Fuming is one of the first things I had to learn thanks to Bob Snodgrass.  The next was wrap and rake, not sure where that came from, probably Italy.  Fuming with silver will allow you to get that amazing color changing effect.  This will allow you to get blues, whites and purples (my favorite).  To make it cooler you can add color on top of the fume and then rake it.  This takes it to the next level and after 13 years I still find it to be amazing!

So how do you do it right?  Well with patients and time on the torch.  And of course some one to let you know the ins and outs.  In this blog I attempt to let you know this.  We have also made a video that will help you out a lot.  Subscribe to our Elev8 Presents Youtube to find out more and more neat stuff.

First you will get your tube of glass or what we call a slug.  Then you will heat it up so that it will allow the silver to adhere to the glass.  Now once you have it hot, go ahead and put your silver in a neutral flame.  I prefer a small flame for control.  If you feel you put too much silver on you can turn up your flame after and burn some of it off.   Now with the fumed glass, make sure it is still hot and can take the colored glass you will be wrapping it with.  Heat your colored rod of glass so that once you tap it to the fumed glass it will start to peel off.   The faster you turn, the thinner your glass wrap will be, and the slow the thicker.  This is fully up to you how you want to do this, and both give you a totally different effect.  If you take a while to wrap this you will want to stop and then reheat the glass.  The fume causes the colored glass to not want to stick so good, and if you heat it too much you will burn the silver off.  You need to find this perfect heat and timing to make it work for you perfectly.  Give it time and you will get it just fine.

Now that you have the color wrapped around the fumed glass you will then heat up a line.  Take your 5-8mm rod and heat it up.  When both are hot you will start to bring you clear rod over and through the color.  Give it some practice.  You do not want to pull too hard or you will crack the rod of clear and you could cut yourself.  We highly suggest you wear gloves when doing this, we do not because we are stupid.   You can get a lot of differnt patterns and what not with how you space the pulls of clear or if you go one way or go back and forth.  Have fun with this and keep it real.