How to make a glass icicle ornament

Let's get started! Turn on your torch, set a medium sized, neutral flame. Pick up the half rod of Thallo in one hand and with your other hand pick up one of the clear punties.

Weld the Thallo to your punty by heating both ends and attaching them together. Direct the flame onto the Thallo and gather it into a ball. Avoid heating the punty so it doesn't mix with your color.

When the Thallo is too short to hold, let it go and keep rotating it in the flame. Focus the flame on the junction of the ball and the stub.

Attach the other clear punty to the end of your Thallo ball so you have two handles to hold.

Heat up the ball of Thallo so it's nice and soft.

Press one side of the ball onto your graphite marver, flattening it.

Flip it over and press the other side onto the marver, creating a flat patty of glass. You may want to go back and forth, pressing each side onto the marver until it's flat and not very hot.

Return the flat patty to the cool, outer reaches of the flame. Heat both sides gently, moving it around so the patty has an even heat base.

Once the patty is warm, begin letting a twist form by rotating one punty slightly slower than the other. Continue applying gentle heat.

As the twist becomes a spiral, let your hands move slowly apart, rotating all the while.

Apply more heat where you want it to become more narrow, while rotating and applying a subtle twist to create a tapered spiral.

To make the loop, gather up a bit of the clear punty on the larger end of the icicle.

Allow the clear gather to cool a little outside the flame, then stretch it a bit and let it droop.

Stretch the clear out a bit more.

Rotate the icicle so the clear droop is now on top, and bend the clear into a curve.

Apply some heat at the intersection of the stretched clear and the solid rod, and pull it thin in preparation for flame cutting.

Separate the hook from the punty by heating the thinnest part and continuing to pull the icicle and the punty away from each other.

Apply a slight heat to the base of the clear hook to barely soften it. Then use a mandrel or cold piece of glass to push it into position. To avoid strain, don't close the loop. Leave a little gap.

The hook looks like this.

Increase your propane a bit to create a reduction flame. Pass the icicle through the top of the flame. Repeat as needed to achieve a metallic shine. Keep it cool to prevent droop and over-reduction

Next we are going to separate the icicle from the remaining punty. Heat up a bare mandrel until it has a slight glow.

Put the mandrel through the hook.

And melt off the punty with a small flame.

Clean up the end if necessary.

Turn your propane back up for a reduction flame, and apply a luster to the end of the icicle.

There you go. Ready for the annealer.

The completed icicle ornament.