Making Lampwork Trees For Beginners

I have been working on getting the gnarled look of the tree bark The first problem I had was pulling stringers. They would be fat in one place and then thick in the next inch. I guess it's just going to take practice. What I have learned is to pull at a steady pace. I put a glob of glass at the end of my mandrel. I flatten it into a pancake about the size of a quarter. I then add a fat stripe on all four sides using different colors. I like using shades of brown, black,ivory,yellows and reds. The colors can be as wild as your imagination. I melt the glass until it's starting to sag, then take a tweezers and pull and twist at the same time fairly quickly but at an even pace. It definately gets better as you practice.