I've got raku - I get baby sick
I've got caramel apple - I get slightly caramelly baby sick
I've got Moroccan swirl - I get putty
I've got DH I haven't used, Terra on standby, and I don't want to waste it.
Ever feel like you haven't got a clue what you're doing? Oh, I've read all the threads and comments I can find. :(
hi chap, don't despair - who lives near you?...
Q
No one who works on a hothead, Q. Came across someone at a local fair recently and to be honest the stuff she was showing was pretty rough anyway.
I'm just trying to do too much too soon. take no notice.
I'm on a hothead Shirley & I really struggle too! I've had 1 or 2 half decent beads with the reactive stuff but loads of disappointments too, including Raku, Silver Rattan & DH. I've made some stringer with the DH & just try tiny amounts, the Gaia was the only one that really did anything! Don't lose heart, just try tiny bits until you get the hang of it (that's my plan anyway!!)
Izzy (I think it's Izzy anyway) gets amazing results on a HH, maybe she'll be able to help? :)
I love Izzy's stuff, and I often look for her comments first about making the glass work. To be honest I'm a bit like a kid in a sweet shop still, trying everything when I should really settle on one thing and get that to work.
Shall we start a group for those who are experts at making baby puke coloured beads?
just to make you feel better Shirley - this was my first Terra bead (badly encased)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/df-glass/misc/t1.jpg)
then I made this one, really bad & I burnt the clear!
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/df-glass/misc/t2.jpg)
I'll join the group - guilty as charged of trying to run with fancy glass before I can walk. Here's my second effort with terra on a hothead - first was just poo coloured!
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t4/dinah46/Terra_and_Frit2.jpg)
The photo is actually quite kind to them. The first is terra over clear, then opal yellow then ivory. One just terra and 2 beads using Sam's lovely frit over an effetre violet
Diane
The one over ivory is nice. There's some good reactions going on and a subtle, muted rainbow of colour, I really like that a lot.
Don't worry Shirley we all have the same problem, personally I want to try everything and all at once but there aren't enough hours in the day. What I find is that I try something, fail, move onto something else and then a few weeks later go back to it and hey presto you have improved without even realising and suddenly its much easier. There is no replacement for just keeping practicing, really once you understand the glass then your creative artistic side can flourish but nothing you fail at doing is wasted, its all a huge learning curve. You will laugh at yourself in a few months time but by then you will have found something even harder you want to try. Half the fascination is that there is just so much to learn and so many techniques to master. We all know exactly how you feel but you have to go through each stage and there is no easy route although certainly someone actually showing you a technique speeds the whole process up so perhaps you should book a course with someone if you can afford to. :)
Shirley don't get disheartned your beads are great! There's lots you can do on a HH, I was on one for many months till I swapped over a month ago. Now the raku thing. This is hard to get a result with unless you do the super cool ( ice block under the marver type of thing) super heat . BUT I picked up a very good tip on LE specifically for HH users. If you make a base bead, add the raku and melt in, then heat heat heat till it goes almost transparent, and gravity swirl it, take it out of the flame and let it cool for a mo and it should be black, you can then encase it and you should get some lovely colours.(It may go into the kiln black but don't let that put you off!) if you don't want to encase then twizzle the bead in the back of the flame gently, take it out and watch some colour appear let it cool and repeat the twizzle bit a few times. Not sure why the gravity swirling bit works, but it does!
Thanks Sam, I do quite like the ivory one but I'm longing to get the blues from the terra.
Lesley I hear what you're saying but I still want everything to work now - immediately I have to learn patience. I know how long it has taken me to get used to my fusing and the different effects of different glass so I don't know why I'm not as patient with the lampwork. But I know it's PPP.
Diane
If I have learned nothing else from Lampworking I have learned patience Dinah.
I am the most impatient person ever born I reckon but also I am determined, I guess you need both.
Listening to newbie's we all hear ourselves several months ago. ;D
Thanks, guys, that's a bit reassuring. I will go ahead and order some more fancy glass, ready for when I can make it work :D Actually, I won't wait, I'll play with it as soon as I can get it. I'll certain give the raku another go in the meantime.
Dinah, you sound just like me!
Lesley, sometimes I forget I've been doing this for less than 3 months :)
On the plus side, I did use rubino for the first time last night and didn't boil the pink out of it, and I managed to swirl some glass in a variation on the seaside bead. :)
Shirley- are you using a foil coller on your hothead?
i struggled to use special glasses on my hothead but it is possible, Mary had to show me how to use the double helix glass on my minor but i'm sure you'll get there soon
No collar yet, Caroline, although I keep thinking about it! TBH I think I just need to slow down and concentrate on one thing rather than trying everything out and expecting it to work straightaway! :D
you need to make a foil coller out of tin foil, put it on your torch and when you want to 'work' these glasses you slip the coller over the holes and it gives you a reducing flame, work your bead in that till you get the effects you want then slip the coller back off to get your normal flame
without the coller you won't get anything out of any of the DH colours and the reducing ASK colours
So should I do all the work with the reduction flame until I get the effect, or do the basic shaping with a normal flame and then reduce? Or experiment?
Aw Shirley, I know how you feel...not about the fancy glass, but I've taken a real dip in confidence in the last couple of weeks. I know I live fippin miles away, but if you fancy a trip to dorset you've got my address ;D
Cheers Vic, might take you up on that one over the summer sometime. If you fancy a trip to Norfolk......:)
I've got great confidence with making basic beads, and the first ASK bead I made might be a disappointing colour but it's a great shape :D
Quote from: Shirley on May 10, 2007, 10:22:38 AM
So should I do all the work with the reduction flame until I get the effect, or do the basic shaping with a normal flame and then reduce? Or experiment?
make your bead as usual, once your happy with the shape ect then reduce till you get the effect you want
if your encasing then make your base bead, reduce then encase
i've got my fingers crossed you get them to work soon, i know it's hard to know what to do just from reading about it, it's a shame i can't show you in person
my moroccan swirl aint swirling either, theres a lot of other people with the same problem over on LE and no one seems to have an answer :-\
Well, I made a collar, and I'm pleased to say a got a nice glow out of the caramel apple and the tribal turquoise has gone a bit red, so I'm happier about the ASK.
Tried some DH. Got aion on white to get a beautiful gold, but the others either did nothing or went mucky brown. Orange iris frit went mucky brown but with a metallic texture like haematite. Suspect it's carbon from the flame?
I made some beads using Terra last night - one (encased) you can hardly see any terra
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/df-glass/misc/t3.jpg)
next (encased) went in a very pale fawn colour & came out a deep yelow gold
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/df-glass/misc/t4.jpg)
& the last (not encased) looks a deep treacle brown.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/df-glass/misc/t5.jpg)
Colette, the treacle brown is what you want to get, you are nearly there! What you do next time, is let the bead cool till the treacle appears, till the glow goes. Then gently warm it again. (Don't get it too hot again, or you will be back at the start). Cool and warm a few times, the colours should keep changing.
Try the same with encased beads, but warm them a bit longer so the heat spreads through the clear. Good luck!
thanks Mary! :)
I gave up with the midle encased one because it stubbornly stayed a very pale beige. I heated, cooled, heated , cooled, beige, put it in the kiln & hey presto! I even wondered which bead it was because I didn't recognise it!
Will try again tmorrow!
I tried it again today, i got the mearest blob of blue I think...but I also think I killed it trying to make the rest of do it...its in the kiln...I don't think it'll be worth a show though :-[
but that's what i thought!
I did a mini-tut a while ago now, on the foil reducing collar for the hothead over on WC.............
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5157873#post5157873
OOohh... thanks for that, we've loads of HH users here now :)
i'm going to ask Sarah hornik if she would consider doing a little tutorial thingy - she only uses a hothead and gets the most stunning effects from all the "fancy" and common glass types...
we don't have the HH anymore but maybe i should set it up again and do some experimentation... maybe martin has a tutorial or references to weblinks?..
Frustratingly I know I can get results with terra, but how did I do it? I just can't get consitancy. I have got some lovely turquoise greens, blues with hints of pinks, but 90% of the beads are not usable with nasty yellow browns edging to black. (OK some are completely black!) For me, once it has gone a nasty colour I cannot get it back. It seems very sensitive to the quality of the flame. I can be on a roll, but if I turn off my torch and then go back to it again and the beads are rubbish. It even seems to stain my encasing glass. Any ideas? I'm on a betta and oxycon.
Mari
het mari, i've been playing here for a bit and seem to get consistent results...
i heat up the base clear and get a nice bead shape... i lay on the terra but i heat the rod up enough for it to go clear as i do so.. i melt it in making sure it goes completely clear and then pop it out of the flame to let it go completely black..
i VERY GENTLY heat it back up with only the tip of the flame till i see a faint glow and then take it out to check... by very very gently heating it like this i get the very dark blues and then on through the greens and reds and pinks all the way back to the light caramels...
i DO NOT encase - although others seem to have better reslts with encasing first before melting the whole ball back to clear?..
8)