lampworking techniques

Photography tip for shooting clear dichroic

After photographing  some Dichroic Scraps and I discovered something I wanted to share.

The Dichroic Scraps will be on sale in the Fun House so they needed some photos. The scarps were of dichroic on clear. I had a problem was when I was photographing them on white I was loosing all detail.

So what I did was place a black piece of foam-core out of frame to see if I could get a little contrast and something really cool happened. The color on the Dichroic Scraps jumps out.

Here is what append when I placed a black piece of foam-core behind it.

As you can see it made an amazing difference. So if you’re having problems photographing dichroic beads try putting something dark  next to it out of frame.

Torso Beads by Joy Munshower

One of our customers, Joy Munshower, posted some wonderful torso beads made with the Effetre glass rod colors ( Sunset, Alexandrite, Green Tea, Earth, Dark Ivory, and Neptune) and Vetrofond glass rod ( Topaz ODD ). They were such great examples of these colors I thought I would share them in this blog.

The murrini used were by Donna Millard

Effetre Neptune (591230)

"Here's the fun side-by-side, before-and-after shots of a female torso sculpted out of "Neptune" glass. When I sculpt it it develops the "pewter" finish over its surface (and "haloed" around the Morning Glory murrini by Donna Millard interestingly)… I then etched the bead to expose the gorgeous mottled teal beneath." – Joy Munshower

Effetre Alexandrite (591226)

I would like to see this bead in person because Effetre Alexandrite shifts hue slightly with different light.

Effetre Earth Cool Color (591688)

Effetre Sunset Pastel (591206)

Effetre Green Tea Cool Color (591680)

This Green Tea bead looks like it was sculpted out of a Marble.

Vetrofond Topaz ODD (791989)

Effetre Dark Ivory (591276)

For more images check out her Facebook page.

What is Zanfirico Cane?

I became aware of the existence of a type of Italian decorative cane called “Zanfirico” the first time I visited Murano back in the early 1990’s.  It is stored in the same warehouse at Effetre with the murrini cane and was a titillating eye candy experience.

Zanfirico cane in the Effetre warehouse.

Zanfirico is a hand pulled cane style that requires a lot of skill to produce and is very popular with the traditional glass blowers on Murano, who do beautiful blown glass pieces with ribbons of fine twisting colors in stunning vases, bowls and other glass objects.

Frantz Art Glass has had Zanfirico cane available for many years, but it was marketed as “Marble Stock” in our catalog and on our website.  The colors of Zanfirico that Frantz had in the past was not as delightful as the new batch that is now available and there is a better selection of cane sizes to pick from with this new shipment.

Since there are all these new styles and colors of Zanfirico, I decided to see what I could do using this cane style to make beads.  I had a lot of fun seeing how I could make fancy 2 mm stringers out of 15 to 20 mm thick pieces that were 2 – 2 ½ inch long of zanfirico cane.  I heat these short thick pieces of zanfirico cane in my annealing kiln at 1000F and then pick them up out of the kiln with a glass punty that is heated at the pick-up end to sticky hot.  I then transfer the zanfirico chunk to the torch flame and start warming it and add a glass punty to the other end.  When the zanfirico chunk starts to get soft, I start to introduce more twists into the cane and when it is ready to pull out, I continue to add more twists to make them compact enough to look good in a bead.  This treatment takes a little practice, but is well worth it.

Here is a side by side photo of the larger zanfirico cane and the stringers I pulled out of it.

While I was experimenting with the zanfirico cane, I discovered that some of the cane patterns actually looked better when I applied a 5 to 6 mm cane directly to a thin bead cylinder on a mandrel and heated and twisted the cane down as I melted it around the bead.  This technique allowed me to use the cane in its’ full size which made the cane pattern larger and more visible and I really liked the results.  Instead of wispy twisted patterns of color, I got beefy twists that were more dramatic.

A photo of the punty and larger sized stringer that I pulled for an 8 mm cane, notice how it is wavy and this goes away when reheated.

If you like exotic stringers, I highly recommend trying some of this new shipment of zanfirico cane.   It saves you from having to make it from scratch and it allows you to introduce details into your beads that are difficult to produce and very lovely to see.

Blue spiral zanfirico over base of CiM Creamsicle with Peace and Cornflower dots	Blue spiral zanfirico over base of CiM Rose Quartz with an accent stringer of goldstone.

Pink spiral zanfirico stringer over bead made from Intense Blue.	Bead made with 6 mm zanfirico cane with multiple threads of blue and yellow that was warped around the mandrel and tips of Intense Blue were added for accents.

Blue spiral zanfirico stringer warped around a round bead made with CiM Pumpkin.	Round bead wrapped with 6 mm cane line zanfirico in black and white over a core of CiM Chalcedony.

Yellow line zanfirico over core of Intense Blue with dots of CiM Pumpkin and Cornflower, made with a 6 mm cane.	Pink line zanfirico over core of CiM Cornflower, made with a 6 mm cane.

Pink spiral zanfirico stringer over CiM Poison Apple.	Goldstone zanfirico with black line over a core of CiM Great Bluedini.

White line zanfirico stringer over CiM Tuxedo.  When line zanfirico is pulled down to stringer size, the zanfirico can become very wispy.	Small round bead made with a 6 mm rod of blue spiral zanfirico.

Click here to view current stock of Zanfirico.

Tips and Techniques: Do It Yourself Tools

I want to talk about a piece of studio furniture that I made for myself this past month, which I really like.  No, it’s not a chair or anything that big; it is a glass stand for the work table to prop up the ends of your glass rods to keep the hot tips off the table.

I learned about these easy to make boro glass stands from watching one of Milon Townsend’s videos on working with borosilicate glass.  When I saw the video, I thought that these clear boro rod rests were a super great idea.  Milon calls the boro rod rests “caterpillars” because they kind of do look like a caterpillar.

To make some “caterpillar rod rests”, you need to get some 10 mm and 7 mm clear boro rod.  You use the 10 mm rod to create the long rail of the caterpillar and the 7 mm rod is used to create the feet and the top end knobs that keep your glass rods from sliding off the end of the caterpillar.

I really love my caterpillar rod rests and I think some of you out there will also.

This is what a boro rod rest looks like with nothing on it.

Caterpillar rod rest with glass rods resting on it.

How to get the Perfect Clear 104 COE Glass

I am writing about getting a perfect clear again because I still get many requests for what is a perfect 104 COE clear. I have found that it doesn’t matter so much who makes the clear glass rods as much as it matters if the rods are clean or not. Read more

Creative Inspiration Can Come From Anywhere

This may become a recurring theme of mine, but I think it is important that people know how the creative process can manifest itself to motivate an artist to generate a particular piece of art. Read more

Skeleton Keys and Lampworked Beads

Over the past few years there has been a growing number of bead artist making beads on old skeleton keys to use as necklace pendants. Read more

Tips and Techniques: How to Deal with Shocky Glass Rods

The quickest and easiest way to reduce the shockyness of certain glass rod colors is to set up a warming station for the glass rods that is within reach of where you sit to make beads. Read more

Photoshop tip: Layer Masks

show you 2 techniques using the Layer Mask in Photoshop to enhance your Bead photography Read more

Tips and Techniques: A Solution for Cracking Encasements

I was having problems with certain glass colors consistently cracking their encasement’s. Read more