Good ways to practice lampworking

I have been trying to learn lampworking from online tutorials and youtube videos.  There is a lot that is left unsaid by the posters of these lessons.  I don't fault them for it because it is wonderful that people are willing to help others learn.

I have learned how to make beads of approximately the same size.  I found that if I make several of them in one sitting I am more successful than if I take a break in the middle of making a set.  Any beads that don't match in size get sorted out, then I have a nice set of graduated beads :)

Making icicles of the same size is also challenging.  I have all sizes of them now and no two match, but they are pretty :)  What the heck, they don't hang on the tree next to each other anyhow so I don't see it as a major problem.

The small things that people take for granted are things that we have to learn for ourselves and lots of practice is the way.

I wanted to learn to make icicles so I watched some videos on the subject.  Then I thought through the process for a couple of days until I had it in my head how I was going to do it.

I learned that making icicles is excellent practice for learning heat control, how to heat just a small area such as working on the hanger end, and how to work off-mandrel using tools to hold the piece.

Lesson # 1
Always preheat any tool that you are going to hold your piece with.  If you don't, your piece will likely crack and/or break in two.  You don't want the tool hot, just warm enough that the temperature isn't a shock to the glass.

Lesson #2
Don't get the glass too hot, it will boil and be ruined.  I already learned this from making beads but in making the gather on the first few icicles, I kept the molten ball (gather) too hot for too long.  I soon learned to keep it at the coolest part of the flame that would have enough heat to shape the ball.  The best way to avoid boiling the glass that I have found is to work in the flame for a little while then move the ball farther away to cool it down a little.  Keep working back and forth like this.  At least it works for me.