Double Helix Iris - and Reduction Loss from Annealing

Double Helix Iris - a killer metallic lustre reduction glass.

You might remember that I have been speculating that I have been losing some of the reduction effect during annealing - so in this case - I left one of my little bits out of the kiln to see if there was a difference.

That unannealed piece is on the left, then the stub of the rod, and 4 annealed pieces.


You will note that the rod is so dense that it really looks black - just the barest smidge of a red purple shows - so make sure you don't store it next to your black, eh?

Here they are again -this time flipped over to show the other sides, still with the unannealed on the left, the others on the right.

 It is super easy to get good reduction on this glass. I found I got best results from cooling to not-glowing, and then reducing in the tip of the reduction candles, as opposed to in the blue part of the flame, past the candles.

They are pretty dramatic, although I rather prefer the blue and purple tones to the metallic olive.


But here is the kicker - this is the un-annealed piece from the left above - after going through an annealing cycle.

 And the other side.

 And from another angle.

And just one more. 

It has, in fact, lost it's purple and blue tones, to a large extent.

So - is it the temperature that I anneal at? The speed? The atmosphere in the kiln? What?