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The Flow

Beads of Courage


 
  #1  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:04pm
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Ladyhoss67 Ladyhoss67 is offline
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Default Seahorse tutorial

I won the lampwork source challenge. You are supposed to post a tutorial on what you entered. I know it took a while but I finally got it done.
So here we go. If there are any mistakes or problems let me know and I will try to fix it the best I can. This is the first time I've done this so I'm hoping to get it right the first time.


Materials and tools needed
1 rod of morretti black
raku frit
2 2 mm purple transparent stringer
1 2 mm light grass green transparent stringer
1 1 mm black stringer
1 1 mm white stringer
1 1/16 mandrel dipped in release and dried
long tweezers
razor tool
small flat paddle shaper (I use a small dental tool)
brass tool (I use Corina's magic wand)

Steps
1. Put out your frit so it's ready for you when you come to that step.
2. Using the black rod wind on a round bead about the size of a nickel. This will be the seahorse's belly.

3. Get it centered, let it cool just slightly, but before it's totally stiff let it droop just a little down and towards the bottom end of the mandrel. It will look like a lopsided chocolate kiss. Now he has a belly side and a back side.

4. At the pointed end of his body wind on a small thin barrel. This will be his neck.

5. Add a little extra glass at the top of the neck, melt in and slightly tip your mandrel top down and let the neck droop down just a little on the same side as the belly.

6. Keeping him warm, get a a dime size gather on the tip of the black rod.

7. Warm the tip of the neck and place the hot gather on the neck. This will be his head. Keep the ball(head) pointed up until it cools.

8. Add a small dot on each side of head for his jaws bones.


9. Keep him warm while getting another gather hot on the end of the black rod. This will be his nose. Warm the tip of his head and place the gather on.

10. Immediately turn him downwards and pull the nose down and out. Burn off at about 1/2".

11. This is what he will look like.

12 . Heat up the dots that will be his jaws and slightly flatten with your small paddle shaper.

13. Keep him warm while gathering another ball on your black rod. This will be his tail. Warm his "butt" and place the gather on.

14. Hang the tail down so it will droop a little.

15. Get a second gather hot on the black rod and add it to his tail. Melt in and let it droop down. Make sure to keep his body warm in between steps.

16. Now get his whole tail hot but not soupy. Touch the tip of his tail with the black rod and pull his tail down until you get it to about the right thickness that you want. It doesn't matter if it's too long. The top of his tail should be about the thickness of a pencil.

17. Burn the tail off at about 2 1/2' long or how ever long you want it to be. Give him a good heat bath. Make sure to keep his nose warm. It's thin and will pop off easily.

18. Heat up one side of your seahorse and lay him in the pile of frit.

19. Bring him back into the flame and heat up the frit so it will not pop off.

20. Keep heating up parts of his body and touching it in the frit until he has frit everywhere you want it to be. Remember to keep the tail and nose warm while doing this.

21. Now slowly start melting in the frit. Be careful not to lose his shape by getting him too hot. Use your paddle shaper to keep his nose and tail straight.


22. After melting in the frit, if the raku has dark brown spots, I heat up that spot and touch or lightly rub it with my brass tool. This will help turn it the nice colors raku is known for. I do it this way because you can't super heat the raku to get the pretty colors or you will lose your shape.

23. Now you will need to pull his tail to a nice pointed end. Heat up the end of his tail at the length you want and pinch off the extra glass. Pull as you pinch to give him a nice small tip on the end of his tail.

24. Take a minute to heat him all over real good. Pick which side of him you like the best. This will be his front side.
25. Now with the side you want to be the front towards you, very carefully heat just the tip of his tail and curl it with your tweezers towards his belly, just a little. Let it cool until stiff.

26. Heat just ABOVE the curl being carefully NOT to heat the curl. Slowly curl the tail a little more. Make sure you curl the tail in front of the mandrel without touching it on the side you want to be the front.

27. Keep curling the tail until it almost touches the belly. Let the tail cool down and stiffen, then give him a good heat bath. Make sure not to heat the tail too much so it doesn't touch the mandrel.

28. Now with your purple transparent stringer start applying a small thin line from the top middle of his head, across the mandrel, down the middle of his back where the "backbone" should be, following his back all the way down and around the spirals of his tail.


29. Go back up to the top of his head and run another strip of the purple stringer, this time going on the other side of the mandrel, meeting up with the first line of purple on the back of his neck.

30. Heat him all over real good. Take your tweezers and start heating the purple stringer (his mane) on his head and pinch with the tweezers. Do this all the way down his back and around his tail. Be careful not to pinch his body. You only want to pinch the purple stringer. Be careful not to heat the tail so much the it starts touching the mandrel.


31. Keep him warm while you heat a gather on your purple stringer about the size of a big pea. This will be his dorsal fin. Apply this gather to the middle of his back right on top on the purple line of "mane".

32. While still hot pinch right in the middle then once on each side.


33. Now with your white stringer apply a very small dot on each side of his head for his eyes. Melt in just a little bit leaving them slightly raised Be careful not to melt his nose. Make sure to keep the rest of his body warm.

34. Now apply a small dot of light grass green on top of each white dot. Melt in just enough to give his eye a nice smooth round look. Give him a good heat bath.

35. Take your very thin black stringer and heat just the tip. Place a very small black dot on the middle of each eye. Melt the black dot in totaly,being careful not to melt the eye it's self too much.

36. Heat up the end of the purple transparent stringer, heat the nose. Touch the tip of his nose with the stringer and pull his nose out just a little to make it nice and smooth and straight.

37. Burn his nose off at the length you want it to be, about 1/2".

38. Give his whole body a good heat bath. Heat just the tip of his nose and point it towards you. With your razor tool touch the end of his nose and push just ever so lightly to give him a little mouth.

39. With you purple transparent stringer heat a small gather and apply it to his head at the back of his jaw on his neck. Do this on both sides of his head. These are his little ear fins.

40. Take your tweezers, heat the purple dot and pinch to make his little ear fin. Do this on both sides.

41. Heat him all over and check to make sure you didn't melt his "mane" in too much anywhere. If needed reheat and repinch his mane with your tweezers.

42. Heat him all over and put him in your hot kiln and anneal properly

43. There you go. Here are a few pics of some that I have made. GOOD LUCK!!
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Last edited by Ladyhoss67; 2006-05-07 at 2:04pm.
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  #2  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:10pm
donna322 donna322 is offline
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HOLY GUACOMOLE!!!!! What a fantastic tutorial...Thanks so much...you make it look so friggin easy!!! I'll go see how frustrated I can get trying this!!!
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  #3  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:30pm
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CUUUUUUUUTE! And what a great tutorial. I'm giving this 5 stars.
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  #4  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:47pm
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those are just adorable!
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  #5  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:51pm
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Ladyhoss67 Ladyhoss67 is offline
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Thanks guys. I have to say.... doing tutorials is a BIG PAIN IN THE BUT!!! my butt is a little bigger from sitting here so long.
I want to see what you come up with now, OK? post them here.

Kim
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Last edited by Ladyhoss67; 2006-04-11 at 2:15pm.
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  #6  
Old 2006-04-11, 12:55pm
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Wow. That is great! Paula
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  #7  
Old 2006-04-11, 3:01pm
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Awesome! Great job on that Kim!!! I'm working as fast as I can on the new site and think I'm going to release the first part of it soon. Great job!
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  #8  
Old 2006-04-11, 3:54pm
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holy seahorse. how cool are they? what a nice thing for you to do, yeah i bet it is a pain in the butt......youre very generous, thanks again for treating us!
junie
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  #9  
Old 2006-04-11, 8:54pm
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Kim your the BEST. You really worked hard to get this all together.
You do deserve a 5 star...........& I do appreciate the work.
Thanks
taj
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  #10  
Old 2006-04-11, 10:03pm
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thanks! definetly a 5 star! great tutorial! Cant wait to try it
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  #11  
Old 2006-04-11, 11:01pm
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Wow...great detail on the tutorial...thanx so much.....
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  #12  
Old 2006-04-12, 11:45am
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Great tutorial, Kim. Thanks
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  #13  
Old 2006-04-13, 6:13am
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Awesome!!!

thanks!

Daniel
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  #14  
Old 2006-04-13, 7:12am
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Excellent!! Thank you for sharing.
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  #15  
Old 2006-04-13, 11:17am
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Thank you everybody for your nice comments. It means a lot to me.
I WANNA SEE SOME SEAHORSES! I wanna see if I explained it good enough.

Kim
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Old 2006-04-13, 7:13pm
taj taj is offline
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Thank you Kim!!!
O.K. Here is my first try. Didn't get the tail long
but for the first one it will have to do.
What u think?
taj
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  #17  
Old 2006-04-13, 8:26pm
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KIM, you are AWESOME! 5 STARS FOR YOU! (said in the soup Nazi voice)

My mom wants a shell necklace for mother's day...I may try and see if I can make a seahorse for the focal. Thank you!

TAJ, wow that is a great first try!
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  #18  
Old 2006-04-13, 10:41pm
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Just beautiful...I love the seahorse....what a great tutorial !!!
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  #19  
Old 2006-04-14, 5:26am
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WTG Teresa!!! You did great. I LOVE IT.
You said you need to pull the tail longer.... I usually pull the tail about 2 1/2". That way you have plenty and you can burn off what you don't want.
What I think is funny ...is when I made my first few I also put side fins on. Someone told me "seahorses don't have side fins" I told them " In MY world they do"...LOL.

If you want a good laugh, I will show you the pics from MY first attempts,lol. I got the idea from a toy squirt gun my son had.You will see how much they have changed.My first few kinda look like birds...LMBO!

C'MON everybody.... I want to see more!
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Last edited by Ladyhoss67; 2006-04-14 at 5:28am.
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  #20  
Old 2006-04-14, 6:36am
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Actually, I think your first tries are pretty good too! One of them makes me think of giraffe print. I am going to try this this morning...
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  #21  
Old 2006-04-14, 11:53am
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Great tutorial Kim! I appreciate you taking all the pics, that's the best way I learn. Thank you very much!

Ari'elle
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  #22  
Old 2006-04-19, 6:06am
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where's everybody's seahorses? I wanna see!!!
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  #23  
Old 2006-04-19, 6:14am
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I will ask my mom if they have side fins, she raises them. She has been on my case for months to make her one. The problem is.... I am sure I won't be able to make one that looks like a seahorse! It will be ugly. I know I won't be able to keep it all hot long enough to stop it from popping apart. I sure thought that they had side fins too! Good Greif! I see them at least once a week, you'd think I'd notice something like that.
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  #24  
Old 2006-04-19, 7:05am
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LOL...Isn't it funny how you don't pay attention to things you see everyday.
I actually did a search and found LOT'S of pics of real seahorses. They don't have side fins,lol, just the ear fins. But what I didn't know is how many really pretty colors them come in.There was one that was neon yellow. It was sooo pretty.

Kim
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  #25  
Old 2006-04-21, 7:37am
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Here are my mom's "babies". The one wrapped around the coral is the male, see his pouch where he gets pregnant! The othe is the female. They will change color depending on mood. It's alot like a chameleon. I like it when they are yellow, mom likes white and dad likes black. She was SOOOO happy to share these pictures, and give me a lesson in seahorse antomy!
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Old 2006-04-21, 7:38am
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Wow Sorry Those Are So Big!!!!!
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Old 2006-04-21, 7:54am
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OMGOSH Those are the cutest thing EVER. I LOVE THEM. I also love the yellow. I'm gonna go make a yellow one right now. Thank you for posting those. Tell your mom thank you so much for the pics.

KIM
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Old 2006-04-22, 7:55am
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I called Mom and told her that I had posted them, she said she would happily accecpt any seahorse bead for "examination". She said she would keep all of the "duds".
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  #29  
Old 2006-05-04, 1:29am
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Oops. Lost control of the tail.
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  #30  
Old 2006-05-04, 5:57am
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Wendy, you did good. That's so cute.
Don't worry I have had many tails and noses crack and pop off. I just add more glass and keep going.

Here is a pic of a few I just did, one is getting donated to an auction in our glass club and the other is just because I wanted to make a yellow one like Amber's mom's real one.
I just started trying to make these little stands so you can display the seahorses without having to wear them. These stands have real beach sand on the base and free formed starfish and shells on it,wth a few little sea urchins. I made another stand a while back with just seaweed and places for a few fish, but I think I like this new stand better, but I would like to try and put a backdrop of seaweed like my other stand on the backside of this new stand. But it's very hard to get all this together by yourself without something cracking. If I ever get it together in one piece I'll post a pic.




Ya'll keep practicing your seahorses and don't forget to post'em here so I can see. I love looking at them.


Kim
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