Wonderful work. If id add anything to this it would be at the end couple closeups(like a slide show) of the final product/s. Other than that the explaining, and camera angle and pretty much everything else worked out just perfect... Personally I think a lot of people have seen glass products and/or part of the manufacturing process and that always left a kind of mystery shroud covering this profession. By you doing videos that explain in a little more detail the basic procedures (nothing to advanced or secret-I understand that) you help lift some of that mystery and give those people a piece of mind as they now know how a little piece of that magical item came to be. For that we can only thank you and wish you the best of luck in this journey.
Well done Vicki ! One recommendation .... Start using a steel punti instead of Boro. You will eliminate having to pull a blob of boro out of your finished piece and you will be able to get a perfectly round surface on your marble. I will be making a video on the use of a steel punti and upload it to my channel. Oh, just one other thing. You should show the finished marble at the end of you video. Excellent work.
+GeometricJewels Thanks for the suggestions. I use steel punties when I sculpt figures, but I've never tried it with marbles. Do you just heat it, or do you have to embed it?
Hi Vicki, You do not have to embed the steel punti. Hot glass has such amazing adhesive properties that if the steel rod is kept warm enough it will stay attached for as long as you need it to. I used to use boro and then a break away punti ; you just don't need to waste the glass. It does take some practice to get used to working with steel rods, but you'll never have to make a break away punti again. I have been making marbles for 13 years and selling them on Ebay. I am in my studio every day. Write me at randallshandle@comcast.net if you'd like more info. Great tutorial. Randall (geometricjewels dot com)
Vicki, thank you so much for your videos. I tried my hand at simply making a marble. Needless to say when I went to remove my punty at the end, my knife made the punty explode at the joint, taking part of the marble with it. I was disappointed but knew I'd be wasting glass, learning by the seat of my pants! Then, I tried to make an implosion and had to quit before I got very far, as I think I was running out of oxygen. I turned to this video to see what I could do better! Thanks for showing me what I failed to do. Buffalo is not too far...
Pat, I'd love to walk you through the process in person. It's much easier when someone is there to coach you. I offer private coaching and rental. Let me know if you want to come for a visit.
+Shannon Scollard Thanks, Shannon. I had to overcome a number of challenges making this video, but I wanted to create the best one I could. Glad you liked the end product.
Thank you for watching, David, and for letting me know you enjoyed my video. I hope you'll watch some of the others I've produced. Lots to see and learn.
Absolutely awesome video! You obviously already know this but you are an amazing teacher! The tutorial was concise, easy to understand and makes me want to move from Oklahoma to Buffalo for training.....you need to teach online where you're not listed on time. Like Craftsy or something similar. Thank you soo much I watched your demo of a marble and longed to be sitting next to you and with these tutorials it's possible.
Lisa, you made my day! Thank you for your lovely comments. Could you explain your comment about me teaching online. I've been looking for ways to earn money teaching online. Can you provide any guidance? Thanks so much.
I just wrote Craftsy a week ago suggesting that they make a class in lampwork bead making. They replied back that they were always happy to hear what members want to see, and that they would make sure to pass it on to their production team, and that they were always on the look out for the next great class. It's a website with various creative and crafts online classes, where you get 'life time' access to the classes you pay for (that's what they call a 'member'), and people can ask questions to the teachers and also show and share the things they make. I've been watching lampwork videos for days, and also want so much to be taught now! Your videos are really great! You could try write them. And if more people also write them and say they would like some lampwork glass classes, then maybe they will make some!
a lot better compared to part 1, good improvement! i also liked you telling why at 7:18 ...that was very good. although i'm a bit confused by what you ment with "Maria" haha i liked how you tried something new at the end of the video, that's cute... but maybe just put all the text at the end in short written down 1 after another, don't worry if it's to small we can expand it Enough to read it, and thanks for watching after that is good, simple fade as new text appears.
+Natash Choudhry Thanks again. By the way, when you flatten a rod of glass on a pad so it looks like the head of a nail, the nail head part is called a "maria."
+SilverOwl13 No matter how many years I've worked with glass, it still amazes me. Do you mind giving me some feedback?? I'm curious to know if the tutorial held your interest as someone who doesn't work with glass. This video was made to be a more complete tutorial and not just a demo. Not sure if that will appeal to non-glass workers.
Thank you! I recently posted a video on sculpting a hummingbird. I invite you to take a look at that one and others I've created. I'm sure you'll find them interesting.
Fascinating, thank you. I learnt a lot. A question, you say 'Put it in the kiln' but I wonder if you just lay it in on its own, or on the graphite mould? And it would be lovely to see the finished item.
+Christiana Hancox Thanks for watching and for your question. I place the marble on the floor of the kiln once it's cooled down a little. If I put it in immediately, it can get a flat spot. I show four examples of the finished marble in the diamond-shaped thumbnail and several places throughout the video.
Thank you, Tammy. My kiln has kiln brick on the floor; however, that shouldn't matter. If you are putting your work in the kiln too soon, you will pick up the fiber and/or a "kiln scar" (a flat, textured spot on the glass.) After you finish a piece, wait a bit until the glow goes out, then place it in the kiln. That will avoid picking up fiber or getting a scar. Many people think they have to get the piece in the kiln immediately. Actually, as long as you have a good heat base, you have more time than you think. LMK if that works for you.
Vicki, I have been making beads with my hot head using mapp gas. Would you think I could use that torch to make a 1 inch marble? Thanks for sharing your work.
+Kenneth Gill I have only made small beads in demos on a hothead. I'm not sure if a hothead will work for a 1" marble. It will take a lot longer, but why not give it a try? If you don't have a marble mold, you can make the same kind of "implosion" and turn it into a pendant. If you don't know how to make the bail (loop for the chain to go through), an easy way to do that is to make a clear glass bead on a mandrel and garage it in a hot kiln. Then make your "marble" shaping it with heat, rotation and gravity. When you get it the shape you want, take the bead out of the kiln. Heat the edge of the bead and the edge of you marble where you want your bail to be. When they are both glowing the same intensity, gently attach the bead to your marble. Pull them apart slightly to make a smooth transition and relieve some of the thermal stress. Put the whole thing in the kiln to anneal. Let me know how it works for you.
as a painting can i use of soft glass and stick that on a glass canvas like oil paint ? can i attach sveral hot marbles between two sheet of glass and with pressure and heat stick them to each other? i recommend you try it it will be very beautiful painting.
I'm not sure I'm understanding your suggestion. You could probably place marbles on top of a piece of glass that's the same type of glass (the same expansion rate - coefficient of expansion) and heat them up very slowly in a kiln and the marble will attach to the flat glass. If you heat it high enough and long enough, the marble will spread and flow into the flat glass. I wouldn't place marbles between sheets of glass. I would expect them to trap big air bubbles if you heated them up. Did I explain that well enough?
You mentioned something about pressing too hard or the flowers won't come out clearly... do you work from trial and error? You should post a video of common mistakes or your personal mess-ups and how to avoid them.
Avery, as you develop the skills of working with glass, there is a balancing point between using too much heat and not enough. I can guide someone, but until they internalize how the glass feels and looks, they will lose a lot of pieces. In terms of posting my mistakes, I wouldn't know where to start. When I teach students, I show them how to overcome common problems. But a lot, as you suggested, is trial and error. I'm thinking about creating an online "university" with lessons and courses, but I'd need to figure out how to get paid and how to market it before I started on such an ambitious undertaking.
You get an A+. That's exactly what happens. Think about it this way. When glass is hot, it wants to be spherical. When I start the condensing, the shape is like a flattened nail head (called a Maria). As I heat the edge of the maria, that glass gets soft and wants to round out. As it fattens up, it forces the design into the marble. Since the design is attached to its starting place, it stretches and becomes 3 dimensional. When I tap the condensed glass on the graphite pad, I create another Maria. Now there's more clear glass available to heat on the edge. I repeat the heating and tapping process until I have the design depth I'm looking for. Please let me know if this explanation makes sense or if you have other questions. I'm delighted you figured it out by just watching my video.
Good question. One of the ways that we classify glass is by how much it expands in the heat. The type of glass that I use typically is soda lime glass a.k.a. soft glass. They’ve assigned a numeric value to its expansion properties. The higher the number, the more the glass expands in the heat and the less heat it takes. The Soda lime glass that I use has a COE, coefficient of expansion, of 104. Borosilicate has a coefficient of expansion around 33. That means it takes a lot more heat to get the glass to move in the flame. Borosilicate is preferable for certain applications, such as making pipes. I like using soft glass because it flows more easily and I think it’s more graceful. You can make marbles from either type of glass. The techniques are similar but not identical. I hope that helps answer your question.
Vicki, this is a truly fantastic video! Thank you so much for making it. I am a newbie and I am most interested in glass marbles and sculptural work (although I do understand the necessary practice needed to take place before moving on to those). I currently work in porcelain (I make articulated porcelain art dolls: www.lightpainteddoll.com) but glass has always appealed to me, too. Marbles more than anything. Your tutorial is brilliant- it has made things a lot clearer to me and the baking soda trick is a new thing I learnt from you today. FANTASTIC! A view of the finished product at the end would be indeed great and much appreciated. Also, if you'd like to teach online, may I suggest Skype? It could be on one-to-one basis (I am already interested! :) ) or even in a group (as a "conference call"). Otherwise you could also run webinars (a link posted here would bring you students) or even sell videos or written tutorials on Etsy. I personally prefer videos by far, especially for glass/lampworking. As for the boro punty (I assume it's easier to use than a steel rod?), is it pretty straightforward to remove the leftover borosilicate glass from the soft glass at the end? Thank you again. The best tutorial I found on making implosions in soft glass!
Ilona, thank you for your note and kind words. It was in my "likely spam" folder, so I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Your dolls are beautiful! Thanks for sending me the link to your page. I would love to explore doing classes online. I'm at a loss where to begin. Do you live in the states or Canada? Maybe I could call you (or you could call me) and we could discuss the possibilities??? I use boro punties, even though some have suggested I use steel. It takes a bit of practice to remove the boro from your piece. First, make sure you are only attaching the punty with a small bit of glass. When I started, I used to push too hard and embed the boro in the marble. That was a disaster. When you are ready to remove the boro, timing is everything. If you heat the spot too much, it flattens that spot on your marble. If you don't heat it enough, your punty gets stuck to the marble instead of lifting out the piece of boro. I turn down the size of my flame and watch the boro spot as I heat it. It will be clearly a different look than the soft glass around it. When the boro spot starts to shrink in size, I quickly and GENTLY touch it with the punty and the spot comes out cleanly (most of the time.) I look forward to continuing our conversation. I totally understand why you love glass so much. BTW, I recently started working with a new student who wanted to make marbles. She had never worked at a torch before and she's doing great!
Beautiful work Vicki !!! I loved
+Rodrigo Antonio Fernández Valverde Thank you so much. I'm glad you watched it and liked it.
Wonderful work. If id add anything to this it would be at the end couple closeups(like a slide show) of the final product/s. Other than that the explaining, and camera angle and pretty much everything else worked out just perfect...
Personally I think a lot of people have seen glass products and/or part of the manufacturing process and that always left a kind of mystery shroud covering this profession. By you doing videos that explain in a little more detail the basic procedures (nothing to advanced or secret-I understand that) you help lift some of that mystery and give those people a piece of mind as they now know how a little piece of that magical item came to be. For that we can only thank you and wish you the best of luck in this journey.
+gigicaly Thank you very much. You made my day.
Well done Vicki ! One recommendation .... Start using a steel punti instead of Boro. You will eliminate having to pull a blob of boro out of your finished piece and you will be able to get a perfectly round surface on your marble. I will be making a video on the use of a steel punti and upload it to my channel. Oh, just one other thing. You should show the finished marble at the end of you video. Excellent work.
+GeometricJewels Thanks for the suggestions. I use steel punties when I sculpt figures, but I've never tried it with marbles. Do you just heat it, or do you have to embed it?
Hi Vicki, You do not have to embed the steel punti. Hot glass has such amazing adhesive properties that if the steel rod is kept warm enough it will stay attached for as long as you need it to. I used to use boro and then a break away punti ; you just don't need to waste the glass. It does take some practice to get used to working with steel rods, but you'll never have to make a break away punti again. I have been making marbles for 13 years and selling them on Ebay. I am in my studio every day. Write me at randallshandle@comcast.net if you'd like more info. Great tutorial. Randall (geometricjewels dot com)
+GeometricJewels, Randall, thanks for the advice. I'll give the steel punty a try. Thanks for your contact info too.
Thank you Vicki for a wonderful video.
+Deena Ruiz You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it and let me know.
as i said. AWSOME!
Vicki, thank you so much for your videos. I tried my hand at simply making a marble. Needless to say when I went to remove my punty at the end, my knife made the punty explode at the joint, taking part of the marble with it. I was disappointed but knew I'd be wasting glass, learning by the seat of my pants! Then, I tried to make an implosion and had to quit before I got very far, as I think I was running out of oxygen.
I turned to this video to see what I could do better! Thanks for showing me what I failed to do. Buffalo is not too far...
Pat, I'd love to walk you through the process in person. It's much easier when someone is there to coach you. I offer private coaching and rental. Let me know if you want to come for a visit.
You work and explanations are wonderful. So glad you popped up. I subscribed and enjoy you very much. Thanks for sharing your amazing talent! KANSAS
Thanks, Jack. I haven't done a video in a while. Might be time to get back at it.
Wonderful! Well done and very well explained! Thanks so much!
+Shannon Scollard Thanks, Shannon. I had to overcome a number of challenges making this video, but I wanted to create the best one I could. Glad you liked the end product.
Love. Love. Love.
Thanks, Reba. I left you a comment on Part 1. Glad you took the time to watch this.
Very nice, thanks for taking the time to share your talent!
Thank you for watching, David, and for letting me know you enjoyed my video. I hope you'll watch some of the others I've produced. Lots to see and learn.
Fantastic video. Thanks.
Glad you liked this one. Do you melt glass?
Ooh, yeas. I’ve just been trying my hand at implosions, and your video was so helpful.
Thank you. They are lots of fun. If you haven’t looked at my frit implosion, you may find that helpful as well.
Absolutely awesome video! You obviously already know this but you are an amazing teacher! The tutorial was concise, easy to understand and makes me want to move from Oklahoma to Buffalo for training.....you need to teach online where you're not listed on time. Like Craftsy or something similar. Thank you soo much I watched your demo of a marble and longed to be sitting next to you and with these tutorials it's possible.
Lisa, you made my day! Thank you for your lovely comments. Could you explain your comment about me teaching online. I've been looking for ways to earn money teaching online. Can you provide any guidance? Thanks so much.
I just wrote Craftsy a week ago suggesting that they make a class in lampwork bead making. They replied back that they were always happy to hear what members want to see, and that they would make sure to pass it on to their production team, and that they were always on the look out for the next great class.
It's a website with various creative and crafts online classes, where you get 'life time' access to the classes you pay for (that's what they call a 'member'), and people can ask questions to the teachers and also show and share the things they make.
I've been watching lampwork videos for days, and also want so much to be taught now! Your videos are really great! You could try write them. And if more people also write them and say they would like some lampwork glass classes, then maybe they will make some!
Thank you, Sol. I need to contact them. I appreciate your suggestion and encouragement.
WOW ~! look great!
please make more video
+Chan SiuMan Thank you!
+Chan SiuMan Did you see the new videos I posted?
a lot better compared to part 1, good improvement!
i also liked you telling why at 7:18 ...that was very good.
although i'm a bit confused by what you ment with "Maria"
haha i liked how you tried something new at the end of the video, that's cute... but maybe just put all the text at the end in short written down 1 after another, don't worry if it's to small we can expand it Enough to read it, and thanks for watching after that is good, simple fade as new text appears.
+Natash Choudhry Thanks again. By the way, when you flatten a rod of glass on a pad so it looks like the head of a nail, the nail head part is called a "maria."
+Vicki Schneider I see.. thank you for the info
Very interesting!
+SilverOwl13 No matter how many years I've worked with glass, it still amazes me. Do you mind giving me some feedback?? I'm curious to know if the tutorial held your interest as someone who doesn't work with glass. This video was made to be a more complete tutorial and not just a demo. Not sure if that will appeal to non-glass workers.
I think the video was quite informative! I enjoyed it!
Good to hear. Thanks.
beautiful
Thank you! I recently posted a video on sculpting a hummingbird. I invite you to take a look at that one and others I've created. I'm sure you'll find them interesting.
Fascinating, thank you. I learnt a lot. A question, you say 'Put it in the kiln' but I wonder if you just lay it in on its own, or on the graphite mould? And it would be lovely to see the finished item.
+Christiana Hancox Thanks for watching and for your question. I place the marble on the floor of the kiln once it's cooled down a little. If I put it in immediately, it can get a flat spot. I show four examples of the finished marble in the diamond-shaped thumbnail and several places throughout the video.
Thanks
You're welcome. If you try one, I'd love to see what you came up with. I have other videos you might like as well.
são belos ,tuas artes em class
Obrigado. :-)
Beautiful, wondering about kiln floor, I have blanket, will it leave marks? It does on some beads. What do you use
Thank you, Tammy. My kiln has kiln brick on the floor; however, that shouldn't matter. If you are putting your work in the kiln too soon, you will pick up the fiber and/or a "kiln scar" (a flat, textured spot on the glass.) After you finish a piece, wait a bit until the glow goes out, then place it in the kiln. That will avoid picking up fiber or getting a scar. Many people think they have to get the piece in the kiln immediately. Actually, as long as you have a good heat base, you have more time than you think. LMK if that works for you.
Vicki, I have been making beads with my hot head using mapp gas. Would you think I could use that torch to make a 1 inch marble? Thanks for sharing your work.
+Kenneth Gill I have only made small beads in demos on a hothead. I'm not sure if a hothead will work for a 1" marble. It will take a lot longer, but why not give it a try? If you don't have a marble mold, you can make the same kind of "implosion" and turn it into a pendant. If you don't know how to make the bail (loop for the chain to go through), an easy way to do that is to make a clear glass bead on a mandrel and garage it in a hot kiln. Then make your "marble" shaping it with heat, rotation and gravity. When you get it the shape you want, take the bead out of the kiln. Heat the edge of the bead and the edge of you marble where you want your bail to be. When they are both glowing the same intensity, gently attach the bead to your marble. Pull them apart slightly to make a smooth transition and relieve some of the thermal stress. Put the whole thing in the kiln to anneal. Let me know how it works for you.
as a painting can i use of soft glass and stick that on a glass canvas like oil paint ?
can i attach sveral hot marbles between two sheet of glass and with pressure and heat stick them to each other?
i recommend you try it
it will be very beautiful painting.
I'm not sure I'm understanding your suggestion. You could probably place marbles on top of a piece of glass that's the same type of glass (the same expansion rate - coefficient of expansion) and heat them up very slowly in a kiln and the marble will attach to the flat glass. If you heat it high enough and long enough, the marble will spread and flow into the flat glass. I wouldn't place marbles between sheets of glass. I would expect them to trap big air bubbles if you heated them up. Did I explain that well enough?
You mentioned something about pressing too hard or the flowers won't come out clearly... do you work from trial and error? You should post a video of common mistakes or your personal mess-ups and how to avoid them.
Avery, as you develop the skills of working with glass, there is a balancing point between using too much heat and not enough. I can guide someone, but until they internalize how the glass feels and looks, they will lose a lot of pieces. In terms of posting my mistakes, I wouldn't know where to start. When I teach students, I show them how to overcome common problems. But a lot, as you suggested, is trial and error. I'm thinking about creating an online "university" with lessons and courses, but I'd need to figure out how to get paid and how to market it before I started on such an ambitious undertaking.
How does the condensing work? It looks like the edge flows around into the front somehow.
You get an A+. That's exactly what happens. Think about it this way. When glass is hot, it wants to be spherical. When I start the condensing, the shape is like a flattened nail head (called a Maria). As I heat the edge of the maria, that glass gets soft and wants to round out. As it fattens up, it forces the design into the marble. Since the design is attached to its starting place, it stretches and becomes 3 dimensional. When I tap the condensed glass on the graphite pad, I create another Maria. Now there's more clear glass available to heat on the edge. I repeat the heating and tapping process until I have the design depth I'm looking for. Please let me know if this explanation makes sense or if you have other questions. I'm delighted you figured it out by just watching my video.
What's the difference between soft glass marbles and borosilica marbles
Good question. One of the ways that we classify glass is by how much it expands in the heat. The type of glass that I use typically is soda lime glass a.k.a. soft glass. They’ve assigned a numeric value to its expansion properties. The higher the number, the more the glass expands in the heat and the less heat it takes. The Soda lime glass that I use has a COE, coefficient of expansion, of 104. Borosilicate has a coefficient of expansion around 33. That means it takes a lot more heat to get the glass to move in the flame. Borosilicate is preferable for certain applications, such as making pipes. I like using soft glass because it flows more easily and I think it’s more graceful. You can make marbles from either type of glass. The techniques are similar but not identical. I hope that helps answer your question.
What is the exact thickness of the soft rod you use to make your Maria? 10mm, 15mm ?
As I recall, I used 11mm Effetre super clear.
Vicki, this is a truly fantastic video! Thank you so much for making it.
I am a newbie and I am most interested in glass marbles and sculptural work (although I do understand the necessary practice needed to take place before moving on to those). I currently work in porcelain (I make articulated porcelain art dolls: www.lightpainteddoll.com) but glass has always appealed to me, too. Marbles more than anything.
Your tutorial is brilliant- it has made things a lot clearer to me and the baking soda trick is a new thing I learnt from you today. FANTASTIC!
A view of the finished product at the end would be indeed great and much appreciated.
Also, if you'd like to teach online, may I suggest Skype? It could be on one-to-one basis (I am already interested! :) ) or even in a group (as a "conference call"). Otherwise you could also run webinars (a link posted here would bring you students) or even sell videos or written tutorials on Etsy. I personally prefer videos by far, especially for glass/lampworking.
As for the boro punty (I assume it's easier to use than a steel rod?), is it pretty straightforward to remove the leftover borosilicate glass from the soft glass at the end?
Thank you again.
The best tutorial I found on making implosions in soft glass!
Ilona, thank you for your note and kind words. It was in my "likely spam" folder, so I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Your dolls are beautiful! Thanks for sending me the link to your page.
I would love to explore doing classes online. I'm at a loss where to begin. Do you live in the states or Canada? Maybe I could call you (or you could call me) and we could discuss the possibilities???
I use boro punties, even though some have suggested I use steel. It takes a bit of practice to remove the boro from your piece. First, make sure you are only attaching the punty with a small bit of glass. When I started, I used to push too hard and embed the boro in the marble. That was a disaster.
When you are ready to remove the boro, timing is everything. If you heat the spot too much, it flattens that spot on your marble. If you don't heat it enough, your punty gets stuck to the marble instead of lifting out the piece of boro. I turn down the size of my flame and watch the boro spot as I heat it. It will be clearly a different look than the soft glass around it. When the boro spot starts to shrink in size, I quickly and GENTLY touch it with the punty and the spot comes out cleanly (most of the time.)
I look forward to continuing our conversation. I totally understand why you love glass so much. BTW, I recently started working with a new student who wanted to make marbles. She had never worked at a torch before and she's doing great!
Mohammed Al-Duwaisan
From Kuwait I personally enjoy watching all your applications
I hope that a visit to Kuwait will be determined later
@gizaz_art
Thank you. I am glad you enjoy my videos and appreciate your invitation. 😊 I don’t travel much, but I’m sure a visit to Kuwait would be amazing.