Ribbon! :)

truegem · #1 2007-04-30, 4:37pm

I would like to make ribbon (cane?) I don't want it to be a cane with ribbon twisted in the middle, I just want flat ribbon. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks, Patti

DesertDreamer · #2 2007-04-30, 10:12pm

I made my first ribbons with Moretti filigrana cane. That makes it VERY easy to understand what's happening. Start with one rod, heating it til it's warm but not glowing. Take a second rod, heat it until it's pliable, and lay a stripe on top of the first rod. Flip the first rod over and repeat on the other side. Flip it back and repeat, flip it over again and repeat. This will give you a stack of five pieces of filigrana. Next, on the open side, run a stripe of clear from top to bottom and back to the center. Burn off the center rod in your opposite hand and repeat the clear striping (I use a 10 mm rod for the striping and my new handles). Now, slooooowly heat the entire piece. When it's glowing and pliable, simply pull your handles apart. Voila, a ribbon of black strands separated with clear.

You can build your own two or more-color ribbons in the same manner alternating solid and transparent rods. They will appear to be heavier than ribbons made with filigrana because you're building with a larger volume. But, if you pull them farther, you can make them thinner.

Hope this makes sense!

m**2 · #3 2007-05-01, 5:57am

To oversimplify things a bit, when you pull a cane from a gather of glass, the resulting cane will have roughly the same cross section as the gather. A square gather will pull into a squarish (or more probably rectangular) cane. A flattened gather will pull into a ribbon. You will need to practice some to get the hang of this, and to lean exactly how wide and thick to make the gather before you pull.

Chuckie · #4 2007-05-01, 7:51am

When I first started pulling striped stringer, I had no problems pulling flat ribbons...I had problems making round ones!

All you have to do to make flat ribbons is to heat a nice blob on the end of your rod, flatten it into a lollipop, put on some stripes, melt in, flatten a little more, and use a wide-tipped tweezer or plyers to pull the ribbon.

Not only does the shape of your gather help determine the shape of your stringer, so does the width of the tool you use. The fatter the tool or rod, the fatter the stringer.