Help! I need ideas on what to do with this glass.

[playswithfire104]

A while back I got a grab bag of vintage german glass from Phoenix Art Glass. Some of the colors were great and I blew throu them. But now I have a bunch of amber colored rods that I just don't know what to do with. A couple of them are so dark that the beads almost look black. Since tthe COE of this glass is unknown I can't really mix it with any other glass. I also have a couple of shades of gray. I probably have at least 4 different shades - mostly pretty dark - of amber. What should I do with them? I need ideas on how to make beads with only one color interesting. So what do you all think I should do with this glass?

[Phoenix]

I've used most of the ambers successfully with 96 glass- if you just use a tad of 104 that's usually ok as well if you don't encase-

I like the ambers with raku and iris dark brown

or with white flowers laid on the surface

The grey loks great over 96 white

If you are going for a set- a test bead is a good idea since the coe is around 96- but as with a lot of the 96 it is variable

Enjoy!

[Phoenix]

The other thing that cna be fun is playing with shapes- I love hollows with glass I don't want to mix

and you can play with cutting in shapes to make hearts and wings and amoebas and swirls...

[playswithfire104]

I don't have any 96. Between Boro, BE, 104 and Satake I had to draw a line somewhere! :-P I was thinking of maybe raku (even thou it hasn't been cooperating with me lately) or goldstone.

[playswithfire104]

I'm not sure what you mean by "cutting in shapes".

[Phoenix]

I don't have any 96. Between Boro, BE, 104 and Satake I had to draw a line somewhere! :-P I was thinking of maybe raku (even thou it hasn't been cooperating with me lately) or goldstone.

Raku does look great - most of the frits are 96- and they can be used much heavier on these than on 104!

I'm not sure what you mean by "cutting in shapes".

Make a bead, squish it and take a scissors to it- Let me look for an example-

46583

[playswithfire104]

OH! COOL!!!! Yeah, I'll try that!!! Thanks!

[Phoenix]

Have fun- I'd love to see what you come up with!

[Lisi]

My idea is that if you have a glass color and you are not sure of the COE, then use frit!! Yep, the furnace glass frits on the surface should be fine.

I made some beads out of a blue vodka bottle and used Reichenbach frit on those. I did this years ago and those beads are fine still that I know of. I wish i could find them and take a picture!

[Lisi]

My idea is that if you have a glass color and you are not sure of the COE, then use frit!! Yep, the furnace glass frits on the surface should be fine.

I made some beads out of a blue vodka bottle and used Reichenbach frit on those. I did this years ago and those beads are fine still that I know of. I wish I could find them and take a picture! They had a mix of opaque white, purple rose, and transparent violet-purple.

[playswithfire104]

What color frit would you use on dark amber? Or gray?

[Lisi]

What color frit would you use on dark amber? Or gray?

Oops, I had a double post up there!

On the amber, you could get a boro like affect with iris amber green, Val's Boro Bora, iris yellow, iris gold... Raku would give you some olive green tones. Val's Cashmere (like an ivory color) would be nice.

The gray - I would try raku. Is it a dark gray or is it light?? If it is a light gray, you could try a shade of dark or intense transparent blue and get a dark denim-like color.

[playswithfire104]

I have a fairly dark transparent gray and a lighter but not light trans gray. Other than iris gold and raku I don't have any of those frits. But thanks for the suggestions.

[Phoenix]

I have a fairly dark transparent gray and a lighter but not light trans gray. Other than iris gold and raku I don't have any of those frits. But thanks for the suggestions.


If you have anything whitish it looks good on those greys as well- you can test a bit of 104 white on the grey also- it's a pretty forgiving glass

[playswithfire104]

Jess I tried the cutting thing. How fun!!! I discovered the one black rod is really green. I added some goldstone and played with raku. I can't wait to open my kiln tomorrow!

[SuzyQ]

Ditto on the frit thing. Also etching is nice on the darker colors. You get kind of a glow thing going on. Especially if you put some of the white underneath.

[Kevan]

How about hollow beads with stinger decoration in the same color?

[raindance]

I have a little of this amber and I just love it! I make off-mandrel leaf pendants, apply ASK Silver Cinnamon or Caramel Apple stringer, then rake for leaf veins. These colors work really nice on beads, too. They really compliment the amber. You don't need much...and just on the surface. Flash the bead in and out of different parts of the flame and you can get Raku-like changes in color where the stringer is applied.

[Phoenix]

Jess I tried the cutting thing. How fun!!! I discovered the one black rod is really green. I added some goldstone and played with raku. I can't wait to open my kiln tomorrow!

wonderful! I love that green also- It was packed with the black and I didn't know it was green until I cleaned it!

[Phoenix]

I have a little of this amber and I just love it! I make off-mandrel leaf pendants, apply ASK Silver Cinnamon or Caramel Apple stringer, then rake for leaf veins. These colors work really nice on beads, too. They really compliment the amber. You don't need much...and just on the surface. Flash the bead in and out of different parts of the flame and you can get Raku-like changes in color where the stringer is applied.

Thanks Mendy- yet another reason for me to order those colors!

[Phoenix]

How about hollow beads with stinger decoration in the same color?


Yes! or with stringer just a shade lighter or darker since it sounds like you have a few shades

With that- I need to sleep at some point- I hope the kiln fairies are kind tonight!

[Hothead Beads]

Here's another idea, although boring, make spacer beads and use them with sets.

[Phoenix]

and silver- anything with silver added looks suddenly more elegant!

[playswithfire104]

I did try adding some OR to the black and I just can't get it to do anything for me. The raku REALLY played nice with this glass! The only issue I had was on a large hole bead - a piece of raku cracked off. It was melted in compeletly so I was surprized that it cracked. And a couple of "kiss" marks on beads that touched. I must have put them in the kiln before they had cooled enough.

I have leaf mashers and did play around with making leaves. I still need PPP but a few of them came out pretty good.

I'm leary about using stringer since I don't have any other 96 glass. But I had the MOST fun doing the cutting thing. I'll take some pics but I have been having trouble getting them to post. Any suggestions on posting pics? I did it once before (last summer) and it worked. I tried again last week and kept getting an error message.

A BIG THANK YOU!!!!! to everyone for your suggestions!!!!! They really helped alot!!!!

[Phoenix]

I did try adding some OR to the black and I just can't get it to do anything for me. The raku REALLY played nice with this glass! The only issue I had was on a large hole bead - a piece of raku cracked off. It was melted in compeletly so I was surprized that it cracked. And a couple of "kiss" marks on beads that touched. I must have put them in the kiln before they had cooled enough.

I have leaf mashers and did play around with making leaves. I still need PPP but a few of them came out pretty good.

I'm leary about using stringer since I don't have any other 96 glass. But I had the MOST fun doing the cutting thing. I'll take some pics but I have been having trouble getting them to post. Any suggestions on posting pics? I did it once before (last summer) and it worked. I tried again last week and kept getting an error message.

A BIG THANK YOU!!!!! to everyone for your suggestions!!!!! They really helped alot!!!!

So glad you are having fun! For pics- two things to try- make the pic a bit smaller by cropping or when you save it- save as a jpeg and when your program asks what quality- choose one lower than whatever was too large to upload.

[lunamoonshadow]

Pink opaque frit on grey is fun!

[raindance]

Here's a picture of the leaf pendants I was telling you about. The lightest pendant on the left has the ASK Caramel Apple and the rest have the Silver Cinnamon.
60264

[raindance]

On the amber, you could get a boro like affect with iris amber green, Val's Boro Bora, iris yellow, iris gold... Raku would give you some olive green tones. Val's Cashmere (like an ivory color) would be nice.

The gray - I would try raku. Is it a dark gray or is it light?? If it is a light gray, you could try a shade of dark or intense transparent blue and get a dark denim-like color.

So true, Lisi! Val's Cashmere looks awesome on all of the transparent browns and ambers!

On transparent grays, SIS or homemade SIS frit looks stunning. I've not tried the Cashmere on the grey yet, but I'll bet that would look good, too.

[Phoenix]

Here's a picture of the leaf pendants I was telling you about. The lightest pendant on the left has the ASK Caramel Apple and the rest have the Silver Cinnamon.
60264

Those colors are scrumptious together!

[playswithfire104]

Well all of the green beads I used raku on either cracked or actually broke into pieces. All of the green beads that I cut were failures. They all broke into pieces. But the black with the raku seemed fine. The amber colors seemed for the most part OK. One that I cut did break. I'm gonna try again today.

[Phoenix]

darn Nancy- I'm glad you had fun though!

When you but- you are chilling with your tool- so do make sure to give it a little warm after you cut- I just did the same thing inthe hot shop- ended up with a heart breaking crack in an otherwise great bowl!

[CO_Phantom]

I would try hollows as someone else mentioned. And you can just use stringer of the same rod to decorate. No need for other 96 COE glass. No compatibility issues since it's the same glass you'd be using to decorate.

-Amy