Tips for using a HH, please.

fannydotson · #1 2009-10-08, 8:23am

Okay, so I posted before that I was inerested in leaving my HH. Well, after several suggestions of what to go to, one rather interesting pm, adn many folks telling my how many of you use the HH and do incredible things, I think I am going to give it some more time.
So, I was hoping this thread could be used for sharing techniques and tip for using the HH. Six years is a long toime to be on something if you havn't mastered it. Making incredible murrini on something you don't like to use doesn't make sense, so, How do you do it?
Best way to learn heat control?
What does the optimal flame look like? Pics please.
How to direct the flame to special areas without melting all your other work?

If you work on a HH, and love it, why? What secrets can you share?
If you can, please post pics of working on your HH. Thanks!

lunamoonshadow · #2 2009-10-08, 9:35am

You're gonna hate me, but....
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

heat control you're only going to get through hours on the torch (and yes, I do mean HOURS...I *still* forget & drop glass on the torch table sometimes--every different color of soft glass has a different melting point, level of "soupiness" where it will fall off the mandrel--that's why some stuff will play nice & others won't when we batch anneal it--there's hundreds of threads on here about weird things--it's why some of us eventually get testy & say "use the search feature"

or "you have to read" or "you always need to test your colors before you make big sets", it's because working with hot glass is *always* an experiment--it's NEVER really a 100% positive gonna be perfect right off first try event. It does what it wants & if we win, we're lucky.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

(really, that's the only way

)

and when you're not on the torch, & have a free two seconds, read the forums--not the "fun" stuff like the family room, but the "educational stuff" like the tips/techniques, & the torch information & the safety forums....start @ the back & just read your way forward--I've been reading about glass (seriously) for well over 15 years now & I'm still learning something new every day. Been reading about beads way longer than that!

check out nikki's website for a couple great tutorials on where to be in the flame on your hothead--she teaches *only* on hotheads
http://www.nlcbeads.com/articles.php

check out the tutorials links at melinda's website for a batch of information
http://www.cauldroncreations.com/tutorialindex.html

Pick ONE thing & practice it *on the torch* until it drives you insane & you get it right (yeah, I'm bad at that--that's why my beads aren't as good as they could be--I jump from whatever the whim of the moment is to the next thing that strikes my fancy. I'm good at frit though

& I have a boatload of information in my head that I just need to get translated to my hands in "skill level")

check out all the hothead threads here & on WC (mary moth used a hothead for years also

~luna

fannydotson · #3 2009-10-08, 9:40am

Thanks!!!

klcbeads · #4 2009-10-08, 9:48am

If I am using a one pound tank of fuel, I always have a warm bucket of water underneath the tank so it doesn't freeze up and the flame goes out. My optimum flame is blue colored and the hiss is not usually too loud then. I usually work about 2 1/2 inches from the tip of the torch and work at the back of the flame when I am making a bead and then when adding stringer I work just to the right of the flame (I am right handed). If I want to reduce something I turn the flame up REAL high and fan the bead in and out of the flame and that usually works for me so I don't have to use foil to block the holes on the torch to reduce. If you want to learn stringer control you can turn the torch flame to low but without doing that usually just to the side of the flame you get adequate heat to allow the stringer to flow the way you want. I'm sorry I don't have any pics.

mnoelker · #5 2009-10-08, 10:11am

I use to get so frustrated when I first started with the "practice, pratice, practice" thing because I remember how enthusiastic I was like you and I wanted to figure it all out right away because it was so exciting to me. The longer I am at this the more I realize that some techniques just don't click until you have been on the torch a long time. I have been torching for 4 years and I constantly have aha moments when I realize that I've understood something mostly due to the amount of time I have spent watching glass move on the mandrel and learning just from repetition and trial and error how glass works.

Everything Luna said was spot on. I've gained so much and owe so much to all of the great artists who share so much here. Amber is a glass goddess in my opinon and she is on a hothead. I would bet she is in a bunch of the threads Luna posted.

Good luck and most of all have fun!

fannydotson · #6 2009-10-08, 12:44pm

Okay, I am on the hunt! I have started with the threads Luna suggested, adn will be reading late into the night. Thank you all so much!!!!

sansan239s · #7 2009-10-08, 4:39pm

thanks Fanny for asking this question......... I just printed the whole thread.

Lara · #8 2009-10-08, 5:31pm

when I was on the HH (and I was for years). I turned it all the way up to get the most heat.

fannydotson · #9 2009-10-08, 5:37pm

Hmm....contridicting ideas. A lot of what I have read says to turn it down, almost off, to find the sweetspot...PPP

lunamoonshadow · #10 2009-10-08, 6:12pm

ROFL. Because GLASS is an EXPERIMENT & everyone finds their own way to master it. There are probably 18 different (maybe more) explanations of "how to pull a stringer" & it STILL took me 4 years to get THAT right....Now, no problem...three people tried to teach me "in person", I read all the tutorials, watched all the you-tube videos & it didn't take--one day I watched "just the right person with just the right method for me" & TA-DA, it clicked--I now can pull stringer. My twisties are still hit-or-miss though

And applying the stringer? Uh, yeah. I suck at that.

fannydotson · #11 2009-10-08, 6:15pm

I hae tried pulling stringer...um...need more practice. I tried a twistie...pfft! It was the sadest looking little twisted peice of glass I have ever seen! until then, I'll be ordering them the twistie queen....

myrdlebp · #12 2009-10-08, 6:53pm

I do laugh when I see peeps that I KNOW have been torching longer then me, by far and ask a question that seems so, "Well if I know that, why are you asking?".

It is where your personal focus is as well. Some do floral and can't do a dot to save their ass.

PPP READ READ READ and go to page 1 in the gallery, you can see the progress of some of the most talented lampworkers that post daily.

Diane (clarus) · #13 2009-10-08, 8:05pm

As I recall with my old HH, the ideal flame on that particular torch was to turn it down until it almost turned off the gas. It took a while to find that "perfect" flame. Then, when I took a class done on HHs, the ideal flame on the classroom torch required a different setting. I think my HH may have been tempermental. Had it not been, I might have been willing to stick with it longer. I've also found that the flames on our surface-mix torches are very different. I've worked on a Bobcat at Quincy's studio, where she has tanked oxy and natural gas, and it's different than my oxycons and propane.

Fanny and other new folks, somewhere on here there's a thread started by DeAnne (theglasszone) that has an excellent tutorial on what the flame should look like.

I agree with Luna that part of this is experimentation! Just because someone shows you how to pull a stringer, make a twistie, encase, strike, reduce, etc., but the only way for you to figure out what method will work best for YOU is to try them all. This isn't a craft where you can be a "jack of all trades" and be "good enough" at everything. It really helps to get *really* good at one thing, then go on and get that good at something else. The best thing to start with is a basic round bead. Then go on to shaping bicones and barrels. Start slowly with dots, then move on to flowers. There's nothing wrong with continuing to try things, just try to encompass one technique in most of the beads you make in a session.

Get some of the DVDs - Jim Smircich's set on heat control is something every new beadmaker should study. Same with the "Torch Time" DVD. Both are available from www.smartflix.com. Then go on to Corina's Stringer Control.....

Practice, practice, practice. It's the ONLY way to learn this craft.

-Diane

Shrimp · #14 2009-10-08, 8:08pm

I don't know if you will be able to access this thread at WetCanvas. You may have to be signed in to view it. It is titled:

"I would like to see your most "jaw dropping" bead made on a Hot Head torch!"

http://wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162729

Here is another one titled:

"Loud and Proud...Calling all Hot Head users"

http://wetcanvas.com/forums/showthre...ght=head+users

fannydotson · #15 2009-10-08, 8:13pm

Thanks for the thread likn. That was awesome!

Shrimp · #16 2009-10-08, 8:15pm

The second link is the real kicker! Lots of info and pics Fanny. Post #665 is a real mind boggler!

fannydotson · #17 2009-10-08, 8:16pm

K. Will check it out, too.

lunamoonshadow · #18 2009-10-08, 8:17pm

Nope--Aleta--you can see both those threads as a guest

I just checked!!

lunamoonshadow · #19 2009-10-08, 8:19pm

I have an evil, evil urge to post Nikki's "bunnyflippers" here (just 'cause I've got him saved ON LE, so I didn't lose him in the great computer blow up

) 'cause I know he's a BIG bead...but....maybe she'll post *her* favorite hothead bead??

This is my favorite of NIKKI'S that I turned into a necklace....

fannydotson · #20 2009-10-08, 8:22pm

Yup, you were right, the second link is awesome as well!!!

KEW · #21 2009-10-08, 8:44pm

Everyone masters their own torch at a different pace. Everyone masters techniques in different ways. I worked on an HH for 2.5 years. (The first year I spent thinking that with a hotter torch, everything would be easier. It isn't. You just mess up faster!) With enough practice, you find your best spots for YOUR TORCH and the best way to work for you.

I attempted hollows over and over again for months. All were raging failures. I'd stop for a while and then try again. One day, everything clicked. Lovely hollows. Who knows what happened, but suddenly it was from my head to my hand and to the glass. But I did spend months thinking that I would never make a decent hollow.

Did the same with florals (although I didn't have the same desire to do good florals as I did hollows).

By the time I switched to my Lynx, I realized how much heat I could get out of my HH and was quite surprised that I really had advanced my technique immeasurably. But it was a long journey. It doesn't take everybody that long.

fannydotson · #22 2009-10-08, 8:54pm

I'm gettin' there. Bought a pleated vessel tut from Sandy tonigt. I hope I ge to try it tomorrow!

lunamoonshadow · #23 2009-10-09, 5:28am

Quote:

Originally Posted by KEW

Everyone masters their own torch at a different pace. Everyone masters techniques in different ways. I worked on an HH for 2.5 years. (The first year I spent thinking that with a hotter torch, everything would be easier. It isn't. You just mess up faster!) With enough practice, you find your best spots for YOUR TORCH and the best way to work for you.

I attempted hollows over and over again for months. All were raging failures. I'd stop for a while and then try again. One day, everything clicked. Lovely hollows. Who knows what happened, but suddenly it was from my head to my hand and to the glass. But I did spend months thinking that I would never make a decent hollow.

Did the same with florals (although I didn't have the same desire to do good florals as I did hollows).

By the time I switched to my Lynx, I realized how much heat I could get out of my HH and was quite surprised that I really had advanced my technique immeasurably. But it was a long journey. It doesn't take everybody that long.

I think my journey is like yours

. Some days something will suddenly "click" & make it from my head to my hands & "ta-da", a bicone shaped on the marver with decent ends! Other days,

Even Pipyr commented on my weird relationship with glass one day

I've watched Gelly (who got her hothead several *years* after I got mine

) & some days it's horridly depressing! I've got a set of HER first beads in my desk drawer

Ah well, we all learn at our own pace!

Some of us are the artists & some of us are the artisans. I'm content to be an artisan. I can design the heck around my stuff & anything else I come across

.
~luna

Carolyn M · #24 2009-10-09, 9:46am

And try not to run before you can walk. There are some awesome tuts out there, but they are sometimes for intermediate to advanced. Try to master the basic techniques - consistent rounds with excellent ends, shaping bicones, pulling stringer, making twisties, stringer control and dot placement with no undercuts.

Midnight Skye · #25 2009-10-09, 9:49am

I have been working on a HH for 3 years now. I learned on a minor and the HH was quite a scary change. I cannot imagine not using a HH. Someone actually said that I may have to relearn everything I taught myself these last three years if I upgraded my torch. For fuel, I use a tank a propane like you use for your barbeque grill. At least I always have a spare tank around

I never have to worry about the tank freezing or not having enough gas to finish a piece. One tank will last months. I get great results using propane, nothing murky or dirty looking. Check out my website: www.midnightskye.com and you can see what I do on a HH. Hothead users unite!

Marlene