Heart Pendant

[LauraLou]

Does anyone know of a tutorial on how to make a hanging heart pendant like the one in this photo?
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Credit: Heart pictured above was made by Blue Lagoon Beads on Etsy.

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Laura

[nouvellecoeur]

Here's Mr Smiley's tutorial. i LOVE making hearts :-)

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=591&highlight=smiley+heart+tutorial

[framerak]

Wowsers! Imagine my surprise when I saw my li'l heart in this post! Laura, I make the hanging loop separately as a small spacer and garage it in my kiln. Then I make the heart by having a glob of glass about the size of a large grape at the end of my rod. I take a sharp tool or butter knife and make the crease by pushing in on the glass blob. From there, I heat the top of one of the "lobes" and attach the spacer loop. At this point I have the glob of glass attached to the mandrel at the loop and the rod is at the bottom of the heart. I heat the rod where it's attached and pull it off the heart.

Did that make any sense? Wish I had some pics. Mr. Smiley's tutorial is great BTW!

[LauraLou]

Thank you both for your replies! Angela, I love your beads! It made sense to me, I'll give it a try tomorrow when I get some torch time.

Thanks,
Laura

[framerak]

Laura, I'm so thrilled you like it. I'm still pretty new to this stuff so I was so tickled when I saw your post last night. Hope my tips make some sense. Post some pics of your hearts!

[LauraLou]

This is on my first try. Next time, I'll try to make the spacer bead smaller. I used transparent light blue and etched it. Thanks for the directions, Angela! Here's the pic:
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Laura

[framerak]

Your first one looks about a million times better than my first ones did! =D> I really like the soft etched finish on it too. Be careful - they're addictive!

Let's see some more!
Angela

[nickyjean]

Beautiful heart... *love that color*

Paula

[LauraLou]

Paula, The color was light blue transparent Moretti (I believe). Angela, How far into the "blob" is your mandrel? It seems that by the time I get it shaped, the mandrel is half way into the heart and when I try to get it out, I'm having some trouble pulling it out without distorting everything. And yes, it is addictive! I had about three after light blue heart that didn't turn out though :(
Thanks!

[framerak]

Hmmm - :-k - my mandrel never really touches the blob. I make my spacer/loop on the mandrel and it's sitting in the kiln while I melt my blob. When I have a grape-sized blob, I hold the rod with the glob hanging down and make my creases and shape the heart. Then I pull the loop out of the kiln, heat a spot on one of the heart lobes and attach the loop to the heart (is this when your mandrel is getting too far into your blob??). Try to keep your heat focused on the tip of the heart lobe or on the bottom of your loop - don't heat the whole glob too much at this point or it will get distorted. Don't spend too much time attaching the loop as you can "clean" it up after you've got the heart off your rod of glass.

After your loop is attached, aim your flame at the bottom of the heart (where the glass rod is attached) and, when it's glowing and soft, pull the rod and flame-cut the glass trail where your heart "tail" will be. Do any clean-up flame polishing at this point and then pop it into your kiln.

Hope that helps a bit!

[LauraLou]

Ok, now I understand! I thought you put the melted blob onto the end of a mandrel, then heated it to get it off the mandrel, lol. I read "rod" but was not thinking glass rod, roflmao! :biggrin: Yep, that will work much better!
thanks again!
Laura

[CO_Phantom]

I'm going to have to try these out Tuesday....only I don't have a kiln set up where I torch now. Hrmm...maybe Cece and I will have to do a collaboration where she does a quick spacer and then hands it off to me so I can put the heart on it!

Thanks for sharing your how to for this--I love hearts.

-Amy

[LauraLou]

I'm going to have to try these out Tuesday....only I don't have a kiln set up where I torch now. Hrmm...maybe Cece and I will have to do a collaboration where she does a quick spacer and then hands it off to me so I can put the heart on it!

Thanks for sharing your how to for this--I love hearts.

-Amy

Sounds like a good idea! With how much hot glass you'll have, I'd be worried about thermal shock from placing it in a fiber blanket to cool down. I've never used vermiculite, maybe that would work better, I don't know. Let us know how it goes!
Laura

[framerak]

Ok, now I understand! I thought you put the melted blob onto the end of a mandrel, then heated it to get it off the mandrel, lol. I read "rod" but was not thinking glass rod, roflmao! :biggrin: Yep, that will work much better!
thanks again!
Laura

:lol: I can see why it wasn't working too well for ya! Hope you have better results now~