Glass Blowing - 103

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Vase with Picked up Color. (2019_03_27)

A Very Kind Gift of a 6 hour Scholarship

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Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts.

The Benzaiten Center for the creative arts kindly gave me a 6 hours scholarship. I cannot thank them enough. What a Great experience and unexpected opportunity this has been for me. I used it to take their second six-hour class "Glass Blowing 103" class.

3/19/2019 2 hours with Justin

Worked on blow and pull tumblers and added optic mold with a twist tumblers. Only one piece made it into the annealer and even it was not very good, but a very good learning experience.

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Twisted Optic Cup Tumbler. (2019_03_19)

Justin caught some errors that I have been unfortunately practicing.

  1. He rightly pointed out, as have others, that I am getting off center (especially on the way to the bench and while getting the 1st tool).
  2. I stop turning when pulling, I thought this was correct to prevent twisting the workpiece, and I have unfortunately been practicing this way. Instead after you get a grip cut in with the diamond scissors, slightly loosen the scissors and you can pull without twisting while still turning the workpiece.
  3. Blow before pulling, so pulling stretches the blown bubble not the tip.
  4. The blow hose should be on the left side of the pipe and brought into the right side of the pipe as you enter the bench. Under the arm, in front of the pipe.

Justin also showed me a few new techniques.

  1. You can use the scissors to cool the lower end of the bubble, so pull is from the top of the bubble by pushing the scissors against the bubble.
  2. Work the glass closer to yourself (as opposed to others advice to use the whole length of the bench).
  3. Hooking your right foot under the bench allows you to lean farther to the right to get a better view of the workpiece.
  4. You can use the blow hose for the initial bubble, this allows you to see the bubbles progress better and allows the workpiece to be held up as you blow if gravity is making it too long.
  5. Keep the hand holding the jacks closer to the workpiece for better control and more force.
  6. After heating the pipe, before the 1st gather, cap and dip in water about ½ ".
    1. This will blow off carbon which can cause air pockets in the moil.
    2. Remember to cap the pipe or blow into it with the blow hose.

Some added steps for the optic mold.

  1. Turn the same direction in the glory hole as at the bench (counterclockwise).
  2. The initial bubble should go nearly to the tip.
  3. Marver to a tapered cylinder that will fit in the optic mold.
  4. Blow out in the mold.
  5. Blow slightly after removal from the mold.
  6. And obviously, holding the workpiece with the diamond scissors while turning at the bench to put in the twists.
  7. When you run out of bench pull the pipe back rather than rolling it back, so you are always turning the same direction.

While cleaning up Justin suggested.

  1. For further practice I should use the optic mold as it has nearly all the steps of a tumbler and a few more.
  2. I should reread about the use of optic mold.

03/27/2019 2 hours with Justin

I warmed up with blow and pull tumblers, they turned out fairly decent for me but broke when removing the punties. Justin suggested that I keep the punty hotter as I work and suggested using a donut punty. Later I practiced making several of these.

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Blow and Pull Glass. (2019_03_27) Vase with Picked up Color. (2019_03_27)

We then attempted color pickup in optic mold, but I failed to realize how long is required to melt in the cold colored glass, so I only partially picked them up. As a result, we then picked up a few off of the marver (losing the optic ribs in the process) and made a vase.

I have been getting folds lines in the glass before the initial bubble. Justin suggested that I slow down the rotation after the gather to avoid getting "wings" and that I not press down so hard when marvering for the initial bubble. This worked really well.

Justin then suggested we go back to working on blow and pull but aim for an amphora shape rather than a tumbler. He re-suggested that I push on the bubble with scissors while blowing so expansion is in the bubble rather than the tip, and turn the pipe at the speed of the glass to avoid twisting (the rate it wants to naturally fall off the pipe?) when reheating.

I got a little better at getting in the jack line by putting it in after 1st blow and pull and taking less time by going straight to the scissors and skipping the tweezer pull.

While thinning he repeated that I should use small grabs and long pulls toward the center to not open the hole but also added go twice around. The 1st time cools the glass tabs providing something to pull on the second time around.

He also told me to cool the inside of the opening with the jack tips and the outside with the back of the jacks before using the soffetia.

Justin demonstrated to me just how far from perpendicular I am when flattening the bottom. He suggested not overhanging the pipe so far from the bench (verses overcooling the moil) for a better view. Finally, he told me, when removing the punty, to hit it with the knife as if to remove the punty (not just tap it).

04/04/2019 2 hours with Jim

Due to an unexpected personal issue I was unable to make this class. The kind staff at Benzaiten have more than made up for this by allowing me to watch demonstrations and letting me experiment and play from time to time. Again, I cannot thank them enough!

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Tumbler. (2019_04_13) Optic Tumbler. (2019_05_11)
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Tumbler. (2019_05_19)