Whispy looking shards

[fionaess]

How do I make those whispy looking coloured shards....   I could be more polite with this question.. and say things like pretty please etc.. but all I want to know is how to make them  

[sparrow]

Errrr.....whispy looking as opposed to others? Have you got a pic of what you mean?

[fionaess]

I'll go and find one...

[fionaess]

Like these ones Sabine..

[sparrow]

Aaaaaah....others might correct me, but I think it's because the blob you put at the end of the hollow mandrel/tube thingy is quite hot, so you can heve fun with it before you blow it - like a gravity bead, kind of. Then, when you blow, you get whispiness.............I think 

[Shirley]

bit like blowing a balloon and then popping it.

[fionaess]

But wouldn't I lose my air bubble if I let it gravity swirl......

[Bumpy Beads]

Yes, if you lose your bubble you won't be able to blow it. I dip my blob in frit a couple of times, and let it melt in before blowing. Or you can add colour to your blob with stringer. Using a twistie to make your blob can create a nice effect too, or even just some filigrana. Just have a play and see what you get. 

[sparrow]

I swirl before I blow  That sounds *so* rude!

[garishglobes]

I just keep remembering the lady who looked at my website and reminded me you couldn't "hand blow"..
I tried rolling my ball in frit this afternoon (that doesn't sound too good either) and had real trouble blowing, as if the two glasses were expanding at different rates? It may well have been this stinking cold though - trying to blow shards with a blocked nose isn't easy!

[fionaess]

I just keep remembering the lady who looked at my website and reminded me you couldn't "hand blow"..
I tried rolling my ball in frit this afternoon (that doesn't sound too good either) and had real trouble blowing, as if the two glasses were expanding at different rates? It may well have been this stinking cold though - trying to blow shards with a blocked nose isn't easy!

If you want a real fun time - especially with your cold - try making shards from vetro odds.... they are such mish mash of glass that they hardly seem to want to melt and then when they do, you can puff and puff and achieve something the size of a golf ball !!!  I must trying rolling my balls in frit... maybe melting and then rolling again.. then heating them and blowing... glass porn or what !!   

[Les]

I swirl before I blow  That sounds *so* rude!

*struggles to stifle the sniggers*



I'll get me coat...........................

[Pat from Canvey]

I had a go with adding different coloured glasses and also tried one using up ends of twisties.

This is before I broke most of it up. The main base was light amber.

[Chameleon]

twisties and reactive glasses are great for wispy ness .... try gathering a blob of one colour e.g. opal yellow on the end of your hollow pipe, then use a twistie or just a stripey cane of opal yellow and rubino and "encase" (roughly cover will do just fine) the blob with the twistie, melt it all in and blow 

you can gravity swirl like Sabine suggested, just do it at the blob stage before you start to blow it up



...edited to add Vetro odds, if you build up your blob on the end of your hollow pipe by winding the glass round and round like you would to put glass on a mandrel for a bead you will get stripey-wispyes which will stay when the blob is blown into shards

edited again - pic of rubino opal yellow shards with twistie (centre) and stripey cane (just off to right of pic)

[fionaess]

Thanks Becky.... that was very interesting.. and I seem to have a ton of extremely odd twisties....