Best Tut's to start out with
 

So I have been torching for about three weeks. I have already seem so much improvement with my work. I have been working with the free tut's so far, but I'm thinking about buy one or two. So far, I have made descent basic beads, two hollow hearts, one solid heart, one jack-o-lantern, beads with dots, beads with raking, a two bicone focals, and three goddess's. I really suck at flowers right now. My dots are okay, but I have terrible control. I can only make about a 6-9" stringer. No hope on twisties...you should see the one I tried, bluck! What tutorials would you recommend? I want to be challenged, but not overwhelmed. Thanks for the help!

Fantasy Butterfly Tutorial By Carla Beyerlein. Great visual on perfect twistie technique.
Glass Sea Scapes Island Waves by Jenelle Aubade of SFD Glass Studios. Nice tut for seascape techniques.
The Pansy By Laurie Donnette - Everafterart. Nice tut for learning the basics of floral sculpting.

Check out Kimberly Affleck's tut on shaping a barrel bead with heat and gravity, no tools. It's a great exercise in learning heat control.

wow, you made hollow hearts? Where did you learn that?
-elaine

keep trying on the twisties. It will just CLICK one day. I swear. Mine were crap when I first started a year ago, now, much Much better. Same with the stringers, it just COMES.. one day I made really short bent stringers, now I can do consistent width and stop at any length. As everyone says PPP..in the beginning, that is all I did, make stringers and twisties! Look at Kimberly Afflecks twisty tut on for her seahorses, her method works well, my only change is instead of tweezers I use another mandrel.

the first one i ever bought was the rainbow petal tut - i'm not saying id reccomend it as a starter but it creates a nice fast learning curve :lol:

Umm, er, I thought it was tut I found on LE, but I can't seem to locate it now...I even tried to google it.

When I first found this tut, it was free. I have not been able to find it since. I have searched and searched! It may have been a tut by Sadie...not sure. She doesn't have it up on her site now, but here is a link to buy the book her tuts are in: http://www.lulu.com/content/2560502

If I find the tut, I will post a link...granted if it is still free....:wave:

Wow, I am impressed by the things you already made after 3 weeks!

Perhaps you like this site:

http://tutorials.kralalien.nl/


A lot of free tutorials

Thanks Margriet! That means a great deal to me!

Here is the link to "Sandie's Puffy Heart"
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=43092

I knew I learned it here!!!
Thanks Sandie!

More free tuts: http://www.cauldroncreations.com/tutorialindex.html

Oh it's so good to hear that someone found that tut useful Fanny - thanks for getting the link going!

Gosh it's a while ago I wrote that and my own beads have been through a few variations and changes since then! I still love doing hollows though ... and still make them with the solid core for cleaning purposes.

Are you kidding!?! I have such difficulty making solid hearts. Your hollows jsut seem to click fo rme! Great tut, and great pics to go with it. Thank you for making it. And, sorry about misspelling your name..*blush*

Lol ... thought I'd not bother to mention that!

Got a picture to share of your success? I'd love to see them...

Sure:
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...+hearts&page=2
The blue and red are hollows. I love making them! I want to do goddesses ith hollow tummies, and "babies" inside, so your tut is helping me learn alot!

Thanks Fanny!

Great to see all the variety of hearts and you look as though your hearts are doing beautifully. Ooh yes ... hollow tummies! Lots of possibilities!

Fanny,
I have a angel tutorial and a tiger tutorial free on my site that I think are great for beginners.
D

Will you post a link to your site, please....I love free tuts!!!!! Angels and tigers, oh my!

Well - it's not free, but actually it almost is.
Get the Lampwork Etc. Tutorials book (see my link).
It's $19.40 (which is actual COST, NO ONE makes ANY money
off of this) and it has a buttload
of great tutorials in it by LE people here!

Some great reasons to buy this:

1) it's printed out for you. Do you know how much it costs
to print with a color cartridge? And this is PROFESSIONALLY printed too!

2) it's spiral bound, so it lies flat - you don't have to hold it open with
an elbow or hunt for two coffee mugs to hold it open

3) it's got 16 tutorials, SUCH a deal

4) all your new LE friends are in it!!! Plus there are a few coupons in
back AND a bunch of bead recipes too.

I am on a HH, working with 104 and 96 glass. Is the book for two fuels torches, or mine?

Oh, hey Davina, when is the $50 gift certificate give away again?

Sorry Fanny I forgot I changed my siggy, www.beadication.com is where the tutorials are and the gift certificate give away is 2 weeks away. Make sure you all get signed up.
D

Thanks! Got it! I signed up before the first issue was out. I am very excited about it. It must be so exciting for you to be able to do this! Congrats on the News Letter!

Here are my freebies:
http://www.marylockwood.com/freetutorials.html

ooohh! Thank you!

Fanny, what technique are you using for your twisties? They really are dead easy, just take a little practice.

Well, I don't have a technique yet, as I have only tried once. But, I put a couple of rods of glass together, melt the ends enough so they stick together, the melt a blog, grab with pliers, pull the pliers, and twist the rods...Sounds easy enough...um not so much!

Someone posted a tut on how to make easy twisties, but it was hard for me top follow.

Kate Fowle's videos are great . and they are not too expensive.

I want to thank you for the reference to the site at http://tutorials.kralalien.nl/.
I really have enjoyed looking at all the free tutorials and downloading many of them. I'm new to lampworking and free tutorials are a blessing to me. It was very kind of you to do that for us.
Shirl