Silver/reducing colors for Hot Head

[cherylsart]

I know there was a thread about this at some point and I'll look for it, but there are some new striking/silver/reducing colors and I'd like to know if any of them will work on a Hot Head.

[maren]

Cheryl,

reducing on a hothead goes as follows (I haven't done this - heck, I haven't lit my torvh in what seems like months and may be so, but these are the instructions mikala gave me, and I have recently seen on a video as well):

Make yourself a piece of aluminum foil, several layers thick, that fits around the air intake of your hothead and wrap it around the part that doesn't have the air intake holes. Have something on hand to handle it with on hand, a wooden clothes pin, bent nose pliers, long handled tweezers, hemostats. Use your hothead as normal to make your bead - without the holes covered. When you want to reduce, cover the air intake holes with the aluminum foil with your tool of choice.

That's as much as I know and remember.

HTH,
Maren

[tasminann]

Hi Cheryl,

Take a peek in the (free) Tutorials section; I know I've seen some info on silver glass with HotHeads in there. (You may have to go through a few pages to find the threads, unless you're good with the search tool.)

[EaglesLegacy]

Tutorial on reducing on a HH (http://lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86417)

[nickandryan]

Hi Cheryl-

In my experience, your best bet is going to be Triton and Aurae- I have had good luck with both of these. The Triton has a bluish-silver sheen to it, and the Aurae has a goldish-pink. I can get highly metallic looks out of it and also more subdued tones. It can be encased.

On a hothead, it works best as decoration or encased. By the time you melt down a bead to a round, it will just get scummy. Pull it out into stringers or just do dots- metallic if you leave them raised, opal-like shine of you melt them down slightly and encase. Melt them down towards the top of the flame, and then take it out- turn up your flame, and roll the bead in the flame. You will see it begin to bring the metals to the surface. You will get different effect depending on how cool the bead is. I seem to get the best results when the bead is cool and my propane tank has just been filled.

I just ordered some Ekho and will let you know how that goes.

I don't think most of the striking glass will get hot enough on a HH, maybe some of the new Striking Glass (company name) will- I haven't tried any of it yet. Hope this helps, Laura

[cherylsart]

It does help, Laura. Thanks!

[Firebrand Beads]

TAG colors that reportedly work on a hothead include Zeus and Juno, partly because it's a reducing glass that strikes, rather than being a striking glass that needs to be heated to white hot. With these, you put a little reduction to the silver color, cool it down and then use a neutral flame to reheat it, and 'strike' the reduction film. You don't want to burn through it, but just reheat it and cool it down a couple of times. Use Zeus over dark base colors and Juno over lighter colors for best effects. Our Tibet is reported to be easy to strike in the hothead, too -- that is a striking amber-purple 104 glass. It just needs to be heated and cooled and then reheated.