Stupid Newbie Mistakes for Laughs

[blong2001]

I can't torch after pain meds? No fair! I have chronic pain and would not ever be able to light up.
I found out a new one-or my sweatshirt did-the end of the torch stays hot after it is off. Don't lean over your table-burn sweatshirts stink enough to bring the dh out of the bedroom!
Beth

[FourTailsLampwork]

Another one: you know that piece of sheet metal that sits on the floor to protect the linoleum from flying glass? You know how the edges sometimes bend up when you're not bright enough to tape them down with duct tape? You know what happens when you stub your toes on the edge of that sheet metal, and you realize that your tetanus shot was just over ten years ago?

Mmmm, my toes have the equivalent of largeish paper cuts, my arms are sore and I just LOVE taking antibiotics

[lunamoonshadow]

OWWWWW! Mincot!!! Kisses for the toes!!! That HURTS!!!

[Gail Kops]

Come on, sing along with the TV series "Branded" with Chuck Connors, remember that one???

..."Branded, scorned as the one who ran.
What do you do when you're branded, and you know you're a lampworker.
Wherever you go, for the rest of your life
You must prove, you're a lampworker"

This is what you sing when a piece of glass explodes off of a rod and sticks to the front of your neck....YEOWWWWWW! Better than a hickey! A badge of courage, etc.

[Artistic License]

Always keep a spray bottle of water when torching and using any foils or leaf. I was taught to dampen a paper towel to pick up the silver and gold leaf with. It sticks right to the towel. However, when you're torching for awhile that lil paper towel tends to dry out, so once in awhile when you go to roll that hot bead to pick up the silver the paper towel will start on fire *L*. Hence the water bottle. Ask me how I know this?
Red

[AlaskaBarb]

Let's see.

*I found it hard to tell the difference between orange and red rods when wearing ACE/didymium glasses, under a halogen work light -- they both looked red. (When the beads came out of the annealer, I could not figure out why the reds had 'struck' orange.) Now I double-check by looking over the top of my glasses when using those colors.

*I used to have a bad habit of setting the newly used rods down backwards -- don't ask me how -- so occasionally when I picked them up to continue working, the end would be hotter than flugens.

*If you keep loads of stringers lying on the worktable, be careful pawing through them! The worst splinters come from those little needle-like ends. They go deep, break off and stay for weeks. I learned to use needle-nosed pliers to fish through the pile.

*Make sure the C-clamps from your torch haven't worked loose over time. One day I was making beads and a wasp flew into the flame and sort of exploded in every direction. I jumped back off my chair, catching the hoses with my knee, I guess. At any rate, the whole torch assembly came backwards, with the flame shooting towards where my face had just been -- luckily, I'd already flown out of the chair! I flipped the thing back around and turned it off so I could re-attach the base -- with TWO C-clamps, and a screw.

After a few "booble" scars from flying shocky glass, my regular uniform has become a wool shirt jac over my regular top and kevlar fingerless mitts, all year 'round. If it's extremely warm (almost never here), I switch to a tightly-woven cotton twill, both with buttoned flap pockets, so nothing can get trapped inside. Many times I've smelled scorched wool and been grateful to have the protection.
I will say, though, that glass can even find a one-inch opening at the neck of a button-down shirt.

This isn't my experience, but one of another local glassworker: Don't ever leave a plastic Bic lighter on your work table..... learn to use a striker.

[one hot beader]

Originally Posted by suzanne

you licked your graphite paddle?????????????????ow my gawd! THat is even more funny then the story about someone using pancake batter as beadrelease lol

I licked it to pick up the silver leaf I wanted to use but forgot to put out before making the base bead. Leaf is impossible to manage one-handed!

I won't be licking it again however...learnt that lesson the hard way.

[ellyloo]

Oh ya!
and when you stick your hollow mandrel in your mandrel can full of kitty litter, don't be suprised if you turn blue in the face trying to blow a hollow..... the mandrel will be clogged with litter nuggets.

[lunamoonshadow]

Originally Posted by alaskabarb

*Make sure the C-clamps from your torch haven't worked loose over time. One day I was making beads and a wasp flew into the flame and sort of exploded in every direction. I jumped back off my chair, catching the hoses with my knee, I guess. At any rate, the whole torch assembly came backwards, with the flame shooting towards where my face had just been -- luckily, I'd already flown out of the chair! I flipped the thing back around and turned it off so I could re-attach the base -- with TWO C-clamps, and a screw.

OMG! I totally forgot--my brother almost NEUTERED himself this way!! He was trying to make his first beads (outside!) with my hothead & somehow managed to knock my torch off my table (and yes, I *did* have it well attached!!)...and then tried to *catch* it!!
(meanwhile--I was shutting it off at the TANK!! & yelling at him--just leave it ALONE!!)
And he wonders why we treat him like a 12 year old most of the time....even though he's in his 30's.... (as in "don't touch my stuff unless I'm there!")

[ginkgoglass]

Besides torching in shorts and a low cut top, here's another thing not to do:

Do not twist your vortex pendants the wrong way -- there actually is a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way actually UNDOES the vortex, drat.

Like this:

[Alicemakesbeads]

Just wanted to reconfirm, nylon shorts will melt....fast.

Alice

[Emily]

Originally Posted by Alicemakesbeads

Just wanted to reconfirm, nylon shorts will melt....fast.

Can you say, "hot pants"?

[burnt sand beads]

o.k. Probibly the most embarrassing thing I have done so far, is when I was setting up my studio and tring to learn how to operate the digital controller. I was overwhelmed with things like "ramping", "soaking " etc. and could not figure out why my kiln was not getting any hotter when I entered one of the preprogrammed schedules. My DH came downstairs when he heard some choice words being uttered and said, "uh, don't you have to have the KILN TURNED ON TOO?" Yeah, try and look like you kinda know what you are doing after something like that! He is sure I am going to blow us all up!

[lunamoonshadow]

Well--just tell him to "blow everyone up", you'd have to TURN EVERYTHING ON FIRST
(sorry, couldn't help it!!)

And, I kinda like that "untwisted vortex" pendant....

[crimsonorchid]

What a great thread! I have learned a ton of "what not to do" and lots of good stuff to try. I think this is a thread all newbie's (like me) should definitely read.

Hugs,
Jenny

[shiny things]

I love this thread!
Left the lights on and the doors open in my shed/studio at night while the kiln was cooling. When I came back, I had hardbugs bouncing off the walls and finger-length black beetles with big freaky wavy antennae crawling around on the floor.
Shanna

[Jaterwunky]

But the mandrel is out of the kiln, it shouldn't be hot. DAH!!!!!!
Yes I torch in shorts and tanked tops. But the colored marks on mommy's legs make for good stories. Ha-Ha.
Just kidding.
Yes I have done almost everything, But you'd think I would learn not to try and get stuck beads, unstuck. too many times to count!!!
Deb

[lldesigns]

Man I love it when this thread pops back to the top. There's some great warnings in here for newbies and good laughs for everyone!

[Abacus Beads]

Try and see that your mandrel has even bead release and not bumpy. It took me forever to learn that if the bead release is full of hills and valleys on your mandrel you will never get a roundish bead
Liz R

[EchoTantuli]

I was in my beginner bead making class, and a bit to big for my britches, since I had watched a guy make a few beads on a hothead out of the back of his truck, I figured I pretty much knew what I was doing...Yeah right! I finally managed to make a really cool bead, and wanted to encase it, so by the end it was about an inch diameter donut bead on a 1/16th mandrel. When I had just about finished up the sides of the bead, I burnt right through the mandrel and my masterpiece went PLUNK, right onto the table! What I learned from that is only the glass needs to be glowing hot during encasement, and not the mandrel. Also when I make a bead that big, that a bigger mandrel is much easier to handle. Most Importantly, that watching a guy make beads on a hothead out of the back of his truck didn't make me an advanced bead worker(humility ). Listen to your teacher if you have one, that is what they are there for! -Echo

[Indeona]

I love this thread and decided to make my first post here.

-The fleeting odor of the three fine hairs on your knuckle burning means the smell of roasting flesh is not far behind. Move thy hand.

-When in the midst of juggling molten glass on a thin mandrel in one hand and a shocky hot rod of glass in the other is a bad time to shift in your seat and realize you have put your sanitary product sticky side up.

-Do not rub a warm/hot glass rod on the top of the fiber blanket to remove a fleck of dust.

Of course this doesn't mean any of those things have happened to me personally... -cough-

[NLC Beads]

I just learned today - and THOUGHT it beforehand, darnitall - that the loose tank top wasn't a good idea. Especially with a shocky bit of glass shooting down there... Yikes... Man, I managed to make it 4.5 years without the girls becoming a casualty...

[Gelly]

Originally Posted by Indeona

-When in the midst of juggling molten glass on a thin mandrel in one hand and a shocky hot rod of glass in the other is a bad time to shift in your seat and realize you have put your sanitary product sticky side up.

yeowie!! I can't imagine a "good time" to realize that you did that! That is definitely something that needs to be caught before hand.

Welcome to LE! Thanks for making me laugh!

[lunamoonshadow]

Originally Posted by NLC Beads

I just learned today - and THOUGHT it beforehand, darnitall - that the loose tank top wasn't a good idea. Especially with a shocky bit of glass shooting down there... Yikes... Man, I managed to make it 4.5 years without the girls becoming a casualty...

and I *sent* you 100% cotton t-shirts to protect the girls!!

[NLC Beads]

Originally Posted by lunamoonshadow

and I *sent* you 100% cotton t-shirts to protect the girls!!

Oh, the shirts are safe in a drawer... I'll have to grab one today so the girls don't match!

[BeadinMarie]

Besides picking up a rod of glass from the hot used end (yes big blisters from my very first lampwork class...amazing I came back!) my shinning moment...

Hubby was always paranoid I would 'burn' something down, and was extra sure to make sure I had plenty of fire extinguishers etc... so one day very early on I set a rod of glass I was using down on my table not in the rod holder I have but side ways on the table....

right next to the end of another rod..the end with the paper label sticker on it saying what color it is...and...hey what is that smell??? hmm something is burning but what....and then the label was on fire oops!

Not sure what I SHOULD have done, because I wasn't even sure what was happening but I dump my water on it! Along with everything else on my table

OOPS!

Fun thread!!!

-Marie

[Tanja]

Heating my tweezers to a glowing red color to pinch some glass. Never took a class, didn't have a clue. Just thougth the glass and the tweezers should be the same temp. to keep it from sticking. Unfortunately the it's the opposite that happens. Then I tried bead release on my tweezers. Then finally read you're supposed to keep your tools COOL.

[Patti]

Never leave 27 open containers of frit where your cat can reach them! I had a lot of new mixes and they weren't very pretty!

[claybraes]

Originally Posted by GinnyHampton

Don't etch your beads in a glass . . . .

You are a doll, Ginny.
That made me smile

[hannahbeads]

I had a cold and the women next to me was an aroma therapist and offered some "essential oils" for me to sniff out of my palms. Not to be rude, I did it. Needless to say, my grip was gone and the hot bead went slipping into my hand as I placed it in the kiln!!