Seeking Skill-Building Exercises & Practice Ideas

[Bunyip]

Hi!

I'm just getting back to lampwork after a long hiatus, and I'm going directly from a Hot Head to a Minor Burner. Needless to say this is taking some adjustment! The real issue I'm having is that I am trying to jump right into making the types of things that I was making before my hiatus and torch change.

I'm looking for suggestions on some fun and hopefully productive exercises to get my technical skills up to par. An added bonus would be if this produced some nice beads.

I decided to back up a bit, and currently I'm working on making basic beads as technically perfect as I can, and then just lightly decorating them. When I'm feeling ambitious, I've done some using the disc method. I even tossed off a couple implosion beads when I read the tutorial, but I'm sorely feeling my rusty skills.

Oh, and I do have one specific problem... When I was on the hot head, I was holding the mandrel in my left hand, and applying glass with my right. If I had to be particularly precise on the 'left' side of the bead, I would cross my left hand under the flame, holding the mandrel palm forward in my left hand. This isn't working out with the minor burner. Any one have any suggestions for decorating the 'left' side of the bead without making a complete botch of it?

I'd love to hear any suggestions for exercises, practice and etc.

[playswithfire104]

Yes I would love some ideas for exercises too! Great idea Bunyip!

[Emily]

Well, there's the Kate Fowle method of making the bead in the middle of the mandrel and flipping the mandrel over so you're holding the other end and the left side of the bead becomes the right side -- solves the problem right there. It helps to use 12" mandrels.

Want a stringer control challenge? Jim Smircich posted this on the old SGB forum ages ago. Pull a thin stringer (he said thread-thin -- that's too thin for me). Make a cylinder-shaped bead, and write your name, or any word of at least six letters, in cursive script (no printing). If you don't melt your mistakes in, you can pick off your blobs and keep using the same base bead for practicing. Saves time, because the point of the exercise is the stringer control, not making umpteen cylinder-shaped base beads. You can also melt in your failed efforts and write over them if you use contrasting-colored stringers. You just want to be able to see how you're doing. It's quite a challenge. Ultimately you want to do it well enough, and with a thin enough stringer, that you can melt it in and still have a nice legible word. I find that it's best to work in the extreme right edge of the flame (I'm right handed and hold the stringer in my right hand), with the bead below the flame and the flame hitting the point where the stringer meets the bead.

Extra points for doing this while spelling "Smircich" correctly!

[Steph'sBeadCorner]

Hi!
Oh, and I do have one specific problem... When I was on the hot head, I was holding the mandrel in my left hand, and applying glass with my right. If I had to be particularly precise on the 'left' side of the bead, I would cross my left hand under the flame, holding the mandrel palm forward in my left hand. This isn't working out with the minor burner. Any one have any suggestions for decorating the 'left' side of the bead without making a complete botch of it?

I'd love to hear any suggestions for exercises, practice and etc.

It's a small world!! this is exactly what I do, I'm working on a Lynx so it isn't a problem.

[Bunyip]

Well, there's the Kate Fowle method of making the bead in the middle of the mandrel and flipping the mandrel over so you're holding the other end and the left side of the bead becomes the right side -- solves the problem right there. It helps to use 12" mandrels.

Hmm. You know I read of that somewhere, and I'd quite forgotten it! At present, it sounds like a good plan "B", if there's no other practical way. I'm open to the idea of another torch as well. Thanks for both suggestions!

What a great idea for working on stringer control! I will be trying this one for sure!

Please, keep the ideas rolling in!

[playswithfire104]

Do you move the stringer or the bead or both?

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Emily]

They say you're supposed to move the bead, not the stringer. I guess that's because it's important to keep the stringer in the "sweet spot" in the flame (barely in the flame). I couldn't swear that's exactly what I do, though.

When Smircich first posted this challenge, I practiced until I could do it. (I cheated a little, I guess, because my name has only five letters.) Haven't tried it in a while, though, so I don't know how I'd do now. I was using a Minor then, so no blaming it on the torch!

[DesertDreamer]

Kate Fowle was my first teacher, so I've always been a "middle of the mandrel" girl. I've used other people's mandrels, end-dipped, for demos, and it makes me crazy. I totally endorse the middle method! :)

Dipping mandrels can be a little tricky. I keep my bead release in a tupperware spaghetti container, and dip the mandrel all the way in (I try to keep it 2/3's full). Then I use a glass jar that's about 4" deep (I think it was a junior baby food jar) and swirl the dipped end to "rinse" the bead relase. After a few dipping sessions, you'll build up bead release at the bottom of the rinse jar. I let it settle, pour off the excess water, and pour it back into the bead release container.

[JanMD]

Deanna started a thread on the ISGB forum where she asked folks to post their favorite technical exercise. It's here: http://isgb.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3916

There are also some more sugggestions on Jinx's 'How To Get Your Groove Back' page, here: http://sgb-midatlantic.org/features/feature7.html

Kate was my first teacher too and I can't imagine NOT making my beads in the middle of the mandrel. My beads are fairly large and heavy. Since it's in the middle of the mandrel, I can use both hands to support the bead while rotating in the flame, I can flip it over to decorate each side easily. I use a large graphite marver up on a few bricks, right in front of my torch, and it's a snap to make bicones on it when I can hold the mandrel in both hands while marvering. It's a real mystery to me why anyone would do it any other way. But, hey, life is a mystery! Right? Variety is the spice of life!

JanMD