Frit Implosions

Just some eye candy - frit makes lovely implosions ...

 For the two people that might see this blog that aren't flame workers - "implosion" is a technique - that gives the "explosion inside the glass effect" and "frit"  means crushed glass bits.

CiM 905 Cottontail - just one more

 Because Cottontail is somewhat ivory-like (it is peachier in real life than it looks on my monitor right now) - I thought I would try it with turquoise.

This turquoise frit has separated a bit, creating darker lines inside. There is no grey boundary, but a general darkening that I don't know is a result of the glass or the way it was worked.

Anyway - good to know.

Effetre 610 Nessi

Effetre Nessi  (Not to be confused with CiM 432 Loch Ness - which - although it came across my bench on the same day - is a completely different animal.)

Nessi is deep, dark, mysterious, and hard to understand. (And so is the legendary creature.)

And it's going to need a lot of water. (or - clear glass - to dilute it.)

Nessi looks at first glance like an opaque lapis - very dark. Then, you see some green transparent and you think - "Oh ho! Not quite as straight forward as that!"

 Crappy cell phone shot - with the glass backlit.














And here are the self-coloured spacers. Predictably - they are too dark to be very interesting.

Here is a tab with a clear core, with the Nessi encased over the top. Disappointingly - it is also really damn dark.

Here is the same bead, back lit and over-exposed. Now we're talking. This looks awesome. But unless you are working it into a stained glass window with full sun exposure - it's never going to look like that in real life.

 Over white - on the left - Nessi over a white core, and on the right, a paper-thin white core, clear, and Nessi on top. Somewhat more successful, but still ... .

More success here - but there is a lot more going on than just Nessi. This is an "end of day" bead (made with the left over scraps on the bench at the "end of the day." There is white, cottontail, clear, canyon, Nessi, and some of the yet-to-be-reviewed Loch Ness. This was superheated and melted and moved and blended - so it's pretty hard to tell what is what. But I think that this is pretty much what you are going to have to do with Nessi to make it shine.

Overall - Nessi appears to be streaky transparent very dark blue and green. The trick is lightening it up enough to not read as black.

Effetre 233: Canyon - Does the world need another turquoise?

Does the world need another turquoise - why - yes - Yes it does. Apparently.

Of course it does - it's TURQUOISE!

The latest batch of Effetre Light Turquoise 232 is quite greenish in the rod - but comes out pretty similar to it's old colour when worked.


My initial thought was that it looked like 236 Dark Turquoise,but no - it is lighter than that.

It does, in fact, fall smack between the two.



Like all the other copper based blues, it reacts with sulfur-based colour to produce a dark grey border like - or, to put it another way - it does the usual thing when you put ivory dots on it. 

And it did develop the steely gray haze. 

Here, on the left size, (with the black dot) - is Canyon, and on the right - Dark Turq. Ivory dots on both. 

 The blue dot is on the Canyon on the left, and the Light Turquoise is on the right.

 Again - the ivory dots.

 The three colours, side by side.

 And here - I've reduced the crap out of it. From the left, Canyon, Light Turq, and Dark Turq.

 I could only get the red reduction on the Light Turquoise. The Dark Turquoise has gone quite metallic.

Well - I didn't know I needed another turquoise, but apparently - I do. Yay, Turquoise!

Actually - I often turn to a Lauchsa turquoise for a bright, "Sleeping Beauty" turquoise - this might replace it.

CiM 905: Cottontail

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail ... .

Cottontail is a stiff, translucent, slightly pinkish ivory, or slightly ivory-ish pink.

It is both stiff and creamy at the same time. I'm really impressed with it.

I'm trying to decide whether to think of it as an ivory or not. I should try some turquoise dots to see what happens.

You can see after heating here, it  retains it's translucent quality.

The tricky to exposure backlit shot. Shot on my phone, actually. 

Three self-coloured spacers - there is a difference in opacity - so I suspect the amount of working will make a difference. I unfortunately can't tell you which was done in which order. 

 Contrasting background.

 A little streakiness to them.

 And you can see - with the white background, a hint of peachiness to them.

 Over a back core.

Initially testing says that I really like this, more for the texture than the colour. I like the stiffness of it and that it doesn't go soupy. I got some more of it, and I want to try it out with some sculptural stuff - so we shall see.

PS - CiM calls it a pale opal peach, and the 9xx number - puts it in with the pinks.

CiM 906: Sakura

Sakura is the Japanese Cherry Blossom, and all that it implies. And one of the things it implies is a spring-time rain of snowy pink petals.

And this is pink. A beautiful, sweet, innocent pink. Your challenge will be to keep it a pure and dainty pink.

(Photo to the right here shot on my phone and in bad lighting. Colour is pretty close though.)







Photos below shot in studio lighting - colours more intense, makes it easier to see the differences.



Because, as you work it, it drifts to a richer, more salmony colour.

Here are 4 self-coloured spacers. They have stayed pretty. And pretty close to the rod colour.

Here are 4 more simple spacers, with a core of white, or periwinkle. For retaining that pretty pink, the white core is your best bet. The pink layered over the periwinkle gives you a lovely shade of purple that is hard to get otherwise.

Here are 4 cubes. They are larger, worked a little longer, and manipulated with a marver to get the cubey shape. They are quite a bit deeper in colour, and have taken on an almost coppery aspect.

Lovely. Not as pink, but still lovely.

Those spacers again. Fairly bubbly too.

Side by side

And head to head.  I don't know if encasing the pink in clear would stop the transformation, or if it is a function of the repeated heating and cooling cycle. It's worth a shot.

Sakura does NOT seem to have a problem with reduction and low-oxygen (like the Effetre Rubino). I have no trace of black smudges or grey build up when I turned the oxygen down.

I think this one is a winner. A really pretty pink. And I'm not a "pink" person. 

CiM 528: Royal

CiM Royal. This.is.THE.colour.  This is it - the blue. The perfect blue. You can all pack up and go home now - it's done. This is the colour.

That perfect shade of blue, like cobalt, but cobalt is sometimes too dark to be useful. This is that perfect shade, and perfect hue.







 You see 5 self-coloured spacers, and one with a layer of ivory, and Royal over the ivory. Too bad they are out of focus. Who cares - they are blooooooooo.

 Bask in the blue-ness.

I can't really add to this - this colour speaks for itself and what it says is: love me, melt me.