Pulling_Down_Zanfirico

If you have never used veiled cane before, you’re missing out on some of the best effects that 96 coe glass has to offer. It is a bit pricey but no more than borosilicate or dichroic. If applied correctly, the effects are extraordinary. Call your suppliers today and treat yourself to a sampler, but I will warn you upfront that once you place that first rod in the flame, you will be probably be hooked for life. It is a wonderful new glass addiction for me and serves as a useful tool towards my goal of creating depth and illusion.

Why are you still reading? GO MELT SOMETHING! – Starleen.

FLAME RANGE: All veiled cane needs to be worked cool in the upper portion of the flame range. If you’re not at least 6-7 inches away from the torch tip, you’re working it too hot.

The cane likes a bushy unfocused flame that gently caresses the glass into shape. The more flame settings you can make on your torch, the better. Widen the flame to about 3/4 to 1" and work the glass towards the upper part of the flame. This will make the delicate glass pliable as you coax it into desired shapes or swirl on wispy tubes. You do not lose the ability to capture detail in a bushy flame. This is a myth. Tonbo Dama artists achieve fine intricate detail with their A3 International torches...

ENCASEMENT & LAYERING: If you use a veiled white, ivory or black color as your base and then shape, marver, & heat some of the color will be lost as mentioned. To prevent this, make a very small base and shape any way you like. Now apply the same base color again but apply COOL, then encase in clear to seal in the color and wisp effect. After tacking it under a generous amount of clear you can heat it as much as you like. I let the heat gradually penetrate all the way to the core for all my beads for that final shaping... even veil designs like the ones shown below. Color and effect will still be vivid as long as the color does not bleed to through to the surface. In addition, if you keep your spin/rotation super slow and consistent your internal pattern won’t spin out of control on you. It is the small quirky movements, subtle bounce, or a slight stop/start motion that will cause internal momentum, sure to send the design spinning.

"Veiled cane is truly one of the most beautiful examples of 96-coe hand pulled cane made. Every stroke of the glass rod yields phantom like wisps of vibrant color. Using the material truly feels like poetry in motion. It is a time for me to break away from tedious floral construction and let the molten glass express itself freely as I seal its own chosen momentum forever in time under crystal clear bliss." ~ Starleen

I hear much discussion regarding how difficult it is to use veiled cane due to loss of color. The reasons of difficulty mentioned range from the color being very delicate, the rod is too small, then some state the rod is too large! Some believe there are not enough "rings of color" applied during manufacturing... This is myth. The essence of many lampworker's issues with this glass is a simple matter of their torch flame range capabilities, being in the wrong area of the flame at the wrong times & the lack of mastering proper heat control. You cannot just bombard veiled cane with heat because you only have 10 minutes to make a production bead.

To bring out all the beauty contained within this premium material you must slow down and allow the glass to teach you what it needs from the flame. It took me 20 torch hours of flame range and heat control experimentation to understand how to tame this glass. Just as any other fine grade material we work with, veiled cane does have its own specific set of usage rules. Patience mixed with experimentation is essential.

Every student that takes my intermediate/advanced courses are taught this one small facet of knowledge I am sharing with you. NO ONE leaves my shop without understanding how to retain both the pattern and intensity of color with ease. I would need a 500 page novel to include every element of my heat control instruction and it's application to beadmaking. However I hope this small nugget of experiential knowledge helps YOU!

HEAT CONTROL IS THE KEY TO VEILED CANE SUCCESS: As soon as the color you have either heated or applied to your base work turns transparent in the heat, you have over heated and the color has been "burned out". Again, you need to work the glass stiff. Meaning, the glass should be applied once you bring it into a pliable state, not fully molten. Once the encased outer layer has been over heated, it leaves the color layer(s) exposed on the surface. Once exposed and left to melt in the flame, it is gone forever…. Application is a one shot deal. So how can you manipulate it? Treat the glass gently and read on!

This might go against what you have been taught as a beadmaker, however I want you to turn your flame up to about 12-14 inches in length and widen the flame to around 3/4 to 1 inch.

Select an 8mm white veiled cane rod and preheat as normal.

Place rod in the upper 2 inch part of the flame. If your flame chemistry is right (and if you're using the right torch)

you will not pick up carbon.

Rotate the rod and allow the heat to gently caress one inch of the tip. The objective at this point is to get the heat to penetrate the glass without bringing it into a molten state.

Turn the rod back over so the heat faces the inner portion of our "C" and allow what you have just made pliable to curl in on itself and repeat the process until you have formed a 2 inch scroll.

This scroll will be used as a HOTcanvas for an additional application of veiled cane.

Important: If any portion of this rod has gone clear on you in the flame, your way to hot. Once the glass goes clear, the color layer has been melted away permanently.

I have selected a second cane with a black inner core and a white outer veil layering to demonstrate how bursts of heat effect the outer white veil.

What I would like for you to notice is that I brought the tip of this rod to a hotter than desirable state intentionally. The purpose is to melt away the outer white veil layering to reveal only the black core. We will see the results of this action in the photo below.

Touch the tip of the rod down to the scroll UNDER the flame tip (not in). Now at times you might need to give the glass short bursts of heat to ensure that it is still in a pliable state.

What you should gain from doing this simple exercise is:

* Where you need to work in the flame

* How to move veiled cane into shape yet retain 90% of color intensity

* How to layer without destroying base veil cane color

* How to intentionally melt away portions of veil layer to reveal desirable inner core colors for design appeal

This provides us with a much softer look as we just melted away a little of the white veil layering.

Lets observe a few things. The base "C" scroll is still solid veiled white with little color loss, and we have 3 spots on our black cored squiggle that illustrate how different levels of heat application can provide us with unique effects. This provides the artist with infinite design possibilities. Butterfly wings with wispy tips, rose stems constructed of dark green core and light green outerlayering.... The ideas are delightfully overwhelming!

It is my sincere hope that this half hour portion of my 2 Day heat control and encasement course has been beneficial. While it is not an extensive study, it does help new lampworker's understand EASILY how veiled cane behaves and why the color "disappears" as discussed in various forums.

The entire heat control lesson is an intensive 2 day study. To learn more about our course offerings click the pink button or call 856-362-3720.

Run the rod through the direct center of the upper flame tip and slowly rotate until you "feel" 2" of the rod become semi-pliable.

THEN focus the heat back on the center of the rod tip. Bring the tip to a fully pliable state so that it just begins to flop over.

At this point your rod should NOT be glowing white hot as shown in the photo to our right.

If it is you need to back away from the heat.

You will see in the finished example that the center of our scroll has a clear center. The cause was this quick moment in time where I allowed too much heat to focus on the rod tip.