What can Moretti be used for?

[RBIRON_11]

Alright, im new to lampworking and have a few questions for everybody. I just bought a starter kit from sundance glass and it came with a Hot Head Torch. I know I can't use boro with it, and am wondering how fragile is moretti if it has only been cooled in a set of fiber blankets. I am under the impression that any thing bigger than maybe a half dollar wont last more than a few days before cracking. Am I misunderstanding what I've heard or should I just stick to small beads and sculptures?

Second what suppliers have cheap (but quality) tools and glass?
Another thing about the fragility of moretti glass cooled in the fiber blankets. I want to try my hand at small scale blowing and was wondering how the glass would handle being cooled so quickly.

Just one more uestion if you dont mind... What do I need to try this, is it tubes of glass or hollow mandrels .

Thanks for your help

[Dasi]

Gosh....where to start.

Have you gotten a good book yet? Passing the flame is my favorite.
Aslo Kimberly Adams and Cindy Jenkins both have written good beginner books.

A half dollar is pushing it without a kiln. Also don't bother to encase unless you are going straight into a kiln.

I would start with small beads. Make hundreds of them.... Try dots, raking, layering color and distortion design. If you do not know what I am talking about then you are in need of a good lampwork book.

As for blowing, it is usually done with boro tubing. You can make hollows in Moretti but concentrate on making beads first. The hollows will come later.

Good luck and have fun with your new set up.

[pipyr]

Welcome! Congrats on getting a kit and getting started! A fiber blanket may or may not cool things up to a half dollar size...it is an iffy thing, really. With a fiber blamket, you will always be isking having a bead crack on you...same with small sculpture. It is a good way to start out so you can see if you like lampworking, but a kiln is an important piece of equiptment that you will want :) If you do have some beads come out that you really want to keep, check around and see if there is a place that teached lampworking or fusing. Often times, they have kilns available to batch anneal in at a very reasonable price...you will still have to cool things in the blanket, but a batch anneal in the kiln will ensure a longer life for the bead by reducing stress that sets up in the glass from cooling too quickly.

Everyone has their preference for suppliers...they are all wonderful. Jamey Lynn at Howaco glass was very patient with me when I started and she allows you to buy by the rod...so you might check out her site at www.howacoglass.com . There are many other great suppliers here...take a look around the site and you will find plenty to choose from!!

I made small vessels on a hot head, cooled in a fiber blanket, and had most of them survive back when I started. Larger than that, though, I would think would definitely be pushing it!!

To make little vessels, many soft glass people use hollow mandrels. I know Tink carries those at www.tinkmartin.com . I think many other suppliers have them too, now :) Good luck!!

[Carolyn M]

All the above is great advice! Your beads won't be annealed so they could crack after an hour, a day or several months. OK to keep for yourself, but not to sell.

Have fun playing, you'll have a blast!

[Feldt's Glass]

You might try vermiculite in a crock pot. I did that when I first started and had very little cracking. Sence then most of the un-annealed beads have cracked so in the long run it is really a good idea to ge a kiln if you want them to live a good long life.

[Emily]

You can blow Moretti (Effetre) using hollow stainless steel tubing. You will need a good supply of patience and perseverence. It can be tricky to learn. There are a couple of methods. One is to build a hollow vessel off the end of a tube in the same way that you'd make a hollow bead. I think this is the method that Tink (Martin) teaches. Another is just to put a gather of glass on the end of a tube, get it hot and centered, and blow a bubble into it. Loren Stump teaches this method. (One of the minor projects you do in Loren Stump's classes are blown seashells on stainless tubing. The major projects are murrini and paperweights.)

You can do sculpture in soft glass such as Moretti/Effetre. The Venetians do it (OK, I suppose it's really the Muranese, rather than the Venetians proper -- shall we say the Italians?). Come to think of it, we have a couple of freakishly fine bugmakers who hang around here. Look for posts by FiG (Mike Mangiafico) and Gnimelf (Wesley Fleming) if you want to see sculpture in soft glass. The trick with the Venetian figure sculpture is that once you've worked on part of the figure sculpture, it doesn't go back into the flame or it will crack. It's allowed to cool. Sooner or later (the sooner the better) it has to be put into a cold kiln, slowly brought up to temperature and annealed, but it doesn't go straight from the torch into the kiln.

Doing the Venetian figure sculpture is all about timing, heat control, and gravity. A sculptor can do a figure just by applying the glass, pulling at the right speed, and holding it at the right angle for the right amount of time, with very little needed in the way of tools. I don't know that there's a book or video that covers this with soft glass. The little bit that I've done was in a Loren Stump class. Emilio Santini teaches it occasionally, I think. Other than that, I don't know of anything except for people who have gone to Italy to take classes with Lucio Bubacco (human figures, mostly) and/or Vittorio Costantini (insects, fish).

[lunamoonshadow]

Welcome! Congrats on getting a kit and getting started! A fiber blanket may or may not cool things up to a half dollar size...it is an iffy thing, really. With a fiber blamket, you will always be isking having a bead crack on you...same with small sculpture. It is a good way to start out so you can see if you like lampworking, but a kiln is an important piece of equiptment that you will want :) If you do have some beads come out that you really want to keep, check around and see if there is a place that teached lampworking or fusing. Often times, they have kilns available to batch anneal in at a very reasonable price...you will still have to cool things in the blanket, but a batch anneal in the kiln will ensure a longer life for the bead by reducing stress that sets up in the glass from cooling too quickly.

Everyone has their preference for suppliers...they are all wonderful. Jamey Lynn at Howaco glass was very patient with me when I started and she allows you to buy by the rod...so you might check out her site at www.howacoglass.com . There are many other great suppliers here...take a look around the site and you will find plenty to choose from!!

I made small vessels on a hot head, cooled in a fiber blanket, and had most of them survive back when I started. Larger than that, though, I would think would definitely be pushing it!!

To make little vessels, many soft glass people use hollow mandrels. I know Tink carries those at www.tinkmartin.com . I think many other suppliers have them too, now :) Good luck!!

I've *still* got a couple of Pipyr's UNANNEALED vessels--from a couple years ago (ducking & hiding--hey, maybe I can blackmail her with them??) & aside from some outer decorations coming off, the vessels themselves (thick-walled) are fine...so, you never know! No, she didn't SELL them to me--they were in a box of glass I "inherited" when she switched to boro :lol: (I bought the last of her soft-glass scraps)...

Nikki used to fiber-blanket cool all her sheeps & also her encased flowers--so it *can* be done--with enough practice--of course every bead she sold was also batch annealled before it went to auction!! (and I've got lots of them--I'm an addict :roll:) and they've survived dropped on the floor, etc (shhh! don't tell Nikki I've dropped some! she might repossess them!)

Of course, it's all about the PPP....(something I still need loads of :roll:)

[NLC Beads]

Nikki used to fiber-blanket cool all her sheeps & also her encased flowers--so it *can* be done--with enough practice--of course every bead she sold was also batch annealled before it went to auction!! (and I've got lots of them--I'm an addict :roll:) and they've survived dropped on the floor, etc (shhh! don't tell Nikki I've dropped some! she might repossess them!)

Of course, it's all about the PPP....(something I still need loads of :roll:)

YOU DROPPED MY BEADS!?!?!? #-o No more sheep for you, missy!

I did batch annealing and fiber blankets for about 2.5 years. Some of the sculptural stuff is touchy, you need to know when to put it in - right between "omg, it's molten" and "did I just hear a crack?" Larger sculptural pieces didn't always work - I never seemed to get lizards hot enough before putting them into the kiln, but I was just starting them then, so I may not have had enough practice. Hollow beads weren't a problem, encased beads weren't a problem if you get them hot enough to the core before putting them in the blanket. Of course, use a slower anneal schedule to ramp the beads up, or you're dooming them. I think I did 500/hr? Probably could have been more cautious, but it worked for me.

I never blew vessels, but I did mandrel-wound ones without a problem.

And I've done 99% of my work on my HotHead, including baby boro beads... So don't believe it can't be done.
Good luck!
Nikki

[Moonlight Creations]

I've *still* got a couple of Pipyr's UNANNEALED vessels--from a couple years ago (ducking & hiding--hey, maybe I can blackmail her with them??) & aside from some outer decorations coming off, the vessels themselves (thick-walled) are fine...so, you never know! No, she didn't SELL them to me--they were in a box of glass I "inherited" when she switched to boro :lol: (I bought the last of her soft-glass scraps)...

So you're the one who inherited the box!!! I have some early Pipyr pieces too but they're much too pretty to be used as blackmail!

[RBIRON_11]

You guys have been a great help and ill be sure to post pictures of my first beads ever.

[Emily]

"you never know" is the issue, of course. Things that aren't annealed can survive indefinitely -- in the sense that you don't know when they're going to crack. It could be immediately, or it could be years. Realistically, unless you're a freaking genius, in which case I'll have to hate you, it's going to be a while before you're making things that really deserve to be preserved for posterity (except for their sentimental value to you). So jump right in and start making stuff. Do some checking to see if there's any possibility of getting someone to batch anneal your favorites for you.

The real taboo is selling anything that hasn't been annealed.

If you're using fiber blanket, be very careful not to expose the pieces that are already in the blanket when you put a new piece in. That's one reason that some people prefer vermiculite -- but there are reasons to prefer fiber blankets, too. Your choice!

[lunamoonshadow]

Oh, I'd *always* vote for batch annealling *anything* that had been cooled in a blanket or vermiculite!!
(actually, I keep meaning to round up all of Pipyr's stuff I "inherited" & send it out to Nikki for a trip through the kiln--even the slightly chipped stuff--some of it's really pretty & I'd like to keep it "as-is" for longer rather than shorter!)

[NLC Beads]

Imperfect ends are a desperate cry for wire-wrapping and end caps. ;)