Blowing Shards

[Chameleon]

Ok you will need -

Hollow mandrel (stainless steel pipe will do fine)  do NOT dip in release
glass of your choice
torch (hopefully that is obvious !!)

gently heat the end of the pipe and start to add glass to it, building up the glass on the end of the pipe - you do not need to make a collar around the pipe you can just build the glass off the end.

once you have a good sized gather - start small and get used to it !! a gather the size of a malteaser is good to start with - get it evenly hot in the flame, keep rotating it evenly and get it hot, the glass needs to be moving about but not in an out of control way !

This is time to blow.

KEEP TURNING or it will just blow out of one side. ok now the easiest way to do this is to blow hard into the tube and cap the end of the tube with your thumb but this does take some practise ...so try blowing hard into the tube and blocking the end of the tube with your tonge ..all you you are trying to do is stop the air coming out - physics hot air expands so if you can get air in there, it heats and expands doing the work for you !! the other option is you blow hard and steadily and do the work yourself, this takes a surprising amount of puff so i would try and master the capping the end of the pipe technique !

Once you see the sides start to grow STOP blowing / uncap the end of the tube, take thumb / tounge whatever off and now BLOW GENTLY to inflate the bubble to the size you want, for shards a malteaser size bubble will go to roughly the size of a large egg and give a nice thickness, obviously everyone has their own prefs re thickness so you will need to do some experimenting here to get it how you like it !

cool the glass round the neck of the pipe with a brass tool or other cold tool and the tap the pipe, the "egg" will drop off the pipe... best to aim to land it on some vermiculite or something heat proof !!

Let the "egg" cool a bit, and then you can smash it. i put mine inside a bowl or bag and tap them with my graphite hand marver or whatever else is to hand... i avoid squashing them with my hands as shards have very sharp edges / points when they break.

main things to remember are the heat needs to be even to give even wall thickness, and you need to KEEP TURNING the pipe all the time !!

you can also blow perfume bottles etc this way ..all just practise !



enjoy

[turnedlight]

Ah so that's what I was doing wrong! I used bead release

[mariag]

Thanks for this Becky 
I bought a hollow mandrel today & was wondering whether or not to use bead release!!

[SueP]

Thanks for that Becky - definitely one to copy and paste for later when I am up to it - very informative 

[Chameleon]

For blowing shards, no bead release and you can build off the end of the pipe completely 

For vessels etc you can use the hollow mandrel like a glassblowers blowpipe and work off the end or you can make "tink style" vessels by using bead release and working from a collar on the bottom of the mandrel (the second option you may find easier).


just a quick edit to say if you are intending to do both it may be worth getting a couple of hollow pipes so that you can keep one clear of bead release !!

[kaatje]

Thank you Becky!

[Soo]

I found this on a search through of how to blow shards and this looks very helpful, thanks to Becky. Tuffnell Glass has a product on their website described as "Blowpipe mandrels 3mm x 25cm", will these be OK for making shards please?

[Pandanimal]

Thanks for this! hollow mandrels something else to add to birthday wish list!

[Chameleon]

I found this on a search through of how to blow shards and this looks very helpful, thanks to Becky. Tuffnell Glass has a product on their website described as "Blowpipe mandrels 3mm x 25cm", will these be OK for making shards please?

I have made shards on several types of blowpipe from literally a hollow piece of stainless steel tube to a proper mini blowpipe so these should be fine 

[Soo]

Thanks, Becky. I will get a couple when I do my next glass order. (How long can I hold out for ... I only got a parcel from Martin last Wednesday so I'd better leave it a day or two!)

[Soozintheshed]

Thanks Beccy, thats a brill tut.

[Sulis (Hazel)]

PPP.....PPP........more PPP.......and finally one day I'll get something shard-like rather than a gloopy blob with the side blown out! I've read the tut again Becky and I'm ready for another PPP session!