marble making 101

[Franklin Sankar]

What is compression technique, used for making flowers in marbles or paperweight? ALso implosion?
Franklin

[Scott Young]

IMPLOSION

I wrote this a few years ago, but it should help anybody who is "exploring" this technique for the first time...

1. using a 12-14mm clear rod, get a nice ball of hot glass on the end
2. flatten the "ball" into a disk by holding rod perpendicular to marver & pressing down (looks like the following -------| )
3. draw dots or lines on the outer limits of the face of the disk
4. melt in by holding the disk almost perpendicular to the flame (if you think of the disk as a tire, the flame would be on the outer "tread" near the face)
5. once the pattern starts to melt in, tilt the rod/disk up slightly to allow gravity to begin "slumping" the "tread" towards the face. looks like ----{
6. marver back into a disk (see #2)
7. (optional) you can add "highlights/veins" to the petals by placing dots (2 or 3) on each line of your pattern.
8. place 3-6 "small" dots in a circle near the center of the disk (I find that intense black or ocher works best)
9. repeat steps 4, 5, & 6
10. now, draw evenly spaced lines or dots (using mixtures of green) around the circumference of the disk (these will be your leaves/stem)
11. repeat steps 4, 5, & 6 approximately 5 or 6 times (depending on how well your pattern is "imploding")
12. now, to finish, you can either let the "slumping" from step 5 continue until all sides melt in to become a ball (my preference), or some people will use a small punty and cold seal to the center of the flower and pull out the stem. If you use this method, you will then have to encase the nub/stem with a coat of clear.
13. now use the marble mold to finish the rounding process.
14. (optional) If the bottom of the marble looks "runny" (the greens smeared or whatever), you can put a small "covering" pattern on the bottom.

Anyway, that is the "brief" (yeah right) steps I use. Your results may vary.

Hope the pictorial helps! (and why can't I ever get the pictures to just show up here instead of as a link????)

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jazzdog/mult1.jpg
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jazzdog/mult2.jpg
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jazzdog/mult3.jpg
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jazzdog/mult4.jpg

Now as far as the other tech I might not be much help. I would think you pre-make all your flower pieces (leaves,petals, stamen, etc) connect them together using a hand torch. Set this in a vacuum plate (while keeping it warm) then apply a gather over the vacuum plate/ form, turn the vacuum on and have it pull the molten glass through your setup thus removing most of the air bubbles, etc. I've not tried it before nor do I pretend to know all the steps, but just throwing it out there to be ridiculed;)

I have made progress on using implosion techniques in the glory... quite fun

[Franklin Sankar]

Thanks so much do you have a pic of you drawing on the petals. I assume that you draw down the petals by just rotating it in the GH? Right
Franklin
PIC does not show drawing ? does it?

[Franklin Sankar]

This one shows some of the stamens in the middle. Nice.
Franklin

[Dan Ellis]

Franklin; Those photos are of a flameworked marble being made.

you need to draw the lines or dot at the bench and not at the GH using pulled cane. It isn't as easy or as successful technique offhand as when using a torch but it can be done.

[Scott Young]

The pictures are definitely showing the technique using a torch (or flameworked). The same basic steps are used for imploding a paperweight. I usually use a stepdown, get 3 decent sized gathers, form a "maria", let that cool slightly (so it isn't flopping all over the place), I clamp the pipe at an angle on my bench then use a hand torch and cane to "draw" the petals, stamen, and leaves (you will need to flash the piece every once in awhile or things tend to POP at this point).

After all the color is applied (sometimes I'll add the petals first, melt and marver a few times, then add stamen and leaves) It is simply a matter of using the heat, gravity, and your molds to "implode" the flower. Once imploded, you'll have to punty up and finish the shaping on the "lens" portion.

Anyway, hope that makes sense? Let me know if you have any questions...

[Franklin Sankar]

5. once the pattern starts to melt in, tilt the rod/disk up slightly to allow gravity to begin "slumping" the "tread" towards the face. looks like ----{

Is this the implosion steps?
I think you are saying to pick up some color strips on the edge of the disk. Heat it and tilt the rod up so the disk is down and as I rotate it the colors float towards the middle to form petals. ???? Is that it?
If it is then the next step is to gather over and add some stamens ie poke in some thin cane??? and what now??
Tom showed me some other magic with a knife but did not call it by any names.

Franklin

[Dan Ellis]

not exactly. . .

the color glass flows into the clear as you re-flatten the face so that once the flower is formed the top of the flower is facing the punty and then you transfer it.

in the GH you only want to flash the whole piece but only keep the flared out part in the heat to get soft and keet it tilted slightly downward so it becomes funnel shaped. when you go to the marver flatten it slowly and only enough that the color spreads out. hard to explane but when you try it you'll see what I mean. You'll get the impression the glass is turning inside out.


Look up "implosion marble" on youtube, theres a few videos of them being made there

[Franklin Sankar]

Thanks the video now makes sense.
Franklin

[Paul Stevenson]

Franklin

Bway, dis da no big ting -get yuself ova ya, mek I do wan gud demonstration.

We gat rum too :-)

[Franklin Sankar]

Thanks Paul and you also have your elections making the news in TT. Your politicians look so harmless. No shouting etc.
Now the glass part. Try using rings they work like magic.
Franklin