Friday Night Fusing Clinic
December 9th, 2005 ... Torch Twisting
This is a simple method of making an interesting little accent piece for fusing. Cut 2 strips of glass 1/4" to 3/8" wide by 12" long of different colours, clear and cathedral colour, clear and opal colour, 2 cathedrals, 2 opals, or a cathedral colour and an opal colour, you get the idea.
Tape both ends together with masking tape. Secure a can of propane gas to a table top with an L braceket, a hose clamp and a C clamp. Fireworks sells this as a MAPP gas bottle holder, and we do stock them if you don't want to spend hours in a hardware store looking for these individual parts. Using a torch head, (the one that comes with the propane in a 'plumbing kit' from a hardware store, or a Hot Head Torch or the Fireworks Self-Starter Torch Head), turn the gas on and light it with a lighter or a sparker. Do wear safety glasses or Didymium glasses when doing this please!
Start by passing the taped together glass strips through the middle of the flame in a rapid back and forth motion, to slowly warm up the glass strips. If you go too quickly into the flame, the strips will crack. As the strips warm up, they will darken, and start to soften. When they start to droop, begin to rotate one end only. This will twist the glass. Keep the part of the glass you are twisting in the flame and continue twisting. With practice, you will see just how much heat and rotation is required to make a consistent twist.
If the glass does crack, you can try to use the heat of the flame to melt the crack back together just enough to continue your twisting. Glass is a poor conductor of heat, so you can twist the strips until you are within a few inches of the end of the glass, without feeling any heat on your fingertips.
You can pull the twist for a stretched out look, or maneuver the twist around to get a three dimensional result.
More than 2 strips of glass does not seem to be very successful, as this 5 layer attempt cracked up quickly.
With practice, a long twist can be made.
Once you are finished, lay the finished result down on a heat resistant surface. Fibre board or blanket, vermiculite board, graphite plate, whatever you have that won't burn.
With all the various forms of System 96 glass, you have a lot to play with: Rods, noodles, stringers, or combine any or all of these with your cut glass strips.
Once you are finished twisting your glass strips, you can now incorporate the twist into a fused project. You could slump a few twists over a lamp bender mold and create enough parts to make a border that you could fuse in for a plate or bowl.
Results from Friday Night
Catch it on Video
One of the attendees at this clinic captured 2 short videos:
- 27 second video
- 1.5MB Flash version (approximate download time: 5 minutes on 56K modem, < 1 minute on highspeed)
- 9.7MB MPG version (approximate download time: 45 minutes on 56K modem, 1-2 minutes on highspeed)
- 1:23 minute video
- 6.2MB Flash version (approximate download time: 30 minutes on 56K modem, < 1 minute on highspeed)
- 29.8MB MPG version (approximate download time: 2 hours on 56K modem, 2-3 minutes on highspeed)
Please note:
In order to play these videos, you will need either:
OR
a media player that plays MPG files: