c/glassblowers

Warning: Got a stuck blowpipe from a cold punty weld and nearly lost a piece

Was working on a vase at the bench in Portland last Tuesday. I attached a fresh punty to the base, but the shop temp was around 60 degrees and I think the weld was too cold. Went to crack off the blowpipe and the whole piece twisted sideways on me. The glass was still hot enough to sag and I almost dropped it on the floor. Had to reheat the neck carefully and use a jack to break the seal. Anybody else deal with a cold weld ruining a piece mid-shape?

The day I stopped using a hand torch for punty work changed everything

I've been blowing glass for about 12 years now, and I remember my first mentor in Seattle used nothing but a tiny hand torch for attaching punties. It worked fine but man, it took forever and you had to be super careful with the heat. About 5 years ago I finally got a bench mounted punty burner from a guy in Portland, and the difference was night and day. My attachment time went from maybe 3 minutes down to under 30 seconds, and I stopped losing pieces because of cold joints. Anyone else switch to a dedicated burner setup and feel like they wasted years of their life?

Hit 50,000 pounds of broken glass recycled from my shop last month

Switched from a cheap graphite paddle to a proper brass one for shaping and the difference is night and day.

A retired guy at the studio said he misses the smell of hot beeswax

We were cleaning up after a session and he mentioned how everyone uses synthetic wax now. It hit me that I've never even smelled the real stuff, which is kind of a shame. What other old-school materials have we lost along the way?

The day a stray cat walked into my hot shop

I was working on a large vase, about halfway through the first gather, when this orange tabby just strolled in from the open garage door. It sat right in front of the glory hole, staring at the flame like it was a fireplace. I had to stop everything and carefully shoo it out before it got hurt, which took a good ten minutes. The vase ended up with a weird flat spot from cooling too long. Anyone else have a studio visitor completely throw off their work?

I finally gave up on my old way of making a foot on a small vase

For years, I would try to shape the foot while the piece was still on the punty, and it always felt rushed and uneven. Last week, I saw a video from a glassblower in Portland who popped the piece off the punty onto a jack line, then shaped the foot on a graphite pad. I tried it on a 6-inch vase I was making. The extra control from having it free and rolling on the pad let me get a perfect, level ring in about half the time. I made three more vases that afternoon and each foot was cleaner than any I'd made before. Has anyone else switched to finishing feet off the punty, and what pad do you like for it?

Honestly, my kiln shelf cracked on a Friday and I had to finish a big order over the weekend.

I was in the middle of a set of six custom tumblers for a coffee shop in Austin and the whole thing just gave out. I ended up using some old firebricks as a temporary shelf to keep the heat even and it actually worked fine. Has anyone else had to do a quick fix like that to save a batch?

My old teacher in Philly always said to heat the pipe end before adding color, but I tried skipping that step yesterday.

I was rushing a small pendant and just slapped some frit on a cold punty, which caused a huge thermal shock crack right through the center. Lost the whole piece and about twenty minutes of work. Do you always pre-heat your blowpipe before applying glass, or is there a trick to doing it cold?

My buddy in Austin said my clear pieces looked 'cloudy' for years. Switched to a new annealing schedule last week and the difference is insane.

Tried a different mix for my color frit and got a wild surprise

Honestly, I was just messing around in the studio last Tuesday. I had some leftover cobalt blue frit and a tiny bit of silver foil I usually use for luster. Ngl, I was bored and thought 'what if I just mix them together before I roll the gather?' So I sprinkled maybe a 4 to 1 ratio of blue frit with the silver bits right into my marver dish. When I rolled the hot glass in it and started shaping a simple tumbler, the silver didn't just make a shiny layer. It reacted and created these crazy, tiny webbed cracks all through the blue, like a lightning storm in the glass. It's not a flaw, it's a pattern. Totally stable after annealing. Has anyone else had a reactive surprise like this with mixing metals into frit? I wanna try it with copper now.

This guy at the Tacoma studio meetup said my punties were too thick

He walked right up to my bench while I was working on a simple cup, pointed at my punty and said 'You'll never get a clean break with that log.' I mean, I've been doing this for a year and it was the first time I felt totally called out in front of everyone. I was just trying to be safe and not drop the piece, you know? Has anyone else had a random comment from another blower that just stuck with you, good or bad?

My entire 12-piece color bar order from a big supplier arrived completely crystallized last Thursday.

I had to scrap the whole $400 batch and push back three custom vase orders because I can't trust their quality control anymore, so who's your go-to for reliable color rods these days?

My teacher insisted I keep my punty rod at a 45 degree angle for transfers

I tried it for a month in my home studio and kept dropping pieces, but switching to a 30 degree angle made everything stick perfectly. Has anyone else found a different angle that works better for them?

My studio partner keeps cracking his marble bases and I think I know why

He's been pulling them off the punty way too fast, before they've had enough time to cool down evenly. I watched him do it three times yesterday, and each base split right along the seam where he attached it. He said, 'I just want to move on to the next piece,' but that impatience costs him a good base every time. Has anyone found a good trick for judging when a marble is ready to come off the punty without cracking?

Serious question, is a $500 kiln really that much worse than a $2000 one for a beginner?

I was at the local art supply store yesterday and heard a guy telling the clerk he was starting out and wanted the cheapest kiln possible. The clerk said the cheap ones can't hold temp well and the elements burn out fast. But then I read a forum post last night where someone said they've used a basic Paragon for 5 years with no issues. Now I'm stuck thinking about it. For someone just making small pieces, is the price jump really worth it?

Warning: I saw a demo at the Corning Museum last month that flipped my whole color mixing method

The artist was making a simple vase but layered three transparent colors I would never put together. She used a tiny bit of amber purple over cobalt blue, then a clear coat of ruby red. The final piece looked like it had five colors, not three. I tried it in my own studio yesterday with some scrap glass and the depth is insane. Has anyone else played with layering transparents like that and have a favorite combo?

Watched a friend try to cool a piece too fast near an open window in Chicago

The draft caused a crack right down the middle, which is a $50 lesson in patience. How do you all manage cooling in a shop that isn't perfectly sealed?

Question about using a wet block vs a dry one for shaping

Honestly, I was shaping a simple cup on a dry cherry block for months and the glass kept sticking. Switched to a wet maple block I keep in a bucket, and the difference is night and day. Has anyone else found a specific wood type that works better when it's soaked?

Heads up about that new 'crackle' frit everyone's been trying

I thought it was just a bad batch, but after 3 tries it kept causing micro-fractures in my pieces... turns out you have to anneal it at a 50 degree lower temp than the label says. Anyone else run into this?

Shoutout to the guy at the Tacoma studio who told me to switch from a 3/4 inch to a 1 inch blow tube

My gather control went from shaky to rock solid in about two weeks, because the extra weight gave me way more leverage to fight the heat, so what other small tool changes have made a big difference for you?

Unpopular opinion: my old way of handling color bar was a total waste of time.

Used to spend an hour mixing and prepping a new bar for every single color pull, kept my bench a mess. Switched to a system where I batch prep three bars on Monday and just grab from the kiln as needed, saves me 40 minutes a day. Anyone else batch their color prep or am I just being lazy?

The furnace at the Tacoma studio just ate another one of my pieces

Last week I was working on a custom vase for a gallery in Seattle, had it almost perfect on the pipe. The furnace temp spiked over 2300 degrees and the whole thing slumped into a weird blob before I could get it out. Happened to a friend's goblet there three years ago too, same furnace. Anyone know a good studio tech in the area who can actually calibrate an old Glorybee?

The difference between a cheap graphite paddle and a good one is a ruined piece

I bought a basic graphite paddle from a general craft store for about twelve dollars, thinking it would be fine for simple shaping. It worked okay for a week, but then it started to shed these tiny black graphite flecks onto the hot glass. I didn't notice at first, but it left these permanent, gritty marks in a clear paperweight I was making. I switched to a more expensive paddle from a proper glass supplier, which cost me forty five bucks. The surface is way smoother and it's been heat-treated better, so it doesn't flake at all. The glass just glides over it now, and I don't get those annoying inclusions. It seems like a small thing, but it makes shaping so much cleaner and less stressful. Has anyone else had a tool that seemed fine until it ruined a good piece?

A guy at the studio said my punties looked like 'sad little mushrooms'

He was right, I was pulling them off way too early and leaving a big blob. Now I wait a full ten seconds after the glass stops glowing before I snap them, and my seals are way cleaner. Anyone got other tricks for clean punty breaks?