Dichro in lampwork

[dgg112]

Ok I'm dichro challenged. First of all I couldn't figure out which side was which, but I think I got that figured out. I made a bead which I had such high hopes for, it was going to be gorgeous!!!!!!!!!! Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll l, it fell realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll short of being gorgeous. I put some small pieces of dichro (104) in the bead and it just kinda sits there and there's not a lot of sparkle. Now I've seen dichro in fusing but I've never seen it in person in lampwork, is it supposed to just sit there?? My final bead looks like it's got these deep clear holes in it and the dichro isn't near as shiny/sparkly as it was before I put it in the bead. Does anyone have any tips they don't mind sharing. ](*,)

[graceful]

I fell in love with the look of dichro and that's why I started lampworking. I am still a newbie, but I will tell you the things I have learned so far....

a. Sparkle intensifies a lot when covered with an extra layer of clear.
b. Clear backed dichro shows up much better when put on a base bead of dark color, such as cobalt.
c. If you encase dichro in clear and pull stringers, you break up the dichro and it is way less intense. Works well for some designs though.

Not a ton of information, but hopefully helpful.