Opals Encased in Borosilicate Glass
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- čas přidán 24. 05. 2020
- Using opals that flash lots of color! Encasing them in glass so they can be easily added to other glass projects. Also making two clear marbles to magnify the opals inside.
Stay for awhile and learn to style glass the way you want it to be. Take the time, sharpen your mind, test your creativity.
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#Glassblowing #Lampworking #Marble - Jak na to + styl
Those came out beautiful! Makes me think of small planets in glass.
I had no idea opals could be heated enough for lampworking but what you said about them being made of silica made a lot of sense. I learned a lot in this video!
FYI, the melting point of gold and silver is lower than the working temp of boro, that's why the metals melt first. Fine Silver melts around 1761F (less for sterling) and 24k gold around 1945F (again, less for alloys). While boro starts to soften as low as the strain point of ~1030F, the working temp for reasonable viscosity is up around 2300F, so the metals will almost always melt before the glass gets soft
Another fun tech ! Overheating will skuzz up opals .You need to work them in a gentle flame slowly ,being carful to keep in an oxidizing flame way out from the face of the torch .I treat them like im working Dichroic glass and they come out much cleaner .It takes a bit longer ,but the result is worth the extra time
Hey Codfan, Yea I was thinking over heating or to much humidity in the air. It was raining at the time so humidity was like 95%, I was getting lots of water condensing in the tube.
I work em hot and fast, never had scuzz or bubbles, you don't gotta do to much with the small shit. It's the big opal disc's you gotta take your time with ..
Thank you so much for these videos!! please dont stop making them i just ordered my first torch and kiln!
Hello Moviest, that's awesome news. Make sure to double check all the safety information and triple check your studios preparedness before you begin. Ventilation and flashback arrestors are required, along with the right shaded glasses to keep your eyes laser focused. Best of luck with your glass journey, also thanks for watching and subscribing to the channel!
Thanks for continuing to make content. Entertaining and informative, cant wait to get back on the torch.
Beautiful 👍
Thank you for posting this! I've been curious to try opals but I wasn't sure were to start. I'm looking forward to trying this out
Hey Kaci, I would start with the Gilson 3mm white round. I've recently been told the white opals may be the least heat sensitive. Thanks for watching.
I’m loving all the great information. Can you go over how to boro in temper in a kiln. Times temp there is not a lot of information. Most say put in the kiln to temper but no much more
Hey Chris, I'll have to do a video here on the kiln later. But basically you can relieve stress built up in the glass at 1050°F for (1 hour per one inch of thickness); this is called annealing. It's good to do this when making objects that are over half an inch thick or before you sell it. You can delay the annealing process and do a large batch of objects all at once to save on electricity. The kiln can also help you slow the cooling process as glass may crack from rapid cooling. I hope this information helps, thanks for watching.
Lol Annealing not tempering i have been watch forged in fire and used the wrong term/concept thank you again these video are awesome.
I got a starter kit from mountain glass arts, along with the boro glass that I’ve been using. I went and checked their website for other cool stuff and they also have opals and dichroic stuff, I’m gonna have to hop on this opal encased stuff here soon
Awesome! They have an even wider selection of items than when I first started.
The Polished chunks are more affordable to practice with than Shaped (which are ground into spheres or coins). The black opals tends to be more heat sensitive, avoid heating them to glowing. Lastly dichroic is fun but super sensitive as well.
Best of luck on your new journey!
very beautiful, maybe on the next video about these try multiple little chips?
That might look very nice in a vortex marble. czcams.com/video/BgzzJzUA_Fc/video.html
Que bueno, hermano.
De Buenos Aires siguiendoté.........
Hola Kilay, gracias por mirar. Este fue un paso de preparación. Estos ópalos se usarán más en futuros proyectos.
That cloudy business has nothing to do with dirt. I've done tests and been able to get no clouding after rubbing my fingers all over an opal. It's something to do with the heat. I think the hot air in the tube clouds the surface before it gets covered up, so I use a very careful reduction flame until it's completely covered. Also, not using your opals right away seems to increase the chance of cloudy edge. They can't be garaged for a long time. Opals are kinda my thing, but maybe 1 out of 10 come out cloudy enough that I can't sell it. I have seen other artists go ahead and sell items like that though. It also increases the price of a marble which makes it harder to sell even though it's super pretty!
Hey Jasmine, Thanks for the information. That's what I was thinking also, it might be humidity in the air or overheating. I was trying to evaporate the moisture off the tubes/gems in the kiln before encasement I thought that might help. Only some of the black ones got a bit cloudy, are there any colors or shapes that tend to work better for you?
@@MattJasa spheres are the easiest and most likely to come out nice with no bubbles. The rough shapes you used in the video are the cheapest ones that still look good, they are great for practice. The hardest shapes are the ones with sharp corners. The most sensitive color is orange - I have a really hard time not getting clouds around orange opals. It may just be that the clouds are more visible with that color, but I'm not sure. White and crystal are the easiest colors, but IMO also the least attractive colors. Black opals are hit and miss, some of them have a lot of fire and some just kinda don't. Usually they at least have a "good side" though. I usually encase in a round marble as small as possible, so the optics are the same from all directions, then look at it carefully from all sides to find the best direction. Then I hot-seal a handle onto the good side and place precisely where I want it.
The few times I tried an opal encasement, I was taught to suck the air out right when the glass is melty in one good hard draw. It prevents air bubbles and scorching. (Especially with the cube or other shaped opals)
Hey Pfeifer, I was trying a few different methods and ended up going with sucking only the last bit to cover it, but I am going to get some more opals and try that method again of sucking all the air out. I liked practicing with these cheaper opals but I'm really wanting to try the better shaped ones too.
@@MattJasa where do you recommend buying cheaper opals?
Great job this week Matt! I just released my first glass video today, hoping I can bring great content to the glass community like you have done for us all. Love the amount of content your producing, keep up all the good work.
Cole Thynne Glass
Not sure what my expectations were, but your results exceeded them!
I heard you can find micro-meteorites, using a magnet around the areas where rain gutters spill. I hope it's possible to magnify a humble cluster of them!
You can encase Moldavite and quite a few other stones. If they are similar to glass - mostly igneous type of rocks, and glass produced by lightning.
Hello Nyambui, thank you that's great to hear! I've never heard of micro-meteorites before, that's sounds very cool! If their magnetic that means their metallic, they might not be easily encased without altering the meteorite. You could make a hollow pendant that magnifies everything you put inside, it would basically look like a sphere. Thanks for your comment, have a good day!
@@MattJasa Thanks for your content and information. I'm learning so many cool things from it!
It's so much fun watching you work.
Edited to ask, what do you do with your waste glass?
Hey ScubaGrandma, I save my larger scraps, but the smaller bits in the water bucket can't be reused. I'm collecting them for now, eventually I want to melt them all down in a bonfire or something. That's a common problem among lamp workers.
@@MattJasa frit???
I mine opals up here in Idaho, and yep, it's a fact: natural opals will explode from the heat never mind. But I love the combination, so I've found other ways to make this work for the jewelry I make. Gibson does make the best lab grown opals though, yours came out way cool looking.
Hey Cathy, very cool you do mining. It must be exciting when you discover your gems. I wasn't to excited about opals before doing this video but now I love them. As the center piece of a marble or pendant there's really nothing else that will flash this much color. Thanks for you comment and stay safe in the mine!
I already have gibson and the tube. Thanks
awsome work mate. i have a box full of natral potch opal (the rubbish without color) i got excited with the idea of usint it but then it all came crashing down when u explaned why u cant use natral :(. ahh well
Hey Zac! Yea lab-made are very different. I was talking about getting better shaped opals but I was happy to have these cheaper oddly shaped ones to practice with. I'd probably recommend both, a pack of cheaper ones to practice then a handful of rounds or trillion.
Also, is it possible to make a glass bezel setting for opal? I kinda imagine it'll be quite interesting. Sorry for all these comments, I'm an amateur opal hunter who's trying to think of new ways to present opal jewelry because I think the old ways (gold bezel, wire wrapping) are beautiful but a little boring.
Hey Apple, no problem, that's why I'm here to spread some knowledge. Ask away.
I'm not as familiar with jewelry making. The only glass rings I've attempted didn't use actual gems but colored glass melted on-top. However I was wanting to attempt to set an opal using glass prongs. I'm not sure how well it will work as the glass might contract slightly as it cools and pull away from the gem. A bezel might be even more difficult, but I could give it a try.
Just to note: These aren't natural gems, but laboratory made. They have a lot of the same properties, but compared to a natural opal it has a more uniform/repetitive pattern of color.
@@MattJasa thanks for the replies! :D I didn't even think opals would be all right when heated, thought only Andamooka opal was okay with heat. Glass prongs are pretty interesting too, it's never been seen before in all my searching. Will it be too fragile though?
Also an idea I've been having for a while, just putting this out here: Some Ethiopian hydrophane opals cannot be dry or they crack, so they're generally considered unusable for jewelry by some suppliers I've seen. Some of the stuff like this: www.opalauctions.com/auctions/200ct-ethiopian-crystal-rough-opal-specimen-606381
Or this www.opalauctions.com/auctions/rough-natural-ethiopian-opal-992189
It's a shame for smaller sized opals like those because they look quite pretty and can be cut in water, but can't be worn and have to be kept in jars. If there was a hollow cabochon glass shape filled with water and sealed, I thought maybe those opals could be cut and set into beautiful jewelry too. I have no idea if that's even possible or if it'd leak or be too fragile though, I imagine it won't be easy shaping something like this and it might not be worth it to try because Ethiopian opals are kinda cheap. It's just something to think about.
Some synthetic opals can look very convincingly real, though I haven't found a source for the convincing ones I've seen. Though they're not made in nature, I think the synthetics have their own place in the opal world and do look very pretty, especially the Aurora opals.
And the "phantom" opals in opal I was talking about. facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=456839558979035&set=p.456839558979035&type=3
Loved this very very much. I would love to trade a bunch of these from you for some real opals. Oh shoot. I guess you can't use the real opals though cuz the heat huh? Well I would still be interested if the price wasn't to much.
Thank you, I would love to swap for natural opal. Technically these are "real", just not made naturally but in a laboratory. I think the process is similar but the conditions are different, so under lens they should have less random color patterns. It would be great to have some real ones to compare with.
@@MattJasa Ok cool. I absolutely love love love opals and I have so many and I know I have quite a grip that are very valuable but thanks to ebay the prices are quite widely ranged. There is just so very much to know and I don't want to lose money if I ever try selling any of them. So as far as trading with you, do you know how to polish them yourself or would you only want some rough pieces? Regardless I will send you pieces that all have vibrant colors. How can I send you pics to show you? Or how can we discuss this more privately? I am so excited. You do amazing work btw.
Matt jasa - Thank you very much. Does you know how to make the nebula around the opal to look like a galaxy ? I saw that some people use glass (but dont know witch one but) and other use gold and silver fuming. Thank you
Hello Lacaro, I think I've seen the nebula/galaxy marbles you speak of. I haven't seen one being made so I don't know the steps off-hand but with some trial and error I could probably start to figure it out.
czcams.com/video/kvXUtgnbjxg/video.html,
@@MattJasa czcams.com/video/UL49WT4DUuM/video.html
How long you been blowing glass?
Can you encase a small piece of steel in glass ?
That's a good question. Theoretically it might be possible but to a certain extent. I've encased a tiny bit of gold and silver before. The silver broke the marble in half after it cooled, but the gold hasn't, so its very stressful on the glass.
is glass blowing your full time job ? if so how long does it take ?and is it profitable ?
Hey Oblivion, It is now for me. It's different for everyone though generally it takes a lot of practice and equipment. Also it usually hinges on your artistic abilities but that's something that comes with practice. I recommend people attempt it more as a hobby and see how far they want to take it. Hope that gives you an idea. Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much ! Love all the vids and everything you do 👍
Hey encased opals will eventually shift and crack over time? Is this correct
I have heard of this, but I can't confirm it. All the opals I did from last year seem to still be intact.
Glass is great at storing stress. It might of been a delayed crack waiting to happen. My first glass hammer exploded several hours after it cooled down.