small off mandrel leaves

[Bobby]

This came about through Nicole.....Janelle and Kari.
What a fun group of glass lovers.

I haven't seen Jiley in a long time and it was wonderful
to be able to see and talk to old glass friends.

While I was giving Jiley a quicky tut I met the most fun three people
and ended up sharing the leaf process that I do with glass.
This is not new to the feild but is the way that I have found to play with
the glass.................and I do so love leaves. I told the girls that I would
send them the tut and since it is now done..............what better place to
share than with the forums that I sooooooooooo lurk ! ! !

What a wonderful day with glass people................WOW..........



O.K. shorter version for a leaf tutorial.

In making the leaves you will be working off mandrel.
Before you start wrap a ss wire around a mandrel with scrap wire.
The scrap wire can go into the kiln with no problem.
I have reused mine more times that I can count.

To Start:

A.......add a ball of glass to a mandrel.
keep the glass at the tip.

B.......Take your tweezers and mash down the center.
keep water handy to cool your tool with.

C.......One one side mash three times.
keep the leaf warm only.
C.......Heat the next side on the edge and mash again.
Flash to keep warm. It doesn't take much.

D.......Rewarm but don't lose the design.
Heat the top just a little and pull the tip out.
This lets the point and the leaves curve.

Play around.....you can make many different shapes.
The fun thing with off mandrel is that you can shape
your leaf and design it forever before you attach it to
the sterling silver wire.

Now:
After you have your leaf the size and shape you want,
heat up the mandrel where the glass is attached and
pull the leaf off with a pair of tweezers. Keep the leaf
warm and pick up the mandrel with the wire on it and
just heat the sterling silver and the glass enough to be
able to slip the ss into the end of the glass leaf. You
may have to do this a few times but the glass and the
sterling silver wire will stick to each other.

After they come out of the kiln I just rub the ss with my
fingers a little and it takes off any of the darkness
from being in the kiln.


1.......Wire wrapped mandrel. The ss wire is slightly
curved around the mandrel so it will not slip
while attaching the hot glass to the hot ss wire.

2.......Leaf right out of the kiln.

I filed down a pair of tweezers to be able to make thin
veins for the small leaves.

Bobby

[Bobby]

OH ! ! !

The reason for the tutorial:

[WhiskerWood]

WOW!!!

Bobby thank you SOOO much!!!!
What an awesome tutorial!!!!!! \\:D/

It was great to meet you!!!
I am glad you came out of lurk mode for this!!!

359

[StLouisBiker]

WOW! Great technique. Beautiful bracelet. Thanks for sharing.

[beachbeads]

Hey Bobbie, I see you found this forum! How are you guys? Great tutorial. Sheila and Lee

[Lara]

Very cool and what a great idea. Thank you for sharing.
Beautiful bracelet.

Lara

[magnum]

this is an awsome tutorial,but yet i have trouble getting the wire to stick to the glass,maybe my silver wire is to big?hmm? i think it is twenty gauge,anyone have tips for me with this?

[beachbeads]

this is an awsome tutorial,but yet i have trouble getting the wire to stick to the glass,maybe my silver wire is to big?hmm? i think it is twenty gauge,anyone have tips for me with this?
You pushing it (inserting) INTO the glass, right? And your wire is slightly heated? Here are of some of mine, I have had the pleasure of Bobbie showing me to do this in my studio! I modified her instructions though and used a leaf masher.

[mary1_$]

Thanks so much. I,m learning something new everyday thanks to people like you. Thanks again Mary Miller

[pipojasper]

Wow, that makes it sound so easy! Thank you for posting this. I need all the help I can get! :)

[LadyCrow]

Just Awesome...Thanks a bunch for posting this !!!
Margie

[mtarara]

Wow! What a great tutorial, and perfect timing!! My pet-sitter wants to trade jewelry for petsitting my yorkie; and she wants a necklace with leaves!!
I was trying to make them on the mandrel and not liking how the hole looked!!
These will work perfectly with how I want to design my necklace. Thank you so much!!!
Mary T.

[beadandi]

Great tutorial....but doesn't sterling wire burn up in the flame?

Thanks,
Sandi

[Bobby]

The wire can burn up if you leave it in the flame. I get the glass very hot but not runny and then heat the wire just a little. Not the red glowing look........more like the dark grey look. Work close to the flame with the glass and the wire and it will all come together when the glass is very soft and the wire a dark grey. Sometimes I let a very little ball gather on the wire and then when I add it to the glass there is a little more body to be inside of the leaf. After the leaves come out of the kiln they are a very dark greay and I take a rough cloth and pull up the wire and this seems to clean it and work harden it a little.
Bobby

[Bobby]

Oh ! ! ! In the answering I forgot to thank all of you for looking at the tutorial. I still have fun with the leaves done this way. I too didn't like the look of the hole that the mandrel left and wanted something more delicate for the leaves. Thanks again ! ! !

Bobby

[beadandi]

Thanks Bobby...can't wait to give these a try. I have been unhappy with my on mandrel leaves also so this looks like the perfect alternative. Thanks again.

Sandi

[beachbeads]

Oh ! ! ! In the answering I forgot to thank all of you for looking at the tutorial. I still have fun with the leaves done this way. I too didn't like the look of the hole that the mandrel left and wanted something more delicate for the leaves. Thanks again ! ! !

Bobby
You've been online!! Where are you guys? Last I heard was Salem and Norm got a job? Contact me and lets get together, you need a coast trip! Sheila

[A.Loomis]

Hi Bobby,
I love the idea of poking wire into off mandrel work to use it -- I'm going to adapt that for other off mandrel thingamajigs I try.

Quick "off topic" question - you mention a "Jiley" -- is that a nickname for Janelle? My daughter is a Janelle, and we call her Jelley or J, but I LIKE Jiley for something different.

Cool,
A

[KAS]

Thanks Bobby for a great tutorial...I too don't like the look of the hole when leaves are made on a mandrel. Yours are beautiful! What size silver wire did you use? I don't make jewelry so don't have a clue what size or where to buy. Thanks again for taking the time for this tut. =D> Kathleen

[Bobby]

Hello there A
Jiley is a beadfriend that makes wonderful beads.

http://www.jileysstudio.com/

Poking metal into melting glass is fun isn't it. Take pictures when you do.

[Bobby]

KAS

I have used 20g and 18g. Mostly 18g. It depends on how heavy I want the piece to look. I put a very large leaf on 16g and it was o.k.. I buy sterling silver wire from RioGrande but you could get it from most any jewelry supply catalog.

[Bobby]

If I can remember how to load a pic I can show you a box of leaves that I keep handy. Also a bracelet that I have worn off and on for the last 5 years. It is holding up very well......Enjoy.........

I need to get on here more often.......the how to of "workings" have gotten a little rusty for me.

Bobby

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[kimberly]

Hi Bobby!
Really great tutorial and your leaves look great! Adrian says, "Hi!".

[Bobby]

O.K. for the box of leaves. I usually make pendants with them. The biggest ones are 2" long.

Bobby

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[Bobby]

Well hello there ! ! ! and make sure to say ""HI"" to Adrian......he is a cool guy.

Bobby

[kimberly]

I will. When I can catch him. He is getting ready to start at the University of WA next week.

[G.L.McBead]

What type of SS,Dead soft,HH?
Thanks for the tut,
G.

[Bobby]

Hi G
You are very welcome.
Half hard..........I have used dead soft and for me it melted way too early and balled up to soon. It was good for head pins but too soft for the leaves.

Bobby

[hulagirl]

Wahoo! How cool!

[Gail Kops]

Hi Bobby...wonderful tutorial - am definitely going to try it sometime. One question - in picture #1 where the wire is shown on the mandrel, what kind of wire is holding it on, or is all of the wire sterling silver?

As I understand it, the wire stays in place and becomes an embedded headpin?

Thanks! Looks great!

[Bobby]

The wire that holds the sterlingsilver wire on is just uncoated wire that I had laying around. You could use any craft wire. I use the same piece over and over. It never gets too hot to burn up. When I take the leaves out of the kiln I take off the craft wire and just have the ss wire attached to the leaf. Head pin style....yes. Then you can pull on the ss wire to harden and straighten it a bit. Some times I pull it through a green scratchy to shine and work harden the wire.

Thanks again for liking the tutorial.

Bobby

[Bobby]

A few ways I have used the .....headpin style.......sterlingsilver wire.
My image loading window has problems
................gotta go find Norman.
Will have to load them later.

Bobby

[Bobby]

My pics ended up in the gallery section under leaves.........what a day ! ! !

Bobby

[BarbFaughn]

Thanks for the Tut, Bobby! I LOVE your leaves...they are soooooooooo pretty! I'm going to have to give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

Blessings,

[FourTailsLampwork]

I tried some leaves; I put a photo in the Hot Head gallery, but here they are again. Thanks for the tutorial--it was a LOT of fun!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/Mincot/Beads/9-30-06h.jpg

[Bobby]

WOW ! ! ! Those are cool.
Thanks for showing them.

It's great to see other leaves.

Aren't they just fun.
Bobby

[barbarajoy]

Thank You Bobby!~ I have been so dissatisfied with all my leaves. These are just wonderful and I can't wait to try them. It really has me thinking of all sorts of other avenues to use the technique. Thanks so much for posting this.

~Barb

[FourTailsLampwork]

Thank you!!! Yes, I tried snowflakes, but they came out more like ice flowers:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/Mincot/Beads/9-30-06b.jpg

[Al.WAgner]

Hi Bobby...wonderful tutorial - am definitely going to try it sometime. One question - in picture #1 where the wire is shown on the mandrel, what kind of wire is holding it on, or is all of the wire sterling silver?

As I understand it, the wire stays in place and becomes an embedded headpin?

Thanks! Looks great!


Hi Gail,
hope to see you soon, will send you an invitation,hugs,
AL

[laurellanestudios]

Oh, Gail..thanks for asking that! I wondered the same thing...does the wire then become the headpin? I thought I read that the wire is re-used, so I'm not sure.

Help!

[Bobby]

The sterling silver wire is the one you put the glass on and the other wire is the one that keeps the sterling silver wire on the mandrell. The sterling silver wire gets to hot to hold and is easier to push into the glass with the stiffness of the mandrell. I just reuse the mandrell and the scrap wire after I get the leaves out of the kiln. I used to just hold the sterling silver wire with tweezers but it wasn't safe. With the silver wire wrapped onto the mandrell you also have a handle to place in the kiln without getting your fingers hot.

Take care
Bobby

[Bobby]

This was posted in the Gallery section by mistake so I'm reposting here:

Somehow our pop upblocker has something to do with the Ctrl button. I don't even want to know how it works.............just let me get what I need out of the computer and I'm o.k..................well sometimes ! ! !

This is too funny...........Norman fixed a problem for me in the uploading of a pic in the tutorial section and then said the computer was all mine. Well I thought I was adding to my tutorial and finished everything and went to see how it loaded...........guess what ? ? ? He had gone to the Gallery section..............You just can't get good help these days was his answer to my request of where in the world is my post ! ! ! So could someone tell me how to get this post sent back to the tutorials.

So.........here are the pictures that were supposed to be here a few days ago ! ! !

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43408

[FourTailsLampwork]

Bobby, one thing I am finding is a problem is that as the leaves cool, they sometimes sheer off right below the wire, in a diagonal line. I don't have a kiln yet, so I am having to put the leaves in a fiber blanket to cool. Is that the trouble or am I getting too much glass at the end of the leaf?

[Bobby]

I'm thinking that it is the fiber blanket. They are cooling to fast since they break off at the wire. It's like a bead that breaks off along the mandrel. The mandrel is taking out all the heat. Not sure how to keep them hot enough without a kiln.

43715

My largest leaf is 45x30mm so the amount of glass size is not a problem.

[Gwood]

Thank you for all of the work that you put into this, it is great.

[Heather/Ericaceae]

I glanced at this tut briefly when it first went up, but I just *got* it now - sterling silver wire!!! That is so cool.

[Lea Zinke]

Great tutorial BTW!

This is the same way I do my off-mandrel stuff, except I form the gather on the end of the rod, press with leaf press or whatever, and pull slightly to start to separate from the rod. Take warmed tweezers, grab end of leaf farthest from rod and fire-cut the leaf from the rod. Then let the end of the leaf you've just separated ball up and insert slightly pre-heated wire into that tiny balled-up place in the leaf "vein" and VOILE, pop it in the kiln "as is" no mandrel needed. I use copper wire to do this all the time.

Infinite possibilities!
Lea

[Bobby]

Lea...........that is just too cool.
I will be giving this a try and save some time
on wiring up the mandrels.

Thanks
Bobby

[Lea Zinke]

...you'll save lots of time and aggravation that way!

Have fun,
Lea

[ziggys]

Hi Bobby, Just wanted to tell you I tried your very cool tutorial tonight for the first time.
I was lazy so just tried sticking copper wire into the end of the burned off rod.
The first one, a huge um....shape, can't call it a leaf really, went well.

The second, a small cube wouldn't grab the copper. I finally put it on a mandrel and said "Now what???" Then I remembered, you did it with a mandrel to begin with, (duh!) so pulled it back off the mandrel with pliers, and managed to reinsert the copper wire.

By that time the cube has lost most of it's shape. Pretty hard to marver a cube attached to a piece of 20 gauge copper wire LOL!

But this was fun and has me thinking of what other fun shapes I could make. I may try using high temp wire since it's stiffer until I get it down pat. Then I'll use nice Sterling Silver wire.
Thanks a bunch!

[Bobby]

Thanks Angela...............I love the process you are going through.....and.......you are having way too much fun ! ! !

I still love to put things on the end of a wire. I have a litle sig brass piece that I press into a circle of glass and use them on finished pieces.


123925

Thanks again
Bobby

[ziggys]

Re-hi, I was reminded while doing this of some peeps used shaped copper as presses. Just like your brass sig! Now I'm going to have to make one. Big GRIN!

Wait! I have some brass strips of copper that I bought at the Hobby store for practically pennies. Wonder if I could use that? Hm....Thanks for another idea! :-)

[Jaterwunky]

Great tut, must try now....

[Glasstastic Treasures]

oiy, I got two leaves in the kiln, and the third, I could not get the wire to stay in it. It finally broke into about 10 pieces and is now decorating my work bench. lol.

I was going to try a glass loop, but I've never done that before either. Then the mosquitos starting dining on my scalp. So I think I'll go watch tv instead. Some day I'll have a studio and won't have to work in the garage!!

[Rose Leslie]

That is the best ever. Thank you for showing this to us. Awesome and more.

[Lisi]

Beautiful! Thank you so much! :)

[TinaJ]

Thanks for the tutorial. I have made similar leaves and let them cool in fiber blanket and annealed them later but I usually have a high breakage rate in the fiber blanket. By putting the silver wire on the mandrel and putting it directly in the kiln I should have less breakage.

I love the tweezers you modified, I'll try that trick, too!

This forum is so great!

Thanks again!
Tina