Finding the Courage to Create Soft Glass Sculpture

This spring I redoubled my pursuit of soft glass sculpture, convinced that cooler flame of my Hothead was holding me back.  So, I ordered a Carlisle Lucio torch through the Fire Lady website (who also offers a payment/layaway plan for torches for those who long to finally own that dream torch), and all the hardware, and waited with bated breath as Carlisle machine works built my new torch. 

But, while I awaited the arrival of my new baby so I could miraculously sculpt with 104 COE Italian glass, I finally tracked down what I was looking for all along… a solid DVD by a soft glass genius, teaching me some brilliant technique.

There are many DVD’s out there on sculpting with Boro, it seems that 33 COE Pyrex type glass is forgiving with temperature ups and downs.  But the expensive glass and pricey torches were hard to justify when I already have a small fortune tied up in a gorgeous palette of soft glass.  (Especially when there are artists out there performing large scale sculptural gymnastics with soda glass.)

So, for those who drool over the craftsmanship of those beautiful figures by Gianni Toso or Lucio Bubacco, or the brilliant insects and creatures by Vittorio Costantini or Wesley Fleming… or those who long to work off mandrel but can’t find teachers in your area, and Tink visits and ruins your fun…

Let me encourage you to try these DVDs available from ARTCO:

Lucio Bubacco:  The Anatomy of the Figure

The 3 DVD set runs 6 hours and 44 minutes, offering a unique look at Lucio behind the torch.  After all, even if you flew to Italy for his workshop, would you spend the whole class looking practically over his shoulder?  Well, you do in these DVDs.

So, Lucio treats us to a Medusa figure in the first DVD, with an insane number of little snakes with tiny, flicking tongues.  The ease with which he sculpts the human figure with minimal shaping and mastery of gravity assist is astounding.  His confident manner and humor will stir your courage to trust the flame, the glass, and his specialized annealing method. 

The next DVD repeats the miracle of flame annealing by creating a woman with a scorpion head, then a fantastical bird woman in high heels.  The third DVD creates a goblet with a large, red devil holding a delicate rose, and the session also shows Lucio working with an assistant to speed up the creation process. 

Lucio Bubacco:  Master Flameworking Series

A single DVD that runs 3 hours and 15 minutes, but offers a couple simpler figures to learn from, and some nice examples and discussion of some bridge work, and blending glass to create an intermediate glass for joining different COEs in goblets.  He creates an Eve Goblet, an Eve figure, a winged mythological creature woman, a spider with thread-thin legs, and one of his signature red devil figures.

I don’t regret getting both teachings because these DVDs inspire you to see soft glass in a new light and to work with its properties, coaxing it into new dimensions.  By the end of the lessons, I understood my limits weren’t so much set by my torch heat as they were set by my limited technique and understanding of my glass.

So, try them.  They’ll inspire untold bravery.  Even after over a year hiatus from the torch (writing takes up a lot of my free time), I fired up my trusty Hothead and created a 5 inch black dragon with orange accents, and then a (rather cool if I say so myself) 3+ inch grey spider alien.  (I went on from there to try a small ogre figure, but it cracked badly, so I’m still learning…)

When you get the DVDs and create something cooler than you’d ever hoped, post and let me know about it!  Enjoy!

Our New Glass Creations!!

African Baobab Tree Bead (Front view)

Lampwork focal or pendant bead

featuring an intricate African Baobab tree

design on front and back.

Italian Effetre and Vetrofond glass.

Decorated with stringer, dot work, and marvering.

Quince Fruit Tree Blossom Bead Set

Lampwork branches

of beautiful fruit tree blossoms on a soft backdrop.

Italian Effetre and Vetrofond glass.

Decorated with stringer, dot work, and marvering.

Island Medicine Man Mask Lampwork Bead Set

A fun and intriguing face mask focal or pendant bead

with matching complimentary beads.

Italian Effetre and Vetrofond glass.

Designed by marvering, masking, stringer, and dot work.

Poison Arrow Dart Frog and Baby Tadpole Lampwork Pendant

A glass sculpture pendant of a poison arrow dart frog

carrying her young tadpole.

The base leaf is Italian Effetre petroleum green,

pea green, and light transparent teal,

and decorated with Italian Vetrofond pale blue transparent rain drops.

The frog is a combination of discontinued

US ASK scarlet dreams and Vetrofond black.

The tadpole is Effetre intense black.

This sculpted piece was inspired by:

Anny's Pal's flickr photograph "Poison Dart Frog CostaRica"

http://flickr.com/photos/39884591@N00/361091980/

Conducting a Symphony of Glass

"Creak!" The handle turns.
The soft hiss- beckoning.

"Snap!" A tiny spark takes life.
Blues, reds, yellows- reaching.

"Hissss! Hummmmm!" The song.
A melody of flame- hypnotizing.

"Tink!" A tiny vibration magnified.
A shining shaft of glass- changing.

"Sigh!" Soft silence of a molten ball.
Stretching, sagging, moving- creating.

The Symphony of the Journey of Glass.
Same heart in a new form- comforting.






written by Zoie Hawley

Treasured Newbie Beads

This necklace is a tribute to all our newbie beads! The beads that initiated us into the world of hot glass lampworking!

They represent that special time when getting the glass onto the mandrel without breaking the bead release was an accomplishment, and managing to get puckers on the bead ends meant that you had arrived!!

Starting on the far right with our first plain white Effetre round beads, those are the very first beads we made, one is mine and one is hubby's. The beads move chronologically to the left, and gradually improve in shape and design as you go around the necklace, ending with my amethyst hollow (man, that one was hard).

All of these beads are made on a Fireworks torch and 1/8 in mandrels, out of the fireworks beginners lampworking bead kit we bought to get our feet wet.

You can read my more detailed photo notes on the various beads here at Flickr.

We All Start Somewhere!

My first exposure to the world of molten glass was at an annual local Viking Festival. One of the vendors had a lampwork beadmaking demonstration, and it was fascinating to watch her work. It planted a seed, the idea that working with glass was attainable for the average human who was motivated to try.

Fast forward a couple years, and we found ourselves waist deep in searches on the internet, and totally boggled by the whole new world and language of hot glass and lampwork. It was a lot to absorb- loads of torches with tons of specifications that read like Greek, tons of glass, differing COEs, and tools out the wazoo.

It was like stepping through a portal onto another planet. We were in total brain arrest trying to sift through all the information, translate it, and make decisions of varying expense. It was like being caught in quicksand, the more you tried to figure it out, the more stuck you were in the predicament.

Finally, one day we decided that, if we were going to try this lampworking thing, and see if we even had a knack for it or a true interest, then we needed to do it on a shoestring. So, that is where we started... dangling from the aglet of a frayed financial shoestring.

For us, the answer to the newbie, entry-level, lampwork-for-idiots, on-a-shoestring dilemma lay in the treasured and prized "40% off One Item Coupon" from our local Hobby Lobby. There we found the Fireworks Beadmaking Lampwork Kit, for the bargain price of $99, and that coupon made it a little over $60 out the door- including glass! That plus a $9 Mapp gas canister put us on the threshold of the molten glass experience!!

It was just enough to get our feet wet: A Fireworks torch and clamp, a fireproof surface, ceramic fiber blankets, mandrels, bead release, two marvers, one glass rake, and a mix of glass rods. Plus a beginner beadmaker booklet to get you started, thin but better than winging it alone.

In no time at all, with the ever fraying shoestring in mind, we were making the trek to our beloved Harbor Freight tool supply. The goal: to find an eclectic selection of affordable tools that could manipulate our melted glass. Bags bulging with plier sets, stainless spatula sets, pick sets, clamps, stainless dental picks, and miniature files brought us to the next level of our lampworking experience.

Add a copy of Cindy Jenkins affordable and informative book for beginning beadmakers and lampworkers ($14.95), and we were well on our way to developing a feel for the glowing medium we so enjoyed.



The Fireworks torch, also referred to as the "QT" (quiet torch), gets a lot of flak in the lampwork community, but for what it is- the absolute bottom-rung on the lampwork torch ladder- it does the job. It gets the beginner familiar with torch setup, safety, and the physical properties and behaviors of molten glass. It has a very cool flame (this is relative as compared to other super hot torches- don't stick you hand in there or let your kids play with it- LOL), so the glass melts slowly, and it is easy to pull stringer and learn to make twisties. You learn to watch the flow and glow of the glass and get a feel for when it is happy and when it isn't, and the coolness of the flame makes this all slow motion. It melts pastels (solid colors) faster than transparents which tend to need a bit more heat to get moving and workable, so it isn't the best torch for learning to encase. When working on perfecting round beads, stringers, and dot work, it does the job.

On the down side of the Fireworks torch, the automatic lighter only worked once, after that we used our grill lighter. Also, using small canisters, once the canister is about 1/2 empty, it starts to freeze up, so the already cool flame gets cooler and next to impossible to melt anything with it. So, the canister has to be submerged in warm water, or have a heating pad wrapped around it on low, to help keep the gas moving to the torch with enough pressure to keep the flame hot.

In just two months of minimal use, I had killed my first Fireworks, bought a second one at $29.99 (with my trusty 40% coupon), and had sent off to Sundance to get my first Hothead torch. We also made our family crockpot a dedicated vermiculite pot for garaging beads, such a worthy job!! :D

So, even with buying the kit, the second Fireworks torch, Mapp gas, extra glass, tools, and a Hothead... we still managed to keep our start up at under $200.

You can learn to lampwork on a shoestring. Remember, it isn't the torch that makes you a artist, it all comes down to skill. Don't be embarrassed to start wherever you have to, in time you can realize your dream. 8)

Glass Bead Workshop- worthwhile!

Glass Bead Workshop by Jeri Warhaftig

Just when you thought you had aquired all the tools and goodies you would ever need again in your lampwork adventures (yeah... right... LOL) Jeri Warhaftig has authored a new lampworking book that is guaranteed to challenge you to see the world of lampwork in a new light.

This full color book is 144 pages packed with information! It dives headfirst into advanced techniques and concepts, just giving the faintest nod to basic info. Definitely a text designed with the more seasoned lampworker in mind, and it doesn't disappoint.

Advanced techniques are taught using step-by-step photos, thorough explanation, and very creative projects. Each project touches on a variety of materials, tools, and techniques which include: dichroic glass, copper and silver inclusions, enamels, cubic zirconia use, multi-stage bead assembly, fuming, etching, pressing, coldworking, hollow mandrels, disk forming, flower sculpting, vessels, and much more. The tips and appendices of the book condense a lot of great experience into an easy to access and utilize format.

Artist galleries that are included at the end of each chapter, full of inspiring examples of mixing the skills you learn with imagination and creating new, exciting pieces.

If you are looking for some fresh, new ideas and skills to spark your imagination and challenge you, this is the book for you. Tons of experience for the lampworker at the bargin price of $24.95!

Check it out for yourself, and add it to your lampwork glass library! It is available at Amazon.com: Glass Bead Workshop by Jeri Warhaftig

You can learn more about Jeri at her website: http://www.jeribeads.com/

Lampwork Gallery

Implosion Style Pendant

Made with Italian Effetre transparent and pastel.

Off-mandrel and implosion techniques.

33mm X 10mm

Floral Implosion Pendants

Made with Italian Effetre Transparent and pastel.

Off-mandrel and implosion techniques.

25mm X 9mm, 29mm X 9mm

Lampwork Heart Pendant

Made with Italian Effetre pastels and transparent.

Off-mandrel, hand sculpted, with complex stringer design.
15mm X 27mm

Lampwork Tall Summer Tree Bead.

Made with Italian Effetre transparent and pastels.

Hand marvering and complex stringer.

43mm X 17mm