I have tried three methods for making these damn things... melt a rod in the middle, melt a rod at the end and use pliers, melt a rod and attach to a mandrel.....I have read endless tutorials on line, watched youtube videos, read my Cindy Jenkins book again and again and still I can't even make 6 inches of stringer which isnt totally uneven...I just can't do it. Now, is it me, it is the method or does it take years to make 6" of stringer which is remotely even in size.
Any help most gratefully received... I will try any method, including standing on one leg singing if necessary.
Fiona
;)
glad its not just me!
sis , i know is silverd ivory stringer, tips how to make this and others would be gratefully recieved
x
I had completely different cind of problem with sringers at the beginning. Mine were even, but evenly as thick as a fishing line (never noodle sized). Realised that I need to waite a moment, to let the glass cool down a bit before pulling.
Pull in even speed, but pull a little faster (and harder) when the glass cools down. Oh, and naturally PPP. ;D
I also hold the rod pointing downwards as I pull the stringer rather than pulling horizontally. If you find the end is thicker where you are griping it with tweezers (or pulling to ends of the rod away from the middle) give the thicker end a twist toward the end of your pull you thin it.
I'm no expert (although my SIS ain't too shabby now 8)) but add it to the list of things for us to do together Fiona, and get that date sorted! ;D
I'm sure theres a tut for SIS around somewhere, I'll go see ............
This is a good one ... http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html (http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html)
Mine are a bit lumpy, but not too bad.. I heat a blob, take it out of the flame and grab a bit of the end with my tweezers, put back in flame but very high, so the bottom of blob slightly glows.
Then pull - it feels like a rubber band, if it gives no resistance then it'll be too thin. Keep the blob glowing, you have to move it forward and if the resistance gets less, move blob forward.
The glass is being pulled from the underside, so if necessary, you may have to twist it around to get even heat. When doing twisties, however, it seems much more possible to just heat the whole thing and pull and twist out of the flame.. I'm not that experienced, but I find this works for me. :)
What exactly is the problem - are they too thin/too thick/lumpy?
Hi Sal
Very lumpy and very short - thick and then very thin and then thick again and I can pull for about 6" max . I will post a pic so you can see what I mean.
Yuk !
I don't keep my melted glass anywhere near the flame when I'm ready to pull. I heat the glass - more for a thicker stringer, grab it with pliers, wait a couple of seconds and pull, adjusting the speed of pull to suit the thickness I'm looking for. You do have to keep the tension otherwise they go bendy and/or lumpy.
Like most of this lark it's practice, but it's well worth it as you get a really good feel for how the glass is going to behave. :)
Oh, forgot to say, I never use a piece of stringer that is longer than about 6 inches anyway. When I pull them longer I break them into smaller pieces, so you might not need to pull them really long, especially the thicker ones.
I do it Shirley's way too. In one of the books, I think it may be Cindy Jenkins, it says to keep the end of the rod in the flame but that just doesn't work for me. Sally showed me how to do it out of the flame and I think its very much down to timing. If the gather is too hot and soft or you pull too fast you end up with a skinny stringer.
Take your time and pull slow and long ;D
I could never pull stringers the Cindy jenkins method of keeping it in the flame! I always pull stringer out of the flame.
A tip for getting even ones is always keep the thicker side up higher, use gravity to make it even...
ie:
If you stringer is pulling thicker on the right side, keep your right hand higher than the left when pulling.
If your stringer if pulling thicker on the left side, keep your left hand higher than the righ when pulling.
If you are pulling your stringer evenly make sure you keep both hands at the same level...
If that makes sense!
Ooo bleurgh!
Looks like you're trying to pull the stringer in the flame. This is virtually impossible to do and get a nice even stringer.
Heat up a gather on the end of your rod about the size of a marrowfat pea (8-10mm). Hold the rod so your hot end is pointing slightly up in the flame and keep it turning or your gather will fall off. Get it nice and hot and then pull it out of the flame.
If you are right handed hold the rod in your left hand and take hold of some needle nose pliers or some tweezers with your right hand.
Look at the gather (still keep the rod pointing sligtly upwards) Wait until the heat glow starts to disappear - usually after about three-six seconds.
Now hold the rod horizontally and nip a tiny piece of the gather with your pliers. Pull to the right and keep the rod tensioned. Don't let it get floppy. Don't grab too much glass when you do this or your stringer will be too ribbon-shapped and you'll waste much of your gather. Hold the pliers horizontally too and pull straight out from the gather (to the right). Increase the speed of the pull as you feel the gather stiffening up.
If you're making a white stringer - I usually find that I wait until the white turns white (i.e. not transparent) before I pull.
But above all - DOn'T pull your stringer in the flame.
Should work.......it's quite easy - you'll wonder why you struggled with it once you get the hang of it! ;D
Thank you everyone - and once again Sal.. you really make the explanation so easy to follow and the reason why my so called stringers look the way they do.. and yes you were right I have a massive lump of glass in my tweezers/pliers.. I will persevere with the 'Sal Way'.. about how long should they be.. Shirley said that she breaks hers into 6" lengths.. but what length should my marrowfat pea size lump give me please.
Fiona - who is sorry to be asking so many questions.
I have just got the hang of stringers after reading "Passing the Flame" and I find that I have to keep slightly rolling the glass rod between my thumb and forefinger (not all the way round, just slightly back and forth), whilst the glass is still fairly molton. I grab the glass with the tweezers while it is still molton, but wait (whilst rocking the rod slightly) until it has hardened slightly. You can stop/start the pulling process to begin with, to get the feel of how hot the glass is.
Hope that makes sense.
Hil x
my tuppence worth is that when i started making twisties and stringers i also used to have a fat lump at one end and a thing "hair" instead of a stringer.. this was because i was pulling while the blob wsa still too hot and way to quickly... the molten blob needs to cool off a little first,a dn when you grab a tiny piece let the cold metal of the tweezers "set" the glass you are gripping, then and only then SLOWLY draw the stringer downwards..
it even helps if you pull a small bit the right thickness and blow on it - to give you a stiff bit the right size to help you pull the rest...
(just re-read this and i KNOW tan will somehow find it, nudge, nudge, wink, wink say NO more!!)... ;D ;D ;D ;D
Should work.......it's quite easy - you'll wonder why you struggled with it once you get the hang of it! ;D
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Once again Sal you have come up trumps for me.... I wrote down your instructions, took them out to the torch and now have stringers in a variety of thicknesses, lengths (the longest being about 24") I have stringers in new colours (mixed my rod and a bit of leftover from my pot) I have just taken them downstairs to my slightly bemused DH to show him ::) Does this mean that I will never have to buy a 'stringer pack' again... just rods?
Fiona
Quote from: Bluebottle_25 on January 15, 2008, 08:10:40 AM
This is a good one ... http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html (http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html)
i am off to look now,
am all chuffed as the second lot of beads are annealing in my kiln as we speak!
Hey Fiona well done - I thought you'd nicked those early ones from my studio!!!
Had a go tonight at making a twistie in the flame and it worked out OK by keeping the tweezer hand still and twisting the rod hand - not even but just about usable. Will have a go at pulling some stringers again now I have read this...
Kaz
Kaz, Sal's instructions are excellent.. just follow them step by step and stringers come out beautifully. I was pinching off far too much in my pliers - you need just a tiny bit to pull .
Fiona
Quote from: Hil on January 15, 2008, 01:49:27 PM
I have just got the hang of stringers after reading "Passing the Flame" and I find that I have to keep slightly rolling the glass rod between my thumb and forefinger (not all the way round, just slightly back and forth), whilst the glass is still fairly molton. I grab the glass with the tweezers while it is still molton, but wait (whilst rocking the rod slightly) until it has hardened slightly. You can stop/start the pulling process to begin with, to get the feel of how hot the glass is.
Hil that's what I do too ;D
& Q in the absence of Tan, all I can say is OOOOOOERRRRRR
Quote from: Bluebottle_25 on January 15, 2008, 08:10:40 AM
This is a good one ... http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html (http://www.cauldroncreations.com/sistutorial.html)
I tried SIS from this tut last night with just a little silver foil on the end of ivory stringer (a Martin supplied one, as I can pull them but not as thick as these !!), but it went all brown and murky - was it too hot? I'm on a HH at the moment, so maybe too low in the flame - or should I have put in reducing flame? Any help appreciated !! :)
Thanks,
June
SIS is kind of murky! Wrap it round a bead, melt it in well, even allow the bead to get quite soft to really stretch and "activate" the SIS ....
Quote from: Bluebottle_25 on January 17, 2008, 09:56:23 AM
SIS is kind of murky! Wrap it round a bead, melt it in well, even allow the bead to get quite soft to really stretch and "activate" the SIS ....
I'll give it a go, thanks Julie ;D
Just wanted to let you all know that not only can I pull stringers.... but .... I can also make twisties as well.. not brilliant twisties, not all the same regular width twisties, BUT I can make them :D :D :D :D :D :D
Fiona
Yee-Hah!!! We need evidence though - photos, photos!!!
Kaz
You really want pics of my funky looking twisties ???????
Fiona
Yes, we do!!!!! I'll trade you for a photo of what I did with my wonkiest twisty - you first! :)
Ok then, here you go :D
Hey, well done, Fiona. They are great ! ;D
Oooh, they're brill, Fiona, I better get practising. A promise is a promise, here's my clever mis-shapen twisty-idea - unfortunately, my nasty torch turned it all sooty, and the loop needs work, but I quite like the principle!
Thank you both..... mind you I wish I could borrow your pairs of glasses,, you can see something I can't :D They need a lot of practice but I think I have got the idea of how to make them. I found a tutorial in lampwork etc which was really useful... I wonder if I am allowed to post it on newbie tutorials?
Fiona
It would be great if you would Fiona - I'd find it helpful!
Kaz
Look like they're getting there to me. What I like about twisties is that you can always find some use for the wonky ones. Whoever invented organic beads knew what they were doing! ;) :D
almost 2 years later and i still pull a terrible twistie! I can do other complicated canes - but anything invloving twsiting seems to lead to failure! LOL! Luckily I find I dont have much need for them.
Well, on January 15 I couldn't pull a stringer... Feb 10th..... here is a pic of my 27" twistie :D :D :D
Now that's what I call improvement!
Thank you Verena :D
Fiona,
Wow, that shows what ppp can do - was it done on one leg singing ? !!! ;D ;D Well done
Lol... in the end it was so long that I could hold the middle with my bare fingers and pull. Oddly enough it was pulling wigwags that helped me a lot with my twisties... I found I had to control the glass and flame and most importantly speed and how I pulled the glass with my wigwags...
Fiona
Blimey-you must have long arms! That looks fantastic ;D
Quote from: Sal on February 10, 2008, 03:22:51 PM
Blimey-you must have long arms! That looks fantastic ;D
Yeah Sal... very long arms, short legs and covered in orange/ginger hair... hee hee hee
Fiona
Quote from: fionaess on February 10, 2008, 04:47:36 PM
Yeah Sal... very long arms, short legs and covered in orange/ginger hair... hee hee hee
Fiona
We've got an bead-making orangutan in our midsts ;D ;D ;D
But seriously....how the hell did you do that??? It's amazing ;D
Kaz