Sculptural tutorial recommendations for newbie?

galaxygirl · #1 2010-11-19, 12:25pm

Greetings from beautiful downtown Brooklyn!

I am a beginning lampworker - I had the pleasure of taking two intensive classes at Penland in NC a few years back, and am now just getting set up in my own studio space. Although I am awed by the incredible talent of those who post on this site, I must come clean and say that I'm not that interested in making beads.

That's right, in my head, I think I'm going to be a Blaschka when I grow up. <---I can't believe I just wrote that out loud!

So, that being said, can anyone recommend some tutorials that would help me build my sculptural skills? I've done some searches, but it seems that most of the newbie-friendly tutorials are bead-oriented, and the sculptural ones are for more intermediate folks.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Laura

Roo Blaty · #2 2010-11-19, 12:52pm

Hi Laura,

I love sculptural stuff, too. Altho I can't claim to know who Blaschka is... =/
I have bought several tutorials but when I was super new, I didn't do anything but read through them. Still, I did learn things like how to pull different stringers and learned a lot of techniques, even though I couldn't utilize them all just yet.

There are some useful free tuts on here that I think were for Beads of Courage. They are very beginner and you can change them as you grow in skill to be more complicated.

Recently, I went to Barbara Becker Simon's class and thought "If I can make it through her class I can do ANYTHING!" So I got out my "Keeper of the Thicket" (I think that's the name) tutorial. And even though it's VERY complicated, it's really a good tutorial. My very first keeper looks just like she should! I would recommend that as a great one to have in you library of tuts. Just be sure to read everything a couple of times throughly. The person who wrote it is Cynthia Tillaker (yikes not sure exactly what her last name is but will pm you) Search for Keeper and you should find it.

Also, there are little "books" - again I will have to pm you with the exact authors, but they were VERY helpful to me when I first started to realize that round beads were highly over rated...probably b/c I couldn't make them perfectly round! LOL

Hope that helps!
Roo

galaxygirl · #3 2010-11-19, 1:26pm

Thanks Roo! I will look up the Keeper tut. It's fun to start building my "library," but a little daunting because there's a lot of info out there, and it's hard to determine what's best for me to start with.

You should look up the Blaschkas - they were a father/son team in Germany working in the 1800's, making models for scientific study. The most famous collections (I haven't seen either) are the glass flowers at Harvard, and marine invertebrates at Cornell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold...udolf_Blaschka

Beadanna · #4 2010-11-19, 1:30pm

There is a wonderful collection of Blaschka marine invertebrates here in the Natural History Museum in Dublin. Or The Dead Zoo as Dublin kids sometimes call it.

bshelle · #5 2010-11-19, 1:37pm

Laura, you might want to grab a subscription to The Flow magazine and/or Glassline, they both have excellent tutorials in them with a myriad of different subjects. Here is one by Kim Fields, who I think is marvelous:

https://www.theflowmagazine.com/inde...=192&Itemid=64

By the way, I think I know you.

FiG's class, right?

Roo Blaty · #6 2010-11-19, 1:53pm

hahaha...dead zoo...hahaha....ahhhh love it

Hey Laura, I posted some of my newest little snowguys (in today's show and tell) ...I may get flamed...they aren't anything special so I'm not sure it is okay to post them. But I thought they were funny!

galaxygirl · #7 2010-11-19, 2:07pm

Thanks, Roo - I will check out your snowguys!

And Shelley - yes!!! Too funny! And I was just admiring your pink spider/earwiggy thing in your profile!

How have you been? I was back at Penland last year, and took a class with Sally Prasch, but it was all boro. (I made an awesome neon sculpture though!)

I finally moved into studio space with a metalsmith friend at the beginning of October and set up my torch, and I've been lurking on here ever since. Oh, and thank you for the suggestions on Flow and Glassline, I will check out the subscriptions and back issues.

Nice to see you!

-Laura

Bluejeangirlnc · #8 2010-11-19, 2:43pm

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=86898

http://www.marshglass.com/tutorials/...ephanttut.html

Post #16 in this thread: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=78390 (pic of them in post #23)

Here's the thread where we've talked about some of them: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=139235

galaxygirl · #9 2010-11-19, 3:17pm

Thank you! All those cute critters! This is perfect, too, because I can try my hand at making a few things for my nieces - I don't think that they appreciate spiders and other creepy crawlies the way I do.

Sue in Maine · #10 2010-11-19, 3:19pm

Pipyr's Boro Creature Tutorial is great.

http://lampworketc.com/forums/showth...ature+tutorial

Actually, any of her tutorials are great. She works 99.99999% off mandrel.

Sue

galaxygirl · #11 2010-11-19, 3:51pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sue in Maine

Pipyr's Boro Creature Tutorial is great.

http://lampworketc.com/forums/showth...ature+tutorial

Actually, any of her tutorials are great. She works 99.99999% off mandrel.

Sue

Ooh, excellent tentacles!

galaxygirl · #12 2010-11-19, 7:52pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roo Blaty

hahaha...dead zoo...hahaha....ahhhh love it

Hey Laura, I posted some of my newest little snowguys (in today's show and tell) ...I may get flamed...they aren't anything special so I'm not sure it is okay to post them. But I thought they were funny!

Oh, and Roo, your snowguys are *adorable*! Though I might have bad dreams about those little piggy heads. . .

houptdavid · #13 2010-11-21, 4:12pm

Laura
I lean towards sculptural work also.
I would suggest the free goddess tutorial that is here in the tutorial section, Not for what it is but for showing you how to move glass around.
Try some of the flowers and learn what you can do to manipulate glass.
PM Loco for her Dragon tutorial after you get an idea how to move it around.

I had to google Blaschka...WOW!

Anne Ricketts · #14 2010-11-21, 7:45pm

If you like dolls, I've got a Raggedy Ann tutorial. You can change it around to make different dolls also.

galaxygirl · #15 2010-11-21, 11:29pm

Thanks, Anne - I think I probably have a ways to go before I will be able to tackle something like Raggedy Ann, but she looks amazing!

David - thank you so much for the suggestions as well! It looks as though most of the goddess tuts on here are beads, rather than "off-mandrel." With all of the stuff that I've ordered over the last few weeks, I actually have not ordered any mandrels - guess I'd better get some, as well as some bead release! I kind of assumed that I wouldn't be making any beads at all. I looked at the thread for Loco's dragon tut, amazing!

Isn't the Blaschka stuff amazing?! I'd really like to drive up to Cornell see the invertebrate collection. I'm all about the jellyfish. And I want to make glass nudibranchs (aka sea slugs). Like this guy:

Mr. Meker · #16 2010-11-23, 12:58am

Don't get mandrels, get boro!

Boro is much better for sculpture than soft glass. It is much more shock resistant. It is also stiffer. You can do components and large assemblies.

galaxygirl · #17 2010-11-24, 9:05am

Quote:

Originally Posted by meker

Don't get mandrels, get boro!

Boro is much better for sculpture than soft glass. It is much more shock resistant. It is also stiffer. You can do components and large assemblies.

i see your point, but in my (very limited) experience, i think that boro and soft glass both have their pros and cons. boro is certainly all the things described above, but for some of the very small scale work that i would like to do, i.e. insects, i have found thus far that i prefer the way that soft glass is easier to manipulate. of course, it also means way more 'splody bits on my bench (and my arms, and down my shirt, etc. . . )

vetropod · #18 2010-11-24, 9:12am

If you work boro, I'd HIGHLY recommend Lewis Wilson's DVD series:
http://www.crystalmyths.com/videos/ Very helpful!!!

If you're new to sculpting, boro is definitely the way to start out.

vetropod · #19 2010-11-24, 9:17am

And geez, I can't believe folks haven't heard of the Blaschkas!!! I've read everything about them I can get my hands on. I've got some cool old books about them given to me by some folks at Harvard...

http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=7810

http://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/blaschka/

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/l...udolf-blaschka

Here's a tube worm I photographed at Corning this summer:

Here are some of their tools and enamels. GET THIS - the spray paint can looking thing on the right is one of their TORCHES!!! Crazy stuff...

PS - I hope everyone can see those pics, they're linked from my Facebook account so you may not be able to see without a FB account...

galaxygirl · #20 2010-11-24, 9:43am

The pics show up for me - amazing! And they also did it all with bellows, yes? I need to make a trip to Cornell to see the invertebrates. I guess I assumed that everyone knew who the Blaschkas were, but maybe that's just because that's what I'm interested in. Are you familiar with Herman Mueller? He made glass models of single-celled organisms for the Museum of Natural History here in NYC.

I looked at your website, your work is amazing!

Since my intro to flameworking was with soft glass (Shelley mentioned above that we met in Michael Mangiafico's Glass Entomology class at Penland); I guess I'm stuck on the idea of continuing to work with it, even though I've done some stuff with boro in the meantime.

Thank you very much for the DVD suggestion, I will check them out!

vetropod · #21 2010-11-24, 1:54pm

Actually, if you're not going to do boro, the Lewis Wilson DVDs are much more geared towards boro. I think he has a little bit about soft glass, I don't know.

Here's a video you'll be REALLY interested in, Vittorio Costantini demos from Corning Museum of Glass: http://glassmarket.cmog.org/browse.cfm/4,3082.html

And thanks for the compliments on my work

Now I have to look up Herman Mueller.

galaxygirl · #22 2010-11-24, 5:20pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beast Master

Here's a video you'll be REALLY interested in, Vittorio Costantini demos from Corning Museum of Glass: http://glassmarket.cmog.org/browse.cfm/4,3082.html

oh, yes - i've been looking at that video for weeks now. putting in my cart, taking it out of my cart. . . i'm trying to be mindful, as you know, setting up a studio is not! cheap!

sigh, but really, what's another $20. . .

vetropod · #23 2010-11-24, 5:43pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by galaxygirl

sigh, but really, what's another $20. . .

what's another $20 on something that's worth $600? You can learn as much or more from that video as a class from Vittorio AND I guarantee that your chances of getting into a class with him are slim to none.

This $20 is worth it, trust me

galaxygirl · #24 2010-11-24, 6:05pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beast Master

what's another $20 on something that's worth $600? You can learn as much or more from that video as a class from Vittorio AND I guarantee that your chances of getting into a class with him are slim to none.

This $20 is worth it, trust me

hmm. . . i see your point. i'll consider it an early hanukah present to myself!

well, i suppose if i can't get into a class with vittorio, i'll just have to settle for lucio bubacco!