Brent,

I am tipping it like you describe, I just don't have enough heat, 'cause I'm limited to about 4.5 LPM on my oxygen !!

Bill

Bill look out for old concentrators a second one realy really helped me quite a bit....it made the WORLD of difference in the heat on my bobcat and in the colors I could get out of my boro...

Bill.. with less heat, you have to slow down your motion... Pretend you're going in slo-mo. If you have enough heat to melt the glass, you have enough heat to do this. Keep trying! :D

I tried the cutting method and it works better too bad I cant find those trusty lil scissors I bought from Lori RObbins at the gathering just FOR that purpose...my hair cutting scissors just DO NOT work as good lol. But here is my first try at the cutting method...The left is the front the right is the back.

Can anyone get pics of this tutorial put together?

I'm just not getting it! I know the top of the heart should look just like a babies butt, but NOPE,,,,

THANKS!

Hey Robin... PM me if you have any specific questions. In the interest of some other glass blowers making a living selling hearts, I've decided not to spell it out with pictures. You can do this with trial and error... I promise... just keep trying! ;) You may figure out something completely different along the way. :D

I would like a tutorial with pictures on making nice loops I suck at loops I just cant get em right...I would LOVE to see someone, who makes nice ones like you do Mr Smiley, make a photo tutorial on how they do it ..because im really tired of making poopy loops.

"poopy loops"... sounds like a gross breakfast cereal!- LOL

PPP is really the secret. There are a bunch of ways to make a good loop... but they all take prectice. I suspect you are doing it just fine, just take your time with it. I can spend several minutes on a hoop... 10 if it wants to be a pain! I'm pretty much a perfectionist and it has to be STRAIGHT! - LOL

Another loop idea...
 

One thing you can also try is to put a medium sized blob where you want the loop to be, press it into a tiny pancake, then spot heat the center and poke a hole using a tungsten pick or something similar. It's less of a loop look and more structured, but its fairly easy to do! Once you get the hole in the pancake, you can carefully heat it to get a shape you like. I've tried grabbing the tip with a rod and pulling it a bit to get a more free-flowing shape. Works pretty well!

Candace

Thanks for the tutorial Brent! I gave this a try the other day, the first one was not to bad and they are a lot of fun. Except for getting the loop on using soft glass but it can be done, still need a bit more practise.

Jim

Great job Jim!!! :D

Another way to do the loop is to make a curved 'goalpost' sticking up from either side where you want the loop. Then heat and push the 'tops' of the goalpost together, melt and shape as necessary. Crude drawing below.

I've never had problems with the loop. I simply heat about 1/2" length of 6 MM 'loop' rod, heat the spot of first attachment on the heart, and then stick the rod. Then, start heating the loop rod more, and pull the loop rod out to about 2 MM. Then heat this section, all the way back to point of first attachment, and pull the 2 MM hot section around into a loop, and touch the point of second attachment on the other side of the heart.

This is WAY harder to explain than do !! If you've ever seen it done once, it will be a DUH !! moment :biggrin:

I really like everyone's hearts- they're all beautiful! I haven't tried this yet- I need more practice on my heat-control (still occasionally having blobs of glass overheat and drip onto table). What's a cold weld???

Tracy

Tracy,

A cold weld is when you only heat up one of the two pieces of glass being joined. It will stick together, but you can snap it off when you want to remove the punty. :)

first attempt at smiley-heart
 

It's got a ways to go, but not bad for a first attempt, I think.



This is in soft glass, btw.

Teresa

Here are mine, they are tiny hearts.

a few of them have a cheater's loop... I made a small transparent bead and attached it to the heart before puntying off.

I got an email asking if this was deleted... it's still here. :lol:

Bumping this up for others..also posting my first attempt.

A bloody heart

Great tut,accept I don't realy know what a punty is?:oops:

Awesome bloody heart Debbie!

A punty is a metal rod or a glass rod that is used to hold onto a piece while you are working it in the flame. It's a temporary fixture. I use glass rods... they are removed before the piece is finished and put in the kiln. ;)

Ahh oke,thanks for the explanation!:smile:

thanks so much, I can't wait to try this!

Thank you Brent!
 

As some of you know, this has been a bad heart-health week for my family. Given that it was also Valentine's Day, I decided to try to distract myself by trying yet again to make hearts. I finally made my first acceptable-to-wear-in-public hearts!!! YAY! I even gave one (not shown) to my hospitalized friend (it was really small, but very pretty). Now I need more boro help, but thanks to Mr. Smiley, I feel bead-heart-happy!!!

Here is my first "Mr. Smiley Heart". It is 1.5" long. The color combo is kind of ugly, but it gave me an excuse to try out my NS Rootbeer from Mr. Smiley along with a tiny bit of leftover GA Silver Strike from the GA Sample pack that was lying on the bench.

I am not quite ready to get rid of my beloved Moretti, but I am definitely considering getting rid of my bullseye stash to get funds to buy more boro.

Eric

Awesome job guys... keep them coming. There may even be a full picture tutorial in the LE tutorial fund raiser thingie. I hope I can get the pics in time. :love:

They still remind me more of butts than hearts, but that could just be me. :razz:

Eric (Who is feeling old - my eldest daughter just became a teenager today.)

Speaking of loops, I figure I'll throw this out there....

When I teach my beginner pendant class, I have the students make small beads on mandrels. Then heat them and attach them to the pendant to serve as a loop. It's relatively easy to get good results pretty consistently that way.

Chad, that's cheatin! :lol: Bringing a mandrel into an off mandrel world... what's next????? Mixing boro and soft glass??? :lol:


JK... it is an easy way to get instant results. ;)

Yeah. I did one class and tried to show people how to do loops off mandrel, but I spent most of the class adding loops on to their pendants for them. Never again...

i am addicted totally. I love not having holes to clean too.....
thanks again mr smiley