Rods?

[jana]

I was gifted some boro from Nagibeads and am loving it. I also bought Mr. Smiley's shorts, but there was not a large mix of colors in it.

I am wanting to try colors before I buy a pound of such expensive glass.

Anyone know a distributor that sells by the rod? I have found some soft glass dealers that let you buy a rod at a time, was hoping for the same in boro.

[Over the Moon]

Hi Jana! I'm not sure about single rods, but Northstar, Glass Alchemy, Precision, and Momka's all have sample colour bundles available to buy, where you'd get pretty much 1 of each colour. They're a great deal...
Have fun playing!
Val

[Mr. Smiley]

Jana... did you melt the boro shorts? A lot of them look similar (blue or dark blue), until you melt them. It's the ingredients that make them different. It's not going to be a visual rainbow like soft glass colors in rod form. ;)

[HardwoodTrailGlass]

Mountain Glass Arts will sell by the rod:

http://www.mountainglassarts.com/

[Cosmo]

We sell by the rod. Not currently on the site (still working on updating the store) but if you want some, just call or e-mail me.

[jana]

Yes, I spent the a couple hours the first night I got them, melting both ends and squishing them into paddles, then oxidizing one end and reducing the other. I got a lot of rods in my pound, but they are mostly all the same colors, just serveral of each color. I am not unhappy with them at all, just not as many different colors as I would like to try. The quality and length was great!

I have a question about one of the colors though...there is a red rod that the flame seems to chase the color out of it. Why does it turn clear?



Jana... did you melt the boro shorts? A lot of them look similar (blue or dark blue), until you melt them. It's the ingredients that make them different. It's not going to be a visual rainbow like soft glass colors in rod form. ;)

[Cosmo]

Ruby, Garnet, and other transparent reds work like that. Annealing them will make them turn red again.

[Cat]

I purchased sample sets from all the different manufacturers - it ran a little expensive, but in the long run I had all the colors to work with and figure out what I wanted more of. The nice thing is that the sample sets come with little booklets explaining each color and how to best work it.

[rusticstudio]

Hmmm... my Northstar sampler did not come with a booklet...

[Cosmo]

Northstar sample packs don't. GA sample packs do.

[Starfield]

The Northstar website has all the details on working their rods- www.northstar.com

KAren

[loco]

Winship's catalog has a great color chart! Call them and request a catalog, instant color chart!

http://www.winshipdesigns.com/home/ws1/index_ws.html

[Karen Hardy]

I'm a big fan of the "sampler packs". I bought one from each mfg
and got to try out each color - so now I know which ones are my
favorites and which ones just don't work for me.

No matter which colors you like, make sure that you stock up heavily
on the clears. You can really stretch boro by making your base beads
in clear and adding a layer of color over that. Boro be 'spensive stuff.