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?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaronlee22d agoMost Upvoted

Your teacher was right, thermal shock is no joke. It's like pouring boiling water into a cold glass, it just can't handle the sudden change. I see this all the time with materials, people try to skip the prep work to save a minute and it costs them the whole project. That pre-heat step is there for a reason, it lets the glass meet the metal gently. I don't know any real trick for going in cold, you just have to take the time to warm things up.

nora5422d ago

Wait, you guys always pre-heat? I almost never do for small stuff like a pendant. I just get a good, solid gather on the pipe first, let that heat soak back into the metal a bit, then roll it in the frit. The key is having enough molten glass already there to act as a buffer.