Does this Boro glass Red Flag anyone?

fcfmountain · #1 2009-01-31, 2:36am

Been working Soft glass 3 years now and am taking a Hard class. Bought some Northstar seconds and some Asian 12mm rods. ( inexpensive) When I opened the box the thicker Asian rods were oddly broken and the thin rods were hardly broken. Is this Asian glass brittle,shocky,breaky or have other bad habits. I'm afraid of the stuff now. Or is this glass OK and I'm just spooked because I got a good price on it. Did I just do a Newbie Diaper episode, tell me what you think before I make something messy. TIM

Rob · #2 2009-01-31, 5:56am

that quite frankly sounds strange to me. my asian glass behaves fine. it is not brittle and cutting a 12mm rod is difficult compared to a 6-7mm rod. I would have no answer for how that happened.

I do not find it much different from other boro (as far as the clear goes) if its the colored, well the green can be a pia, and I dislike what black I've gotten, but that doesn't make it very fragile when compared to north star.

Mr. Smiley · #3 2009-01-31, 6:11am

You have seconds and low grade Asian boro... this combination is probably going to give you some compatibility issues, but who cares. You got it cheap and it will be good practice. Seconds can be farther off in compatibility and the Asian stuff can be too... but it moves the same and I doubt you're going to be selling right away. If you plan to sell, I highly recommend getting first quality color... Odds are OK too, because they are just oddly shaped and otherwise normal. Have fun and melt tons of the cheaper stuff to improve your skills. It makes good sense financially to burn through the while you're getting that hang of it.

fcfmountain · #4 2009-02-01, 3:46am

Thanks for the encouragement Rob and Brent. Last week I read elsewhere "The Gals" discouraging a member from buying on E-Bay glass made in India as its real Crazy. I thought I might have had a " Goober " moment when I impulsively added Asian glass to my order. So naturally I whined instead of putting on my "big boy pajamas" and took it to the Torch.
That is such good Newbie advice though to melt,melt,melt and play,play,play. I learned that the hard way first starting in soft glass. Like so many before me I thought I could melt and sell and let this new hobby pay for itself. After that experience I waited a couple years before I even thought about marketing anything. Even though what you do might be the best you have ever done you are still not as good as you think you are. Then add issues such as your first teacher not thinking that annealing is necessary. You know what my first bad experience was now.
Thanks for the input,surely someone would be Screaming and waving their arms if this Asian was best made into Windchimes. TIM