Effetre 258 Tongue Pink

I have used Effetre 258 Tongue Pink in the past, and never been able to get any strike out of it at all.

The story goes, and this may be completely wrong - but what I heard was that Tongue Pink started as a contaminated batch of white, that some people liked, and so it was re-branded. Is it true? I don't know for sure.

Anyway - it finally occurred to me that it might do interesting things when worked in a dragon - due to the lengthy working time and repeated heatings and coolings. And worst case scenario - I had a white dragon.

And, in fact - it did strike - it came out quite nice.

For comparison, here is the Powder Pink dragon (on the right) with the Tongue Pink dragon (on the left). Really - you can't call either of them pink - the Tongue pink is a shaded vanilla and salmon, and the Powder Pink is a milk chocolate with cream - but if you ignore the disappointment at neither of them being actual pink - the colours are quite nice and useful in an earthtone palette.

Effetre 262 Powder Pink

Powder Pink is one of those variable colours that you use for how it interacts with other colours, not so much for it's inherent colour. It's earthy, not "pretty."

So here it is in a sculptural use, where you get a lot of heating and cooling going on.

And in this use, it is very nice. The variations in colour make for very nice shading and highlighting.

NanoGems

I heard about the new "nanogems" for firing and including in Metal Clay. Cubic Zirconias that are "fire in place" can be used in lampwork (assuming they are small enough) - and you know - emailing the company and asking what the COE of the item is - that's a lost cause. First you have to explain what COE is. Then you aren't going to get an answer anyway.

So - I just bought some and tried it.

Verdict is: Nope. Encased or not. The bead doesn't survive and neither does the nanogem.

Oh well - it was worth a shot.

Well - doesn't work with 104 COE glass. Maybe I should try with boro?