Pulling Stringers with Frit??

[Indigo_Beads]

I'm a newbie and always seem to have tons of questions. I love all the help you guys are so here goes......

I've made some frit purchases from Robyn at www.GlassDiversions.com (she has some beautiful blends) recently and have been playing with my new frits and I had a question.

I understand how to pull a plain stringer but I keep hearing about pulling stringer with frit and I was curious how to do this and then how people use it. I tried making a gather, tapping it in the frit, melting it in then pulling it but it just seemed to dilute the colors too much.

I really like the look of raku with all it's colors and would like to see how to apply it in a more streaky way......I guess I would do it like a 'flow' (droop or swirl) bead. Someone named Dawn has a beautiful set with raku on ebay and I just don't know how she did it. The areas of raku are just so big! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=016&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3APIC&viewitem=&item=260104725567&rd=1&rd=1

Also I see that Robyn has some size 5 raku frit.......what on earth can you do with frit that big!!?? http://www.glassdiversions.com/frit3.html



Photos would be sweet!

Hugs,

Shelley

[villa design]

I used to do this all the time before I got raku rods. :) Get a rod of pyrex and heat up the end making sure it doesn't get too soupy (I've never been able to do that with a minor but I'm not sure what torch you have). The end will be hot enough so when you stick the end in your frit, it will pick up chunks of it. Heat the end back in the flame and re-dip until you have a nice gather. Then pull your stringers.

[kimberly]

Yep. that is exactly how I do it, too.

[DesertDreamer]

I do it slightly differently. Take a rod of whatever color you'd like to match or contrast your frit (contrasting can give you some cool effects...transparent dark amethyst looks great with raku). Heat the end of the rod into a molten gather, dip it into the frit and roll around to coat the whole gather. Put it back into the flame and melt in. Repeat 2-3 times, being careful to completely melt in after each dip (this prevents tiny air bubbles). Now heat the whole gather and pull into stringer in your preferred way (I use a stainless steel chopstick).

This is a useful trick when using raku frit stringer (or any other 93-96 COE frit) on Moretti glass...because the core of the stringer is also Moretti, you're sandwiching a very thin layer of otherwise incompatible glass between two compatible sides (the base and the core of the stringer). That means you can have raised stringer that's significantly less at risk for cracking off.

[squid]

I'm a newbie and always seem to have tons of questions. I love all the help you guys are so here goes......

I've made some frit purchases from Robyn at www.GlassDiversions.com (http://www.GlassDiversions.com) (she has some beautiful blends) recently and have been playing with my new frits and I had a question.

I understand how to pull a plain stringer but I keep hearing about pulling stringer with frit and I was curious how to do this and then how people use it. I tried making a gather, tapping it in the frit, melting it in then pulling it but it just seemed to dilute the colors too much.

I really like the look of raku with all it's colors and would like to see how to apply it in a more streaky way......I guess I would do it like a 'flow' (droop or swirl) bead. Someone named Dawn has a beautiful set with raku on ebay and I just don't know how she did it. The areas of raku are just so big! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=016&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3APIC&viewitem=&item=260104725567&rd=1&rd=1

Also I see that Robyn has some size 5 raku frit.......what on earth can you do with frit that big!!?? http://www.glassdiversions.com/frit3.html



Photos would be sweet!

Hugs,

Shelley

Just thought I would mention that Dawn in the goddess of Raku. See these:

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20601

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47520

[Emily]

Also I see that Robyn has some size 5 raku frit.......what on earth can you do with frit that big!!?? http://www.glassdiversions.com/frit3.html

You pull stringer.

Put a bunch of the frit on a marver (or just on your table). Heat the tip of a rod of anything. Pick up a piece of the frit with a pair of needlenose pliers or tweezers. (I like my pliers.) Flick it through the flame until the edges start to glow. That means it's warm enough to stick, so attach it to the heated tip of your rod of anything. Now heat it more until it turns into a blob. Meanwhile, pick up another piece of frit and flick it until its edges glow. Attach it to the blob and heat it until it becomes one with the blob. Repeat until you have a good sized blob. Now you have -- you guessed it -- a good sized blob of glass. Pull stringer from it.

You can also use tweezers or pliers to place large frit on a bead. You'll want to warm the area where you want to place it first.