Prawn

[Lakelady]

I made a prawn thing with spikes - Lovecraft-esque!

2012-07-19 18.03.04 by quirkyatt, on Flickr

It seemed to take an age to make - I have a Mega Minor and 2 X 5lt oxycons - is it just that I'm used to melting 104 fast, or should I review my settings.  I have my oxycons on 4lpm and very quickly, they are not working at optimum - any lower that that and it takes 10 years instead of 1 to melt a gather of about 2" - am i being too ambitious for the set-up I have??

[Steampunkglass]

Love it! Thats my kinda thing!
I'd have thought that set up would be fine, but depends how big the 'prawn' is? Try to keep constant heat on the glass, also it might be worth checking to see if you have any leaky oxygen lines just in case 

[Lakelady]

   The blob of his body is about 2" long by 1/2" across - he is around 10cm including tentacles... I think its because I have been using 6lpm oxygen to melt 104 - which is fast!!    6mm rods melt ok.  I am busting to get some more colours - and learn how to use the ones I have to best advantage...and I want to make Giger-esque aliens 

[garishglobes]

I was thinking about this last night. I wonder if... coming from working with soft glass, your method of working will be to waft the glass in and out of the flame to keep it all warm and to keep really quite a large area warm at once. Boro doesn't work the same, exactly. It is a lot less susceptible to thermal shock (though not immune!) and it can work a lot better to focus the heat on one area, get that melted and done, then move on to the next - if that makes sense. Trying to keep a whole 2" x 1/2" section hot at once could be quite an uphill battle,  even with 2 oxycons. If you are making a prawn and adding legs afterwards, you could add 'prongs' for the legs when you are focussing heat on that area. You can then come back and heat that leg prong and add to it. It makes it less necessary to reheat the entire area and also, by starting heating the prong, you are allowing heat to gradually go back into the main body so are less likely to thermal shock.

[Lakelady]

All my instincts tell me to do the wafting but logic tells me to keep still    So I guess I am doing a bit of both and reign myself in when I realise I am not focussing enough on one area.  I did the body first then made the legs and spot heat to get a really hot seal when attaching - I really wanted the body to round up more and the tail to be more flowing - I guess I was just impatient.  I have a scientific glass blower friend who has enormous torches  (!) so I plan to go and have a go in his studio to see what the differences are and if I can better optimise my own set-up 

[Marcel]

That is one spikey prawn  love it.

[Pat from Canvey]

. If you are making a prawn and adding legs afterwards, you could add 'prongs' for the legs when you are focussing heat on that area. You can then come back and heat that leg prong and add to it. It makes it less necessary to reheat the entire area and also, by starting heating the prong, you are allowing heat to gradually go back into the main body so are less likely to thermal shock.

That's how Lucio Bubaco works his figures in soft glass. The prongs are called avolio, I think that's how it's spelt.
http://www.luciobubacco.com/public/gallery.html

[liquidglass]

I think he is one lovely langoustine, I'm thinking butter, garlic