Effetre 261 Angel Pink

Angel Pink is a pale rod that strikes up to a nice rose pink. It can be streaky - and it can also develop an odd grey blush.

On the face of it - it strikes quite nicely to a fairly rich pink. I didn't do anything particularly to strike these - and I have had trouble with this glass in the past, being hard, no, make that impossible, to strike. This, however, struck up nicely. 

The streakiness that you see on the right-most bead almost looks like a ribbon of transparent in the opaque - not particularly uncommon.



However, if you look at the bottom third of the middle bead in this picture - you can see a smokey, sooty looking patch.

 Here is the tail end of that patch.

 And again.

What the cause of this is, I don't know.

Overall - this is a pleasant shade of pink - but I would experiment with it before I committed to, say, a production run of pink-skinned angels - in case they came out with grey, smudgey cheeks. Now - if you were making little Victorian-era chimney sweeps and flower girls - it might be absolutely perfect - other than the whole complete-randomness factor. Or maybe you'd learn to control it?

Or pigs? With smudgy, muddy bits? Wilbur and Charlotte, anyone?

Effetre 260 Light Pink

I mentioned using Eff 260 Light Pink the other day - and so you might want to see want it looks like.

Effetre Light Pink is a pale, dusty pink. In the photo here, it appears to be peachier than the rods - but that is an illusion - in life - it is pretty close to the unworked rod colour.

The two beads on the outside (not counting the transparent green marker bead - this is how I keep them identified after they come out of the kiln) are self-coloured. The middle bead is a core of Light Pink and has Ivory dots.

Light Pink is a good choice for all those angel and fairy beads. It is a nice, well-scrubbed, happy face colour.

CiM 307: Cake Batter

This is a pale, pale greenish colour - the name "Cake Batter" baffles me - I must be missing something, as CiM is generally very clever with their colour names.

With the 3xx series number - we know that CiM intends this to be in the yellow series of colours - but not even looking at it  looking at it in different colours of light shifts the colour.

 You can see that the rod has changed colour with the heat - the tip is white, and the transition zone is more of a yellow - so it is possible that this colour is intended to strike to a yellow (which would be consistent with the name) - and I just didn't work it long enough, or at the right temperature.


From the left, two self coloured beads, and you can see a yellow dot on the middle one - which would be consistent with the striking theory. The third bead is a core of cake batter, dots of turquoise, and dots of cake batter on top. There is functionally no reaction between the two.

The rod does look "vanilla" when you are working it - but it cools naturally to a slight green. It would be worth trying to strike it to see if you can get a yellow out of it. Or possibly just work cooler than I do.  ;-)

Feet

Feet.

Hands and feet are hard. Ever notice how often they get hidden in drawings and paintings?

And with the sculptural stuff - I have a hard time boiling it down to the essence - simplifying. Because piling on the detail is what I do.

But, for sculptural flameworking - that just doesn't work.

So I've been doing the equivalent of "studies" - like an artist drawing hands, feet, and faces, over and over. Sketching in glass, so to speak.

Here are some feet that I don't hate.

Finally.

CiM 612 Frangipani

CiM Frangipani - a translucent, pale, misty pink. With the 6xx series number - we find that CiM considers it to be in the purple family, and calls "A very pale opal purple. Formerly Unique Crocus-2."

CiM has been re-naming it's Uniques as Limited Runs - which I think is a smart move. The original Crocus is a delight, definite purple - so yes, this totally deserved its own name.

I still don't see it as a purple, but there you go.

As an opal, it is translucent, and it is a very ethereal colour - getting more opaque the longer it is worked. All three of these beads are self-coloured, but the two on the left are more opacified as they have been heated and cooled more often. (I generally work from left to right on the mandrel - so that I don't block seeing what I am doing with the rod.)

 Same beads  - different colour background. Makes a difference, doesn't it?

It would be interesting to make something like a sculptural flower with this. In a very thin application, this might not read as well - but if you can pull it off - you might be able to make something with a very delicate, otherworldly look to it. Just have to find the right colours to go with it. Equally delicate colours.

Push Molds: Burgard - Cat and Face

When I was down in Tucson - I picked up a couple of the old Burgard push molds. They were on the discontinued table of one of the big vendors. So far as I know - they are no longer being made. The backs of them are signed and dated, the cat is dated 1998 and the face is 1999.

These two are actually small enough for soft glass (most of the molds I see work better for boro and are huge). I'm sure many soft glass users are just baffled by them, however. "It's not a press and it doesn't have a mandrel slot."

I do want to give you a close look at these so you can see the scale of them, and understand that they are a concave mold - because the photos do that tricky thing where they seem to reverse themselves and appear to stand out, and then recede. 

 Go on - stare at those two faces - raised, inverted, raised, inverted.

 There - that makes it clear - it's a cavity.

 It's "Mc-Cavity - the mystery cat"

 This also makes the size of them clear too - the face mold is about an inch long for the entire mold - the face itself is 17 mm long and about 5 mm deep at the bridge of the nose. The cat is a little deeper.

 I just did a couple of quick ones to see how they worked - needed more glass here to fill up the ears. I just melted a gather of glass on the end of a rod and pushed it in. Make sure the mold is on the table by the way - it's going to get hot.

 Did a pick-up of frit on this gather first - and put the gather on the end of an old, bent mandrel.

If you don't firepolish the heck out of it - the detail is quite nice.

The picture is crap - but the faces came out quite nice - ready to be embellished or integrated into something else.

If nothing else, you could make some nice little cabochons with these.

If you see them languishing on a sale table somewhere - pick one or two up.

They are practically collector's items now!

CiM 410 Shrubbery

  HEAD KNIGHT:  The Knights Who Say Nee demand a sacrifice!
  ARTHUR:  Knights of Nee, we are but simple travelers who seek the
      enchanter who lives beyond these woods.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Nee!  Nee!  Nee!  Nee!
  ARTHUR and PARTY:  Oh, ow!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We shall say 'nee' again to you if you do not appease us.
  ARTHUR:  Well, what is it you want?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We want... a shrubbery!

 If you now need to read the rest of the scene - I got it here. ;-)

CiM has delivered a Shrubbery - and in keeping with the criteria demanded by the Knights who say Nee, "looks nice and is not too expensive."

These are, from the left, two self-coloured and one with ivory dots. It's a little streaky, and the ivory has formed a nice line, which is, interestingly, not touching the ivory itself. Very tricksy.

Very shrubby. Nee. Nee. Nee.

CiM 112: Radio Flyer

Hellooo Effetre. CiM really knows how to do red. Pay attention.

Here is another great red from CiM - Radio Flyer.

From the left - two self coloured beads - which functionally read as opaque, and on the far right, Radio Flyer over clear - which reads as a nice, bright transparent. Talk about having it all.

The third bead from the left is interesting. This is a core of Radio Flyer, with dots in Eff 260 Light Pink, and dots of Radio Flyer on top. I was expecting red dots that really pop - but there is something else going on in there. 

The dots seem to have separated and lifted or something. Here's a close up for more detail.

I only did two layers of dots, base, pink, radio flyer on top - but it looks like an extra layer in there - so I really don't know what is going on there.

But interesting, eh?

Now whether that is a property of Radio Flyer, or Eff Light Pink - I do not know.

Effetre 736 Honey Swirl

When I first reviewed Honey Swirl, I mentioned that I thought it looked like it was de-vitrifying when I worked it, but couldn't see any evidence of it once it was done.

Apparently  - it will devitrify, (lose the glossy look of glass and develop a chalky, matte look), it's all how you work it.

This little sculptural practice piece de-vit'ed like crazy.

The older, cooler areas are affected. the pieces worked last are not - so you would treat it the same as EDP - if you want it glossy - heat to glowing and let cool, and kiln without re-heating.

Effetre 684 Blueberry Marble

 Last time I had my hands on some of this Eff 684 - it was called Tuxedo Cool - and I commented that it was on the purplish side, and "Blackberry Swirl" would have been a better name.

It's apparently a new batch, and been renamed Blueberry Marble. And it is indeed, rather bluish.







The rods look grey - although you can see from the ends - there is a mix of colours in there.

When wound off into spacers - you get a nice streaky look, a soft blue and grey effect. 

 So I thought I'd try whipping off a horse bead. Haven't made one in  while, so I'm a little rusty, but managed to pull it off. The swirly colour looks good.

 The back looks awesome - great pattern. This particular bead calls for getting the glass very hot and fluid - which works very well for this layered, swirly glass, and brings out the best in it. I suggest working it hot and letting it droop and move a lot.

Effetre 746 Petal Pink

 This is Effetre Petal Pink - a soft, delicate pink that will appeal to people who like dainty and pretty colours. (Not me, obviously!)

However, even I can see that it has it's place.













Here is a trio of self coloured spacers. Surely these would make a good base bead for some rubino dots?

To keep it interesting - I then messed around with it a little.

This is a base of petal pink, followed by trails of ivory. I then rolled it in silver foil, and melted the foil in, and added more trails of ivory. I reduced it, encased it in clear, and added trails of black on top.

The petal pink base has gone a honey-colour where the silver was - the sagey colour in the middle is where the ivory was UNDER the silver. The silver has fumed the pink and changed it's colour.

Don't forget - if a color bores you - you can always try something different with it, instead of just putting it aside and letting it accumulate. After a few years - the stack of glass you don't like can get discouraging.

The alternate is to never try anything different - and you certainly won't learn anything that way!

Effetre 441: Dark Matter

I've written about Dark Matter before - but I thought it was worth taking another look at it. Apparently - where it shines is not as a colour unto itself, but as a base for the high silver glasses.


This is a grouping of beads and the dark matter rods. This is the dark grey version - apparently there is a dark red version as well.

You can see a streakiness on the bead - it's very subtle and requires a lot of light to see it. When the bead is hot and goes into the kiln - it is actually quite interesting looking - purples. 

 OK - this bead is a base of dark matter, with a layer of (from the left) Zeus, Clio, and the frit is Reichenbach 198 Multi. The entire bead was encased in Zephyr and then heated and mashed.

This bead is a base of Dark Matter, rolled in silver foil, melted in, trails of ivory, encased Zephyr. 

 Same bead - other side. The greenish color is where the silver foil was - I didn't cover the entire bead.

Experiment with this with the silver colours - see what happens!

Back from Tucson

Ok, I want to start out by saying first. NONE OF THIS WORK IS MINE.

No confusion - this is stuff I BOUGHT at Tucson.

Tucson is, every February, host to countless number of bead, gem, jewelry, mineral, and rock shows. Literally countless - they pop up like mushrooms. Or cactii, as they don't have enough water in Tucson to grow mushrooms, but you get the idea. More on the shows themselves in a later post.

I just wanted to show you some of the lampwork that I purchased there because it's really freaking fabulous.

This is the haul.


This Vortex marble - look at the depth in that! 

 and this silver and gold fumed mer-dragon are both from the torches of the Mazet brothers.

These pieces are both Boro. The marble has that incredible sense of depth that a vortex marble should have - you keep turning it over to try and figure out where the rest of it is. They appear to be ... wait for it ... "bigger on the inside." The merdragon (note the webbed feet) has a charming sense of whimsy to it (him) that I liked, above and beyond the gold-sparkliness of him.

(Their website appears to be not-working at the moment, their facebook page is clearly abandoned. However, if you google "eli josh tim mazet" you'll find lots of other people talking about them - all of it good.)


These "fire opal" pieces (the one on the left is a ring, on the right is a bead) are wonderful - the colour is absolutely as fabulous as it looks here. These are by Jenny Friske-Baer, of Divine Spark Designs. Her website does work!

And these breath-taking beauties are by  Joy Munshower - the Tile Goddess. (Her website also works!)  Really - nothing needs to be said about how awesome these are. Except that she has more stuff that is equally awesome and you should go buy your own.

Zeus over Raven Sky

 The only thing of real interest from the other day's kiln full of meh was this - TAG Zeus over Effetre Raven Sky.

Given that Raven Sky is black and white, this shouldn't be a surprise.

This is Zeus over black. We know that Zeus does this thing. 

It did come out extra streaky, however.

I wonder if it is the type of black, or the way it was worked more than just a spacer.

I'd hate to cover up Raven Sky if there is another alternative.

Of course, streaks of Zeus instead of full encasement might look good. Hmmm.