The Pattern Books

carousel whirl from Glass Whirls Potpourri

There are three whirl books by Deborah Aubin. The first two (Glass Whirls and Glass Whirls Too) include patterns and detailed construction info for making whirls. The third book, Glass Whirls Potpourri, does not contain the construction details or jig patterns but has lots of patterns. These books are a little more expensive than some pattern books, but they are well worth it. Every page is in color, and there are tons of color photos. In the first two books, the photos show all the construction steps and there are fairly detailed instructions.

One pattern from the third book (Tree of Life) is in the Fall 2003 issue of Glass Patterns Quarterly.

Overview

Making the whirls is time-consuming, and sometimes a little tedious, but it's not really hard—once you get a couple of things down. First, you have to make a couple of jigs out of window glass. The first is a huge triangular thing that you use when you put the whirls together. Using the jig to position the whirl pieces gets them at the correct angle and helps support them as you put them together. You only have to make it once, but that increases your time on the first whirl. You can probably get free scrap glass from a regular glass shop to make the jigs.

There's also a small jig that you make if you are going to make the butterfly whirl.

Ring Cutting Tips

Use a circle cutter

lighthouse whirl from Glass Whirls Too

The thing that really got me was learning to cut the whirl rings. I highly recommend the Glastar strip/circle cutter. I started with the Fletcher circle/oval cutter (which is easier to center/position than the Glastar one, but won't cut the smallest circle, 3"), which meant that I had to hand-score the smallest circle. I misbroke a lot of glass. Some people may be able to hand-score those half-circle cuts but the circle cutter makes it much easier. (There are other circle cutters that some people like even more than the Glastar. Any good circle cutter should work well.)

Breaking the rings

The second hurdle for me was learning to break the rings. Once I started using the Morton Safety break (or Morton M-80), I was fine. I thought the Glastar running pliers would be the way to go, but that took forever and I had mixed results. Some people who do whirls swear by them, though.

With the Morton Safety break, I break the largest ring first, and I begin the break in the middle, work to one edge, then work for the middle to the other edge. Sometimes, if I get a little too enthusiastic with my pressure, I can pop a ring out in one motion, without breaking from the center to each side, but that makes me nervous so I generally don't try to do it that way. I may develop more confidence as I do more of these, but for now I try to finesse things.

Setup for cutting rings

aquarium whirl from Glass Whirls Too

One thing that I did that the book doesn't mention is that I cut a 4.5 x 9 piece of window glass (which is the size glass you use for each set of rings), and marked it with a line in the middle (at the 4.5" point). With the Glastar circle cutter, I scored a 3" circle on cardstock and I outlined the base of the circle cutter on it in pen.

I cut out the paper circle, leaving half (one side) intact and cutting to the cutter base outline on the other half. Then I positioned one of the 4.5 x 9 pieces of clear whirl glass against the 4.5 x 9 piece of window glass, aligned it carefully, taped it together, and placed the ring pattern under the clear whirl glass.

Then I used the paper template (aligned the 3" paper circle with the 3" pattern ring, so that the base outline is on the window glass) and traced the base outline on the window glass. I then removed the paper template, positioned the cutter base using the outline I drew on the window glass, and checked the position by moving the cutter arm (but not pressing down
enough to score). I had to reposition the base slightly to make the cutter wheel fall exactly on the pattern line, and then I redrew the base outline on the window glass.

From then on, all I had to do was place the whirl glass against the window glass (forming a 9 x 9 square), place the cutter base in the correct position, and score. I also marked the proper settings (3", 4.5", 6", and 7.5") on the cutter arm with red ink so I'd have a reminder of exactly where the cutter needs to be set on the arm.

It takes a little time and effort to set things up, but once you do, you can cut the rings fairly easily and quickly.

Practice on scrap window glass first, though!

Ring construction tips

A friend suggested soldering three rings together as a unit and the other three rings as a second unit, then soldering the two units together. This is a bit easier than the construction method in the books.