help!!! cane/punty problems

[stonedotisaac]

Hello all I've got a weird question. I recently bought Mary Lockwood's tutorial on jellyfish, and while I may not try to make a seascape bead just yet, I have learned a lot about pulling canes from the tutorial. My problem is this:

1. I heat my gather for the cane to smooth it.
2. I heat my maria to attach it, heat the gather to pull it.
3. I begin to pull it, and the punty begins to stretch before the gather.

so, do I do a "cold seal", "hot seal", any step by step on how to keep my maria from streching would be awesome, alot of my canes look as though they are gonne be awesome till I pull it, and my punty seems to want to become a stringer like it's being left out or something.......

[Olimpia]

Hi Isaac,
I think your Maria is too hot when you attach it? Or you are directing the heat to the Maria and not the gather where it should be?

I am pretty new at this, more help will come around.

[kittyluv4ever]

The only things I can suggest is to try to heat the punty as little as possible and right before you start to pull blow on the punty just past the connection to cool it down and then start your pull. I occasionally have this problem myself when I get the punty in the flame and not just the gather. Unless I'm doing a really large gather I usually use old mandrels to pull my stringer with as then I don't have to worry about them stretching. One other suggetion is that if you are pulling soft glass stringer is to use a boro punty as the melting temp on the boro is higher. I'm sure some others will chime in that have more info than me.

[stonedotisaac]

hmmm, those tips both make sense. Using a hothead, I should try to keep my punty further out from the flame......hmmm, tried some more and I found that if I heat the gather to pulling temp, barely heat the maria, attach then pull it out of the flame, I seem to pull better canes, thank you both for your suggestions!

[JetAge Studio]

Hi Isaac,
It's a tricky one, but you'll get it! Yes, it sounds like the punty/maria is getting too hot when you do your pull. I'm not sure how Mary describes it in her tut, but what I try to do is get my gather heated pretty well, almost enough to pull before I punty it, then in my other hand, heat the punty and form the maria, let it cool just a little then touch the maria to the warm glass, give it a good heat to make sure it will pull (avoiding the maria), then pull. See if that doesn't help. I used to pull my murrini cane this way, and I STILL forget to keep the punty cool :lol:, it just happens now and then. If you still run into problems and you see your maria starting to pull, stop pulling, and take the glass out of the flame and quickly blow on the maria end to chill it just a little. Continue to heat the glass murrini blob avoiding the maria end, and try your pull again. Now, hee hee, when I pull my cane, I use a steel rod; takes care of the melting maria problem!
Good Luck!
Renee Wiggins

[stonedotisaac]

WOW!!!!! I used a clean mandrel to do the pull instead of a maria, I made a perfect 10 inch lattacino, Thanks Renee!!!

[JetAge Studio]

WOW!!!!! I used a clean mandrel to do the pull instead of a maria, I made a perfect 10 inch lattacino, Thanks Renee!!!

Sweet!! See, there's usually a couple of ways to get you where you want to go; finding what works best is the fun (albeit challenging) part. Glad you found a way that works for you!! =D> Yay!!-Renee
....did I read you were from Iowa? I'm a Des Moines transplant myself...many many moons ago!

[Elizabeth Beads]

You can also use a stainless steel chopstick to pull your cane. Get the end of the chopstick glowing hot and jab the cane. I always build up the end of the cane with a little extra clear glass. Make sure it is anchored securely, heat the gather until molten, come out of the flame, wait a few seconds while balancing the gather, then pull slowly and steadily. Hope this helps.