What's up yall! I've been working soft glass with my hot head torch for a few months now, and I finally got a bigger torch so I can start working with borosilicate. I'm not very good right now, so everything I make is pretty janky, but hopefully with practice I'll be able to make some cool shit. I'll be posting pics of stuff as I make them, thanks for looking! a steamroller some spoons: some little marbles: and here's a pic of my torch for shits and giggles: Ill post more pics when I have some!
Seems like your getting the basics down pretty well. But then again i dont know shit about glassblowing
Thank you all for the kind words, I really appreciate it! And negative on the bubbler, they're pretty tricky and I don't have tons of glass to work with at the moment. Here's a few mushrooms and "base head" marbles. The green mushroom is really transparent because I used a color called paparazzi and it goes transparent when you pull it too thin.
I want to start doing this so bad. Did you take classes or just jump into it? How much was it to start up?
I took a few classes and really got an interest in it so I went out and bought a little hot head torch. I really hated the thing but being able to melt glass was great, I made beads and small pendants for a few months before I finally got my GTT last week. It's pretty expensive to start up, you need a torch, a kiln, fuel, ventilation, hand tools and of course a whole bunch of glass. Soft glass is a whole lot cheaper than boro, but you can't make pipes out of it. If you want to get into it be ready to drop at least a grand on everything but glass. You can get a little torch that would be able to make things for like $200-300, and you could probably find a kiln for around $500. Once you get those things you just need glass and assorted tools. Ventilation and a work space aren't free either, so you need to add all that stuff to the price. It really adds up after a while, but it's fun as hell
Ya it's tons of fun^^ but it can get frustrating, iv been having a hard time tearing open the glass for the mouthpieces. Here's a poor quality iPhone pic of a spoon I just made with some loki's lipstick, I'll get a better pic once it's out of the kiln I'm attempting to kiln strike it so hopefully the colors will change for the better, if they do at all.
Here's that same spoon after being in the kiln for a few hours, I'm still learning how work with striking colors but I think this thing came out pretty nice looking
tearing holes open is something everyone has trouble with in the beginning i think something that helped me was to get the smallest needle flame i could (should be no problem on a gtt) and to barely touch the edge of the glass where i want to tear it open slightly push a piece of 4 mill in and pull it out it should be super thin at this point and much easier to get open the most important thing is to not heat more glass than you want to take off
More pics... 2 wonky attempts at vortex marbles and my first slide. The marbles are only like 95% round but I'm getting there. I have another one in the kiln that I'm hoping is going to put these two to shame, if it doesn't break while it's in there. & the push is really small on the slide, I'll have to work on that
double post, but i made a jar & I used a striking red in the other marble I mentioned and it never came back after it cooled so I'm gonna try to kiln strike it later
Always nice to see another lampworker's progress. Is that a Phantom you got there? Nice! As far as making a hole for the mouthpiece; I like to heat up the part where you want the mouthpiece and hold the spoon perpendicular to the bench with the claw grabbers and pull out thin, then just take my clippers and clip the glass off where it starts to taper, also depending on the size hole I want. Then I just work with the clippers and the flame to clip off any excess or sharp glass and round out the hole. It's nice because you don't have to fuck with tearing it off everytime and you can make whatever size hole you want with a nice taper. Or you can do it the real ghetto way, pull out the end of the mouthpiece thin, slap it with a hot rod and crack it off. Also nice slide! I have yet to fuck with joints.
[quote name='"PostPavilion"']Always nice to see another lampworker's progress. Is that a Phantom you got there? Nice! As far as making a hole for the mouthpiece; I like to heat up the part where you want the mouthpiece and hold the spoon perpendicular to the bench with the claw grabbers and pull out thin, then just take my clippers and clip the glass off where it starts to taper, also depending on the size hole I want. Then I just work with the clippers and the flame to clip off any excess or sharp glass and round out the hole. It's nice because you don't have to fuck with tearing it off everytime and you can make whatever size hole you want with a nice taper. Or you can do it the real ghetto way, pull out the end of the mouthpiece thin, slap it with a hot rod and crack it off. Also nice slide! I have yet to fuck with joints.[/quote] Yes it is, and thanks for the tip. I actually watched a video where the guy did that and that tech looks a lot easier than tearing them open, I'm definitely going to give it a shot. For the clippers so you have diamond shears or do you use scissors or something? And man the joint was kinda tricky to work with at first because I don't have gong tools so I was holding the male with a female joint. Just had to make sure I locked it in there tightly or it would just pull right out.
I have diamond shears but usually only like to use those for larger tubing. I usually use like wire clippers, they come in so much handy!
Hey man can you pm me?I want a custom piece from a grasscity member.I only have a rubber grommet bong.The ones that one the bowl have a rubber ring to stop airflow.Id buy a pipe like the one you showed us aswell.I really like the clear ones. Ill make a payment first if your down and hopefully you wont rip me(doubt that).Get back to me though because I am serious.Tricky was blowing glass and I really wanted a piece from him.I havent seen that man around at all.Hope he is doing okay.
More pics! A marble and a slide, neither of them really turned out how I wanted, oh well... I'm starting to get more purples out of that lokis lipstick, practice practice practice!