Bubbles – How do you get rid of them?

[tazzielou]

I took a beginner class on making beads, but she never taught us anything about bubbles. Some rods I have seem to always have bubbles. Well how do you get them out without destroying the whole sculpture I have been working on for 30 min and a new bubbles appears? What do you do to get them out? Am I doing something wrong that bubbles are forming? I seem to have lots of bubbles forming lately and have been making beads for two years now. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[one-eared pig]

i am a newbie, so unfortunately i have no solution to this problem, but thanks for asking! i am also curious.

[Jude Rose]

I'll chime in since I'm the bubble queen. I work my flame really hot and sometimes boil the glass while I lay it on mandrel. There are a bunch of colors that tend to bubble more than others. Periwinkle, handmade sage, ivory, Moretti black come to mind.
Transparents bunnle too, but if they do, one should turn the flame cooler right away. They will scum up if pushed too hard.
If the bubble happens when I'm first laying the glass down on the mandrel, I will push them out with the stiff part of the rod. Sometimes it can be a really bad situation and I will roll the whole molten bead on a marver to pop the bubbles out. If there are any that are still being fussy, i use a tungsten pick to pop them, pushing glass into the empty spot on the mandrel.

There's always the choice of using a cooler flame. :rolleyes: But I find it much more fun to do this: ](*,)

Now if you're referring to bubbles with encasing, well, that's a bit trickier to explain. The air is getting trapped in between the clear casing wraps. The trick is to encase with very molten glass and push it against the glass that's already there. The people who have the most success with keeping bubbles out tend to be the ones who use such a huge blob that they encase the whole thing at once.
You can try to guide a bubble out without mussing up the underlaying work only if the bubble is somewhat close to the surface. Otherwise, you're better offf letting it stay where it is.
If the bubble is somewhat near the surface, spot heat that point and use a tungsten pick to pop the bubble. It might take a couple tries. If it doesn't come out, it's too deep and really not worth messing up your work.

[Deb Hopeful Journeys]

When I saw your question, I totally thought about Jude. She is definitely the bubble queen.

She demoed a bunch of stuff last weekend at the WI get together. I was like WOW, how does she make that look so easy.

One thing that I notice with myself is letting the glass get too hot. So I definitely need to work on that. The other thing I need to work on in preventing bubbles is laying down the molten glass more smoothly. I also need to practice on adding additional glass next to glass that is already on the mandrel. If I don't put it close enough I will trap a bubble between the layers of glass.

HTH,
Deb in MN

[tazzielou]

Thanks so much Jude. I must be working to hot as well. The bubbles are in white and periwinkle. Again thanks so very much. I will try the pick. Most time I get so upset, I put the bead in water and start over fresh. Maybe I will waste less glass now.

[one-eared pig]

Thanks, Jude Rose!