Losing my Mind

I'm losing track of what I've blogged and what I haven't. I've been so crazy busy that - well - somethings are starting to get away from me.


This is Double Helix 507 Speckled Opaque, reduced and encased. I suspect that any of the dark high-silver colours that appear black(ish) and reduce to a metallic sheen will work the same way, e.g.  Triton.

Make a thin core bead. To do this, put a small amount of glass on and get it very soft hot, then marver it firmly and quickly to a thin tube.

Let it cool, and very gently reduce it - bringing it just into the bottom edge of the flame. Reduce it until you see a metallic sheen - it doesn't take long. If you get the subtle metallic purple/green look - you will get the nicest results.

Then encase it without reheating it or letting the flame touch it before covering it with clear. This means you have to heat the clear up and have it ready to go and encase the whole bead in one swell foop. Occasional a bead will be so cool that when you put the clear on it, it cracks. So long as it doesn't fall off - keep going. After encasing, you can heat the whole thing up and re-heal it.

As you can see - it took a lot of experimenting to get the steps nailed down. Reducing once cool is really key to keeping the blues and avoiding the greens and ambers.

Comparison: Clears

Clear glass. The holy grail of lampworking: absolutely perfectly sparklingly clear glass. Clear like a mountain stream. Clear like breath of fresh air. Clear like a baby's conscience.

Clear like the boro folks have.

grrrr.

You start out as a beginner thinking "clear is clear." Then you see some streaks in your carefully encased bead, and you ask someone one - and then you get, "Did you clean your glass?" "Were you working too low in the flame?" - so you clean your glass and make a conscious effort to work higher in the flame.

But you still have black streaks and scummy areas.

So you ask again. This time you get an avalanche of advice. Don't clean with glass cleaner. Do clean with glass cleaner. Use alcohol. Pickle the glass. Buy Lauscha. Lauscha's not compatible. Buy Aether. Buy Super clear. Super clear's no good. Buy Vetro. Buy Zephyr. It's the scratches on the glass. Buy thick rods and peel them. Pull the scum out. Work cool. Work hot. Work with a lot of oxygen. Work neutral.

And this point, you feel like a single worm at a party of hens, and you're about ready to work in nothing but periwinkle and pea green.

I'm here to make it all clear.

ha ha.

I wish.

The best advice I can give you is - cleaning your glass does help. The new, eco-friendly glass cleaners don't seem to do a good job. Good old fashioned Windex, alcohol, hot water and detergent, and running the rods through the dishwasher do help.

And - some days - the glass works better than others. If you see something nasty in the glass on the bead - go in with the tweezers and pull it out if it is going to wreck the bead.

Recently - I tried comparing clears - and got results that I completely did not expect.

OK - I started with 6 rods of clear - all labeled so I wouldn't get them mixed up. I did clean all of them, in an attempt to have them start equal.

From the left, top mandrel, we have: Effetre Clear 004, Effetre Super Clear 006, CiM 834 Clear, VS004 (more on what that is in a minute), Double Helix Zephyr, and on the bottom rod, TAG Clarity. 

As you can see from the picture, they all turned out pretty good, with the lone exception of the CiM clear - which went weirdly burned.

In checking the CiM web-site - it notes that their clear perfers to be worked cool. Well - we all know that I do not work anything cool. I may be cool, but I don't work that way. So that is probably my fault.

The Effetre Clear turned out - in defiance of all expectations - pretty darn good. Not perfect - none of these came out perfect - but pretty darn good.

The Effetre Super Clear - well - it's better than I usually get.  My usual experience with this clear is that it is suitable only for being encased with an opaque. You can see a line of scum - but in my experience, the Super Clear is not super clear, and this is better than I usually get.

The CiM clear comes individually wrapped in sheets of tissue, for gawd's sake. Seriously - how did it come out this bad? I want to apologize to it. I'm sorry CiM - this just wasn't your day. Let's go with "I worked it too hot" and move on.

 The 4th (still above) - is VS004. VS004 is a new comer. It is made by the glass batchmaker who USED to work for Vetrofond. Remember Vetrofond? Remember I wrote in the fall that they were no more. Their furnaces failed and they could not raise the funds to get them going again. Well - their batch maker has moved on and was commissioned to make a batch of clear to the same formula as Vetro used to use. Vetro clear was the bees knees in it's day. And it's not bad here - a little patch of scum visible on the lower right quadrant of the bead.

Below, we have Double Helix Zephyr. Now we are getting into the premium clears. Lawdy, it's not perfect either. Good - but not perfect.

And here we have TAG (Trautman Art Glass) Clarity. Probably the nicest looking of the bunch - but not by much.

 The whole test was disappointing. I was hoping for a clear winner - pun not intended but we'll go with it anyway. Not included in my test was Lauscha or Double Helix Aether. (Because I didn't have any on hand.)

Here we see all 6 clears again - over dichro - which is on clear.

Top mandrel, from the left: Clarity, Zephyr, VS004 (this is the one with the trails of black stuff in it this time), bottom mandrel, from the left, CiM, Super Clear, and Effetre.

Don't forget - we're looking at these much closer than if you just held them in your hand. Laying in your hand or strung in a bracelet - these would all look pretty much the same.

My conclusion: I still have no conclusion. Some days the glass plays nice, and on those days - keep on torching till you drop.

Although - that said - I'd probably buy a couple pounds of TAG Clarity and give it a good work out.

And I'd still want to try more of the VS004 - just because I loved the Vetro clear.

And I hear that the DH Zephyr is particularly good for making the high-silver and exotic colours pop.

And Effetre clear does have going for it that is quite thin when hot and easier to get into tight places. And it's cheap.

Like I said - no conclusion.

CiM 605 Thistledown

CiM 605 Thistledown - what a lovely name! This is a soft, subtle pink, as light and airy as the name implies.

From the left, two self-coloured beads, one over white, one over clear.

It actually holds up pretty well when diluted over white or clear.

The two self colour beads have some patterning, some surface colour that almost looks like scorching. Not sure if I burned them, or if that is what they do. It's way less obvious in real life than it is in these photos.

Not sure how I feel about it - I liked it on the gooseberry - but not sure about on the pink.

But maybe it was just me.

CiM 205 Tandoori again

Yep - I'm definitely losing track. CiM Tandoori, again, but the good news it - consistent results!

Slow, controllable strike means that you can do a fire-opal effect with the bead half fiery red and half mandarin orange or lemon yellow.

As I understand it - CiM is sold out of it - so you are going to have to scrounge for it!

CiM 606 Damson

CiM Damson - purple as in Damson plums. This is a very red-purple when thin, and practically black when not.
















Here - two self coloured beads. If they weren't black - you wouldn't know.

Here, on the left, over white, and over clear on the right. Here, you see the true colour of the glass. A reddish purple.

 This would be a colour for using thin, in cored cane, etc.

Just for fun - here are 3 that have fine-silver wire wrapped around them and melted in.

CiM 406 Gooseberry

Gooseberry - reminds me of the Peacock Green Moonstone that was one of the first CiM colours that I fell in love with. (The other was Halong Bay.)

 From the left, we have two self-coloured beads, Gooseberry over white, and gooseberry over clear.

Over white and over clear - it's not too spectacular, and the moonstone (translucent) glasses tend not to be - they need mass to make the full effect.








This is a close up. Not sure what is causing the webbing - whether I scorched the glass or didn't clean it well enough. Normally - I would not like it - but it kind of adds to the organic nature of the bead - making it more gooseberry-ish.

Now - this glass - with a fuzzy brown coating like a kiwi-fruit. Mmmmm. (A brown frit, not melted in for the skin. Hmmmm.)

CiM 205: Tandoori Ltd Run

Ok, I'm totally losing track of all these transparent striking reds. This is a slow-to-strike transparent red. 

This bead went into the kiln without being struck, and, as you can see, it didn't strike in the kiln.

From left to right, self coloured, over clear, and over white.  This colour strikes very slowly, but it doesn't go overly dark. It's a nice bright, happy colour!

Dirty Little Secret

Hey - we've all seen these nifty tools with their fabulous, oh so perfect handles.

Sure, it's a cool tool, but the flames really make it, right?

But last week, when I went to pick mine up - the handle fell off the graphite block. Just slid right out. Not glued in securely enough, I guess. And that's when I found out their dirty little secret.

It's a screwdriver. The fancy flame-decorated handle is just a screwdriver. Stuck into the graphite block.

I'm not sure if I'm impressed with the creativity and thinking outside the box, or if I feel slightly cheated.

Anyway - now you know.

Comparison Effetre Lapis and CiM Blue Suede Shoes

I know I have talked about CiM Blue Suede Shoes before - comparing it to Effetre Lapis.

It is such a drop dead gorgeous colour - how can I not re-visit it?

Here we have the rod ends - on top - Effetre Med Lapis, next is Effetre Light Lapis, and on the bottom, Blue Suede Shoes. In the rod - the Blue Suede Shoes and the Light Lapis are a near perfect match.

Here is the full mandrel. On the far left is Eff. Med Lapis, then 4 self coloured Blue Suede Shoes, and the far right is Eff Light Lapis.

Here is a close up of 3 of the Blue Suede Shoes.

And this is BSS on the left, and Lt Lapis on the right. Once cooled, it is a near perfect match. Oddly though, when hot, it is significantly lighter than the BSS, but when they came out of the kiln - they all matched.

Because the Light Lapis was so much lighter when hot - I grabbed the Med. Lapis (left) to compare as well. When hot, it looks exactly like the BSS, but when back to room temp, the Med. Lapis is a little darker.

It is just such a stunning colour - I can just sit and make spacers in this all day!

CiM 607: Vineyard Ltd Run

Vineyard - a dark, translucent purple. A dark reddish, plummy purple. CiM says it is an opal, but mostly it reads as an opaque.












From the left, two self-coloured beads, Vineyard over clear, and over white. 

 On the left, Vineyard + silvered ivory stringer. On the right, with Rubino encased goldstone stringer.

Nice, rich colour. One of the rods I had was super-shocky - but it seemed to just be that rod.

CiM 510: Ink Blot

 Ink Blot from CiM - as noted by other reviewers on CiM's site - the rod appears to be a very dark purple, like Effetre's Ink Blue. The rod reads as black, and only when held up to a light can you see the colour.


So right away - I was thinking of diluting it, core-cane, etc.















However - it comes out of the kiln as a slatey, blue grey and not purple at all.

Below, we have from left to right, a self-coloured bead, over clear, over white, and self with a white-cored cane.

 Here are the same beads, with the white-cored cane on the side. The cane, on the bead, is certainly not as intense as I expected.

I suspect I will like it fine once I get over the disappointment of it not being purple.

CiM 511: Thunder Egg Ltd Run

When I test colours - I borrow a trick from the studio in order to keep track of the colours. In the studio - because we have multiple students using a common kiln, we ask everyone to "mark" their mandrels by putting a wrap of colour on the end of the mandrel. Student 1 will pick blue, Student 2 will use green, 3 will use red, etc. This eliminates the "whose bead is this?" "Did I make that?" and "I don't remember this one!"

I mark the mandrels and make notes in a book I keep by the torch.

It's especially good for those tricky silver glasses.





Sometimes, however it's good in other cases too ... .


This is CiM Thunder Egg. Ooooh - pretty colour - like paler version of Poseidon.  Thunder Egg below, Poseidon on top.

 Let's just whip off a couple of beads. Pull 'em out of the kiln the next day. Hmmm - wait a minute. Recheck notes. Two self spacers, 3rd, white core, encased Thunder Egg, with raked pattern of silvered ivory. Thunder Egg. Blue.

Hmmmm. Not blue.

 

Ahhhh - maybe check CiM's website. Thunder Egg - an Opal Light Sky Blue - click for more. Ok, clicking on more and wondering wtf ...

" ... strikes to a grey to mink colour"

Well - whaddya know? There is, in fact, almost no trace of the opal sky blue, and it is pretty thoroughly Mink coloured.

Some folks report that Mink plays well with silver. I guess that I should try silver with Thunder Egg and see what happens.

Wow - flat out one of the most completely unexpected colour changes I've ever had.

 

I guess the question is now, how to keep it blue. Because the Creation is Messy page show samples that are blue or only partially struck.  So there has to be a way!

Ooooops! Meltdown!

Well - it happens to everyone eventually. Either the kiln, or the operator, fails and ooops - the temperature goes too high and you ruin a kiln full of beads.

So it was inevitable that it happened to me at some point. And it just did.

I was just heading past the kiln, and I looked at the temperature as I went by, and instead of a temperature, it read:  "HTdE."

Hmmm. That's not normal.

Cracked open the kiln door - woo boy  - it's glowin' like Chernobyl in there. The beads have actually dripped off the mandrels, and melted into a big free form plate (proving that glass really does want to be 1/4 inch thick).

Not good. 

Ok, turn kiln off. Look again. The glass has flowed all over the floor of the kiln and the mandrel rests. The beads are one big puddle.

Nothing here is salvageable - let's try and mitigate the damage to my kiln.

Pull the mandrels out and put them aside - on something non-flamable, please!

The glass however - that's a lot of heat. Fill a bucket with water.

Pull the kiln rests out with the long tweezers, and take outside and dump into the bucket.

Inside the kiln, a few "cabochons" of glass remain - but some poking with the tweezers frees them from the floor of the kiln. Never did get around to putting on that recommended layer of kiln wash that all the books say you should put on the kiln floor for just such an emergency. Fortunately - the kiln floor was fairly dirty - which made it easier to get the glass off.

Here's some pictures so you can see the gory details.

These are the mandrels - sans beads.  :-(

My glass encrusted mandrel rests. Notice how nicely it goes with the autumn leaves?

 Pulling it out of the bucket.  A metal bucket would have been better, but I was in something of a hurry at that point.

See - it pays to not sweep out the floor of your kiln. You can see the accumulated flaked off bead release on the bottom of the glass. Once again, being lazy saves the day!

The error message, HTdE, btw - is High Temperature Deviation - meaning the kiln overshot it's target temperature by more than 100 degress. Possibly due to a stuck relay. I will be watching the kiln like a hawk for the next little while.

Or possibly because I accidentally turned the kiln off, restarted the program, and didn't give it time to establish what temperature it was at before telling it to Skip Step. Seems to me I saw this happen before - it just didn't matter because there was nothing in the kiln at the time.

So - give it a few minutes if you have to restart the program on the kiln, and never forget to check the temp occasionally - just in case.

Effetre Silver #4

After I posted about the new Effetre Silver glasses - someone posted in the comments that they understood that the point of these new glasses was to work well with silver and silver glasses, not that they have a high silver content.

So, I had another go at it.







This is a spacer of Effetre Silver #4,  with a center line of silvered ivory, and transparent dots on either side of the line. Melting the dots down "pushes" the silvered ivory into the distinctive wave form.

This is just silvered ivory on #4. The silver has fumed the #4 into a warm, chestnut colour. 

 This is Okeanos over #4.

 This is a hodgepodge of: clear core, encased w #4, squiggles of silvered ivory and okeanos. Melt them in, apply a lot of heat, mash and reshape, and more trails of okeanos. It's kind of a muddy mess, I'll admit.

This is a base of ivory, wrapped in silver foil and melted in. Rolled in Electra frit, some Okeanos on top, more frit, and reduced. Well, what do you know. I apparently forgot to put any of the #4 in it at all. Sigh.

 The rainbow effect of the Okeanos "flames" is pretty cool though.

Do I have a conclusion? Well - the #4 does fume up like crazy, and goes some nice colours. Am I really excited about it? Not yet. It's not bad. It just has to turn blue or purple in order for me to get really excited. Green and brown I can do any day.