Raku has silver in it so it will react with ivory.

I've been getting some colour so I'm happy about that but how can you make a longer bead that doesn't all gather in the middle when you do the "gravity swirl" (anyone old enough to remember the "time warp"?) thereby losing your nice ends?

Here are some of mine...the first 2 are on black and the last one is a copper green base.

if you're doing a gravity swirl, you need to make your bead long enough that concentrating the heat on the center doesn't also heat the ends to the point that they pull in :)

Sooooo Dawn - any tips on working raku cane? I have a lot of trouble getting consistent color.

Well, I don't really get consistent color either and that's the beauty of it. I just work it into the shape I want, let it cool just until it looses it's glow then I quickly super heat the outside of it and either press or marver it or roll it in my marble mold to chill it. This makes the dark purple and reds....then I reheat just as if I were flame polishing, not super hot, and marver press or roll it again to get the blues and greens. Even though the beads sometimes come out with totally different colors throughout the set, they still look good together.

You'll see in this set I had to reheat and marver the cones quite a few times to get them in the shape I wanted. That's why they came out more blue, but with the discs, I was able to shape them with less reheating and got mostly darker colors.

I guess by consistent, I meant "any" :lol:.

I saw those beads in the S&T (and drooled all over my keyboard :)) - what I have problems with is getting the initial color change to start on that large of an area. I usually end up with a splotch or two of color and the rest is tan.

Where you got the color, the bead got hot enough to shift colors. The tan part didn't get hot enough. That's why I don't do really long beads out of raku very often. When I do, I super heat one side and marver it then I do the other side. But then there's usually a patch in the middle that didn't get hot enough, so I super heat the middle and marver it. It ends up looking blotchy, but at least it has color all the way across the bead. Your best bet is to make a bead no bigger than you can super heat all at once the first time.

And if you still can't get it, come on down and let me show you! (We can go visit Filbert. He told me to tell you "murt, murt, murt!")

:lol:
:lol:

Tell him "murt, murt" back at him from me!

I will try again - perhaps I will turn my minor up blazing hot!

Use a nice neutral or oxygen rich flame, but get the bead right up about an inch or less from the face of the torch to do the quick super heat thing. If you see that metallic film run across the bead, there's still too much propane. You should be able to get real close and real hot without that film showing up. BTW....I use a Minor with one concentrator.

Dawn - I think you may have just given me a big clue! The "metallic film"! I have seen that but didn't know what it meant!

I have a minor with 2 oxycons, so I should be able to get a nice oxy flame.

Wonderful! Wonderful! I can't wait to try it out now.

Yes! The comment about the "metallic film" lit the light bulb :idea: for me too! I've only got one oxycon, but I'll play around some more and decrease the propane a little. I get some color, but not COLOR. Can't wait to try again!
Thanks for all the helpful tips Dawn.

Dawn,
I was so hoping you would post that wonderful set here. Are these encased? I am also so glad to know the order the colors develop. Interestingly, when I get purples I usually also get yellows. Is the yellow the color before or after the purple? If I am wanting for blues and greens, do I reheat and cool after the yellow? When do the reds develop? I see them with the yellows sometimes too. Thanks for all your help and the wonderful inpiration. When I grow up I want to be able to do raku half as well as you.


Joyce

Squidly & Judi,....woohoo!!!.... Make sure you post pictures!

Awwww....Thanks Joyce! That set is solid raku with no encasing.

As far as the order in which the colors appear when I'm working with the solid raku beads, this is what I've found.

When I super heat it and chill it the first time I get purples and magenta. If I want blues and greens I gently heat it and chill it until I get the colors I want. But if I go too far and "suck too much color back out of it" I have to start over by letting the bead cool a bit and then doing the super heat and chill all over again. This is usually when I see the burnt orange and yellows appear in with the purples.

Thanks Dawn. I will pluck up the courage to try raku without an encasing.

Joyce

I worked with Raku last night and have another question :roll: of course. When I was superheating my beads last night and letting it cool, it seemed to strike directly to greens. Is this because I am overstriking it from the beginning or could it be because I am not cooling/marvering it soon enough?

Any ideas? :)

hmm... I think I may have answered my own question. The quicker I marvered, the better my colors were.

This will be good to know when I get some raku.
Thanks \\:D/

See what determination, inspiration and ppp and gets you?



Thanks to all who have contributed ideas, techniques and shared successes - I finally achieved something other than bleh.

Sals

I tried and tried on HH using all the gravity swirl, white drippy hot, chill marvel on ice, everythings...

I think I only can get blue color (is it?)
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...wellery065.jpg

Any other advice to get other colors?

Thankyou for sharing your hard earned tips. I just had yet another go with raku but this time the colours have popped beautifully. Can't wait for a cool kiln to handle the results. Great beads everyone. Might even get to post my first pictures on this forum.

Cheers,
Nalda

Got It!
 

And here they are. Thanks Dawn and others, I don't know if you browse back here being a few months down the track but thanks. I'm feeling smug about getting the hang of this stuff.
Nalda:-D :-D

Woohoo Sals!
PPP = Gorgeous beads!
Love the swirls with the nice black ends!

Oooooo Nalda!!! You have every reason to feel smug, those beads are beautiful!
Very nice range of colors!

I'm afraid I don't have any good advise for HotHead users only because I've never used one. It does look like you got some colors there though and they are still very pretty beads! Maybe you could try this....

Make your bead and get it the shape you want. Then heat it up and roll it in some large frit or apply big dots with raku stringer. Then just spot heat the frit or dots real hot and gently mash it down with a cool tool or a knife blade. If you got it hot enough, it should turn really dark, almost black. Then move to another spot and keep going all over the bead until you have lots of dark raku spots. Then encase it. When you encase a bead in clear, it causes the raku colors to get lighter, so you want to do the encasing when the raku is at it's darkest.

Hope this helps!

I tried this and I just got black spots on my bead. What I have noticed however, is that when I made a vessel with small frit, not trying to get any color, my close up photo shows that I got a lot of great reactions. Now if I could just repeat that on a larger scale.

Mona

If you're looking for a good time to get some, Olympic is having a 20% off sale on Raku! Frit, Cane and Shards -- www.glasscolor.com -- search "raku" SCORE!

Jim Adlhoch
Wild Wares, CA

Thanks for all the good tips, Dawn. Do you really still see Filbert. Tell him mirt mirt for me

Thank you DAWN i owe you everything!!!

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...ells08mini.gif

Hi Pat,
I'm so glad these tips have helped!

Yes my husband sees Filbert just about every day. You know we relocated him to a nice wooded are right next to where my husband works. I try not to stop by because Filbert loves me so much he follows me right out to my truck in the parking lot. It breaks my heart and I don't want him getting hurt, so I just stay away and get reports from hubby.
Pat, he grew up to be such a handsome little man! I mean he really is far better looking than the other squirrels he hangs out with. They have funny little rounded faces and he doesn't. He also has rust accents in his fur that just makes him so dashing! And I'm not just saying that because I'm his Mom either! :lol: