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Kevin, What Is Fuming?


Steph

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Thanks ladies! And thx to Sue for the link ;)

There, I asked it. :rolleyes:

LOL!! Don't be shy to ask ANY questions of me- ANYONE!!! Please ask!!!!! And so you know you're not alone- the #1 question I'm asked at shows is exactly that- WHAT is fuming?? How does it work? Why does it work? WHAT THE?!?!? A few people care about how I get the marble round, but 9/10 have zero idea about fuming. I always start off by saying there is fuming then interjecting, "Do you know what gold/ silver fuming is? I KNOW they don't know. Nobody does if they aren't under 30 and have long dreadlocks LOL.

Since most of you don't come from the pipe scene- it's not surprising that most people don't know what it is... it was discovered by a pipe maker (Bob Snodgrass- late 70's), and has been enjoyed by thousands (millions?) of people who watched their semi-clear glass pipe turn- change- into a colorful piece of art with continued use. As residue builds up inside a pipe with fuming coloring it, the reflective colors (see my about me page) are revealed as the transmitting colors are lost in the darkness.... patterns and hues of color that simply "weren't there" before, come alive, almost magically.

This is why I know to put a black and white background behind my marbles when I take pictures.... I'm showing the "color change" as the term developed in the pipe world. "Color changing glass" was the shizzzz for a long time. Then the color companies, thanks to the explosion of demand from all the new pipemakers, started to develop an amazing palette of colors that you now see today. It's very interesting for me to sell my pipe work these days- my techniques are "out-dated" but the funny thing is, the noobies don't know how to do fuming with any skill so my work stands out in that respect....

I'm very thankful for the interest in fuming as I've always known it would be difficult to put into "art" simply because, well, how do you smoke out of and color in a marble/ vase/ pendant? LOL!

Hope that clears it up a bit for you all..... any other questions? :)

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lol Sue I didn't know to make a distinction... Havatok? What is that? Google was no help lol Cool little pipe though!

You know.. I have NO idea how that idea came to be. I still find it utterly fascinating that gold and silver produce the colors they do. Like you said, who would of thunk it? lol Bob is an interesting guy though, if you ever meet him you'll kind of understand, ha. We've all tried other metals at this point too... nothing works even remotely as good as gold/ silver (you do get toxic fumes, but no color, yay)

Years back I thought I was going to be mr. cool guy and have secret fuming colors when I went out and bought a $140 coin of platinum. Soon to find out that I had no special colors, and a ruined coin that was no longer worth $140 since I nipped a piece out of it. You can encase it though- looks like a little ball of "silver"... but that's it. Maybe I'll make a marble with a chunk in it today- I've had that dang coin for like 7 years haha.

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Tiny beads of platinum magnified through the marble. Would make me feel rich! Might also be pretty. :-)

p.s. Pardon me for not noting the dedication needed to experiment with vaporizing platinum. I am impressed. Talk about transcending materialism for art!

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Havatok is a short for "Have-a-Toke" ..... Is "toke" even used as an expression any more?? LOL :blush:

I hate to say that the little guy is still a virgin... It wasn't long after I made him that I decided I just didn't like smoking that much...

Yeah, how fuming was discovered is kind of intriguing... I wonder if it came from a random experiment, or if it was discovered by accident, with a ring or bracelet that got in the way, or was used to hold something in place for a few seconds (I had a friend in college who glued her fingers together for the sake of inlaying a piece of ebony into a silver chalice!!! LOL)

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