the punty off that is when I got major crackage. Any advice?

[Heather/Ericaceae]

Your instinct is right - you need to flash it in the flame a LOT. Sculpted pieces are more likely to shock than simple round beads, so you'll need to be super-regular in your flashing. It's hard, because one needs to focus so hard on specific sections when sculpting, but regular flashing is the only way to succeed with soft glass. (I made two off-mandrel goddesses last night and they took me FOREVER because bits kept cracking off of them... so clearly I need to follow my own advice! I feel your pain.)

-Heather

[Anne Londez]

To work soft glass off mandrel in this way you need to understand which parts you need to keep warm and which ones you can let cool down.

As a rule, any ball or biggish mass of glass needs to be kept warm if it is going to have to be reheated or if you are going to reheat something that is closely attached to it until that is done. If I understood correctly what you said, the punty must be attached to the bottom when you try to get it off. If the bottom cracks at that point it means you haven't kept it warm enough.

On the other hand any thin rod-like part can cool down and it can be reheated later if need be if the point you are reheating is far away from any mass of glass that has cooled down.
Anything that is wing shaped, i.e. has more surface than a rod even if it is thin, cannot be reheated once cold without cracking.

Another thing to decide is whether you want to let the pieces cool down on the bench and anneal later or put them in the hot kiln right away. In the second case you need to be sure that you have not gone under the strain point at any given moment so it is best to work it like a bead and keep everything warm all the time. If you go with letting it cool just make sure that you don't put it on a surface that will suck the residual heat away too fast. Use graphite or wood, or better try to keep it in the air as far as posible.

Hope that helps !

[playswithfire104]

Thanks Anne and Heather. The punty is attached to the bottom part and once I get the two other balls on I don't need to heat it any more except to polish the spot where the punty was. I am putting them right into the kiln. I was getting pretty frustrated and decided to take a break. Then thought I'd just go back to making beads, but I really want to get this down.

Maybe I should also mention that I switched last week to a Lynx from a HH so I have a bit of a learning curve I'm dealing with too. I mean the flame on the Lynx is sooooooooooooo much smaller and hotter than the HH! I can really get the glass drippy hot with little to no effort.

[Anne Londez]

Originally Posted by playswithfire104

The punty is attached to the bottom part and once I get the two other balls on I don't need to heat it any more except to polish the spot where the punty was.

Yep that's the main difference between boro and soft glass, you can't do that if you have let it cool too much.

[Anne Londez]

One thing I forgot that concerns punties cracking. I learned from Loren Stump that this will happen regularly so you need to be prepared for it. Clean the surface under your torch so that the piece doesn't pick up dust if it falls and always have big tweezers ready that you can grab quickly and flash in the flame for picking up your piece and re-ataching it to the punty.
YOu can minimze punty cracking by avoiding to pass them through the flame though, especially if they are soft glass punties. Boro punties tend to crack less but if you use them with soft glass you need to cover the tip with soft clear and keep that area hot all the time or the glasses will separate on cooling down and the tip will shatter.

[playswithfire104]

When I got then out of the kiln this morning every one of my snow men were cracked! The last couple I did I made sure I kept wafting them in and out of the flame. I am so frustrated!

[Anne Londez]

I'm afraid practice is the key there, although I must admit it is easier to do with a larger, softer flame. The Lynx isn't ideal for this sort of work, at least for me.
Try to make sure that you keep them not only in and out of the flame but check that they are really warm enough. That means that it should take you very little time when you bring them back in the flame to get them back to dark red. If the surface doesn't become red quick they are too cold.

[glass-diary]

Hey Nancy,
did you use boro COE 33 with soft glass COE 104? So I am so sorry but this doesn`t work because the difference is too high and you will always get broken snowmen and snowwomen out of the kiln. It doesn`t matter how carefully you are with the temperature of reheating or during working the different parts. Try KUGLER Crystal COE 104 and its colored COE 104 from Arrow Springs, I hope it works! But don`t use frit of KUGLER, Reichenbach, Gaffer,... with COE 104, there will be cracks again because the frit has COE 93!!
Good luck,
glass-diary

[kbinkster]

Nancy,

It does take practice. And simply wafting something in and out of the flame is not really heating it up evenly. You have to move the bead within the flame and bathe it. Pay attention to the color and try to get it even.

Also, if your snowmen did not have cracks before you put them into the kiln, I would take a look at your annealing schedule. Usually, when you heat the bead the final time before it goes into the kiln, you will know if it has a crack - you can usually hear it or feel it. If it doesn't have one when you put it in, and you have heated it up evenly beforehand, then it could be that it is cooling too quickly once inside the kiln.

[playswithfire104]

I didn't mix COEs. In the boro class we only used boro. Since I have no boro I only used Moretti clear and moretti black and orange - for eyes, nose and mouth.

Some did crack before I put them in the kiln and I "thougt" I healed the cracks by going back and reheating them till I couldn't see the cracks any more. I'm guessing that I didn't really heal the cracks. And/or the temp difference in the different parts was too great and that caused the cracks.

My kiln was programed for me by Mike, I forget his last name. From Beehive glass? Deb Crowley's husband. I have been using his annealing schedule for a little over 2 years now and haven't had a problem with cracking beads before. So I don't think it is that.

I honestly think it is because I am not keeping the whole piece as warm as it needs to be. And like Anne says that will come with practice. I think my other mistake is that instead of just doing simple things like round beads till I get more familiar with the new torch I am jumping right into sculpture stuff. I had a request today from two customers for necklaces with round beads. Maybe that is the universe telling me to learn to walk before I try to run.

I can say that the seeded glass is working like a dream on the Lynx instead of a like a nightmare on my HH.

[paintingwithglass]

I work soft glass off mandrel on a Lynx...with much success. The torch you use is not the issue...it is keeping the piece warm...

it is not just a little flashing...off mandrel allows you to have a larger depth of glass (without a hole) so you need to keep it warm...I sculpt for less then a fast count to 10 on one thing then WARM the entire object...then go back for another 10 count...then WARM the entire object. With practice you will get a rhythm...you want to warm it but not melt the object.

The hardest part is dealing with the punties...when I work softglass, I punty and repunty at least 6 times....the key to get the punty off the soft glass object is to use a pointed softglass punty as the last punty...do a cold seal to the object and then do the last heating of the object..pop in torch and knock the punty with brass marver and the punty should disconnect from the object.

Again practicing will make this easier: practice getting something off a punty before working on a large piece. Just take a blob of glass flatten it and then punty...repunty.. tap off....

[glass-diary]

Hello Nancy,
you don`t use boro with COE 104, so the problem will be the reheating. It will be too quick in different parts and you don`t reheat the not cracked parts not as well as the broken ones. If you hear it cracks -there is no help for the whole bead. Try a new one and worm it up very slowly for every new part. For the nose,... the torch has to be very hot and rich of oxygen for reheat the special part and the stick. Hope it works Practice will come with every bead - goods luck!
glass-diary

[playswithfire104]

Thanks Fay I'll keep that in miond.
glass-diary I am NOT mixing boro with 104. I am only using 104 right now.

[SuzyQ]

I don't think English is Glass Diary's first language Nancy