Tutorial: Rainbow Cane

[MelanieG]

I have gotten some requests to share how I make rainbow cane, so I thought I'd post a tutorial.

Here's what they look like:


I'm just a newbie, so I'm sure that there are better ways of doing this, but this is how I do it.

1. I melt a big gather at the end of a rod of white (or some other colour – it doesn’t much matter since you won’t be able to see it when the twisty is done unless you don’t cover it completely), about the size of a medium-sized grape and then I flatten it into a lollipop so it's about a quarter of an inch thick, or maybe a little thinner if I want more surface area to add colour to.
2. Then I take the colours that I want to add to it, and stripe them along the flattened lollipop shape that I made parallel to the direction the rod is poking out the back side of the lollipop. In the case of the rainbow cane, I cover the whole thing, stripe by stripe, all the way around the lollipop in different rainbow colours (opaque and transparent, if I use a white base) in a sort of graduated way. (i.e. red, reddish orange, orange, yellowy orange, yellow, yellow-green, etc.)
   Side 1
   
   Side 2
   
3. Then I melt it all (making sure to keep rotating it) so that all the colour is molten and it starts to look more like a ball of hot glass than a lollipop. I mash it a little so that it is rectangular so it will be easier to encase. I have to be careful here not to distort the stripes too much when I'm mashing.
4. Then I cover every bit of its surface in a layer of clear glass. You can do thick or thin coats - what's important is fairly even coverage.
5. I get the whole gather molten and glowing, keeping it turning so that it doesn't just glop off the rod that I started with and fall on the table. When it starts to sag, I attach a metal or clear glass punty to the end. I find I can't really work well if the punty is less than about eight inches long because it feels off-balance when I pull. Same for the starting rod. If you start with a short rod, you might need to punty both sides before you pull or it will be more difficult.
6. When the glass has completely melted together, and seems like it is all equally molten, I take it out of the flame and stare at it for a a few seconds, still rotating it so that it doesn't glop off-centre. (I'm not really sure how long... five seconds seems about right, but it might be more or less depending on the size of your gather. You will have to fool around and figure out what feels right)
7. When it seems to have cooled a bit (some people say it feels like it develops a little bit of a skin), I start twisting it, still keeping my hands fairly close together. Then I start pulling and twisting at the same time. Twist fast. You can't really twist fast enough. Pull on it fairly evenly so it stretches out while you're twisting it. If it's getting too thin, you're pulling too much. If the ends aren't pulling, you didn't get it hot enough or you've let it cool too much. Don't stress about it too much because you can melt a twisty out of the middle of your two ends and then use the ends to pull another twisty by melting them together and starting the pull over.
8. Melt off the rod you started with, and put the twisty down on the table and start making another one.

I have had a couple of emergencies, where my whole striped lollipop has thermal-shocked off the starting rod and I've had to grab it with mashers, reheat it a little in the flame and attach a new punty to hold it by. I hate it when that happens! But be ready for it, because it ends up being quite a lot of glass and is hard to keep warm enough where the starting rod joins without accidentally melting it off.

Also be aware - this makes a lot of rainbow cane. You will end up pulling about 2.5x more glass with rainbow cane than with other twisties.

[StOrM]

thanks for the tut. I am not good with twisties but maybe i can try to make one.

[Llama Girl]

Thanks for the tut!

[ammaws]

Great tut--your twisties are wonderful--soooo even

[rosebud101]

Thank you so much for doing this tut! It looks great!

[volkanokaren]

NICE!!!!!

Karen
Volkano Exotik

[lldesigns]

Beautiful - thank you for sharing this!

[beadgirl]

Wow how pretty, thank you for the posting.
I am twistie challenged mine are lumpy. The first 6 inches are okay but after that look out!

[valjean]

Very nice, can't wait to try it out.....Valerie

[Sonja]

Thank you for posting this Melanie!!
I suck at making twisties...but sure I am gonna try this!

Sonja

[squid]

How do you keep the yellow and green next to each other from reacting with each other? Yellows have sulfur and greens have copper and every time I make a rainbow type anything I have to encase one of them to keep from getting an ugly line in between those two colors.

[Moth]

Great tutorial, I like the graduated look of the colors because you use so many shades as they go around the gather.

Squid, I usually encase one or the other to keep them from reacting, but not always. Sometimes the reactive line between the colors is hardly noticeable once it is pulled so thin into a cane. Sometimes. LOL

~~Mary

[glassbead]

Nice tutorial, nice cane! Thanks

[MelanieG]

Originally Posted by squid

How do you keep the yellow and green next to each other from reacting with each other? Yellows have sulfur and greens have copper and every time I make a rainbow type anything I have to encase one of them to keep from getting an ugly line in between those two colors.

I actually haven't had the problem, but maybe it's because I tend to use a transparent yellow-green between my green and yellow? And the whole twisty is encased, so things don't move around inside all that much.

Either way, it seems to work

[jesscause]

Can we see something made with this beautiful cane??

[MelanieG]

I made some beads a couple of months ago with some but they were awful because I was awful (I've only been lampworking for just under four months). The cane colours looked great but the beads were horribly sad-looking, misshapen and lopsided. I still have them and perhaps I'll post them just as an example of the cane... people have to promise not to look at the beads themselves

I sent most of the rainbow cane I made off to the Twisty Exchange in the patio, but I have some short canes left and I will make something with them on the weekend... of course it then takes a week for me to get my beads since I only go to the studio on Saturdays.

I have a fun idea to make goddess beads with an overlay of rainbow cane and call them 'Twisted Sisters'. We'll see how it works out

[tt4st]

Hi Melanie,
Thanks for the tute! I am a sad twistie maker I guess I should practice more but I have a question. Why do you need to encase the twisty with clear?

[FERRET]

I love those rainbow twisties too. Thank's a bunch. Hope I get one from you in the exchange.

[MelanieG]

Originally Posted by tt4st

Hi Melanie,
Thanks for the tute! I am a sad twistie maker I guess I should practice more but I have a question. Why do you need to encase the twisty with clear?

Technically, you don't have to - but if you don't, when you apply it, all the colours might distort and react with whatever you melt it onto. So I always encase this particular cane, since after going to all the trouble to get the colours exactly the way I want them it makes me pretty sad if they all bleed all over the place and make a mess.

My camera's batteries are dead, but when I get that addressed in the next few days I will post some pics of things I've made with this cane.

[StOrM]

I have one question......would you mind listing the colors of glass you use.....I have such a hard time buying "rainbow" colors.....I just never know which red to buy out of all the red out there ....etc with all the other colors.....but i really like the combo of colors you have used.

[MelanieG]

Sure, in the examples above, I used (I think):

EFF Purple Red
CiM Clockwork
CiM Creamsicle
EFF Light Topaz Transparent
EFF Mystery Yellow (not sure which one - it was in a stringer assortment)
EFF Yellow Green Transparent (or Olive Transparent - not sure)
EFF Grass Green
EFF Dark Teal Transparent
CiM Leaky Pen
EFF Periwinkle
EFF Ink Blue Transparent
CiM Thai Orchid
EFF EDP

A good way to get a good mix of colours is just to buy one of those of effetre stringer assortments. All of the basic colours you need will be there (although clearly you'd use Effetre substitutes for what I did with CiM), and you don't have to make a big investment.

[StOrM]

Thanks so much......I think i have about 3 of these colors ....lol.....I guess i need to buy some more glass

[C-Ann]

Thanks for sharing your tut Melanie - your twistie is beautiful

[MelanieG]

I made a clumsy mistake when I did the colour wraps for this cane because you can see a little white through it, but here is a goddess bead I made yesterday with the Rainbow Cane.

Please keep in mind that I've only been lampworking for four months. I'm sure with PPP my goddesses will look a little less sad and my twistie application (not to mention my photography!) will improve.

[PaulaD]

Melanie. Your tutorial is wonderful. Thanks for sharing it! Paula

[Coffeebean]

super tut! thanks for posting!!!

[Elegance_1]

Wow..... I really love the cane! I'm going to give it a try this evening. It's friday and I have no bedtime!

I wonder how it would look with silver glass between each color? hmmmmmm

Thank you so much! Since everyone has been selling their tutorials, you hardly see one for free anymore. I'm still pretty much a novice so I'm not ready to buy the more advanced tutorials. Maybe someday....

[woozles]

Here is a pendant I made in a new style I am trying out. The pendant is alreday on etsy.

[MelanieG]

Those are pretty spirals in there Vicki. I think that's a far more attractive use for the cane than what I've done with it so far

I'm glad you liked the tutorial!

[hjlacey]

looking to learn, and this is great for a newbie like me... Thanks!