off Mandrel Starfish Tutorial request
 

I have seen some lovely off mandrel starfish. Anyone have a tutorial they would be willing to share? [-o<
thanks
teresa

Oh! I'm going to watch this thread.... I'd like to get a tip or two (or 10) too

;) Ann

I'm watching too. I live near the ocean and I know people around here would love starfish. Anyone? [-o<[-o<[-o<

Hi: Still hoping someone has something they would share. Being a "visual" person, am having difficulty trying to figure them out. Anyone out there wanting to share to us newbies? Thanks.:waving:
Teresa

tried it out over last week and the beggining of this one i'll post how i do em tommorow

Thank you.We look forward to what you are willing to share.
Teresa

K here goes couldn't get access to a camera like I wanted but I'll give it a try anyway.

1. Get a good sized rod of the color or clear you want to be the base of the starfish and fuse it on one (or both for a shorter rod of color) side(s) with clear for a handle/handles

2. Make 5 or more equal (or as close as you can get) gathers of the rod with tapered ends so they look kinda like rounded off diamonds connected at the long ends.

3. Heat half of each gather and flatten half of each leg. You can do this individually or all at once.

4. Pull the leftmost or rightmost leg off the series of legs and attach it to the series to make roughly a v shape with the one you detached it to

5. A) Attach a punty to the tip of the leg which is now on the end of the series and pull the v of legs off so that one is off to the side. B) Now pull off another leg by attaching it to the other side of the v you pulled off to make a \|/ shape

6. Pull the last two apart and attach them to the bottom to make a 5 pointed star just make sure all the legs are flat on the same side what you want being the bottom. Now that you have a basic starfish shape you can elongate each leg and curve it to give them some character I recommend doing this at the same time you add the top color in the next step.

* If you like what you have and don't want to add anything else or just want to keep it simple you can stop after just elongating and curving and skip step #7

7. Decorate the top with random sized dots and melt them in about halfway then flip it over and put a few dots of a different color on the bottom these will be suckers so I put a few on each are an maybe a couple around the center. Heat each of these dots on the bottom and press them with a small tungsten pick or something of the like to make them into a sucker shape. sometimes I even decorate the bottom of the legs with frit before putting the suckers on

8. Finally, decide which leg you want to be on the top and make the very end of it into a loop or attach it to a bead if thats what you like to do. If you want to just have a sculptural starfish just dont make a loop and make it slightly bigger lol. Fire polish anything you need to and throw it in the kiln. If you make them small enough you can just put them on a hot plate or in some fiber or vermiculite.

**For some really fun sculptural fun make eight legs or eight legs and two tentacles(legs with ovaled ends and suckers only on one flattened end of the oval part) and attach a head for an octopus of sqiud respectively. Do this before decorating and/or elongating. Then fuse it to some seaweed(green ribbon cane made wavy), mount it to something after kilning, or just bend the legs to where they make it stand alone.

Whew! There goes hope it all makes sense tell me if you have any questions. Post pics of what you guys end up making plz. I'll try and get pitures to add to this soon.


Sincerely,
Austin Hensley

Austin, I didn't quite understand the instructions, but I wanted to let you know that you totally inspired me to try a starfish, and I made a really nice one because of it :). Thanks!!!

Ooooh I've got to try this!!

Paula

If you ever want to take a great class try Stephanie Sersich .... she makes awesome starfish and she's a fabulous teacher. Check it out at www.sssbeads.com
Good Luck with the starfish...they are great fun.
Kristi

Oooh, ooooh, i would love to see pictures of the steps. I kinda know what's going on in the instructions but would love to have it clarified with pics.

I found a great starfish tutorial along with pics over at the Melting Pot. Here it is:

http://www.thegldg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16013

Wow great tut, Medicated Meltdown. Thanks for posting the link, voic.

Here are the ones I used to do:

http://www.cosmoglassworks.com/images/IMG_9199.jpg

How I do them is to take 5 clear rods and coat about 1" of the end of them in the color you want to use. Melt the color in and ball up the end.

Use gravity to stretch the gather out into a leg shape. Clear rod up, color at the bottom. Gentle heat will elongate it.

Take two of the gathers and attach them together at the thickest part. There is no actual "body" of the starfish. By attaching the gathers together you are making the body.

Remove the clear rod from one leg and shape it.

Repeat with the other 3 legs. You will now have a starfish with 4 finished legs and one still attached to the clear rod.

Punty up to one of the legs opposite the clear rod and remove the final clear rod. Attach a loop behind one of the legs, add the little dots on top of the legs for decoration if you want, remove the punty, flame polish, and stick into the kiln.



I don't make these any more. I made 30 for a custom order (the customer posted on here looking for someone to make them). She didn't like them after she got them and sent them back, and I had to refund her money to her. I then smashed them into little bits with a hammer.

Anyone want to buy some tiny starfish bits?

The customer didn't like those????:shock::wtf::flip:

They're beautiful!!

~Triscia

She said that since there is a groove where the legs join together, they looked "low quality".

That sucks. For custom orders there should be no return policy. People don't understand how much work goes into making these pieces! I wish you didn't smash them though, they would've found good homes sooner or later I'm sure. They are gorgeous.

That is just a line of s**t. Some people are just cranks and like to screw people around. Sorry that happened to you :(

Give me a break!

You could have sold them I'm sure. Oh well now you have 'Starfish frit'.

Well, I'm one of the people that believes the customer is always right I guess. With the way the internet works, all it takes is one angry customer to ruin someone's reputation, and I didn't want to take that chance.

I probably shouldn't have smashed them, but at the time it sure did make me feel better...

Those were beautiful man! damn...

Chad that is too bad. They are pretty and I am sure would have sold on ebay. Paula

NOTHING sells on Ebay. I have sold less than 1% of the stuff I've listed on Ebay. If I want to sell it, I have to give it away. Those starfish retail for $30. I would have been lucky to get $10 for them on Ebay. I tried some on Etsy before I got this order and didn't sell a single one.

Another way to make starfish is this:

Heat up a gather of glass and smash it like a maria. Cut it five times all the way to the rod (I use a 6mm rod) then heat up each lobe and using a 3-4mm punty with a small tip on it - grab the back of the lobe and pull. Grabbing the back helps ease out some of the fullness so that they don't look too much like flowers.

Ignore that ugly POS on top :)

I took a class with Stephanie. She demos the starfish, but makes it clear it's a signature bead for her. I've wanted to make some but felt uncomfortable with it, so it's nice to see other starfish here. I like them and think it would be fun to have a starfish and shell necklace.

If someone shows you how to do something, you have the right to do it...

wow, these are all great.
BTW, Chad, they were beautiful. But they are now in glass starfish heaven!

Cosmo... I figure when you pay for a class and are taught something that yes, you should be able to do it. Guess I'll practice some starfish :-)

Well I'll have to rewrite it and get some pics for you sorry for any confusion.

Chad wonderful starfish. I understand the smashing bit.

Jodie I was kinda liking the POS at the top I was studying it before the starfish.

ok off to see if I can make some of these.

Chad, what bad taste your customer had! I love your extremely HIGH-quality starfish. Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy them again someday! I personally like the grooves - they add dimensionality.

I make these guys too, in soft glass, using the same flattened-fritted-gather-cut-into-five-"petals" technique that Jodie described, except I do it lollypop style, not maria-style. This technique also creates major groovage. I pre-shape the "petals" into rough points using micro-masher tweezers bent into a 45% angle (my favorite tool!), then pull them into slightly twisted points (the slight pinwheel twist at the tip helps hide my inevitable assymetry!) The "petal" attached to the punty becomes the loop-point. I just call them "stars" - customers interpret them as they like.

Forgive the bad photo quality, it's just from my inventory pics. :)