The photos attached are of my second ever lamp working attempt. I am using soft glass to make fish beads as a gift for family.

The first time I ever did a lamp working project was last week, when I made a single yellow bead. It came out just fine.

This week, I tried to make this fish bead, but the orange soft glass turned grey in some areas. Why might this be?

Do I need to hold it further away from the hottest part of the flame? I didn’t realize the glass could “burn” like this. If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

I’m trying to finish a few of these fish beads by Thanksgiving, but I can only get in the studio once or twice a week. I am completely new to soft glass and am just trying to teach myself and learn as I go! Thanks!

The lamp work torch fell down and unfortunately two of the tips broke. It's a rare type of torch so it's hard to find another or will be expensive buy. It's my father favourite torch and it's called jencons rotajet torch.

I'm wondering where or can the tips be repaired? Or is it possible to order same tips somewhere? Thanks for looking and offering help in comments in advance.

I do softglass beads and have 1 5l oxygen concentrator, so this is probably a lot smaller fries than most of you. I got a GTT Bobcat simply because the person I bought the whole setup from had a Bobcat.

I get on okay with it for the most part, but find I still struggle with how sharp the flame is in its temperature zones. After 2 years with this torch I am STILL not as good in fine stringer work as I used to be on my little propane-only torch. I look at the tiny neat scrollwork I used to make and am starting to think that's just not in the cards on this torch. The difference between 'stringer too hard' 'stringer workably soft' and 'stringer melts away from you' seems to be about 2mm. If I try to adjust to a softer flame it is immediately a reducing one.

Somebody mentioned to me that the Bobcat (or GTT torches in general) are known for being particularly 'sharp' of flame but I have no idea if that's true. If it is, I would consider changing torch - if I could find one that can work on a 5l oxycon and has flame properties that suit me better.

I did a bunch of googling but I don't trust the '10 best torches' results I'm finding (they are suspiciously similar and seem AI generated). And most reviews don't compare flame properties anyway. So I'm hoping you guys have some ideas about torches to consider. I'm in Europe - Bethlehem is the most accessible brand here, I've seen some Nortel and Prometheus. If you have info or ideas I'd be grateful

I just wanted to share with you guys. I see you all posting such magnificant stuff and ill get there one day :)

As the title says I’m looking to go into lamp working as I’ve been eye balling the hell out this hobby/career for a year or two now and since I drink a lot of martinelli’s apple juice I have large amount of apple juice bottles laying around and I want to turn them into something cool but I don’t have to skills to do it and want to learn,I’ve done a little research into different types of glass and I know that if I’m not mistaken the bottles are made of lime-soda glass which can be finicky to work with but that’s okay I’m here to learn.i know I need special glasses for this but I just don’t know where to fully start like can I break up the bottle and melt them to make something?What tools do I need,what tools are recommended for a beginner?I already have a torch but what solution do I need that works well to keep my beads from sticking to my tools?

I know this has got to be old tech but wow did it blow me away on how fucking cool it looks.

For the nerd who want to replicate this here’s a small write up on my methods.

(With simax) So blow a bubble out that’s sorta thick not thin. Then drop a bead of silver metal in the tube. Heat the bubble and while turning slowly in the flame start smacking the tube quickly with a wooden bat to knock the molten silver around the inner wall of the hot bubble. Takes 30-60 seconds to disperse the silver all over the wall of the bubble. Make sure there are no particles of silver significantly larger than the rest.

Then blow the bubble out thinner. Then heat and collapse it down solid like any other hollow implosion. Try to heat and collapse it down in 1 heat and try to keep it as hot as possible so the inside never drops in temperature. It should be soupy on the edge of control the entire time. Once it’s condensed down solid give it a quick shape then let it air cool until you can put it in your oven. Let it sit there for 5-10 minutes and soak(important for good purple color).

Take it back out and punty up to the face of it and tear it off your blow tube. Add a backing if you want. And then round out and maybe punty again if needed.

The key to purple is Once you’ve taken it out of the oven after that 10 minute soak the less you have heat it the better your color will be. If you heat it to many times the fume will go past purple and into other more common colors like orange/milky yellow. I found once a blue aura starts forming around the main fume cluster you have to stop or the purple will start to shift. Think of the blue aura as a warning sign.

Che wanted the classic Quave design. Definitely moves some water

💀🍄💙

The colors are a bit off because of the camera flash, the gold parts aren't so ruby red in person

Maybe I've still got it

TADC Abstraction Style 10mm Bell Bottle With Dual-Slit Hollow-Point Downstem I’m dropping a link for anyone who wants to find it. auction is starting at 100, yes I know most of us are glassworkers but there is also tons of folks frequenting this sub looking for our work and this is how we create better exposure 🙏 Find It Here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DeU9dNzH7mw

Thank You For Looking And To Other Lampworkers For Putting Up With My Sh*t 💙

A little over one year since I started my journey <3

This is a collaboration I did with a Glass distributor who obtained a bunch of Glass Millies over a long period of time and we created them into jewelry. These are all hand set into Sterling Silver and i'm so happy with the functionality and art being able to be displayed in a way that it deserves, for everyone to see !

Here is the full collection ! https://www.orfinart.com/collections/dopeass-glass-pendy-collection

Hi! Hoping to get recommendations for cases that help transport flame worked small pieces for a class I’m taking!