Glassblowing general

[Anonymous No.210262]

Sup /diy/, any glass blowers in here tonight?

I come here after experiencing a kind of realization.

I really love works of glass.
And I really want to get into glass blowing, and make sculptures, jewelry, and small trinkets alike out of glass.

I already do that with stone. But I want to expand my crafting ability.

Where do I begin?
Anybody with experience have any hints, tips or guides?

I'll dump some nice things I've found made out of glass.

[Anonymous No.210263]

Feel free to dump some cool glasswork too if you wish.

[Anonymous No.210264]

[Anonymous No.210266]

Make glass pipes and screens. Become rich.

[Anonymous No.210268]

>>210266
Boy don't I know it

[Anonymous No.210434]

buuuuuuuuuump

[glassman No.210756]

Try lampworking to start. You don't need a freaking furnace which needs to stay hot and costs some large $$$. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampworking">Lampworking</a> can be done with minimal materials and mapp gas, which can be got at the hardware store like propane. (You could use propane, which is cheaper, but that requires an oxygen supply as well.) Overall materials for lampworking is far less $$$ than glassblowing.

Ex: http://www.forestlampworking.com/pendant_pricelist-jpg-revised.jpg

Most basic lampworkers stick to making beads, but with some creativity you can do other things. Most stuff tends to be small, though. You also need something to let the glass objects cool slowly. There are small kiln-like things the size of toaster ovens, but you can get a crock pot filled with vermiculite or even an asbestos "pocket" (the latter is least effective, but very cheap... it's what I used and while I suffered a few beads that cracked from cooling too quickly, it's generally effective for basic stuff).

Stained glass is also fun, but I find requires MUCH patience for all the cutting, wrapping and soldering. You can get some great rewards through intricate glass designs, but like I said, lots of work and patience.

Slumping is another technique where you get a kiln (larger than the bead-warming kilns... more like a small pottery kiln) and arrange un-/cut glass, bottles, whatever... heat them up to the melting point and let them slump together. Slump them flat for panels, or slump them over forms to make bowls or other sorts of decorations.

[glassman No.210757]

There is also a kind of lampworking (might go by the same name, IDK) that deals with borosilicate glass -- the kind used in the science lab. I remember doing this in high school chem class, where we bent our own connecting tubes and the like -- don't know if high schools do this anymore. Anyway, some people have turned that into an artform; probably easier and cheaper than the other lampworking: don't really know.

[Maria !LEsbiAnv62 No.210812]

Glass dildos. Be sure to use pyrex glass so they won't shatter.

[Anonymous No.210822]

I've been lampworking and blowing for 7 years or so and I am familiar with almost every technique in both soft and hard glass.

My specialities are murrini, marbles and vacuum encasing although I started with beads.

This hobby has become insanely popular so it is very easy to start, most cities have lampworking stores that will rent torch time and offer classes. If you can get someone to teach you in person it will go a lot faster.

If you are interested check out http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/ (you need to log in to see most of the forums) and pick up a book or two from the library.

Picture is my studio, the torch is a GTT mirage.

[Anonymous No.210823]

this thread blows

[Anonymous No.210824]

>>210822
Here are a few marbles I've made.

Flower implosions, a mix of 96, 104 and 108 glass.
The different looking one was an application of boro techniques in soft glass. I blew the disk on a blowpipe to fit more petals in.

[Anonymous No.210831]

Awesome thread. Ive been wanting to get into glass blowing
Mainly making pipes and bongs etc, to sell. I would also like to do ornaments and stuff but i dont really have many ideas for that.
I was reading about annealing boro, and im not sure if need to buy a kiln, as im short on money
and this would be one of the largest costs, what do you think I should do. I was thinking of just using a torch setup to make pipes, and try sell enough so i could DIY a moderate size kiln so i could anneal proper 2ft tall bongs.

[Anonymous No.210832]

>>210824
Fucking awesome dude.

[Anonymous No.210833]

>>210831
You should not sell anything that hasn't been annealed, especially if it is larger than an inch or two. There will be local places (for clay, slumping, lampworking, they are everywhere in the USA) which should rent kiln time for like 10-20$ a cycle.

I suspect you are underestimating the difficulty and cost of doing large boro work though. You are going to need a substantial torch, possibly a lathe and a lot of oxygen and glass.

As with most hobbies, things can get expensive fast. I burn ~20$ of oxygen an hour when doing large work. Colored boro also tends to run >50$ a pound.

[Anonymous No.210836]

>>210831
http://www.talkglass.com/forum/
Is a good site for borosilicate/serious work. (also the people are way cooler)

Lampworketc deals more with soft glass and beads.

[Anonymous No.210839]

>>210833
I was thinking about buying one of these
http://www.sundanceglass.com/glass-pipe-kits.htm
Most likely the 420 Deluxe.
But the kilns seem so overpriced.
http://www.sundanceglass.com/kilnlg.htm

And am I wrong in thinking you just put the glass into a low heat torch flame to start heating up the tube?
How would it be dangerous to sell something unannealed if it would not experience temperatures even that high whith someone smoking out of it.
But I understand the shitstorm if something I make explodes in someones face.
I am seriously concidering this as a hobby / occupation though and I realize I have a lot to learn.
Could you reccomend any e-books I could download to get a better understanding of the whole process.
At the moment it seems to be, melt a peice off your tube, heat it, colour it, blow it, shape it, anneal it, done.
(an oversimplification I know)

[Anonymous No.210843]

>>210839
You can put pretty much any boro straight into the flame until you start using >30mm stuff.
When you don't anneal glass, the stress from uneven cooling (while it was being made) stays in the glass (like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert's_Drop )

You can end up in situations where small scratches can cause your work to crack. Properly annealed glass can take quite a beating, but if you don't anneal large pieces, your work can just break when it shouldn't


Probably my first recommendation is try to get someone to teach you in person for an hour or two, or at least watch a lot of youtube videos (stuff like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXL0SUyOD4&feature=related )

Glassblowing relies mostly on having a "feel" for how glass flows, but when you start you won't really know what is going on and there are dozens of small things that need to be right (flame chemistry, size, regulator pressures, position of the glass in relation to the torch face...).

The only real recommendation I can make with confidence is use a much larger flame that you expect. Newcommers always start with very small flames and that leads them to try working too close to the torch face. If you get glass in the torch face its a huge PITA. Start with solid rod as well and learn implosions or something.


I'm not aware of any books on making pipes, but there are a lot of good tutorials (on talkglass). If you go to a library, there will be books on scientific glassblowing. They will start from the ground up and cover some genuinely insane stuff, people make these things by hand.

[Anonymous No.210846]

>>210843
well thanks, and yeah ive been gobbling up all the information I could find, ive infact already seen that youtube video and subscribed. Ive been watching alot of vids on it.
I think the best thing for me would be to dive in and start experimenting. I will check the place you reccomended though.
Do you think I could torch anneal small peices?
I know with full sized peices that wont be possible. But I just dont want to spend $1500 on a kiln I wouldnt use to its full potential for 6 months only to find out I may not have needed it or something.

[Anonymous No.210849]

Here is a pretty good tutorial on making a spoon (needs login)
http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32744

You can torch anneal small pieces. I wouldn't recommend getting a kiln for a while, at least until you know you like flameworking. You can torch anneal small pieces but you need the right technique or you can make things worse. I'm not particularly familiar with flame annealing, but I think some people use very large reducing flames so they can get the whole piece at an even temperature.

Try googling your city and lampworking, I rented about 40 hours (at 5$ an hour) when I first started lampworking from a local place (http://www.tiffanyhouse.net/membership-studio-time/).). There will be other people you can learn from, generally they have a stack of books to browse through and you can buy single rods of glass as you need them. It will be way easier than trying to get started from scratch.

[Anonymous No.212052]

Oh wow, I left this thread after like a day of like no replies, comeback after the weekend, and suddenly POST!

Thank you very much kind gentleman!
I will go fetch a tea to nurse this hangover and read this thread.

[Anonymous No.212311]

bump for interest

[Anonymous No.212408]

>>210262
Well if you want to make jewelry you don't want glassblowing, you want lamp working.

[Anonymous No.212421]

>>210262
I haven't done glassblowing myself.
I looked into it though and a 'decent' starter setup would probably cost $1200-$1500 though (buying everything for lampworking) ... glassBLOWING would be even more, since you need a much larger furnace for that. :|

This was the estimate from the local class-crafting shop guy. He also had classes where you got to do simpler stuff, which is one way to get started.

and while you may not need it for everything, you WILL want an annealing oven. The larger a piece of heat-formed glass is, the more likely it is to crack if it cools too fast,,,,, so the annealing oven slowly cools down over a period of many hours (or even days). There ain't much way around it unless you're only doing very small items.

[Anonymous No.212820]

My uncle does glass blowing.
Pretty neat, he just sells it along side the counter at his Cafe.