Equipment appreciation: Torches
Torching the punty before we put the hot plate into the annealing oven
At Broken Plates we use a variety of hot glass processes to create our line of innovative statement glass jewelry. Within those processes, there are a few different types of torches we use to spot heat the glass.
Pictured above is our Fluffy torch, fueled by propane, which can be identified by its large, bushy orange flame. We use this to heat up the punty (clear glass connecting plate to pipe) before we break it off and put the plate into our annealing oven to slowly cool over night. It’s basically a little flamethrower, no big deal. You can catch a glimpse of how we use this torch in our glassblowing process here.
Torching some blown glass jewelry to mirror it
This is our MAPP gas torch, fueled by a combination of gases, and we use it to transform glass into metal! In our iridescent blown glass jewelry, the glass colors we use have special metal oxides in them. By torching the surface of the glass color, this essentially brings those metal oxides to the surface of the glass, giving it its mirror effect. Watch a video of this process here.
Fire polishing the cut marks on the molten glass after we press it into our steel molds
Last but not least, our “hot torch”, fueled by oxygen and propane, is our hottest and smallest flame. This is really necessary for our press molds where we use it to fire polish where we cut the glass or just to add some extra heat to the molten glass before we press it into our 3D printed steel molds. Watch a video about this process here.
After all is said and done we usually end up in the cold shop at some point, but there is a lot of heat and fire that goes into every piece of our stunning glass wearables. Consider heating things up this summer with one of our signature pieces of contemporary jewelry that is sure to turn heads!
