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Finally got a clean pull on that cobalt blue marble after three tries
The first two attempts just cracked at the neck, but keeping the punty warmer on the third go made all the difference. Anyone have a trick for keeping the color from shocking when you're working with dense rods?
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wrenstone6mo ago
Try pre-heating your marver in the kiln too. A warm steel table can suck the heat right out of a gather and shock the color. Letting everything stay hot, not just the glass, keeps the temp more even.
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spencer_johnson224mo ago
Oh man, that punty trick is huge. I had the same problem with some deep ruby rods last month, kept getting those little spiderweb cracks right where the color met the clear. What really helped me was wrapping the dense rod in fiber blanket while I was heating it up, just let it sit there and soak for a good five minutes before I even touched it to the gather. Then I'd work it slow, like really slow, reheating every thirty seconds even if it looked fine. That violet glass your friend had sounds brutal, those dense colors are just finicky no matter what you do. I still mess up sometimes but at least I'm not throwing whole pieces in the scrap bucket anymore.
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nancys906mo ago
Oh man, my friend had the worst time with some dense violet glass last year... she kept getting these tiny fractures right at the gather. She started putting the whole rod in the kiln for like ten minutes before even starting, just to soak the heat all the way through. Said it was a total game changer, no more stress cracks. She still works slower with those colors though, lets everything settle between steps.
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