Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulaD
I am sorry.I beg to differ. All of my Lauscha is hand pulled and it doesn't "shatter." Are you referring to thermal cracking with thicker rods when the are not preheated?
Paula
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ok, first off-I haven't even used Devardi.
Second-I'm throwing chocolate to you and backing off slowly
I was replying to a post that said they weren't going to use the glass due to shattering rods and cracking beads.
I think every single one of us can think of various colors of glass that shatter down the rod no matter what you do. Opal yellow and EDP come to mind right off the bat. I've read that many of the odd lot colors do this too. Some of it is certainly due to failure to preheat thicker rods (user error). Some of it is due to long bubbles running down the glass. Some of it just hates us and will shatter when we melt it no matter what we do.
Cracking beads-some glass just cracks when mixed with other glass-unless you know the "trick". Higher annealing temp for Lauscha, a wrap of clear underneath the moretti/vetro red/orange/yellow you intend to encase. There's also glass out there that you can't mix much at all-opalinos or alabastros, I can't remember which, but not only are the rods a PITA to use, but if you mix them much they crack. I use them for single color spacers, since I can't remember which is which with that, when I'm in the mood to duck flying pieces of glass.
I'm reading this thread because I intend to buy the glass when the next batch comes in. I want a heads up on the tricks and tips with it. I'll have to reinvent the wheel on some of it, just because that's my nature, but I really don't like seeing logic that doesn't follow ie: "I'm not buying it because the rods shatter and beads crack". Plus the fact of the most recent cracked bead being from a person who hasn't annealed them yet, and used lauscha clear for encasing-you can't blame the devardi alone for cracking, there are too many other plausible causes for the cracking.