Encasing silverfoil?

[Fru Babsan]

I'm getting crazy over this.

I have an bead design in my head which includes a dolphin in silverfoil being encased on the bead. But no matter how I try to do the encasing the (&=/"¤/!(%&## dolphin turnes yellow.

I*ve to find som e clue her on LE, and everywhere people say that I have to keep the silver out of the flame while encasing. But how far out? And how do I keep the encasing glass molten?? When I keep the bead out of the flame the rod stiffens, when I come closer to the flame the silver darkens. #-o

I'm on a HotHead with bulk fuel - is that part of the problem?

I'd be soo grateful if someone could give me a hinch of what to do.

[MelissaQ]

Silver turns yellow for me also. I'm sure someone here will have a lot of good advice for you. You could also use palladium which stays pretty silver for the most part after encasing.

[*Sally*]

Hey Susanne,
Painful isn't it ?
I don't know if this will help or not but ......... here goes.

When you've burnished the silver onto your bead you should still be ok to flash it through the flame every now and then to keep it warm. Just try not to spot heat where the silver is.

Most important :
Before encasing, hold the clear out of the flame for a few seconds.
Your clear needs to be soft enough to apply but ......... definately not glowing.
It's all in the timing. ( helpful aren't I ? :cool: ).

Too hot and your silver will turn gold again. :-(
Then again, sometimes that's a good thing and actually works in with the design. :grin:

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Good luck.

[Angela Schoonen]

It depends what color you're putting the silver on. It will react with different colors in different glasses. You might want to try experimenting with that.
I find it stays the most silver on black glass. When I put it on cobalt it goes a milky color (which I personally love).
The other thing you could try (I never have, so I don't know if this will work) is encasing your bead in clear, then applying the silver foil, then encasing again. I have no idea if that will keep the color?
Play around with it and have fun!

[scoutycat]

I keep my bead & leaf just under the flame when I'm encasing; if the bead needs warming I do it way out in the tip of the flame where it's still pretty cool. Once I've cased some of the bead, I keep it lower in the flame, with the cased side towards the torch. You might find it easier to case with pale aqua or blue instead, they don't seem to give the yellowing effect. - jen

[SadiesJewels]

The type of clear has the potential to turn the silver yellow no matter what glass the base is, the state of your flame or the phase of the moon. Having said that I love this effect - each of the clears turns the silver a different color which is something you can use to great effect. Unfortunately it's not always a given and tends to be rather random - thereby giving the idea that a certain way of working it solves the problem!

If you're using bullseye they have a special clear for using over silver that doesn't discolor it. Other than that try the different type of clears - you might try the R4 diamond clear - I haven't tried that over silver yet. It's also possible that the vetrofond crystal clear keeps the silver a silver color too. Try them out and see what you get.

[sculptorgirl]

Like Sadie said, it may be the clear you are using. (Sorry, I can't remember which ones are known to turn the silver yellow, and which one/s let it stay silver-colored. You might try posting a photo of the bead in the Gallery -- it gets more visitors than the "Tips" section -- and ask if anyone knows which clear to use to encase the silver.)

[jknapp]

also, use morretti clear, it won't turn color yellow

[PixieFireBeads]

Silver turns gold on me when I encase with Lauscha clear. It's nice if that's the effect you are looking for but if it's not it'll drive you nuts. I use Effetre or Vetrofond when I want to make sure the silver doesn't change.

[evilglass]

the palest aqua was what I used for making silver stay silver.

[Fru Babsan]

Thanks everyone! Lot of tips here. :)

I tried to encase in Effetr clear and Vetro clear. The only difference I've noticed is that the Vetro is so much stiffer (and therefore harder) to work with.

Sally: I did not know that the clear should cool down slightly. I've tried to keep it as hot as possible to make the softened glass last longer through the encasing.

Sdie: I'm new to this line of art. What is R4?

I too think that the silver turning gold could be a nice effect, though not on a dolphin. Have to try Angelas tip with silver on cobolt. Sounds really pretty!

And I will try to encase in pale aqua.

Thankyou all! :wave:

[Emily]

Very pale aqua will not react with silver.

Effetre clear will react with silver.