Effetre 684 Blueberry Marble

 Last time I had my hands on some of this Eff 684 - it was called Tuxedo Cool - and I commented that it was on the purplish side, and "Blackberry Swirl" would have been a better name.

It's apparently a new batch, and been renamed Blueberry Marble. And it is indeed, rather bluish.







The rods look grey - although you can see from the ends - there is a mix of colours in there.

When wound off into spacers - you get a nice streaky look, a soft blue and grey effect. 

 So I thought I'd try whipping off a horse bead. Haven't made one in  while, so I'm a little rusty, but managed to pull it off. The swirly colour looks good.

 The back looks awesome - great pattern. This particular bead calls for getting the glass very hot and fluid - which works very well for this layered, swirly glass, and brings out the best in it. I suggest working it hot and letting it droop and move a lot.

Effetre 746 Petal Pink

 This is Effetre Petal Pink - a soft, delicate pink that will appeal to people who like dainty and pretty colours. (Not me, obviously!)

However, even I can see that it has it's place.













Here is a trio of self coloured spacers. Surely these would make a good base bead for some rubino dots?

To keep it interesting - I then messed around with it a little.

This is a base of petal pink, followed by trails of ivory. I then rolled it in silver foil, and melted the foil in, and added more trails of ivory. I reduced it, encased it in clear, and added trails of black on top.

The petal pink base has gone a honey-colour where the silver was - the sagey colour in the middle is where the ivory was UNDER the silver. The silver has fumed the pink and changed it's colour.

Don't forget - if a color bores you - you can always try something different with it, instead of just putting it aside and letting it accumulate. After a few years - the stack of glass you don't like can get discouraging.

The alternate is to never try anything different - and you certainly won't learn anything that way!

Effetre 441: Dark Matter

I've written about Dark Matter before - but I thought it was worth taking another look at it. Apparently - where it shines is not as a colour unto itself, but as a base for the high silver glasses.


This is a grouping of beads and the dark matter rods. This is the dark grey version - apparently there is a dark red version as well.

You can see a streakiness on the bead - it's very subtle and requires a lot of light to see it. When the bead is hot and goes into the kiln - it is actually quite interesting looking - purples. 

 OK - this bead is a base of dark matter, with a layer of (from the left) Zeus, Clio, and the frit is Reichenbach 198 Multi. The entire bead was encased in Zephyr and then heated and mashed.

This bead is a base of Dark Matter, rolled in silver foil, melted in, trails of ivory, encased Zephyr. 

 Same bead - other side. The greenish color is where the silver foil was - I didn't cover the entire bead.

Experiment with this with the silver colours - see what happens!

Back from Tucson

Ok, I want to start out by saying first. NONE OF THIS WORK IS MINE.

No confusion - this is stuff I BOUGHT at Tucson.

Tucson is, every February, host to countless number of bead, gem, jewelry, mineral, and rock shows. Literally countless - they pop up like mushrooms. Or cactii, as they don't have enough water in Tucson to grow mushrooms, but you get the idea. More on the shows themselves in a later post.

I just wanted to show you some of the lampwork that I purchased there because it's really freaking fabulous.

This is the haul.


This Vortex marble - look at the depth in that! 

 and this silver and gold fumed mer-dragon are both from the torches of the Mazet brothers.

These pieces are both Boro. The marble has that incredible sense of depth that a vortex marble should have - you keep turning it over to try and figure out where the rest of it is. They appear to be ... wait for it ... "bigger on the inside." The merdragon (note the webbed feet) has a charming sense of whimsy to it (him) that I liked, above and beyond the gold-sparkliness of him.

(Their website appears to be not-working at the moment, their facebook page is clearly abandoned. However, if you google "eli josh tim mazet" you'll find lots of other people talking about them - all of it good.)


These "fire opal" pieces (the one on the left is a ring, on the right is a bead) are wonderful - the colour is absolutely as fabulous as it looks here. These are by Jenny Friske-Baer, of Divine Spark Designs. Her website does work!

And these breath-taking beauties are by  Joy Munshower - the Tile Goddess. (Her website also works!)  Really - nothing needs to be said about how awesome these are. Except that she has more stuff that is equally awesome and you should go buy your own.

Zeus over Raven Sky

 The only thing of real interest from the other day's kiln full of meh was this - TAG Zeus over Effetre Raven Sky.

Given that Raven Sky is black and white, this shouldn't be a surprise.

This is Zeus over black. We know that Zeus does this thing. 

It did come out extra streaky, however.

I wonder if it is the type of black, or the way it was worked more than just a spacer.

I'd hate to cover up Raven Sky if there is another alternative.

Of course, streaks of Zeus instead of full encasement might look good. Hmmm.

Zeus over Clio

Experimenting with TAG Zeus layered over Double Helix Clio.

Still not quite what I was going for.

Not too bad, but not what I wanted.

TAG Juno

Self-coloured Juno.

Top row, lightly struck.

Bottom row, reduced, left reduced cool; right, reduced hot.

Note - top row - one has retained it's pinkiness w/o turning gold.

I thought I read that Juno moves to coppery when overheated, but now I can't find it again. Damn.

TAG's website suggests trying it over ivory, and to not encase it deeply.

Aion2 and Zeus

I include this, not because it has particular merit, but for my own reference, as I haven't included self coloured Zeus before.

Top row, Aion2, lightly reduced. Bottom row, Zeus, lightly reduced.

Zeus is usually layered over black, so you don't see it by itself much.

Zeus is from TAG, Aion 2 is from Double Helix.

Some days ... all you get is $@%#

Some days - all you get is crap. Five hours on the torch, and a kiln full of meh and "also ran."

Meh.

Oh well.

Clean 'em up, toss 'em in the orphan bowl and try again.

CiM 412: Absinthe

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder ... .

This is a slightly translucent, opaly green - very pretty.

According to CiM's website - this moonstone glass will develop wisps and turn opaque the more it is worked - which whacking off a few self-coloured spacers will not reveal.

I'll have to give this one another go. I love the misty, opaly colour.

Eye Candy

 Just a little eye candy for a change. A variation on my "Sundered Heart" design.

Effetre 744 Amazon (again)

 I reviewed Effetre Amazon before, the darkest of Effetre's new tawny colours. I noted that it had the potential to go quite dark.

These are a good example of that - they all went quite dark - with the streakiness giving them a wood-grain look.

Wonder what they would look like etched?

Nice, eh?

CiM 418 Lichen

CiM Lichen - a soft, pale, sagey green - a little streaky.

On the left and right - two self coloured beads, but in the centre, we have the addition of ivory dots.

Mmmm - check this out - a light green halo and a dark line and almost cast shadow effect. Nice!

I'm "Lichen" it. ;-)

Video: American Art Glass

Very, very cool video here - the work of Ro Purser, covers some of the history of the art glass movement, and some murrini making techniques that will blow your mind.

Totally worth 12 minutes of your life.