TIL my glass paperweight looked like a blob until I fixed my grip

I was trying to make a round paperweight, but it kept coming out flat and weird, like a pancake. I realized I was holding the pipe too tight, so I loosened up and it turned out perfect. What's the silliest mistake you've made that had a simple fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mila1mo agoMost Upvoted

Disagree about simple fixes always working. Sometimes the problem is the material itself, not just your hands. I've had glass do weird things because of a bad batch or the room temperature being off. That pancake shape might have been the glass fighting you, not just a tight grip. Ever had a project where the fix was way more complicated than you thought?

victor_jones991mo ago

You know, @the_mila, I had a piece of glass once that just would not behave, no matter what I did. My hands felt like useless clubs trying to work with a batch of glass that had a mind of its own (seriously, it was like it had a grudge). It kept warping in the kiln because of some impurity, I guess. The fix involved annealing it three times at different temps, which was a huge headache. I even called the supplier, and they admitted it might be a bad mix. So yeah, sometimes the problem is buried deep in the stuff itself, not your skill.

sarah_fox331mo ago

My friend had this beautiful blue vase she kept messing up, the base was always lopsided. She was about to trash the whole project when I noticed her cat's hair was stuck in her wax, like a bunch of it. She'd been working near where the cat sleeps. We picked it all out, and her next try was totally straight. She never even thought to check for that. What weird thing has messed up your work without you knowing?