richsantaclaus

Nice pictures - thanks!

ok, help what's the difference or distinction that makes one a diaper fold verses a cut-line?

I have been talking a lot about glass and it's COE (Coefficient Of Expansion) and telling you that you have to be careful NOT to mix COEs or it will stress crack. Here are three different marbles Here are the reasons why I try not to mix COEs that shouldn't go together. . These were little glass blobs that I remelted and made marbles out of. In the kiln, they looked really nice. Good swirl patterns, nice and round and generally were very nice in my opinion. Well, after they cooled, see what happened? It is a direct result of mixing COEs that were too far apart on the COE scale. I won't be putting these together anymore...lol!

WOO, Woo!!!!! Have a happy one!

voted - thanks

Is that a little crack in the 1st pix on the left?

I take all the marbles (let's say 3 of them) and warm them up to 970 degrees F. Let them soak there at this temperature (and hope they don't thermal shock during the process...lol) and pick out one at a time and fix any spots where dings, dents or folds were before I put them in the kiln to begin with. If I don't do that, I won't know if the mixing with the other marbles will be a problem as if it cracks now, it surely will crack later. I'll do this with all 3 of the marbles. Once I am convinced that there won't ba a problem later (I hope) I'll join these 3 forever in making the one large one. As far as art goes, I decide after rounding the 3 together IF I need to gently assist the marble - making a decision about the twists, swirls, solid color patches, etc. I change the punty (the rod that holds the marble when it's under construction) at least 5 times making sure none of the punty rod's glass is part of the original 3 marble's glass as it certainly will have COE issues. Finally, I use what's called a "cold punty" to make the final rounding and burn that punty mark totally smooth so you can't see where it was one bit. As far as repairing old German swirls, I can duplicate the original makers punty mark if I so choose to do that. I now have over 600 fixes, rements under my belt since March this year because so many of the vintage collectors have contacted me and so far (knock on wood) they are happy with my work - or should I say my hobby...lol. Does this help?????

Oh now - see what you made me do!!!!! Where's the tissue to clean up the drool out of my keyboard!

At least they don't need preparation H anymore...lol

Thanks!!!!!

CAC's? Really? I bought them all from a Jabo guy?????

Here they are!

You guys make me laugh!!!!!

I fixed 55 Jabos that had butt-cracks in them and here is a picture of them in my kiln!

I made all of these slags from 3 little old slag marbles that were considered trashed since they had nicks, dings and cracks in them!

oops, forgot the pix -

finally, this one?

another set

how about these?

and these?

Do you like these?

final pix

more pix

Just out of my kiln - soft glass

I need to see pictures of the goodies