Double Helix Thallo

Double Helix Thallo, one of my favorite Double Helix reduction glasses. I  know it is not everyone's favourite, but it works well for me. Here, you can also see it in comparison to the Elpis that I showed you a few days ago. Thallo, in the unworked rod, is a deep transparent emerald green. You can also see here that it complements the Elpis and the Geneva beautifully.
😍😍😍

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Double Helix Elpis and TAG Geneva

Double Helix Elpis and TAG Geneva. Elpis is a light transparent Peridot color that reduces to a golden luster with rainbow accents. Geneva is a medium transparent blue that appears as a greenish glass with a rich blue lustre after reducing.

I am having a lot more success with retaining The Luster's from reduction on the glass after I reduced the annealing temperature in my kiln. I think my thermometer/pyrometer on the Kiln is reading a little high. I reduce the temperature by 10° (at a time) from the annealing temperature of 960 which is where I generally keep it for the Lauchas that I use, until it is now garaging around 875. That's a big difference. But I'm not having any issues with cracking, so I am just assuming that the pyrometer is reading a different temperature from actual. I actually tried another to check the temperatures but it wasn't working either, so at some point I'll get another but for now it's fine.

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Helios - Take Three - And some more thoughts on Reduction

My kiln is unhappy. The board in the controller appears to be toast - so while I wait for a new one to come (Paragon is expressing a new board for me - I spoke with them on the phone today and they were super helpful. Can't say enough good things about Paragon.) Anyhoo - I can at least catch up with past stuff.

I took another run, again, at Helios. Helios is the new Double Helix colour. It is an Amber colour that can strike darker, and reduces.

This time, I had much better success - because I finally remembered something so fundamental - I'm kicking myself.

That is, the temperature that the glass is when you reduce the bead is important. Glass that is hot and glowing will reduce differently than glass that is cooled to the point of not glowing. Helios will goes hazey and opaque when reduced from glowing, but if you let it cool to not glowing (hold it under the workbench, in the shadows, to see when the glow has gone out of it) - and THEN reduce it - you get more of the mirror/lustre effect.

Below - we have Ekho. This is a base of clear, encased in Ekho, Cooled, and reduced.



And because the lustre doesn't show well in that pic - here the same bead is again, on a different angle. A lovely rainbow lustre shows. Course - now the bead looks black. Win some, lose some.


This is Kronos. Base of clear, encased in Kronos, cooled, lightly reduced. The lower bead was still hot in a band around the middle when reduced - the difference is dramatic.