Jelly Fish
 

This is how I make Jellyfish. I know there are a lot of different ways
to make them. I would love to share different ways of making
Jellyfish. By sharing our ideas and techniques with each other we
can all grow and learn. If you read the decription and look at
the pictures I think you can see how I do this.
How do you do a fully encased Jellyfish?
ps. we will all keep this a secret, right?

Jelly Fish
Glass needed:
Clear ( I used 14 mm, any size 12 - 18 would be fine)
You need 2 sections of this in same size.
Carmel
Amber purple #13
Purple Lustre
Very fine, very sharp small tungsten pick ( http://www.dichroicimagery.com/produ...oducts_id=2800)
Very small marble mold,optional
small graphite paddle
Prep:
Pull some fine stringers of the carmel and amber purple, like 2 - 3 mm thin.
Heat the purple lustre rod to a small even gather, remove any bubbles, set aside.
Melt good size gather to round shape on one of the 16mm clear sections.
Set aside right before you begin to make your Jellyfish.
Start:
Melt cold rod of 16mm ( not the one you prepped) into nice gather and
press into an even maria.
Place small dots like size of a seed bead or smaller dots evenly over maria,
almost to edge, but not on edge of maria.
Melt the dots in lightly and focus a small hard flame on them one at a time and
press the sharp pic into them,. If you heat the pick as it goes into the glass so
its red, that will leave an airbubble in your tenacle. Twist it until it comes out, if
it sticks. Actually keep it twisting and it won't stick, as you do this.
Do this to all dots then heat it all up and let it compress.
Keep it all coming together until the face of the maria has closed then hold it so it
droops down, twisting all the while to keep it even, let it droop just enought to let the
tenacle legs stretch out, but not too much. Round out the end where the dots were to form
a platform for your cap. Heat the purple lustre and add a dot about the size of 6 to 8mm bead.
Sometimes I heat this and roll it in the smallest hole in my hand held cheap marble mold.
Keep this warm in the back of the flame with left hand, in right hand take the other rod of clear.
Reheat it until it is good and soft, you will have to practice on just how hot to have it,
Mean while you have heated the part in your left hand keeping the surface good and hot,
just not molten or it will just smear. Then evenly press the other clear rod on top of the cap and it will spread
out, but there will be this big line where they join.Keep all this twisting in the flame the whole while,
and now forget about the joint area and focus your flame on the clear rod in your right hand, melt it off.
Then evenly melt the whole thing together untill you are happy, keep it moving, keep it turning, the line
will eventually go away.
Then I pick the side that will be the back, press it into some frit of your choice, flatten it out alittle
and then add a bail. I then punty up to the bail and after the top is cool enough that it does not
distort, I melt off the tail end, twisting if desired. Practice a few that are not twisted first,
until you get it.
You can experiment with your dot pattern and maybe lay some small lines of the
Amber purple and then pierce them lightly in 2 places with the small pic.
That will give your jelly legs of different lengths and color variation.





Please post your Jellyfish, and technique used to make it!
This is a study in Jelllyfish technique.

I use a totaly different approach, I construct mine starting with 4mm clear rod.

Pull some NS Serindipity into 2mm stringer. (You can make your own by encasing NS Star White with either AP, DAP, or other transparent color, light cobalt works well too).

GENTLYwarm the 4mm rod, and apply the stringer to a 1 inch section, I get about 5 or 6 tentacles on a 4mm rod.

Encase with 3mm clear, melt in and marver smooth.

Repeat the above is desired.

To make the bell marver the end of the tentacles to a smooth flat end.
ETA:
Add Image link

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...r/_DSC5887.jpg



Add a gather of either AP or DAP to the smoothed end, melt in and shape.

Encase with 5mm clear starting with the union of the bell and the tentacles, keep the 5mm clear very hot to avoid air bubbles. When the bell is encased to your liking melt a 6mm rod on the the encased bell for a handle.

Using 5mm clear encase the tentacles, at this point you may twist the tenticles if desired, this is also a good time to either lengthen or shorten (by gathering) the tentacles if desired.

Finish shaping and punty on the the bottom. Melt off the 6mm handle and make the loop.

Pop off the punty , fire polish and place into the kiln.

thanks for the write ups! can't wait to try some...i haven't played with making jellyfish yet.

Oh, I forgot to add, could we have a picture of your finished Jelly? Roy if you have
one I would love to see it!

I second Mary K ... would love to see a pix of your jelly as well Roy. I like the variety of the techniques and Roy's just valididated my thoughts on attempting something totally non-related.

Thank you both for sharing how you make your jellies. Now I just need to find some serious time to play.

I've updated my original post with the image link. These were some of the first, they are between 0.75 and 1.00 inches in length.

Hey Thanks Roy! Great, this is perfect. Anyone else who has a Jellyfish technique
that is not top secret, and is willing to share, please post your fish and your technique.
Also, If you try one of these techniques and make some Jellyfish ~ Post picture of your results! We want to see no matter how they turn out!

new to boro and glass making, I want to try both ways, thank you very much

I started the stringer on 4mm clear as an exercise in heat control...

i'm hoping Maui Greenstone will chime in here....but he's holding on to his method...and i don't blame him, his jelly's are truly awesome.

This is great! Thanks so much for starting this thread, Mary. I'm with Magpie, just need to find some serious play time to give this a try!

Here is my jelly i used stormy weather for the jelly and simax as clear
the tentacles are a tube implosion , the mantel is made by putting a dot or stormy weather on top of the implosion and pushed hot glas on top to encase it ;-)

Thank you for sharing, everyone.

-BEP

Awesome Jelly there Marcel, always love seeing your work,
thanks for your generous share.
Here is mine for the day

I am just not a good photograhper of glass!
Darn it! this is really sparklie in person,
the cap has Jackpot frit on it that glitters
and the backround has Jackpot too, and
the whole thing just sparkles!
(You can get Jackpot frit from Magpie Glassworx)
Love that Jackpot frit, Bling!Bling!!!!

Love the jellies so far \\:D/

These are awesome! I can't wait to try these they look so cool! And I agree with Istandalone, I would love a nice (hopefully free, one can hope) tut from Maui Greenstone on his intense jellies! Great work everyone and thank you for sharing. I've wondered how to do this since seeing Mauis'

hell with free....i'd pay for that one!

although i must say...after reading this thread i don't think i'd buy a tut anytime soon....there's enough info here for days worth of experimentation.

While he is much more practiced at this,
I believe that Maui Greenstone does his Jellies the same way I do mine. But....
He does something to the cap that gives it that flared look. My husband gave me
an empty 30calibur rifle casing, it is brass, to try to push on the cap to get a small indentation. Then add the clear on top as usual. I'll see if that does the trick for that flare.
All you need is Love!
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done"
"There's nothing you can make that can't be made"
John Lennon/Paul McCartney

The thing is, even if we use the same technique, we are all going to get different results, individual to each unique artist. I took a 3 day class from John Kobuki ( best class I ever took)
and he showed us his technique. That doesn't mean I can do stuff just like John Kobuki now. Darn! I wish!

Made my first two jellies today! The first one is below, the second one is not something I'll be photographing... lol I used Blue Moon for this one. Need to work on my tentacles - they look kinda chubby and flat but I was happy that I didn't squish the cap too much. Excited to try again, it was fun!

some jellies do have flat, stubby tentacles. It looks like a jelly and it's beautiful, nice job!

check this stubby tentacles jelly
http://uniquenaturewallpapers.com/wp...-Wallpaper.jpg

You are so kind! Thank you!!

Nice Jelly Susan!

So how exactly do you get that retichello(?) Look? Anyone willing to do a vid?

Nice work! Looks like you used the stringer method. After about a half dozen more you will have it nailed! My next attempt will be going for realism and trying to make an Austrailian Box Jelly. I just haven't figured out which glass to use, Star White frit for sure. Also, if you encase your colored rod with clear then pull stringer you can get a finer tentacle, this technique works best with highly saturated colors like Star White, Turbo Cobalt, Jet Black, etc.

Stringer on 4mm clear and then encased. I use 3mm clear to encase. When the piece is still hot let one handle drag in your hand while you turn the other, that creates a nice twist.

well if people are showing their jellyfish here's one from me, cheers, B

Stunning Jellyfish Bernard, would you be so kind as to tell us
what technique you used to make it? This is a study in Jellyfish methods.
What I would love to see here is how LampworkEtc. used to be,
when people gave freely of their wealth of skills and information.
I love the way you did your tenacles, and also the cap on your
fish is very realistic. How did you make this? It used to be if you
asked someone how they did something, they were flattered and
actually told you.

Oh sorry, the tentacles are imploded, first the english ivy ones then half way through the implosion the blue lightening ones were added, the cap is a large dot placed on to cover the ends of the implosions the main gather is stretched at this point then the cap is tooled out slightly to cover the ends of the tentacles then a gather of clear is placed onto the cap and also tooled over it ( I use a knife blade) I attach a rod to the top finish pulling the tentacles and twist then, punty to the bottom and make a loop.
cheers.

More gorgeous Jellies. Awesome.

-BEP

Susan ... you tried a jellie!! Very nice. and awesome for a first attempt.

castaway ... Gorgeous ... I love the double tentacle and English Ivy imploded ... wow.

Very nice jelly cast!

Fresh Jellyfish!
 

Here are 2 I did yesterday, Thank you Bernard for your input!
I used English Ivy,blue moon. and stormy weather for these.
I pushed the edge of the cap with a metal thing that is made
for pushing back cuticles in a manicure, it's arc shaped and big,
it is a professional tool from back in the day when I had my beauty shop.

no backing on these, I think I'm improving.
Let's see what you are working on! Post those Fish!

Here's my first.

rockin that bravo, glassalias!!

Nice Jellyfish there GlassAlias!

there are some good you tube demos,, search making glass jellyfish. I just figured these out this week. I did the stringer method. Make a large grape size ball of clear on an 8-12 mm rod and set aside. stripe about an inch of 6 mm clear with stringer. add a dot of color on the top and melt in. Heat the snot out of 1/2 of the clear ball you made, and get just the little ball of color on the end of the striped rod hot, make sure you have no haze. Then plunge the into the hot clear ball.. melt off the handle on the tentacle side and encase, around the world style around the tentacles. Melt it all in, get the shape you want, make the loop etc etc.

what was making me crazy is, I was trapping air below the bell cap trying to do it just like the you tube video, and I didnt have much clear at the cap over the bell of the jellyfish. So, I fiddled with it till I figured it out. my solutions were to heat the snot out of only 1/2 of the clear ball before plunging in the color and tentacles. to keep from trapping air the trick is to not plunge too deep and have an undercut where the bell has formed and the tentacles begin.

I will have to try the implosion version and see which one I like best

Here are some jelly's that I made yesterday. The first, the illusive Golf Tee jelly. Next, a long cap one. The next one I think came out best. Thanks for taking a look.
Dave

this is such a great thread! Thank you for posting your tutorials! I will be trying my hand at this way of doing it. I tried the second method but didn't work as well. I think the first one will work for me :) I'll post pics next week.

Whoa Dave you nailed it on that last one, the one with the
blue dots. The flair on that is perfect, I'm getting some good ones,
Can't seem to make that flair happen. Howya do that?
Here's what I made today. Using black pearl mixed with
clear then frit for caps. Also Jackpot frit on top of the cap.
In person, the caps shimmer with sparkle.


I hope these sell because I enjoy making them, could wind up with a pile of these. Addictive.

Thanks Mary,
I used a graphite rod when I was about done melting the cap. I gave it a little push and that's what happened. I have made about six more but none came out with the flared edge. Oh well... Your right, they are addictive to make. I'll post some pics if the sun ever comes back out here in Derby city.
Dave

ok help me understand what you are saying. you pushed before you added clear glass on top of the jellyfish cap, or you pushed the jellyfish cap and then added clear?

Hey Mary,
I do my jellies in a two stage process. I make two maria's. On the first maria, I put six indents with a pick, then I add the dots of color. I heat those until I get the rise of the dots that will become "Tentacles".
When the maria closes in on the color dots, it will have a sloped look. I put that maria to the side, or just inside my kiln to keep warm.

I prep the color rod that will become the cap. I put the color in the heat and make a small gather. You can add small dots of color to that gather if you like.

Next I take the second maria and heat it up. When it's good and hot I take my small color gather and push it into the maria, just like you do to make a mushroom. I then burn off the end of the color rod so all I have is the ball of color in the second maria.
I heat the maria and let the clear glass move around the ball of color just a bit.

The next step is to use a rounded graphite reamer to push into the color ball. This just indents the bottom of the cap and can flare it out at the bottom.

Now you can take the first maria, with the tentacles out of the kiln. Heat both maria's and connect them by attaching the tentacle side to the underside of the cap. The nice part about this is that any air trapped will be up inside the cap. I burn off the the rod that has the cap. The shape of the glass now looks like a mushroom.

I heat the cap side and let it flow down the sides of the first maria.
Next, put as punty on the cap side. Now you can work on the tentacles. I heat and turn the rod of the first punty until I get the tentacles the way I want them to look, while I burn off the rod. Keep heating the pendant until it's the shape you want, punty the bottom of the pendant, knock the punty off the top and form your bale. When that's done, take tweezers and grab the bale, knock off the bottom punty and flame polish the bottom of the pendant. Pop it in the kiln.
Here are some caveman drawings to make this all as clear as mud!
Dave

Hey Dave ~ Glad I'm not the only one making cave drawings. Thanks for yours. That is a different way to make a jelly yet. I will try it. I always put my cap on the tentacles, then add the glass to to top of that. Only problem I would forsee for me, is that I wouldn't match up the cap to the tentacles right. I'll give it a go, & post picture, not matter how funny it may look.
And Thanks.

My school of jellies
 

Finally a sunny day to take some pics. Thanks for taking a look.
Dave

Dave- thats a interesting way of doing them. I was about to go out to the studio to start my process and reread this thread. i'm glad I did cause I like how you do it. Hope to have some pics to post tomorrow of what I make tonight

Hi Dave, I tried your way today, and just as I had feared, I had a hard time aligning the cap with the legs. First one went in my trash pile, second one not too bad but certainly not on center. For me, I'm going back to my old way where I know where the cap is going.
Love what you posted today, very nice.

Hi Mary,
Mine don't always come out centered, so I try to adjust for that when I'm adding the bale.
Sometimes it works, and sometimes... Anyway, I think the jellies you make look great.
I think they will sell too!

Here's one that is off center, but I still like how it turned out. I'll just tell people I was trying to convey movement. Remember, there's one born every minute!
Have fun,
Dave

Yes your right Dave, and I for one, was born in that minute. And likely die the same way.

Thank you so much for this!! I combined instructions and now have 5 jellies in the kiln. They are so fun to make.

Your welcome, please post pictures of what you did, whether you like how it turned out or not. Would like to see please. Thanks.