Raised Reduction Frit Secrets?

[Erica]

I made a set of beads with raised reduction frit scrolls-well, in the morning when I took them out of the kiln a few of the scrolls had popped off, and I picked a bunch more off with my nails. I thought that I'd melted it in enough, but I guess not. I noticed that on the beads where the scrolls didn't pop off, the frit stringer was thicker-is that the secret? Please help, these were really cool beads!

[suzanne]

The trick is to get your base bead hot enough to stick to the raised stringer decoration. If your base bead is to cold, the stringer may look as if its nicely melted, but it will pop off as soon as the bead is annealed.

What I do is put the base bead in the flame and make it glow just very dull. I apply the stringer decoration ( you might want to try to poke the bead with the stringer first, if the bead is still too hot, you will find your stringer moves the surface of the base bead, like pushing on jellowpudding... I hope you understand what I mean).

I always put the bead back in the flame before applying the rest of the scrollwork to make sure the bead is nice and warm, so the stringer will stick to the surface.

Good Luck,
Suzanne

[Shawn T]

Erica,
I had this problem also when I frist strated playing with reduction frit stringers.
Suzanne nailed it!

Also the new Bullseye lusters are wonderful and don't seem to have the same problems that the other reduction frits do. I am sure this is because they are 100% compatable with all the other Bullseye colors you use with them. The Lusters turn just as pretty and shiney and come in 6 different colors now.

[Erica]

Do you have to reduce the Bullseye lusters, or do they just do that on their own?