Book Review

The following review was printed in The FLOW magazine.  It is reprinted here with permission.
NOTE:  This review was done on a pre-production manuscript with only a few sample illustrations.  Therefore, the  page count referenced is too small and the technical glossary referenced in the review was omitted from the final book.

Torchworked Marbles, Vol. 1 - Beginner to Intermediate Techniques
by Drew Fritts

351 pages, available first quarter 2004.

Review by Loyd Blankenship

Torchworked Marbles is far more than a guide to making round balls of glass.  In fact, the general glass-related information outweighs the marble construction information by almost two-to-one. Mr. Fritts wanted this book to be something that a novice could pick up and run with. The book is thoroughly illustrated with black and white line drawings - no photographs and no color.

The first hundred pages of the book are devoted to setting up your lampworking studio - equipment needed, workspace layout and construction, and safety information. The safety information is especially thorough, including a long chapter on ventilation contributed by Vincent E. Henley.  While experienced lampworkers will be tempted to skip over much of this introductory content, it is definitely worth a glance.

The next hundred pages covers the basics of constructing a marble, including generic techniques such as stripes, twists, raking and encasing, and preparatory techniques such as making twisted canes, murrini and frit. Hand positioning, flame type and chemistry, reading the heat base in a marble and other mechanics are also thoroughly touched on. While soft glass is the primary focus of the book (including use of dichroic), boro is lightly covered as well, as is making your own marble molds for the shop-handy.

There are twenty lessons provided designed to take the lampworker through the very basics of making a round blob of solid-color glass up through various twists, swirls and other techniques. This is where the book's lack of color photographs really bugged me. All of the marbles made in the lessons are shown in a photograph on the book's cover, but I found myself really wishing for some actual pictures of the process on some of the more complicated lessons.

Next was pricing and selling your work. This was one of my favorite sections, and will be welcome reading to anyone hoping to make money (if not a living) from their glass. Finally, the book closes with a technical glossary.

The book was both more than I expected and less than I hoped for. The information on lampworking and studio setup was unexpected, but may possibly be the best reference available on the subject. The ventilation information, color-mixing charts and  mold-making techniques were also great surprises.  The disappointment came with the lack of color photography, and the lack of information on some of the more advanced marble techniques - vortexes, implosions and so forth.

Bottom line? Buy it. This is going to be the definitive tome on marble making for at least the next few years - you'll be happy you got in on the first edition.