Double Helix Iris

There is a lot of variability in the high-silver reduction glasses - and - it takes time to really get the feel for these glasses. But here's a quick look at Double Helix's Iris.
Iris is a reduction glass, and appears to be capable of a whole rainbow of colours and a bright, shiny finish.

Here we have 2 spaces (with a clear core) and a small urn shape, with dots and a lip and tip in Iris. 

I didn't do anything special except reduce them. They are dark, but reduced very easily. You can see that the colours range from green to gold to purple to magenta.

So what are you going to get from them? Try it and find out, because everybody's mileage varies.

CiM 534 Agean

What a pretty colour! What is not to love about this? Agean dances straight down the light between blue and green.

Here you see, on the top, CiM Agean, and for contrast, the lone rod below is Effetre 026 Light Teal.

Agean is a dark aqua with a hint of green - not enough to push it over into the teal family, but enough to distinguish it from the aquas. It is the colour of the ocean on the sunny day after the storm, when the water is bright and sparkling, but still a little roiled up from the storm.









Here we have, on the top a shaded focal, and on the bottom, from the left, two self-coloured spacers and one Agean encased over white.

 look - it matches my nails!

And the focal again. 

This is a pretty, pretty colour. Can't go wrong with this!

CiM 814 Frozen

Let it go, let it go ... actually - I loved the movie and the endless references to it don't bother me at all.

This is CiM's Frozen, and it is a translucent white, denser than Cirrus.


Here, you can see it next to a rod of Cirrus (on the left)














Presented by itself, as a white spacer, it is just a little off white. It is a well-behaved glass, and not shocky, so if you have been attempting to use Effetre's Anice White and the shockiness of it is making you insane, try this. I haven't tested the reactive properties of it, (compared to Anice) - but I can tell you - the latest batch of Anice I have had access to is pretty much unworkable. I know people who are actually throwing it out.

 


 Here we have a tube bead, black core, left side is encased with Cirrus, and right side is encased with Frozen. The Frozen is substantially denser, and would need to go down in a much thinner layer to get the same effect.

 So, why work with a translucent white at all, you might be saying? Well, the translucent whites are stiffer than the fully opaque whites, which means that if you are doing something sculptural and it needs to hold it's shape instead of softening into a flat, gooey puddle, choose one of the translucent whites - Anice, Frozen, ... and Laucha has a stiff white that strikes in the kiln.

Effetre 238 Navy Blue

When I think of "Navy Blue" - this is not the colour I think of.

I think of a dark, somber blue that is based on the colours of the British navy uniform. Wiki agrees with me, and has more to say on the subject, but, as with most of the Italian glass names, I suspect something got lost in translation.

What it is, however, is the colour of the ocean on a stormy day, and that is good enough for me.


Effetre Navy Blue is a streaky blue grey.

It is quite nice.

You know, the more I look at these pictures, the more I wonder if the grey isn't some form of layer/coating/reduction, much like develops on turquoise. Hmmm. I'll have to go soak them in some CLR and see what happens. 

 Here's a bead with ivory dots.

 Nice little reaction - so this is a copper-based blue.

More to explore here, I think.

Effetre 856 Cave Green

Well - isn't this an interesting colour? Cave Green.







The rod is green with a blue core, and you get streaky blue and green beads.

Except - it isn't that simple. This glass strikes from blue grey to green.

Which I have to admit, I have not seen before.

 Ok - here's a rod end. Note the green rod, but the blue end.

 And a selection of beads.




Note the variety of colours.

This bead, the arrows show where I let the bead cool and then hit it with the flame. The edges of those heated spots are  green.

These bead - with ivory dots, also shows the colour variation. Looking at these dots - it almost looks like the ivory reacts more strongly with the glass when it is green, and less so when it stays blue-grey.

Very, very interesting. This glass is not new - but definitely deserves a second or third look!