The learning curve never stops – even after being a lampworker for over 17 years!

For a long time, I have been wanting to take my encased murrini bead designs and turn them into paperweights.

But when I tried to do this….it was like learning to ride a bike all over again!

The MOST challenging part has been learning how to transition the large gather off the punty (glass rod used to hold the gather while creating the design) and transferring the paperweight safely into the kiln to anneal.

The main reason the paperweight you see in this video is broken is because of thermal cracks. This happens when the glass cools off too quickly.

It’s a delicate balance between the final shaping of the glass and soaking it with enough heat to handle the transfer from flame to kiln – but not so much heat that will distort the glass during this transfer.

I’ve ordered a few more tools which will hopefully help me manage this part of the process more successfully… I will keep you posted! Wish me luck! 😀