My old way of heating a gather always left me with bubbles, but a simple change fixed it

For years, I would just jam my rod straight into the glory hole and spin it, trying to get the whole gather hot at once. I figured more heat faster was better. I ended up with so many tiny bubbles trapped inside, especially when working with colored glass. About six months ago, I was watching a video from a guy who works at a studio in Asheville, and he said something like, 'you have to cook it like a marshmallow, not burn it like a hot dog.' He started by just barely warming the very tip of the gather, then slowly working the heat back toward the pipe, letting the heat soak in. I tried it that afternoon and it was a total game changer. The glass gets so much more even and the bubbles just don't form. Has anyone else switched up their basic heating method and seen a big difference like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hugo4d ago

Ever think that slow heating changes how the glass itself moves? Like @bell.emma said about color, it gives the glass time to settle into itself before you start to work it. That internal calm just makes everything from shaping to adding bits way more predictable.

bell.emma4d ago

Forget bubbles, the real win for me was how it changed my color blending. I used to get muddy streaks when I'd try to combine two intense colors like cobalt and amber. Cooking it slow like that lets the heat work through each layer before adding the next. Now the colors stay crisp and the blend happens in the glass, not as a muddy mess on my marver. It's like the difference between mixing paint with a slow stir versus just smashing it all together.