Super Light Opal Yellow...

[Rachel]

Hi. I bought a pound of a "super pale" colored opal yellow. It is very pale. I must be doing something wrong with it. Every time I've used it, the color burns out of it. The rod turns white where I've melted it and it never goes back. I've tried a lot of things to change it but it always turns white. Has anyone else had this experience with it? I am not usually too bad about burning my glass and I've really tried to baby this color. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. What did you do to fix it?

Thanks!

[Lisa Jordan]

I'm with you Rachel. I just bought my first bunch of OY in a few years and it is drastically different from my initial purchase! Bummed! I'll be watching this thread to see if there are some tricks to getting some great color out of this batch. Thanks, Lisa

[cghipp]

Try some silver leaf on it; that will help bring the yellow/gold color back out. You might also try striking it. Good luck!

Courtney

[laurellanestudios]

Do the pale opal yellow rods look like transparent ivory? Last summer I bought glass from a woman who was getting rid of her entire studio. None of the glass was labeled.

Yesterday I tried one of these rods and it came out of the kiln an ugly shade of orange. Really...not pretty.

I'll keep playing around with it but do remember that I had it in the torch a very brief time. (I made a small spacer as a tester.)

Kathy

[cghipp]

Sounds like you got some Tongue Pink rods. I like that color, but I wouldn't like it if I was hoping for Opal Yellow! Or, maybe they were striking orange if they're transparent. I missed that part on the first read.

Courtney

[Rachel]

the rods look like a very pale yellow. two different sellers on eBay I've seen are selling it and it is labeled "very pale opal yellow." I've tried using foil and various other things to it but it basically just turns white when you melt it. The rod even stays white where it was melted. I don't think I got the wrong color. I think it is a very pale batch of opal yellow. Compared to the other opal yellow I have, it looks the same except much lighter. It doesn't look transparent. It is definitely opaque. I am stumped on what to do with it. I will try to post a picture of it.

[cghipp]

I should have been more clear - I was talking about Kathy's rods.

I liked the "baby chick yellow" opal yellow, but it sounds like the latest batch of light opal yellow is Not Special!

[Moth]

Actually, the latest batch of opal yellow is VERY special.

It is unreactive ivory.

Do you know how valuable that is? LOL

To be able to have an ivory base that doesn't react the way regular ivory does.

I buy it up every time I see it. It doesn't swallow up anything you put on it, it doesn't bleed out of encasement at the ends.

It IS a much prettier COLOR before you melt it...but as a NON-color...it kicks some serious bead booty. It stays stable as a stringer even when not encased.

I can't say enough good about it.

If you are looking for a beautiful pale yellow...you aren't going to get it out of the pale opal yellow...but if you want a non-reactive ivory...it's your huckleberry.

~~Mary

Off to buy up as much as I can afford before anybody else can get it. LOL

pssst: jodelhasitbytherod

[cghipp]

Mary - Glad you have found your dream Ivory. Too bad it's a handpulled color!

Hmmm... Now that I think about it, it WOULD be nice to have an Ivory that didn't creep out from under the encasing!

[Moth]

Mary - Glad you have found your dream Ivory. Too bad it's a handpulled color!



LOL, yes...$40/pound is NOT my idea of a good value.

[beadworkstudio]

I think mine is from the newer batch, and I got mine to strike last night. I was trying to get it to change colors, but wouldn't do that for me.

I had thought about using it in place of ivory; thanks for the tip, Mary. I think it would work well unless you have use other striking colors with it.

[alissa]

I liked the "baby chick yellow" opal yellow, but it sounds like the latest batch of light opal yellow is Not Special!

I just got a few rods that look baby chick yellow from Howaco - anything special about it? I haven't melted any yet.

[Heather/Ericaceae]

I guess I have the light stuff. It's the first OY I ever had so I can't tell the difference, except that I've seen it pictured some places (Chris Fisher's Moretti Chart, for example) as a medium brown colour, which is definitely not what I have! I've been enjoying it for the same reasons Mary listed... Just tried to order some from Glasssmith (crazy sale on odd colours!) but they were out. When I use it as a base, I start with a cheap transparent first for "body", then cover that with a thin layer of the pricy colour on the surface. I'm still going through it way too fast, though! :) Maybe someday I'll get the darker OY for comparison. -Heather

[SuzyQ]

Mary that is exactly how I use it. It is wonderful for petals.

[Tanya]

I don't know about the light OY, but I love the regular because it's a nice warm off-white. If I use just the OY it stays that color. When I start adding other glass to it, it will start going yellow in areas. I wouldn't call it non-reactive, but it's a lot better than ivory.

[Moth]

This stuff is even lighter than the 'light'.

It really is super pale.

The only other opal yellow I have is very dark yellow, almost like a honey color with rings of pink on the insides of the rods.

When I just use that as opal yellow, it stays yellow, but if I put other stuff over it, and then reheat, shape, reheat, shape the opal yellow areas eventually turn pink.

This pale stuff hasn't done that so far the way I've been using it. It pretty much just stays a very warm looking white. Ivory. Even with other stuff over it.

I should do some experiments next time and see what I can get it to do color-wise. It's just that I've been so happy that it doesn't do anything, that I didn't want to try to make it do something. LOL

~~Mary