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Old 2011-01-16, 3:57pm
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Lisi Lisi is offline
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I rake using a clear stringer pulled to about 2mm thick. I tried using the tungsten pick and not only do I not get the same effect, it will actually "cut" the surface of the glass so when I reheat, the base color underneath will seep out of the cut. This happens if I use a tungsten pick to rake frit that is on the surface of another color, like Uroboros white.

The larger the bead, the easier it is to rake. I make small beads of 11-12mm and even though I have been making the raked swirl kinds for years, I can still have problems. I have good raking days, and then there are the bad raking days where I just about pull the beads off the mandrels. When that happens one too many times, I will get up from the work table and find something else like a movie to make me relax some. LOL! Then I go back in and try again.

How I rake these little beads with a stringer:

I make my base bead, roll in frit, melt that in and get the bead evenly rounded.

Take bead out of the flame for it to cool some, because you don't want to rake the surface of a bead when the core may still be somewhat molten. That's how you will drag the bead out of shape, and trying to get them rounded again is difficult and it may melt your raked areas in too much.

Take your slightly cooled bead and go back into the flame to heat spot the area you want to start the rake, rotate that where it's just barely outside the direct hit of the flame, then lightly touch the stringer to the surface and rotate mandrel to rake all the way around the bead. See, as you rotate the flame is hitting the bead, but you want your stringer tip just outside the flame so you don't melt it too.

Sometimes too much of the clear stringer will melt off the tip onto the bead s you are raking, but with practice you will get pretty good at using that stringer as a rake rather than as a "decoration".

The second set I used a periwinkle blue stringer to rake, since it was one of the colors in the swirls anyway. I didn't like the little "ruts" the clear stringer make the first time I made those beads.





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Last edited by Lisi; 2011-01-16 at 4:01pm.
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