Whats the best way of getting bright colours out of precision 104?

[Elthrin]

Just got some of this and I am ending up with muddy colours. Any tips?

[Hayley]

What torch are you on? Which glass exactly are you using on the Precision 104 line? Are they reducing or striking silver glass?

Post #4 on my silver exchange has a basic guide for striking and reducing silver glass.

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91758

Hope this helps.

[Elthrin]

I am running a Mega Minor on Propane and one oxycon.

These are the colours that I have. Not getting consistantly good colours out of any of them.

Dali - striking
Van Gogh - striking
daVinci II - striking
Michelangelo - both striking and reducing
daVinci I - reducing
Black Pearl - reducing
Cezanne - reducing
Miro - reducing
Zeus - reducing
Botero - reducing
Matisse - reducing
Kandinsky - reducingyields coppery red
Rocio - reducing
Picasso - reducing
Chagall - reducing
Monet - reducing

I guess reducing is my biggest problem as I am not sure what the process should be exactly.

Do you heat up the rod with a netral flame then switch to reducing when you have it on the manrel, work it into the shap you want then switch to a reducing flame to get the colours or maybe use a reducing flame all the time when useing it.

[Elthrin]

****** FROM HAYLEY's post*******
Some basic steps on striking and reducing silver glass.

Striking
1 Heat until translucent – as in molten, starts to get droopy. The top of the bead actually gets hazy.
2 Let cool until the glow is gone (do the under the table test), marvering helps cool the glass faster, thus yielding more colors
3 Slowly reheat at the tip of the flame. Once warm, bring the bead forward til it starts to glow orange
4 Let cool again – after this first strike, you should see brown and sometimes amber tones (note: if not, you didn’t heat it hot enough so start with step 1 again)
5 Reheat again yields dark purple – you don’t need to heat it molten from this point on
6 Repeated striking (heating and cooling) yields different colors – depending on how much you heat and how much you cool, as well as where you heat in the flame and which part of the bead you heat, you will get different range of colors. By varying the combinations of when you shape the bead, how many times you strike the glass and at what intensity you strike the glass, you will get different results.
7 If you over strike the glass and it turns just yucky creamy, start all over again. Most striking glass allows you to re-strike repeatedly.

Reducing
1 Once you have shaped your bead, let your it cool until the glow is gone (do the under the table test), marvering helps cool the glass faster.
2 Turn down your oxy a bit and up your propane a bit so the yellow candles are about 2-3" (note: some people just turn down the oxy or just turn up the propane) and swirl the bead at the tip of the flame about 6" from the face of your torch.
(note: depending on the glass, some need only slight reduction while others need a lot)
3 Take the bead out of the flame and see the iridescence develop.
4 Repeat steps 1 to 3 if you want more reduction.
5 Change your flame to an oxydizing flame and “erase” some of the reduction for interesting effects.

This is just a start – play with:
• using lighter and heavier reduction (so the yellow candles are shorter or longer)
• putting the bead closer, or further away, in the flame
• putting it in the flame less or more, as in quick flash or longer swirl
• reducing multiple times (as well as varying which part of the bead you reduce)
• alternating it between reduction and oxydizing flame

Note: some glass allows you to “erase” all the reduction in an oxydizing flame and start all over while other will not.