Wow thanks guys for that little info-burst!
Paddling the edges was recommended elsewhere to make the maria thinner, but it never works for me. I will definitely try the gather-to-maria process you all have described here. However the maria is actually not the main obstacle I've been having with the florals, as discussed already. The particular problem I am having is with lines of color balling up during melt-in and the petals looking globby, like dots. But some good suggestions have been made for that, like getting the maria surface hotter before applying stringer and using a stiffer glass for the first layer of color for petals. I think also it's about stringer control, including the initial size of the stringer. It makes sense that the smaller it is, the more delicate your designs are going to look.
It also makes sense to me that those who have mastered soft glass techniques in their career will have better stringer control because of the subtlety inherent in managing the heat base of soft glass. I've sort of trained myself away from that type of detail work with boro; more recently doing hollow, functional, and making murrini.
I'm supposed to be making beads for my local shop, but I keep procrastinating because I've gotten to the point where I can't stand the post-process; cleaning the beads. I seem to remember the soft glass beads were even more difficult to clean.
|