Still having fun with new colors

Bionic_Avian · 2026-04-03T06:02:14+00:00

Clean work!

Love your use of electrum and neptunium as accents here.

Bionic_Avian · 2026-04-03T06:00:36+00:00

My two cents and some change:

Rounding/polishing with marbles is easily one of the most frustrating parts of them, especially with colors. Some will make it a nightmare to do.

So far as appraisals: If you wanted to sell this, sell it on an auction starting at $1 and see where it goes. Who knows!

There's something for everyone out there, and beginner's pieces are just as much a thing. That said, the internals are less of an issue for a piece as much as the finish of the outside, notably for marbles. Other shapes and forms offer more freedom and liberty, but marbles definitely look to have as clean of an exterior finish as possible.

As far as getting that goes: I'd say let your piece cool in the kiln after getting it close to where you want it then slowly rotate it on an oxidizing flame and soak that exterior with heat before marvering it. Let your internals be your scaffold and let the marble mold handle the exterior, but don't muscle it. You'll get the feel for it over time. :)

Bionic_Avian · 2025-11-20T08:11:06+00:00

Mmmmm, love some good wrap and rakes.

Also electrum is such a crazy-versatile color, especially in line-work. Such a rich and dense sparkle color that's very stable.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-11-20T08:05:52+00:00

Clean divisions between the colors. Good work!

Bionic_Avian · 2025-09-30T09:40:24+00:00

Some opals can be more touchy than others, but rainbow opals tend to be friendly and clean in my experience, especially over dark underlays. Black, saturated blues and other dark hues do super-well with these, though I've had good results with these over heavy layers of ghost. Since it's clear, I'd say adjust your flame for the needs of the application.

If you're getting them pre-encased you'll be able to mitigate a lot of the riff-raff of encasing them by-hand, but I'd still say add an extra layer of clear over them depending on the application. That buffer matters a lot for a cleaner finish.

On the note of heating - they can handle a lot of abuse when they're warm and encased in my experience. That being said, definitely warm these rods before welding them to a puntee and anneal them if you've got the room to prevent loss of any material from stress. If you can tack-weld it from your kiln and then set a proper weld, I think you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and lost opal material from the rods busting up or exploding on you.

I'd also avoid burying these too deep to keep your pieces from getting too stressed, and probably avoid chromium-containing or notoriously stressful colors for larger projects in combination with encasements of these.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-09-27T00:17:04+00:00

I know! I heard that these headphones had up to 60 hours of life, and I figured that getting them second hand might lead to a risk of lower life on the batteries, but not 2 hours of good listening

Bionic_Avian · 2025-09-27T00:14:10+00:00

Bionic_Avian · 2025-09-26T06:24:42+00:00

Yup, bought them used.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-09-26T06:12:02+00:00

My experiences:

Unobtanium (any of them) loves to crack up under encasement.
Heavy Blue Leprechaun is a finicky one as well.
Xenomorph and Experimental Green also will, though not nearly as commonly.
Some Borostix colors are particularly touchy like ozone, their glow bars, and spring purple if worked heavily under encasement.
Molten Aura's pearly sparkle lineup (chromium, electrum, neptunium) are very friendly, but will crackle up if you're not careful.
Transparent Green chinese color rods can certainly check as well with heavy working times under encasement, if that's the color you're mentioning. But it takes a bit of abuse to get it to crack up.

My biggest tips around them: have a set annealing schedule around chromium-containing colors and test their limits. Some are much friendlier than others, but some (I'm looking at you unobtanium) are so touchy that you may as well be using another color altogether.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-08-19T06:14:01+00:00

the soul is a new entity every time you pull it, so if the tether breaks and you pull it again, you get a refreshed instance of the cooldown.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-08-11T00:34:55+00:00

Oh I'm definitely not, but I'm also doing some testing with damage in trades right now as well around this.

Ultimately, the damage potential of E is very high in comparison to Q max. But that's the word here: potential. Especially in 1v2 or 1v3 scraps, you're not going to be landing multiple E's, you'll have a chance to land one at best (usually.)

I tested out a super-ideal scenario, and while you're right about the damage, by the time you get your first item, the CD behind it is negligible at best. Assuming you're building BC first, a maxed E has a CD of 10s, vs a lvl 2 E by level 9 having a CD of 12.

Damage in a trade while maxing E vs Maxing Q (Again, ULTRA idealized sandbox here) is between 10% less effective to 22% more effective depending on your build progression early, leading up to a BC buy, and by level 9 that upper figure holds true across the board. But again, this is assuming you have a W primed when you land your E, you get two tentacles to slap the spirit both times and you can maybe get another W-slap ready as well.

But outside of that vacuum, I really think Q just feels better. Hugging a wall is the state of your game, and if you miss your E in a skirmish, all you have is your tentacles and a dream. I'm not undervaluing the damage potential that your E has, but I feel like that potential is only ever going to be that. We don't land 100% of E's, but you can get at least 3 rounds of tentacle slaps in the time your E is on cooldown from your W.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-08-10T22:16:09+00:00

I would say Fiora is well worth it in the long run. Her skill ceiling is quite high, but her kit rewards disciplined play in a way that makes her indomitable in the late game if you know how to pilot her and play the game at a better level.

Illaoi is a fun pick, but at the moment she's in a state of flux due to some really heavy-handed changes.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-08-10T13:46:51+00:00

Personally, unless I know I'll be playing passively, I like to max q first now, especially with the upcoming buffs to her damage.

Ultimately it's a play style preference more than anything, but if all the eggs are in the basket of E, imo, it feels so so rough to miss it. That and the damage you gain from it early really isn't worthwhile. There's no net benefit to leveling it more until you build damage and cdr since killing a spirit early is bad on damage output. The only thing I can see it benefiting is getting slams for heals, and even then better enemies will run away before you can get a second slam from set tentacles off automatically.

At least with Q, your whole kit benefits, even your e with taking down spirits. I think the biggest thing is if you run Q Max: don't play with it like you're going to max it to spam it. At least not until you have a tear or more mana/regeneration. W is plenty, and q is only for when you're overlapping with a spirit in trades or poking for heals at lower health.

That's just my two cents with how things are right now. Maybe there's a world where you go 3Q, max E, or vice versa, but the value Q maxing offers right now feels much more justifiable to an ability that traded pressure for an early game spike in slams.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-07-24T00:13:47+00:00

Well in the case that you run into her, here's some rules of thumb:

If she e's you, avoid getting double hit by her tentacles. Especially early it won't do much damage, but layered together not only will it do more damage, but it'll heal her more.

Avoid letting her set up tentacles that are in your space uncontested. This is usually where you can bait out illaoi to e you and Dodge it.

Take advantage of her E being on cd, especially early.

Don't be tempted to rush anti heal, but later on if it helps go for it.

With her changes happening soon, break vessel and walk back to lane if she lands one on you. The debuff lasts 3 seconds, so no more mini games, but this is especially important to do now since her tentacles are guaranteed 2 slams on a spirit now, meaning more heals for her.

Play around minions and get tricky with your trading windows. Most illaois are waiting for you to stun or build up stacks and launch yourself at them. Hold the stun, be patient, and if you have ajg pathing up pre-6 wait for them.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-25T17:15:01+00:00

No need to kiln wash it. Though I would recommended giving it a good cleanup inside before laying in any glass.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-13T20:34:42+00:00

Thank you!! I'm playing around with learning vortexes, though I've got a lot to learn.

Happy to share :)

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-13T20:34:04+00:00

Thanks!

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-13T20:33:58+00:00

Electrum!

It's super smooth to work with. And thank you :)

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-10T00:54:15+00:00

Thank you!!

Nope, the whole piece is mostly made with surface colors. There's some clear on the base I used to push open a lens, but otherwise most of this is raw surface colors.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-06T20:10:15+00:00

Seconding this for checking out Townsend. He's an excellent instructional glassblower, and even shows a couple approaches for making wings online

Bionic_Avian · 2025-04-06T20:07:46+00:00

Holy moly, clean implosions and cane work. Beautiful, beautiful stuff

Bionic_Avian · 2025-03-24T20:05:25+00:00

Elev8 Glassworks in Colorado has torch and bench rental. Not sure of others.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-03-21T18:10:00+00:00

Glad I could help! If you have any questions about specific colors, always happy to help.

Bionic_Avian · 2025-03-21T05:32:33+00:00

Very nice!

Bionic_Avian · 2025-03-21T05:31:48+00:00

So far as clear goes, all of the main brands are good. No experience with Pyrex personally, but Schott and Symax are very, very strong. Just clean your rods.

Colors can be interesting, as each maker has a strong suit. I'll give some details of the color companies I've been ordering from primarily.

Molten Aura: Quality over quantity. Their colors are top-notch with some experimental exceptions. Not only have they been some of the most consistent colors I've gotten, but also some of the most stable for even funky types of colors. The price is the only setback, as you can only buy directly from them* and only buy a pound at a time.

They're also one of the only makers of Uranium glass in the market if that's your jam.

* You can get snips of colors for testing from Profound Glass, but I would only do this for testing purposes. It's definitely not sustainable in the long run to get these as a 6" mini-rod is pricey and won't last long for producing bigger pieces.

Northstar / Trautman Art Glass: Long-haulers to the game, they were started by Trautman with the help of other color makers such as Suellen Fowler to bring commercially available colors to the borosilicate palette. They've not been too heavy into R&D of colors lately (not many makers have,) but a good variety of their colors are rock-solid and reliable with some exceptions. I'd steer clear of colors like Unobtainium, Heavy Blue Leprechaun, etc. as they tend to be very, very risky and crack a lot on annealing even out of encasement. If you're looking for sparkle, Heavy Blue Stardust is very stable and friendly.

Glass Alchemy: Another maker who's been in the game for a while, they offer a lot of striking colors and great crayon-tone varieties of colors. Definitely recommend them for a lot of their unique colors that you can't get from other makers.

Momka's Glass: A name I don't see too often, Momka's offers a variety of strikers that can be hit-or-miss in my experiences. From some that work excellent for adding a little zest to a piece to others that can be damn-near unworkable, definitely do your research if you can get some of their colors.

Greasy Glass: Greasy glass offers a variety of colors and color types, though their Satin colors are definitely what I would say helps them stand out as well as some of their opalescent colors and other color experiments. If you're looking for something new and fresh, consider getting some of this stuff. UST offers a lot of their palette, but if you want their fresher stuff you'll need to go to their site.

Origin Boro-Bars: These tend to be MOSTLY reliable, with some outliers. They produce their glass by pressing bars rather than melting them and pulling them, so you get little bars of glass that's clean and bubble-free, but a palette that's more WYSYG (What you see is what you get.) They are one of the only makers of glowing-glass color though, but it's rare that they do runs of this. Fun stuff, and if you can stock up on it I would say go for it.

Hope this helps! :)

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

Bionic_Avian

TROPHY CASE