Lookie what I made (lampworking)

[zipcat]

One of the many arts I do, is lamp-working. It is so much fun, when I'm not being burnt by shattering glass at least.

They're so cute! ^.^

[Frenzie]

Those are awesome... how do you make them? Anything like glass blowing?

[Hallia]

THEY ARE SO CUTE!! I like the turtles, turtles are totally awesome. I have three real turtles.... YAY!

[Tordek]

How are they lamps though?
I'm confused.

[Hallia]

Lampworking doesn't mean they make lamps it's where you melt a thin rod of glass and wrap it around this hollow piece of stianless steel (the hole in the bead). You use tools (or gravity) to create the bead shape. So lampworking doesn't literally mean "lamp working". It more refers to the flame you use to melt the glass.

[zipcat]

Hallia is right, but the rod is only hallow if you're going to blow the glass. So in a way, it is like mini glass blowing. It's so much fun.

But you do it on a torch, with the rod of glass and the mettle one that has this clay like stuff on the end so the bead can come off when it is done.

I have pictures of me making a more simple bead so you could see it step by step. I'll upload them if I can remember once I have a way to move the file to a computer connected to the internet. (If only my laptop took floppies...)

[Frenzie]

Very cool.

I gotta try that sometime... though I'm afraid thats the kind of thing a pyro like me would enjoy a little too much... and set the whole place on fire.

[Ominous]

Those are awesome! I like the style...did you have to glaze them, or did you color the glass somehow during the process?

[zipcat]

Well.. I had a few pictures showing how I made a turtle, but then I lost them...

But, to answer your question Ominous, the glass is already colored before I melt it.

Frenzie, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun, and the only thing you need to be worried about other than burning yourself, is heating the glass too quickly and watching all the pieces explode all over the place. Hot glass flying through the air really hurts.

I don't have the one for the turtles, but this might help;


It's just a clear ball I'm playing with that has a colored center, though you can't see that because it's all really hot. What I'm doing in the last two pictures is letting it melt down and flattening it. After that, I would twist it around and get a spiral effect. It looks really cool when I’m done.

[Akunosh Inarus]

Nice.

[Zuka Zamamee]

*Notes that he is far too much of a pyro to be trusted safely with any sort of flame*

*Pulls out his zippo and ignites old sheets of homework*

[Tordek]

Good stuff.