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2008-02-27, 9:16pm
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Member
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Join Date: Dec 07, 2007
Location: Schertz, TX
Posts: 87
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Thanks Barb!! (to anybody who's reading this thread, Barb Wolf is my mentor, and the sweetest, most generous woman on the planet).
Means a lot to hear that coming from you...I'll make some 'pink lemonade' beads just for you.
Lots of Love
~Alyssa
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2008-02-28, 5:16am
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Detail G-Mama!
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Join Date: Jun 10, 2005
Location: Longview, WA
Posts: 7,130
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trickypixies_jewelry
Thanks Barb!! (to anybody who's reading this thread, Barb Wolf is my mentor, and the sweetest, most generous woman on the planet).
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Yup, yup, yup!!!
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2008-02-28, 5:44am
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Yeller Rose
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Join Date: Aug 31, 2005
Location: Lufkin, TX 75901
Posts: 865
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anne Ricketts
Yup, yup, yup!!!
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I just read this and you made my day. Barb
__________________
Barb Wolf
Lufkin, TX
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2008-02-28, 5:47am
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Detail G-Mama!
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Join Date: Jun 10, 2005
Location: Longview, WA
Posts: 7,130
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2008-02-28, 12:53pm
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jun 18, 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Posts: 5,565
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I love stringers and sometimes like really skinny ones.
The two tips suggested of waiting 5 seconds before pulling and starting with more glass are key.
There are about as many ways to make twisties as stringer. Someone was showing the rolling a mandrel down their leg. I love that one. If I take the time to actually use a mandrel it makes such nice tight twisties.
The tools sound like more glass than I put in my stringer/twisties. I'd think the one sounds great if you do complex canes and such.
Good luck.
__________________
~Nancy
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2008-03-04, 4:52pm
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aka Bastille Bleu
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Join Date: Feb 03, 2008
Posts: 88
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Im right there with ya! I developed fibro after I started lampworking, and then had to start all over and learn again because my hand function changed quite a bit.... but like you, Im way too determined to let that stop me. I'll just have to practice like crazy but I refuse to give up lampworking! No.... NEVER!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tillie
I'm still at the thread-thin (sometimes hair-thin) and 2" long stage of pulling stringers. I'm in awe of anyone who can pull those beautiful all-the-same-size stringers and twisties. Heck, I haven't even tried a twistie yet...I am soooo impaired and scared! Sometimes I manage to get a 7-8" stringer that is actually bigger around than a hair, but it's not too often. ~sigh~ I know...PPP and then PPP some more...
I also have Fibromyalgia and arthritis and I refuse to let it get the best of me! I have made up my mind that I will learn to make really good beads, stringers and twisties, if it kills me!!
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2008-03-04, 4:59pm
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aka Bastille Bleu
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Join Date: Feb 03, 2008
Posts: 88
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Thanks for all the great advice, Alyssa!!! I agree, quality is better than quanity. It looks like I sometimes pull too soon... and other times, too late. I guess I just need to PPP!
[quote=trickypixies_jewelry;1689653]Tillie & Bohemibeads,
Remember this advice...Longer stringer IS NOT BETTER!! Think about it, wouldn't you rather have a nice, even and/or thicker stringer that's a little shorter than a several footer that's uneven or too thin that you have to cut into pieces later anyway?! I think it's amazing what people like Ann Ricketts can do, but again, they've been at this for years and have had the practice, practice, practice.
Us beginners really need to focus on quality not quantity. Heat your gather (note: if you want a thicker stringer, make a bigger gather!), take out of the flame, (practice with white if you're having issues with timing and when to pull), wait until the skin forms on the gather (when hot, white turns transparent, so wait until it turns back to white (or the skin forms) before pulling), and grab the tip with some tweezers. Gently wiggle back and forth a couple of times, and slowly pull out.
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2008-03-04, 5:05pm
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aka Bastille Bleu
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Join Date: Feb 03, 2008
Posts: 88
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Thanks for the great tips, Emily. Ive heard of using a mandrel but thought it would ruin one of my mandrels. Glad to know I can get the glass off of it when Im done. Im gonna try it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emily
Here is another method that you might want to try. You can use this to make twisties/cane, but you might want to practice it first with a single color. Take a mandrel with no bead release on it. (Yes, this is going to sound weird.) Warm an inch (not more, maybe less to start with) on the end of it, and start wrapping glass onto it. Have the glass that you're wrapping nice and melty as you're putting it on, so you don't trap air. You'll want to cover the end of the mandrel, but you're not building out from the mandrel. You're just building a nice blob of hot glass on the part of the mandrel that you heated. When you've got a nice blob built up (remember that you're being careful not to trap air), get it hot, keeping it on center. You can use a paddle or mashers to shape it so that the blob stays more balanced, but of course that will cool the surface a little when you touch it with the tool. When you've got it hot, attach a punty to the side opposite the mandrel. Your punty can be another mandrel (again, with no bead release), or a glass rod with a slightly pointed and rounded tip. Continue heating until blob (OK, gather) is evenly glowing the whole way through, then take out of flame, CONTINUE ROTATING AND WAIT FOR A FEW SECONDS WHILE GLASS COOLS A LITTLE, then begin to pull. The glass will pull gradually off the mandrel. If it stiffens up, you can melt off or cut off the stringer, reheat the gather remaining on the mandrel (reintroduce it to the flame carefully, in case it's gotten cold enough to shock), and keep pulling. When there's only a little bit of glass remaining on the mandrel, stick the mandrel in water. The glass will shock off, leaving your mandrel clean. (If if doesn't shock off right away, you can leave it in the water until it does, or crunch the glass a little with pliers, or stick it back in the flame and re-dunk it.)
To make twisties/cane, make a solid color gather on the mandrel, then put stripes of a different color on it lengthwise (parallel to the mandrel), and twist when you're pulling.
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