HOW'D I do this?!?!

[kramdas]

HELP!!! I was playing around with some frit the other night, and I got gorgeous purple tones out of Dark Iris Gold. Tried to reproduce it for 2 days, but no dice...all I'm getting are ambers and greens. I'm on a hothead, using bulk propylene, used dark ivory-Moretti as a base, Moretti clear (but I saw the reaction before I encased), believe I worked that bead rather quickly (for a hothead!), it was evening, I was listening to Enrique Iglecias, wore jeans, sat facing North......anybody have any advice for me? :rolleyes:
6732367324

[Lara]

Well, on my mini cc to get the purples out of the iris gold (the iris is the purple don't you know). I turn on the dragon breath reduction flame - all reduction, no O2 turned up super high.

I'm not sure on the hh, probably just got it in the flame just right.

I like them all btw.

[kramdas]

Thanks Lara-the hothead is pretty good at reducing....hmmm, so you think low oxy is the key here? Do you find heat to be a factor? (what's dragon breath on a mini cc? Big bushy flame?)

[Lara]

Yup, big flame! I don't know about the heat.

[kramdas]

I can't get that and have reduction, but there must be a sweet spot somewhere...found it once! :-? I'm gonna keep trying....thanks for the info!

[Emily]

Did you try treating it like raku -- getting it hot, then cooling it quickly? Do you marver your beads before you encase? Maybe you rolled it on a cold paddle, then encased quickly without reheating. Graphite heats up and retains heat for a long time, so it would make sense that you might not have been able to reproduce it later, if your paddle was too hot. I know graphite can get hot enough to burn skin. (Do I have to explain how I found that out?) If you don't marver into a barrel shape before you encase, maybe you could try blowing on the bead after you've gotten the frit really hot. Some people can bring the color out of raku that way.

Since you say that it's iris gold on ivory, I'll pretty much guarantee that you worked it fast (darn fast, I'd say). With that combination, if you don't, you're likely to get nothing but gray-brown crud all over. Reduction glass and ivory don't play together nicely as a rule.

[kramdas]

Emily-there was no thought process what so ever behind making that bead, was just whipping out a few samples to see what the color would be! No marvering, nothing...figures! Can you suggest some better base colors to try it on? Used the frit on white and just got a honey yellow color...(Oh, and I don't get the raku thing happening for me either-whole 'nother story! That's why this was so exciting for me!!!!!)

[Emily]

I have no idea -- just guessing. I didn't know iris gold ever turned that color. I think the ivory is what's giving you the brown outline, and you want to keep working fast to keep everything from turning that dark cruddy color. Mostly when I've tried to use reduction glass with ivory, the cruddy reaction is all I get. My biggest struggle hasn't been to recreate beautiful colors, it's been to find an ivory that I can use with reduction glass and not get schmutz. (Vetrofond light ivory is the least reactive of the ivories, but I've discovered that if you keep working it, even it will darken. But you want some of the reaction to give you that outline, so I'd suggest that you stay away from the Vetro light ivory.)

Why not try treating the iris gold frit like you would treat raku, and see if it gives you some color? Instead of trying to reduce it, get it screaming hot, then cool it down and see if anything happens. If it doesn't work, try something else.

[suzanne]

are you sure you used iris gold and not iris yellow? I know iris yellow does do the purple thing and stuff/

Suzanne

[evilglass]

Part of it is probably how much of the iris gold you used. When putting it on a dark color, as a faux boro stringer, if I dip the straw yellow or transparent light brown into the frit once I get one set of colors. If I dip it two or three times, I get another family of colors. I'm thinking it's single dips for blues and greens. And I pulled some pinks and violets out of it by putting it on rubino.

So....maybe it's a thin layer of it?

[kramdas]

Emily-I'm going to try heating the heck out of it next time I torch, but I know that wasn't what happened, I made that bead too quickly darn it!! And FINALLY!-another person who uses the word schmutz!!! :)

Suzanne-yeah, pretty sure-it's in a sample jar from Val....

Evilglass-I think you're on to something there!! It was a quick roll through the pile for my lucky bead! I also noticed more browns with more frit...maybe the pieces were aligned just right...!

I really appreciate all of the help from you guys! You've got my brain thinking along different avenues...Next time I'm lucky enough to hit the torch I'm gonna try all this stuff again!

[*Naos*]

Actually, Raku acts rather friendly with Dark Ivory and Ivory. Sure, it produces a black frame around the outline of the frit but I rather like that effect. It's one of the only ways i can get color from Raku on my HotHead. Basically, you made that particular bead quickly and it cooled around the bead hole before you encased. Just do that again. :) Easier said than done of course. :)

Here are some of my results with Raku and Dark Ivory on a HotHead... I can get blues, purples, creams, oranges and greens... It's best to use size #0 frit.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248/1116383/15918452/247103164.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248/1116383/15918452/247103162.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248/1116383/9138258/127207424.jpg

Also try Raku on Lauscha Steel Blue, Intense Black, Toast Brown, Lavender... I also see Transparent Purple used a lot...

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248/1116383/9138258/197203846.jpg

[Shawn T]

Dark Iris Gold will turn from gold to maroon to purple and I think you can see this in your bead shown above. It is of course much easier to get this reaction on a oxy/propane mixed torch where you can change your flame to reduction with the switch of a knob. I know on a HH you can do it also but it has been so many years since I worked on my we didn't have these frits widely available to us than. A kiss in the reduction flame will turn it gold, long and you get maroon, a bit longer and it will turn purple. You can watch and see the reaction, and bring it back to a neutral flame if you get it wrong and try again. I will see if I still have pic saved on my computer of beads I have made showing this reaction it has been a long time since I played with it so not sure if I still have them as it was before my computer crashed.


About Raku if your having problems getting the colors to come out and play HH or not start off with any of the Moretti Browns as your base color. They seem to love Raku it is a chemical reaction between the colors and the raku will pop very easy on the base of brown. Try 444 or 448 to start with, heat and cool either with brass or just heat like the dickens in the flame till you see the colors pop. You can always go back and spot heat the brown colors that don't pop to brighter colors.

Hope that helps you some.

[kramdas]

Amber-lovely beads! I'm able to get those colors with raku, so does that mean there's actually hope?! Only have Lauscha clear at the moment, but love it on the steel blue! If it doesn't work out, at least I'll have a full set of the green/amber by the time I'm done! LOL

Shawn-I've seen the frit go from gold to maroon-my green happens in between those stages so there must be a nanosecond where it hits purple before maroon with the HH cause the maroon happened when I heated the bejeezus out of it...I'm going to try covering my oxygen holes to get more reduction, and-what the heck-I'm gonna try it all again, maybe the moon is different today!

Thanks for all the inspiration everyone! I'm off to torch!!!!!

[kramdas]

Well..... still no luck, so ya know what I'm gonna do? UPGRADE MY TORCH!! (I'll teach that glass a lesson!):wink: