Vetrofond 821 Verde Muschio

 In the annuals of strange glass comes - Verde Muschio - literally Green Moss. This is an old Vetrofond glass - Vetro being now out of business.

On the face of it, it appeared to be a transparent olivey green, so imagine my surprise when it started to opacify and turn a greyish brown as it cooled.

 This was shot while hot - before going in the kiln. You can see part of it is still transparent.

 And, as it cooled further.

 Well - I thought - let's try making a horse with it. This is shot hot, before going into the kiln. The base is the same colour, but with frit and powder added for contrast.

And the next day - out of the kiln. It has cooled to a somewhat greenish grey, it's still a pretty cool, organic kind of colour. 

 Again - while hot, and then popped into the kiln, ...

And what comes out is this ... (bottom mandrel is the same as the one above.)

 Some parts still retain a little transparency, where they don't get a lot of reheating.

 Front,

 and back. Double Helix Powders and frit.

Where to get? Jean at Nortel still has some of this interesting glass if you want to give it a go! (Quite a lot of it, actually.) It works nicely, and the colour is not unpleasant. And it really is a mossy kind of colour ...

Sorting the Stash

I spent New Year's Eve (and part of New Year's Day - so yes - it took me 2 years) sorting and organizing my stash of glass. This was highly productive, because I found a number of glasses that I thought I was completely out of and now, I have them!

I have gone from "why do I not have any black/white/clear?" to having pounds of each. I found a bunch of that light minty Lauscha green that I thought was gone. A few rods of EDP, a rod of "Earth." Some of the OLD Rubino. Some old transparent Laucha Pink. Some of the old CiM Cirrus. Pounds of Fossil and even some River Rock.

And I freed up some floor space and shelf space and just generally re-acquainted myself with what I have. And with it all sorted by colour now - I can find a "close-enough" more easily.

Of course - this is bad news for the glass industry, as clearly - I do not need to buy more for a while!

This came about from a quote in a book that I read over the holidays - "Steal Like An Artist - 10 things nobody told you about being creative" - by Austin Kleon. It's actually a really good book and I highly recommend it - it is encouraging without being the sappy, sentimental "just believe in yourself" kind of unhelpful bull-crap that fills the marketplace these days. Anyhoo - one of the comments is "be tidy and organized in your work place, so that you can be wild in your art" - or words to that effect. I think it is a valid point - the tools and materials should be to hand and findable, so that you can produce your vision instead of hunting for the whatever it is you need right now. Knowing you don't have it is also better than hoping you do and taking three days to look for it.

I also really liked the comments about digital and digits - that making things with your hands is a counterpoint, and possible antidote - to our sedentary, digital lives.  

So there you have it. Happy organizing.  Even Happier Creating.

CiM 527 Anchor

I am not entirely clear how this particular colour escaped my attention. CiM Anchor is a deep, deep blue, towards the greener end of the blues - not really enough to be an aqua, but a rich ocean blue for sure.

The rods are so dark - they appear almost black, but held to the light, the colour takes your breath away.

You really will have to layer it over something to see the colour. Here - the top bead is a twistie of Anchor and white, and the square bead is Anchor and white swirled - and the almost black areas are just Anchor by itself.

Here is a selection of pieces, the varying thicknesses show the intensity of the colour. Also - some have a little clear mixed in (4 o'clock), white (7 o'clock) and some med trans blue on the loop (Effetre) (8, 9, 1 o'clock, etc.)

 And here - just holding one up to the studio light!

What a colour! It sings! If you play it right. ;-)

Changing the Filter on your Oxygen Concentrator

If you are using one or more oxygen concentrators to provide oxygen to your torch, you should know that there is a filter inside them that you need to change sporadically.

It's pretty easy to figure out the open celled sponge filter, just blow that puppy out with canned air, or even rinse it out (let it dry before firing up the concentrator) - but there is ANOTHER filter inside - that I actually didn't know about.

Apparently - you should change it once a year if you are torching daily - or even 20 hours a week.

Or, you can wait until your concentrator starts shutting itself off after running for a few minutes, and then run around panicking. Depending on if you are a fan of preventative maintenance or reactionary swearing. ;-)

The filter looks like this, on the left, or an older style on the right. I replaced both with the style on the left and it seems to work fine.

It lives in the compartment on the back with the sponge filter in the door. Open the door, pull the filter up and out (a little twist helps) but it is just a friction fit.

Put the new filter in, close up the door, and you are good to go. Takes 2 minutes. Literally - here is a 2 minute video showing you how.




So - when's the last time you changed the filters on your concentrator? ;-)

Carousel Ponies

I took a class with Joy Munshower back in November - which I have to  recommend. Cancelled flight, sick students, etc., I was starting to feel like the class was cursed, but it all worked out. I definitely enjoyed it, and it was totally worth it for all the insights into how she makes her beads. She was kind, generous, down-to-earth, and completely prepared and organized (even if the airline wasn't!)  If you have a chance - definitely you should take a class with her.

I'm focusing trying to make carousel ponies - I love Joy's work, but don't want to seem imitative, so I'm going for the flamboyant, exaggerated, stylistic carousel horses of the turn of the century. I've long been fascinated with the art of the carousel horse. There was an oh-so-brief moment in history when the fascination with the mechanical and the craft of the artisan stood side by side as equals - and it produced some stunning works of art - IMHO.

Anyway - here is where I am so far - these are shot "hot" before going in the kiln - and I have to say - I like some of them a lot less once they come out. (Damn those kiln fairies.) Also - the failure rate is currently above 50% - some of them are so butt-ugly (not pictured here) that I am actually just throwing them in the garbage - a completely unprecedented move. If it wasn't for wanting the mandrel back - I wouldn't even pull them.

I'm also learning that some colours don't really stay the same after an hour of flashing it in and out of the flame. My favorite so far is CiM Adobe, which, is, of course, discontinued. Figures.

Anyway - it's a process.

Just remember - when someone asks you how long it takes to make a bead, the answer is "time at the torch" + "number of years of practice."

Fire Lotus is back

After a lengthy break - Trautman is again making COE 104 Fire Lotus. Hallelujah!

Fire Lotus is the one of the easiest to get reliable purples out of -  heat it to clear, let it cool, strike in the flame.

Hello Fire Lotus, I've missed you. Welcome back.

Effetre 765 Rooster Tail

This is a super cool looking rod - but not quite sure what to do with it yet.

















The rods are striped with colour, and each one is different, and different diameters - the top rod is about 10 mm, the next one pictured is more like 6. (This is the one I used.)



The effect is pretty cool when looking at it up close like this,  but the overall effect is pretty dark. I don't think it will stand on it's own - but good make a cool background for something else.

 See  - like staring into the bands of Jupiter. I encased this - hence the bubbles. I did find the Rooster Tail boils a little if you work it hot.

 Any attempt to do anything other than just lay it down results in mud-mixing - not pretty. The base of it appears to be a super dark garnet red - which you can just barely see here - indicating that using it with silver glasses might get you some unexpected and potential ugly results.

 Sort of a novelty glass, as far as I can see, but I might be missing something fundamental.

Pink that Doesn't React with Silver!!!!!!

Look at this! This is Double Helix Rhea, over silver foil! 

Every new lampworker tries, at some point, to make a pink bead using Effetre Rubino Oro (Ruby Gold) over silver foil - to their sorrow. They then learn to encase the silver foil in clear or pale blue, and then put the rubino on top - because Rubino is tricky - it reduces to an ugly dull lead colour if the oxygen is even slightly low, and it reacts with silver and looks like mud.

But after a conversation a few weeks ago with Jed at Double Helix - he told me in passing that because Rhea is made with a different formula - it would not react with silver. "Holy crap," I said - "that means I can layer it over silver foil."" I guess," he replied, "I never tried."

So here it is - still hot and headed into the kiln - I haven't seen them cold yet - but here it is. A base of crappy Effetre clear, rolled in silver foil, and encased directly in Rhea.
 

Attempt #2 - base of black (CiM Hades), encased in Rhea (with a few spots and swipes of Zephyr, because I ran out of Rhea - it's a big bead! 

So - all of you who wanted pink over silver foil - here you go - this is it!

Delicate

Stumbled across this photo I took in a class with Lucio Bubacco. Can you believe how delicate he gets those fingers?


That is soft glass folks.



Mind boggling.

DIY Photo-Chromatic Boro

I stumbled across this video on youtube. It's pretty technical, but utterly fascinating. This dude is talking about making batches of photochromatic boro glass. Melting the chemical and making glass from scratch.

Some of the stuff he talks about is stuff that we've learned from working with glass and come as second nature - other things he talks about are - well - just plain cool. I have never thought of glass as corrosive - but I wouldn't have put the ingredients into a mold, heated it up, and expected it to come out. However - I did not know that glass doesn't stick to platinum. (And I was unlikely to find that out by accident ... ).

I've had to watch it multiple times to get my head around some of it.

Effetre 764 Martini Olive

A nice, new green from Effetre, Martini Olive is a streaky opaque with super creamy handling. It melts nice and handles beautifully. It has slightly yellowish overtones, and would be a nice background colour or foliage colour.








You can see from the layers in the rod why it is streaky! 

It reacts with turquoise (copper/sulfur), not with ivory - and does bleed a little - pretty normal for a soft, opaque colour. This bead is a base of clear (to extend the rod), encased in Martini Olive, trailed with Dark Sky Blue, dots in ivory, topped with dots in Martini Olive again.

 Some nice patterning, and you can see that the copper/sulfur reaction is crisp in some place, and diffuse in others.

 A nice varied green leaf.

For sure - I can see lots of uses for this one.

515nqr from Striking Color

A single rod of this landed on my desk - which is fairly amazing, as it appears to be next to impossible to buy.

Pale, transparent green as an unworked rod - it strikes easily to purples and blues on amber base.

I like it - I'd buy it - if it was buyable.


You can try and track down this glass yourself. I suggest stalking and pouncing at the slightest activity

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Double Helix - Notos Revisited

I reviewed Notos a while back, but I thought I'd have another look at it, because, you know, I work
differently now; plus, I forgot what it looks like. ;-)

Double Helix says this about Notos:

Notos is a silver saturated super-luster with a subtle blue-grey-green tone.  This color is an enhanced, stronger lustering version of  OK-455, which proved very popular at the 2011 ISGB Gathering.  Reduce and encase with Zephyr for cool blue tones, and with Aether for soft green tones.  Repeated, gentle reduction can yield pink iridescent lusters.

Notos is, in fact, a pale slate blue colour in the unworked rod, and while that makes it easy to identify in the pile of high-silver glasses, you might accidentally leave it on the desk thinking that is was just a light blue-grey.

 It reduces, when cooled first, to a rich, warm yellow amber with hints of rainbow. The fuming from the silver makes the unreduced areas turn green, and the yellow colour overlays the blue.

 For comparison, Notos on the top, and Aion2 on the bottom. While you can talk about both of them being an amber lustre, the Aion2 is much more golden and the Notos is more of a dark honey with stirred-in dragonflies.

More thoughts on identifying mystery rods

Ah - those mystery rods of glass. You were sure you would remember - so of course, there is no label!

For the transparent rods, clear and very pale colours, sight down the length of the rod at a bright light - lightbulb, fluorescent fixture - whatever ya gots - and check the colour you see at the end of the rod. It can tell you a lot.

First up here - from the Double Helix corner, is  handful of Aion2. Looking through the rods at the light, it looks pretty clear, so that's no particular help.

These rods also appear clear - there is no trace of unexpected colour in the light showing at the end. This is Zephyr - the clear of choice for many.

Here, however, are clear rods with a decided aqua colour when viewed end on. This is Aether - another clear from Double Helix, but it responds differently to the silver glasses. The difference between the Zephyr and the Aether is quite striking. Knowing this - you need never get these two mixed up again!

 

Remember this trick when you have very light transparent rods that you want to positively ID. It is particularly useful for very pale batches of unstruck rods of striking colours like the Effetre Electric Yellow, Orange, and Striking Red. Just sight down the barrel of the rod ...