Contemporary Lampworking

 Table of Contents

• The Origins of Lampwork Technique

• Understanding Glass
  • Structure and Composition
  • Manufacturing Methods
  • Working Properties
  • Cracking and Structural Failure
  • Mechanical Stresses
  • Heat Issues
  • Qualifications of the Lamp worker

• Setting up a Lampworking Studio
  • Fire Safety
  • Ventilation
  • Basic Equipment and How to Handle It

  Gas Supply

  Oxygen Supply

  Regulators and Hoses

  Types of Torches

  • Basic Tools

  Work Surface

  Eye Protection

  Tweezers

  Masher

  Graphite Rods

  Graphite Paddles

  Tungsten Pick

  Scoring Knife

  Shears

  Nippers

  Water

  Annealing Kiln

  Blow hose

  Other Amenities

  • More Elaborate Equipment

  Parts Kiln/Hotplate

  Rollers

  Flask Holders

  Stamps

  Molds

  Razor Blade

  Jacks

  Diamond Shears

  Vacuum Cup

  Modifications to Your Torch

  Polariscope

  Shield

  • Types and Sizes of Glass

• Basic Solid Techniques
  • Heat Base
  • Honey
  • Turning on Your Tanks
  • Know Your Torch
  • Fuel Mix and Oxidation States
  • Cutting a Rod
  • Fire Polishing
  • Forming a Spherical Gather
  • Redistributing the Heat
  • Bending a Rod
  • Making a Maria
  • Joining Two Pieces of Glass Together
  • Removing Excess Glass
  • Making a Disk
  • Adding Bits to a Disk
  • Making a Turtle
  • Making a Ribbon
  • Cutting a Disk
  • Making a Hole in a Disk
  • Jacking Down a Neck
  • Making a Marble
  • Making Mosaic Cane
  • Photo Essay - Making an Eye Cane
  • Applying Murrini
  • Making a Cube
  • Making a Cone
  • Making a Glass Pen
  • Braces: Making a "T"
  • Making Loops

• Basic Hollow Techniques
  • Types of Tubing
  • Cold Cuts
  • Sealing the End of a Tube
  • Blowing a Bubble
  • Photo Essay - One-handed Rotation
  • Blowing a Larger Bubble
  • Adding Bits to a Bubble
  • Fixing Cracks
  • Wrapping a Bubble
  • Flaring the End of a Tube
  • Making a Butt Seal
  • Bending a Tube
  • Making a Vase
  • Making a Circle
  • Making a "U"
  • Making an "S"
  • Pulling a Point
  • Working With Points
  • Photo Essay - Rotating a Point
  • Blowing a Spherical Bubble
  • Blowing Elongated and Flattened Shapes
  • Opening a Bubble
  • Making a Dimple
  • Stretching a Point to a Smaller Diameter
  • Adding Lines to a Point
  • Photo Essay - Christmas Ornament
  • Making a Goblet

• Beads and Such
  • Preparation
  • Forming the Bead
  • Shaping Your Bead
  • Annealing
  • Removing the Beads
  • Stuck and Stubborn Beads
  • If All Else Fails..
  • Adding Colors
  • Feathering
  • Zigzagging
  • Blown Beads
  • Pendants
  • Hat Pins
  • Drawer Pulls
  • Buttons
  • Photo Essay - Petroglyphic Vessel Bead
  • Photo Essay - Micromosaic Murrine Cane
  • Phot Essay - Sandblasted Bead

• Marbles, Paperweights and Related Forms
  • Marbles
  • Inside-out Marble
  • Pegging
  • Making a Marble into a Bead or Pendant
  • Adding a Button Shank
  • Encased Opals
  • Frit/Powder Combinations
  • "Vortex" Marble
  • Veiling
  • Vacuum
  • Encasing
  • Making a Bracelet
  • Photo Essay - Vacuum Encased Marble
  • Pendants
  • Photo Essay - Flower Bud for Encasement
  • Photo Essay - Honeycomb Marble

• Annealing
  • Basic Principles
  • Thermodynamics in an Annealers
  • Coefficient of Expansion
  • The Annealing Cycle
  • Deriving a Cycle
  • An Important Note on Thickness

  Part A: Fast Heating

  Part B: Soak

  Part C: Slow Cooling

  Part D: Fast Cool

  • Being Practical
  • Rubbing Two Sticks Together
  • Flame Annealing
  • Striking
  • Kiln Forming Techniques
  • Lusters
  • Equipment
  • Annealing Tables

• Health and Safety for Lamp workers
  • Safety Hazards
  • Ventilation
  • Eye Protection
  • Physical Hazards
  • Chemical Hazards
  • Hazards of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
  • Exposure Levels
  • More Recent Studies
  • Types of Filters
  • Chemical Hazards
  • Other Safety Hazards
  • Some Maintenance Stretches

• Solid Sculptural Techniques
  • Geometric Models
  • Glass Animals and Other Complex Shapes
  • "Bits" as Glue
  • Assembly Strategies
  • Making a Leg
  • Photo Essay - Upper Half of a Human Figure
  • Making a Fin
  • Making a Tree
  • Photo Essay - Making a Flower
  • Knit Work or Crocheting
  • Adding Texture

• Hollow Sculptural Techniques
  • Opening and Flattening a Tube
  • Making a Coil
  • Making a "T"
  • Adding Rods to a Perpendicular Tube
  • Making a Donut
  • Photo Essay - Hollow Sculptural Figure
  • Making a Ring Seal
  • Photo Essay - Making a Ring Seal Bell
  • Triple Seal
  • Plasma Neon
  • Mold Blowing
  • Wide Bowl Form
  • Photo Essay - Casting a Two-part Mold for Blowing
  • Photo Essay - Making a Wide Bowl

• Working With Color
  • Important Note
  • Another Important Note
  • Applying Colored Dots
  • Dotmakers Anonymous

  12 Steps plus photo demo

  • Eyes
  • Applying Colored Lines
  • Writing in Color
  • Adding Stripes
  • Raking/Combing/Feathering
  • Fancy Canes

  Striped Cane

  Twisties

  • Photo Essay - Making an Alphanumeric Cane
  • Photo Essay - Composite Cane
  • Internal Ribbon Twist Cane
  • Filigrana
  • Latticino
  • Ribbon Cane
  • Photo Essay - Dip/Stuff Murrine Cane
  • Applying Glass Shards
  • An Applied Leaf
  • Applying Glass Frits and Powders
  • Lip Wrap
  • Making Colored Tubing
  • Montage Technique
  • Inside-Out
  • Photo Essay - Montage Technique
  • Stuff and Puff
  • Reticello
  • Photo Essay - Colorless Reticello
  • Other Coloring Methods

  Fuming

  Silvering

  Iridizing

  Dichroic Glass

  Lusters

  Stains and Ion Exchange

  Enamels

  Applying Metallic Foil and Leaf

  Non-Firing Paints

  • Abrasive Blasting
  • Photo Essay - 3D Murrine Face Application
  • Murrini Alphabet

• Core Forming
  • Techniques
  • Photo Essay - Zig-Zag Core Form Vessel

• Basic Lathe Techniques
  • Types of Lathes
  • Set-Up
  • Burners
  • Blow hose
  • Tool Rest
  • Technique
  • Centering
  • Joining Two Pieces Together
  • Stretching and Compressing
  • Blowing
  • Tooling
  • Flaring
  • Cutting a Tube
  • Side Seal
  • Coloring Techniques
  • Ring Seal
  • Photo Essay - Footed Bowl

• Crossover and Mixed Media
  • Paperweights
  • Casting
  • Blown Glass
  • Photo Essay - Making a Raven at the Furnace
  • Fusing
  • Neon
  • Electroforming
  • Mixed Media
  • Silicone
  • Epoxies
  • Other Methods
  • Photo Essay - Twisted Cane Pull

• The growth of Lamp work
• The Value of Information
• Advice to Students and Instructors
• The Properties and Associations of Glass
• Creative Influences
• Creative Techniques

• Further Study
• Suppliers
• Technical Data
• Preventing Stiffness and Pain in the Lamp worker
• Teaching Studio Recommendations
• Mixing Colored Borosilicate Glass
• Chemical Hazards
• Photographing Your Work
• Packing and Shipping