Welcome to my twistie class. I want you all to know that you can use whatever colors you prefer for this class. This isn't so much about what color twisties you make, as it is about making long straight easy to use twisties. (Do keep in mind that transparents will appear lighter after being pulled unless you use a tinted opaque under them.) I also want to stress that this is the way ~ I can make the best twisties ~ and like everything else in lampworking you might have to use a completely different method to get the same effect, lol.

Encased Striped Cane (used mainly for vines and flowers)

For this cane I used nile green (p214), dark grass green (T024) and some intense black (T066) stringer that is pulled to slightly less than 1mm. Your rods of green should be no less than 6 inches long so you have enough to work with.

Start by preheating your nile green rod in the flame. You do not want it to glow. You are just getting it ready for adding the transparent green. While it is preheating, start to make a small gather (around 8mm or so) with the transparent green. You will then stripe the transparent across the nile green. I always start at the end of the nile rod and push the gather down the rod about 3/4 of an inch. If you go much farther than 3/4", the gather gets a little large to work with. Continue the striping until you have all of the nile green covered. You don't have to worry about the very tip of the rod yet.

Smoosh out any air you may have trapped when encasing the rod and get it as uniform as you can. I use my BBQ mashers for this step. Once you have completed that step, it is time to add the intense black stringer. (You can use regular black if you don't have intense...it will have a bit of a purplish hue when it is pulled. Or, if you are using Vetrofond instead of Moretti, it will just be a lighter shade of black) Work on the underneath side of the flame and apply the stringer from where your transparent green starts to the end of the rod. I usually apply 7-9 stripes.

After you have completed adding your stripes it is time for you to punty up. I always use the same kind of glass I am working with as my punty. Some people use boro or metal chopsticks as punties, but I have found that I am too lazy to look for anything that isn't right under my nose. In addition to being convenient, there is no fear of the glass breaking off during a crucial moment of twisting or a bit of your boro mixing with your other glass and contaminating it. It just seems to work better for me. It is also a great way to get rid of some of the scummy clear you might have lying around. So, get the end of your punty glowing and push it into the end of your cane. Make sure to cover the entire end with the punty. Catch all of your stringer and don't leave any of the nile green showing so it will all pull evenly.

Now you are ready to heat it all up until it kind of puckers a bit in the center. Don't forget to heat all sides of your gather evenly so you can get a nice pull on it. When it is glowing evenly take it out of the flame and wait a couple of seconds to let a bit of a skin form. Then slowly start to pull. If you have heated the edges too much and it seems a bit uncontrollable to you, blow on the spots where it is puntied up to stiffen the glass up a bit.

When the glass starts to get harder to pull...pull faster! It takes a bit of practice, but it really isn't any harder than pulling regular stringer. When you have it the desired length and thickness, dip your needle nose pliers in water and pick the spot you want to chill to cut your stringer. Wiggle the pliers just a bit and the glass will snap off clean. That's all there is to it. (I really should have cleaned up my bench before my hubby took these pics!)

Three Color Twisted Cane (used for all kinds of fun decorations)

Since The Fourth of July is drawing near, I thought it might be fun to make a twistie in antique patriotic colors. For this one I have used dark ivory (p276), dark cobalt blue (p246) and dark purple red (s438). I apologize for some of the photos being out of focus. My camera has a mind of its own sometimes and my hubby isn't too familiar with using it.

Start with the dark ivory and make a gather about 12mm. Take your mashers and flatten the gather and then square the edges of the gather a bit.

While keeping the ivory warm, make another gather with your red and then push/smoosh it onto one side of the ivory gather. Flame cut the red and then flatten both colors together a smidge more with your mashers. Add the blue in the same way to the other side of the ivory gather.

Rotate the whole gather and give it another bit of smooshing to get any bubbles out and make the colors evenly distributed onto the ivory base. If you think you need more of either the red or the blue, this is the time to add it to your gather.

Time to punty up again. I am just using the dark ivory to punty with, but since this is such a soft glass, you might want to use something stiffer. If you choose to use something stiffer...after you have attached the right side, burn off the ivory rod on your left side and reattach another punty to that side as well. Heat up the gather just like you did for the encased striped cane. Heat it evenly until it puckers a bit and has a nice glow all the way around.

Pull it out of the flame and let the skin form. Be especially careful if you are lazy like me and used the ivory for punties. You will have to blow where the ivory is attached to the gather on each side a bit so it isn't too hard to control. Slowly start to twist the glass in opposite directions...don't pull in this beginning phase. As the glass starts to stiffen up pull and twist faster.

Chill/cut the twistie from the punties and you are done. You should have something that resembles the pics below. For a size reference, I have added the pic with a twelve inch ruler.