Here is our first boro newbie tutorial. Thanks Kare (Country Kid)! Please limit discussion to the Boro Newbie Thread so we can keep the tutorials easy to find in this thread. Thanks!
Butterfly Tutorial by Kare (Country Kid)
This is not a hard project assuming you have some experience with lampwork. Before you start you will need to make a twisty to use for the body.
1. Now let’s get started. You can use just about anything you have around your work area with the example I started out with an 8mm rod.
2. Then heat until you have a gather on the end:
3. Wrap the gather with what ever color or combinations of color you like, or even dip it a few times in frit. There are no rules!
4. Next melt your colors in. Gathering the end of the rod into a ball. When you have a well formed ball press the ball straight down on to your graphite marvering pad to make a disk.
5. Now you will be using a smaller rod for a punty. Heat the end and sharpen it on the graphite pad to enable you to have only a small point attached to the disk. Using a warm seal attach the punty to the center of the disk.
6. Remove the rod from the other side by heating just below the disk and using the tearing technique, remove any extra glass with your needle nose pliers. Then melt and smooth using your graphite tools.
7. Now you’re going to add a punty to the side of the disk and remove the one that is in the center.
8. To begin making the butterfly you will heat the end opposite the punty, only heat the bottom half, you are making the bottom wings first, until red hot. Very carefully, using shears (household scissors work well also) you will cut about ¼ of the way up the center. Then make two more cuts heating the area first, cutting, and heating the next area, at about 4 o’clock and 8 o’clock.
oops bad pictures it's not your eyes
9. You now have three cuts (right?) and two, soon to be tail wing sections. Heat one side until red hot. Now with a very small rod say 4mm make a hot seal to the center of the wing section and allow the attachment to cool slightly then begin to pull remembering the small rod will cool faster allowing you to pull the larger thicker wing section with out the punty pulling off until your ready to melt it off and move on to the next tail wing.
10. Sweet now you have tail wings, so punty up to the tail (the thicker part rather than the tip, it will make life easier). And repeat for the top wings.
11. For the body just heat down the center from top to bottom and make a mark with your tungsten pick for a guide line then warm your twisty, and the body and lay the twisty in the groove melt it in until it is attached yet still raised.
12. Using another color, make a good size gather for the head. Hot seal it between the two top wings and round it out by melting. Then add a loop on the end of one wing.
13. An easy to make a loop is by making a bead on a mandrel, and heating both until red hot and joining them. Another way is by heating a rod until it is red hot, and attaching it to the red hot tip of the wing. Now moving down the rod heat it until you can mold it around the top of your torch making a C shape with a long end, then melting off the extra and shaping it into a loop using your needle nose pliers and tungsten pick.
14. Now add the antennas, and eyes. And ….TA DA one beautiful butterfly!
