Finally - some frit success!

This came about directly because of my whining about not being able to get effects I like from the frits. Funnily enough - it came at me in two directions at once - one was someone mentioning to me in person about a "faux boro" technique and the other was from a comment left on this blog - again - pointing me to this "faux boro" technique. (Thanks to Candy at beadgoodies.com for the comment, and to Elly Peters, at the Toronto Lampworkers' Potluck dinner. She was wearing this piece on Saturday - and it is truly lovely.)

Anyway - the idea is to use a transparent glass that will react with silver and a high silver/reactive frit.

Candy's site suggests Straw or Light Brown, Elly suggested Straw - but what I had to hand was Effetre Kelp - so I used that. I suspect that Effetre 068 Pale Rose would work as well.

Elly suggested a blend of frits, but I just used the Ocelot Spots - as it was still on my bench.

Anyway - take a light transparent that reacts with silver, melt a gather, dip it in the frit - pull out a stringer. Then wind a core with the stringer, and encase. I tried it without pulling it into a stringer, and I like it better if you stringer-ify it first. Better patterns. I tried them over a white core and with no base core, and I like the cored one's better - seems to reflect a bit more light where the stringer is thin.

I did find that for this combo, I had to make sure that the flame was not reducing at all - as that made the whole thing muddy.

I'm particularly pleased with the beads in pics 2 and 3. Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout! Those are some great colours.

But please - let's not call it faux boro!