Post by Lady B on Jan 12, 2008 10:46:03 GMT -5
I LOVE TUMBLING!!!!!
I am learning so very much about the beauty of this hobby.
There have been some impressive learning experiences that taught me that this hobby can have a few pitfalls here and there...especially for an obsessive-compulsive prideful perfectionist (that would be me! ).
So... I give you Lady B's "impatient-to-get-the-most-perfect-results-which-didn't-quite-happen" Glass Tumbling Experience!!! Ta-Daaaaaa!!!!! ;D
Bob and I started our tumbling journey in mid-June and did our best to “follow” directives we read in handouts, booklets, and on several Forum sites. By mid July I thought we might actually be getting a “feel” for what we were doing so when we had a chance to buy some colorful glass from horsinaround we decided to go for it! I had visions of Christmas presents dancing in my head—the glass that “horsin” posted looked like hard candies and nougats to me and my imagination took off from there.
We bought about 12-15 pounds of the glass and the adventure began from the moment it arrived!
There were so many wonderful pieces to choose from for our first go:
and these pieces glow under the right light source:
These last were very tempting but I decided I would save them until I felt a bit more experienced at tumbling. (They were designated from the get-go for our son, who has had a life-long love for all things that glow and luminesce so I wanted them to turn out just right. ;D )
Finally I picked out two 3# barrels-worth of stones, added 3 tablespoons of 60-90 grit, 1 tablespoon of Borax, and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. (Horsin had forewarned me that glass is gassy and that in addition to burping the barrels, Borax and baking soda would help to neutralize the chemical reactions.) The barrels began to roll by mid-August.
The barrels were burped after 12 and 24 hours and then seemed to settle in for some very nice tumbling.
So much so that my confidence grew, and in no time at all I was setting up 4 barrels for glass; including those special stones for Tim.
After each of the batches had spent a full week in the 60-90/Borax/baking soda mix, I was very pleased with the results for each load:
Batch 1
Batch 2
Batch 3
Batch 4
Now that I was feeling so pleased and confident Bob and I agreed we would move the glass right along and so each batch, after a respective full week of 60-90, advanced to a week in a 120-220/Borax/baking soda mix—same proportions used as for 60-90.
A dear friend of mine frequently offers the supportive catch-phrase: “Now we’re cooking with gas!!!” And boy was I ever feeling proud of what I was cooking—gas and all. We quickly learned that burps were not needed after the first two in the first 24 hours; the Borax and baking soda seemed to be doing a great job of neutralizing; and the glass was fast approaching Christmas-Candy perfection!!! I even told family members that part of their Christmas gifts for 2007 would be a candy dish of calorie-free candies!!! Ah, such confidence!!!
So, since everything was looking just right to Bob and I it was onward and upward!!!! The glass batches were advanced to 500 grit (2 rounded teaspoons per barrel) and since we had gotten such a nice reduction in size by that point, we now only needed 3 barrels for the whole slew of glass pieces—fantastic for us who were now eager to tumble some other stones with equal ease!!!
After a week of a 500/Borax/baking soda mix (still going with the same amounts of Borax and soda) we had a nice look at our wonderful glass tumbles:
The hard candies were looking a bit muted but the nougats were looking very tempting…and definitely edible! And since we had no other stones for comparison at the 500 level, and I couldn’t find a pictorial guide on the internet that was suitable—why we just said…”Well that’s probably just how they should look after 500 but just to be safe, lets give them 24 hours of burnishing (instead of the 10 to 12 we had given after the earlier stages) and then we’ll move on to 1000 grit."
And that’s what we did.
The initial glass tumbles began in mid August. By September 24th, we were checking out the glass after 8 days in a 1000/Borax/baking soda mix. From a group perspective, the glass was looking pretty good:
BUT when each piece was carefully examined we saw holes (okay—Kraft caramels were checked and they have holes, too), cracks, shatters, breaks, and rough spots (did I mention that from 500 on we were also using plastic pellets to cushion the loads?).
A sense of uneasiness was definitely settling in to my gut…what should we do? Again, there was nothing for us to reference to at the 1000 level so after a full 24-26 hours in burnish, we forged ahead. ;D
And for two full weeks we tumbled the glass in AO (starting with 1 teaspoon and adding another every five days) plus the now-standard Borax/baking soda mix.
By mid-October-ish, we reached the end of our tumbled glass odyssey.
The hard-tack candies were not quite as clear and brilliant as the wet rough had suggested back in August but the caramels and nougats—as long as you didn’t notice the rough edges, and other little “flaws”—definitely looked edible.
Out of the original pieces we started tumbling, about half met my naïve approval. And I stubbornly went ahead with the plan to give candy dishes of tumbled glass as Christmas Gifts.
The only snag…There weren’t quite as many acceptable pieces as I had envisioned so some people also received hard blue candies (Sodalite) and some really old stuff (petrified wood) and some people on our list didn’t get a candy dish just yet. We figure there’s always next year by which time we hope to know quite a bit more about tumbling, and have not only more wonderful experiences under our belts and on which we can grow, but also better expectations of what should come out of a barrel at the other end of the odyssey. ;D
So there you have it, the long day’s journey into sort of nice tumbled glass Christmas Candy!
I am adding one more photo here. This one shows some of the damaged pieces...
The stone outlined in blue shows the shattering that occurred in one of the later stages. The yellow and plum outline inevitable gas bubbles and so are acceptable. The linked black boxes show the fracturing of what had been a gorgeously vivid amethyst-colored piece.
It seems that the more translucent the glass the more likely it was to have suffered fracturing and/shattering whereas the nougat-type glass had the air bubble effects. I am convinced these results are directly tied in to the process of how the glass was smelted in the first place. It seems analogous to me of how a drinking glass shatters into a hundred shards while a glass baking dish breaks into three or four pieces.
Despite what at first glance to me was a disappointing outcome, I now consider my glass tumbles one of the best teaching experiences I could have had! And I am still learning from this entire sequence...so much so that I want to try tumbling glass again because the pieces that did pass my inspection were marvelous. ;D
A funny thing happened when our family got together at Christmas. When my two-year old grandson saw the polished caramel and nougat glass, he immediately said: "Ummm!" and popped one into his mouth before any of the attending adults could stop him. Fortunately my son was able to get it back out out of his mouth very, very quickly. Gabe then proceeded to cry because he wanted to "Eat!". A scary event but also neat in a peculiar way--because Gabe did not attempt to eat any of the Sodalite, Pet Wood, or other polished stones on display. He went right for, and only for, the "Christmas Candy".
I will definitely try glass again and will be generous with the plastic pellets on the next go-round. Who knows...there could be enough calorie-free "candy" next year for ALL my friends! ;D
If you actually stuck with me all the way to the end of this odyssey…I owe you a piece of candy!!! One of these days!!! ;D
Lady B
BTW: Tim absolutely LOVED his glowing nougats!!! He's such a good son!!!
I am learning so very much about the beauty of this hobby.
There have been some impressive learning experiences that taught me that this hobby can have a few pitfalls here and there...especially for an obsessive-compulsive prideful perfectionist (that would be me! ).
So... I give you Lady B's "impatient-to-get-the-most-perfect-results-which-didn't-quite-happen" Glass Tumbling Experience!!! Ta-Daaaaaa!!!!! ;D
*^* *^* *^*
Bob and I started our tumbling journey in mid-June and did our best to “follow” directives we read in handouts, booklets, and on several Forum sites. By mid July I thought we might actually be getting a “feel” for what we were doing so when we had a chance to buy some colorful glass from horsinaround we decided to go for it! I had visions of Christmas presents dancing in my head—the glass that “horsin” posted looked like hard candies and nougats to me and my imagination took off from there.
We bought about 12-15 pounds of the glass and the adventure began from the moment it arrived!
There were so many wonderful pieces to choose from for our first go:
and these pieces glow under the right light source:
These last were very tempting but I decided I would save them until I felt a bit more experienced at tumbling. (They were designated from the get-go for our son, who has had a life-long love for all things that glow and luminesce so I wanted them to turn out just right. ;D )
Finally I picked out two 3# barrels-worth of stones, added 3 tablespoons of 60-90 grit, 1 tablespoon of Borax, and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. (Horsin had forewarned me that glass is gassy and that in addition to burping the barrels, Borax and baking soda would help to neutralize the chemical reactions.) The barrels began to roll by mid-August.
The barrels were burped after 12 and 24 hours and then seemed to settle in for some very nice tumbling.
So much so that my confidence grew, and in no time at all I was setting up 4 barrels for glass; including those special stones for Tim.
After each of the batches had spent a full week in the 60-90/Borax/baking soda mix, I was very pleased with the results for each load:
Batch 1
Batch 2
Batch 3
Batch 4
Now that I was feeling so pleased and confident Bob and I agreed we would move the glass right along and so each batch, after a respective full week of 60-90, advanced to a week in a 120-220/Borax/baking soda mix—same proportions used as for 60-90.
A dear friend of mine frequently offers the supportive catch-phrase: “Now we’re cooking with gas!!!” And boy was I ever feeling proud of what I was cooking—gas and all. We quickly learned that burps were not needed after the first two in the first 24 hours; the Borax and baking soda seemed to be doing a great job of neutralizing; and the glass was fast approaching Christmas-Candy perfection!!! I even told family members that part of their Christmas gifts for 2007 would be a candy dish of calorie-free candies!!! Ah, such confidence!!!
So, since everything was looking just right to Bob and I it was onward and upward!!!! The glass batches were advanced to 500 grit (2 rounded teaspoons per barrel) and since we had gotten such a nice reduction in size by that point, we now only needed 3 barrels for the whole slew of glass pieces—fantastic for us who were now eager to tumble some other stones with equal ease!!!
After a week of a 500/Borax/baking soda mix (still going with the same amounts of Borax and soda) we had a nice look at our wonderful glass tumbles:
The hard candies were looking a bit muted but the nougats were looking very tempting…and definitely edible! And since we had no other stones for comparison at the 500 level, and I couldn’t find a pictorial guide on the internet that was suitable—why we just said…”Well that’s probably just how they should look after 500 but just to be safe, lets give them 24 hours of burnishing (instead of the 10 to 12 we had given after the earlier stages) and then we’ll move on to 1000 grit."
And that’s what we did.
The initial glass tumbles began in mid August. By September 24th, we were checking out the glass after 8 days in a 1000/Borax/baking soda mix. From a group perspective, the glass was looking pretty good:
BUT when each piece was carefully examined we saw holes (okay—Kraft caramels were checked and they have holes, too), cracks, shatters, breaks, and rough spots (did I mention that from 500 on we were also using plastic pellets to cushion the loads?).
A sense of uneasiness was definitely settling in to my gut…what should we do? Again, there was nothing for us to reference to at the 1000 level so after a full 24-26 hours in burnish, we forged ahead. ;D
And for two full weeks we tumbled the glass in AO (starting with 1 teaspoon and adding another every five days) plus the now-standard Borax/baking soda mix.
By mid-October-ish, we reached the end of our tumbled glass odyssey.
The hard-tack candies were not quite as clear and brilliant as the wet rough had suggested back in August but the caramels and nougats—as long as you didn’t notice the rough edges, and other little “flaws”—definitely looked edible.
Out of the original pieces we started tumbling, about half met my naïve approval. And I stubbornly went ahead with the plan to give candy dishes of tumbled glass as Christmas Gifts.
The only snag…There weren’t quite as many acceptable pieces as I had envisioned so some people also received hard blue candies (Sodalite) and some really old stuff (petrified wood) and some people on our list didn’t get a candy dish just yet. We figure there’s always next year by which time we hope to know quite a bit more about tumbling, and have not only more wonderful experiences under our belts and on which we can grow, but also better expectations of what should come out of a barrel at the other end of the odyssey. ;D
*^* *^* *^*
So there you have it, the long day’s journey into sort of nice tumbled glass Christmas Candy!
I am adding one more photo here. This one shows some of the damaged pieces...
The stone outlined in blue shows the shattering that occurred in one of the later stages. The yellow and plum outline inevitable gas bubbles and so are acceptable. The linked black boxes show the fracturing of what had been a gorgeously vivid amethyst-colored piece.
It seems that the more translucent the glass the more likely it was to have suffered fracturing and/shattering whereas the nougat-type glass had the air bubble effects. I am convinced these results are directly tied in to the process of how the glass was smelted in the first place. It seems analogous to me of how a drinking glass shatters into a hundred shards while a glass baking dish breaks into three or four pieces.
Despite what at first glance to me was a disappointing outcome, I now consider my glass tumbles one of the best teaching experiences I could have had! And I am still learning from this entire sequence...so much so that I want to try tumbling glass again because the pieces that did pass my inspection were marvelous. ;D
A funny thing happened when our family got together at Christmas. When my two-year old grandson saw the polished caramel and nougat glass, he immediately said: "Ummm!" and popped one into his mouth before any of the attending adults could stop him. Fortunately my son was able to get it back out out of his mouth very, very quickly. Gabe then proceeded to cry because he wanted to "Eat!". A scary event but also neat in a peculiar way--because Gabe did not attempt to eat any of the Sodalite, Pet Wood, or other polished stones on display. He went right for, and only for, the "Christmas Candy".
I will definitely try glass again and will be generous with the plastic pellets on the next go-round. Who knows...there could be enough calorie-free "candy" next year for ALL my friends! ;D
If you actually stuck with me all the way to the end of this odyssey…I owe you a piece of candy!!! One of these days!!! ;D
Lady B
BTW: Tim absolutely LOVED his glowing nougats!!! He's such a good son!!!